Informal Assessments for Transition


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A Community in Transition


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This volume gathers twelve studies on key aspects of the history of Rome and its empire between the end of the Hannibalic War (200 BCE) and the election of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate (134 BCE). Through this periodization, which places the focus on what intervened between two major and well-studied historical turning points in Republican history, the book aims to bring new light to the interplay between imperial expansion, political volatility, and intellectual developments, and on the various levels on which historical change unfolded. The lack of a continuous ancient narrative for this period, even late or derivative, has shaped much of the historiographical discourse about it. This volume seeks to convey a new sense of the depth of the period and establishes new connections among aspects of human agency and action that are usually considered in isolation from one another. It puts in fruitful dialogue contribution on a range of topics as diverse as climate change, oratory, agrarian laws, urban architecture, and the civilian military, among others. The result is a diverse, multifocal, non-hierarchical assessment of a critical but often understudied period in Roman history. With a well-balanced list of established and up-and-coming scholars, A Community in Transition fills a substantial historiographical gap in the study of the Roman Republic.




The Transition Companion


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In 2008, the best selling The Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil and climate change. Since then, the Transition idea has gone viral across the globe, from universities and London neighbourhoods to Italian villages and Brazilian favelas. In contrast to the ever-worsening stream of information about climate change, the economy and resource depletion, Transition focuses on solutions, on community-scale projects and on positive results. The Transition Companion picks up the story today, describing one of the most fascinating experiments now under way in the world. It shows how communities are working for a future where local enterprises are valued and nurtured; where lower energy use is seen as a benefit; and where cooperation, creativity and the building of resilience are the cornerstones of a new economy. The first part discusses where we are now in terms of resilience to the problems of rising oil prices, climate change and economic uncertainty. It presents a vision of how the future might look if we succeed in addressing these issues. The book then looks in detail at the process a community in transition goes through, drawing on the experience of those who have already embarked on this journey. These examples show how much can be achieved when people harness energy and imagination to create projects that will make their communities more resilient. The Transition Companion combines practical advice; the tools needed to start and maintain a Transition initiative; with numerous inspiring stories from local groups worldwide.




Lives in Transition


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Part of the ongoing series of photobooks published with the Arcus Foundation and Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios on queer communities around the world, a stunning portrait of a community battling homophobia in Serbia In June 2001, Serbia witnessed its first gay pride parade in history in Belgrade's central square. It was a short-lived march, as an ultranationalist mob quickly descended on the participants, chanting homophobic slurs and injuring dozens. For years afterward, fear of violence prevented further marches, and when, in October 2010, the next pride march finally went ahead, it again devolved into violence as anti-gay rioters, firing shots and hurling petrol bombs, fought the police. It was only in 2014 that a pride march was held uninterrupted, albeit under heavy police protection. In Lives in Transition, photographer Slobodan Randjelovic captures the struggles and successes of twenty LGBTQ people living throughout Serbia—a conservative, religious country where, despite semi-progressive LGBTQ protection laws, homophobia fueled by religious authorities and right-wing political parties remains deeply entrenched. In a country where lack of employment opportunity and hostile families frequently drive queer people into poverty and isolation, these individuals have struggled to build a community that will offer solace, protection, and even joy. Lives in Transition portrays remarkable and inspiring resilience in the human struggle against a repressive social environment and demonstrates how friendship and community can help people shape their own futures. Lives in Transition was designed by Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios (EWS).




Transition Strategies for Sustainable Community Systems


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This book presents five critical dimensions on relationships, institutions, produc-tion, organisation, and governance from design and systems perspectives for thesystematic transition of unstable and vulnerable communities across the world tosustainable community systems.• The first section discusses features of relationships and processes to deepencooperation and trust within a community.• The second section examines institutions within and outside a district tofoster synergy across institutions within a district and to minimise negativeexternalities on local communities within a district.• The third section deals with food production systems that are nature-friendly, resilient, efficient and sustainable.• The fourth section discusses the design of producer organisations that cangraduate to become sustainable community enterprise systems.• The fifth section focuses on community governance that can facilitatedecentralised, participatory, transparent and democratic local governancesystems. This book• offers a fresh perspective on design thinking for optimising internal designconsistencies.• provides a systems perspective on building sustainable community systemsat the lowest governance unit in different countries, such as Ward/GramPanchayat/Panchayat Council/Gewong/Union Council/GN.• gives insights into design & systems perspectives towards buildingsustainable community systems within a district of any country across the/divworld.




Life Is in the Transitions


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A New York Times bestseller! A pioneering and timely study of how to navigate life's biggest transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, has long explored the stories that give our lives meaning. Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who’d been through major life changes—from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change. What Feiler discovered was a world in which transitions are becoming more plentiful and mastering the skills to manage them is more urgent for all of us. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. We all feel unnerved by this upheaval. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected, that we’ve veered off course, living life out of order. But we’re not alone. Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, illuminating vision of the nonlinear life, in which each of us faces dozens of disruptors. One in ten of those becomes what Feiler calls a lifequake, a massive change that leads to a life transition. The average length of these transitions is five years. The upshot: We all spend half our lives in this unsettled state. You or someone you know is going through one now. The most exciting thing Feiler identified is a powerful new tool kit for navigating these pivotal times. Drawing on his extraordinary trove of insights, he lays out specific strategies each of us can use to reimagine and rebuild our lives, often stronger than before. From a master storyteller with an essential message, Life Is in the Transitions can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.




Neighborhood and Community Environments


Book Description

This ninth volume in the series deals with a fascinating and complex topic in the environment and behavior field. Neighborhoods and com munities are in various stages of formation and transition in almost every society, nation, and culture. A variety of political, economic, and social factors have resulted in the formation of new communities and the transformation of older communities. Thus we see nomadic people set tling into stable communities, new towns sprouting up around the world, continuing suburban sprawl, simultaneous deterioration, re newal and gentrification of urban areas, demographic changes in com munities, and so on. As in previous volumes, the range of content, theory, and methods represented in the various chapters is intended to be broadly based, with perspectives rooted in several disciplines-anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, urban studies. Although many other disciplines also play an important role in the study and understanding of neigh borhoods and community environments, we hope that the contributions to this volume will at least present readers with a broad sampling-if not a comprehensive treatment-of the topic.




Transition to Common Work


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The Working Centre in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, is a widely recognized and successful model for community development. Begun from scratch in 1982, it is now a vast network of practical supports for the unemployed, the underemployed, the temporarily employed, and the homeless, populations that collectively constitute up to 30 percent of the labour market both locally and across North America. Transition to Common Work is the essential text about The Working Centre—its beginnings thirty years ago, the lessons learned, and the myriad ways in which its strategies and innovations can be adapted by those who share its goals. The Working Centre focuses on creating access-to-tools projects rather than administrative layers of bureaucracy. This book highlights the core philosophy behind the centre’s decentralized but integrated structure, which has contributed to the creation of affordable services. Underlying this approach are common-sense innovations such as thinking about virtues rather than values, developing community tools with a social enterprise approach, and implementing a radically equal salary policy. For social workers, activists, bureaucrats, and engaged citizens in third-sector organizations (NGOs, charities, not-for-profits, co-operatives), this practical and inspiring book provides a method for moving beyond the doldrums of “poverty relief” into the exciting world of community building.




The Israeli Druze Community in Transition


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While there are books that describe the history and traditions of the Druze as an ethnic and religious group, this is the first and only academic book of its kind. It gives voice to the Israeli Druze, through in-depth interviews with 120 people, 60 young adults and 60 of their parents’ generation. How is this traditional group, bound together through the centuries by their secret religion and strong value system, dealing with modernization? What contradictions and continuity come to light in the stories of this people during a time of transition? Can their religion, and their very identity, survive the meeting with the modern, technological world? What resources do the young and the not-so-young bring to the task of preserving their community and helping it to flourish as the world changes around them? The people in this text answer these questions through the telling of their stories, in which they express their values, opinions, beliefs and aspirations. The book draws out theoretical, practical, religious and sociological implications from this analysis, in order to shed light on the challenges faced by other traditional societies meeting modernity.




Lost in Transition


Book Description

Through ethnographic essays and short stories based on her experiences in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 2009, Kristen Ghodsee explains why many Eastern Europeans are nostalgic for the communist past.




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