Many of our global cities are distressed and facing a host of issues: economic collapse in the face of rising expectations, social disintegration and civil unrest, and ecological degradation and the threats associated with climate change, including more frequent and more severe natural disasters. Our long-held assumptions about man and nature and how they interact are defunct. We realize now that we can no longer continue to build without addressing the long-term impacts of our actions and their spillovers. Energy and natural resources are finite. The way we configure economies has come into question. In the developed world, especially in the United States, infrastructure and the notions that underpin it are outdated. Meanwhile, the developing world is experiencing major, rapid transformations in lifestyles and economies that are affecting billions of people and requiring a whole new way of planning human settlements. Cities are the key to our future; they represent the most effective vehicle for positive advancements in the human condition and environmental change. This volume argues for the need to redesign and re-plan our cities in holistic ways that reflect our new understanding and relate to their diversity and multi-dimensionality. Presenting a range of case studies from around the world, this volume examines how these distressed cities are dealing with these issues in planning for their future. Alongside these empirical chapters are philosophical essays that consider the future of distressed cities. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, private consulting firms, international organizations and foundations, and policy officials, this volume provides a unique and comprehensive overview on how to transform distressed communities into more livable places.

Many of our global cities are distressed and facing a host of issues: economic collapse in the face of rising expectations, social disintegration and civil unrest, and ecological degradation and the threats associated with climate change, including more frequent and more severe natural disasters. Our long-held assumptions about man and nature and how they interact are defunct. We realize now that we can no longer continue to build without addressing the long-term impacts of our actions and their spillovers. Energy and natural resources are finite. The way we configure economies has come into question. In the developed world, especially in the United States, infrastructure and the notions that underpin it are outdated. Meanwhile, the developing world is experiencing major, rapid transformations in lifestyles and economies that are affecting billions of people and requiring a whole new way of planning human settlements. Cities are the key to our future; they represent the most effective vehicle for positive advancements in the human condition and environmental change. This volume argues for the need to redesign and re-plan our cities in holistic ways that reflect our new understanding and relate to their diversity and multi-dimensionality. Presenting a range of case studies from around the world, this volume examines how these distressed cities are dealing with these issues in planning for their future. Alongside these empirical chapters are philosophical essays that consider the future of distressed cities. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, private consulting firms, international organizations and foundations, and policy officials, this volume provides a unique and comprehensive overview on how to transform distressed communities into more livable places.

This book sets out how people’s lives can be positively transformed through diverse forms of community involvement. It shows how communities can become more collaborative and resilient in dealing with the problems they face and provides a guide to what a holistic policy agenda for community-based transformation should encompass.

This book sets out how people's lives can be positively transformed through diverse forms of community involvement. It shows how communities can become more collaborative and resilient in dealing with the problems they face and provides a guide to what a holistic policy agenda for community-based transformation should encompass.

Why market campaigns and certification systems are actually working.

"Now in its third edition, Progressive Community Organizing: Transformative Practice in a Globalizing World introduces readers to the rich practice of progressive community organizing for social change while also providing concrete tools geared toward practitioner skill-building. Drawing from social movement scholarship and social theory, this book articulates a transformative approach to organizing that embraces emergent strategies and healing justice. It emphasizes framing processes and the power of stories using story-based strategy and digital activism. The book espouses intersectional organizing, addressing topics such as identity politics, microagressions, internalized oppression, and horizontal hostility with attention to re-centering and allyship as a growth-oriented journey of solidarity and liberation. Readers will engage with case studies focused on issues such as poverty, racial justice, immigration, housing, health and mental health, and climate crisis. This new edition includes: Expanded content on transformative change approaches including healing justice, new content on the role of digital technology and social media in organizing, case studies of the Poor People's Campaign and Extinction Rebellion, emphasis on the power of stories and story-based strategy for organizing and issue framing, transformative organizations with attention to feminist and decolonized organizational structures and cultures, expanded chapters on strategies and tactics focusing on power analysis and a range of tactics from direct action to resilience-based organizing The book will be of interest to students and practitioners who want to become more skilled in structural analysis, praxis, and self-reflexivity through critical and transformative engagement with historical and current social problems, social movements, and social welfare"--

Passionate about designing buildings and neighborhoods that quietly transform the urban environment, Torti Gallas is committed to improving the living conditions of distressed communities throughout the United States and around the world. Combining the disciplines of architecture, planning, and urban design into a single practice, they have leveraged lessons from their early history as a suburban-based housing firm to create a practice devoted to designing and creating the housing that brings catalytic change to urban neighborhoods. Their residential commissions are not the?one-offs? of elite houses, but the multiple housing forms?mixed-use apartment buildings, rowhouses, single-family homes that comprise the fabric of a city. Torti Gallas is dedicated to raising the level of this architecture to a new high. John Francis Torti, FAIA, is President of Torti Gallas + Partners. He is a member of the board of the Congress for the New Urbanism and was previously affiliated with the National Capital Planning Commission. Thomas M. Gallas, CPA, CEO of Torti Gallas, was appointed by President Obama to the National Capital Planning Commission. Cheryl A. O'Neill, AICP, is a Principal and Urban Designer at Torti Gallas.