Best of
Social-Change
2017
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
Adrienne Maree Brown - 2017
Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.adrienne maree brown, co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, is a social justice facilitator, healer, and doula living in Detroit.
Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul
Jeremiah Moss - 2017
But today, modern gentrification is transforming the city from an exceptional, iconoclastic metropolis into a suburbanized luxury zone with a price tag only the one percent can afford.A Jane Jacobs for the digital age, blogger and cultural commentator Jeremiah Moss has emerged as one of the most outspoken and celebrated critics of this dramatic shift. In Vanishing New York, he reports on the city’s development in the twenty-first century, a period of "hyper-gentrification" that has resulted in the shocking transformation of beloved neighborhoods and the loss of treasured unofficial landmarks. In prose that the Village Voice has called a "mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit," Moss leads us on a colorful guided tour of the most changed parts of town—from the Lower East Side and Chelsea to Harlem and Williamsburg—lovingly eulogizing iconic institutions as they’re replaced with soulless upscale boutiques, luxury condo towers, and suburban chains.Propelled by Moss’ hard-hitting, cantankerous style, Vanishing New York is a staggering examination of contemporary "urban renewal" and its repercussions—not only for New Yorkers, but for all of America and the world.
Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization
Peter McFarlane - 2017
The book contains two essays from Manuel, described as the Nelson Mandela of Canada, and essays from renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. FPSE is honoured to support this publication.
Encyclopedia of Black Comics
Sheena C. Howard - 2017
The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers, illustrators, artists, writers, editors, Black comic historians, Black comic convention creators, website creators, archivists and academics—as well as individuals who may not fit into any category but have made notable achievements within and/or across Black comic culture.
Reclaiming The Mosque: The Role of Women in Islam's House of Worship
Jasser Auda - 2017
At a time when misogyny and hostile attitudes towards women are plaguing Muslim communities throughout the world, Dr Jasser Auda presents a timely and vital challenge to the contentious issue of women's access to the mosque, expounding an Islamic perspective.Reclaiming The Mosque is a crucial response to the current trials facing Muslim communities, and moreover, it offers a clear and cohesive call to action that harks back to the Islamic principles of freedom, justice and human rights.
The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism
Joel Solomon - 2017
It will remake the world and be the biggest money-making opportunity in history.Business as usual, founded on exploitation and environmental ruin, is over. Climate catastrophe, reactionary politics, and widening inequity have put the world on edge. Meanwhile innovations are shifting the economic ground, and an entire generation is pounding the table for real change. Capitalism is evolving into a force that can restore the planet, transform the global economy, and bring justice to people.Joel Solomon, impact investor and change agent, lays it on the line. The Clean Money Revolution is part memoir of an inspiring thought leader's journey from presidential campaigner to pioneering investor, part insider's guide to the businesses remaking the world, and part manifesto for a new vision of profit, power, and purpose.Meet some of the people behind this massive shift, and discover the role you can play in the $50-trillion movement toward true prosperity. A must-read for investors, wealth advisors, aspiring entrepreneurs, and all who want their values and money to work together to transform the future.The Clean Money Revolution is on. Join it!
Writing Out Loud: What a Blind Teacher Learned from Leading a Memoir Class for Seniors
Beth Finke - 2017
You’ll cry. You’ll write. She’s never taught a class in her life. But when the City of Chicago calls on blind writer Beth Finke to teach a memoir-writing class for older adults, she reluctantly agrees. What she learns about her students, their stories, and herself will move and inspire you. Written the way Beth hears life, you will come to know and love Minerva, Wanda, Hannelore, and the whole colorful cast of characters who build a community around Beth’s classes. Generously sprinkled with excerpts in her students’ own voices, Beth’s book will convince you to get your own stories down on paper while there’s still time.
Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons
Justine M. Williams - 2017
Farmers, activists, scholars, and everyday citizens have also worked creatively to rebuild local food economies, advocate for food justice, and promote more sustainable, agroecological farming practices. However, the movement for fairer, healthier, and more autonomous food is continually blocked by one obstacle: land access. As long as land remains unaffordable and inaccessible to most people, we cannot truly transform the food system.The term land-grabbing is most commonly used to refer to the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land in Asian, African, or Latin American countries by foreign investors. However, land has and continues to be “grabbed” in North America, as well, through discrimination, real estate speculation, gentrification, financialization, extractive energy production, and tourism. This edited volume, with chapters from a wide range of activists and scholars, explores the history of land theft, dispossession, and consolidation in the United States. It also looks at alternative ways forward toward democratized, land justice, based on redistributive policies and cooperative ownership models.With prefaces from leaders in the food justice and family farming movements, the book opens with a look at the legacies of white-settler colonialism in the southwestern United States. From there, it moves into a collectively-authored section on Black Agrarianism, which details the long history of land dispossession among Black farmers in the southeastern US, as well as the creative acts of resistance they have used to acquire land and collectively farm it. The next section, on gender, explores structural and cultural discrimination against women landowners in the Midwest and also role of “womanism” in land-based struggles. Next, a section on the cross-border implications of land enclosures and consolidations includes a consideration of what land justice could mean for farm workers in the US, followed by an essay on the challenges facing young and aspiring farmers. Finally, the book explores the urban dimensions of land justice and their implications for locally-autonomous food systems, and lessons from previous struggles for democratized land access.Ultimately, the book makes the case that to move forward to a more equitable, just, sustainable, and sovereign agriculture system, the various strands of the food movement must come together for land justice.
The Space between Us: Social Geography and Politics
Ryan D. Enos - 2017
By going into the neighborhoods of real cities, Enos shows how our perceptions of racial, ethnic, and religious groups are intuitively shaped by where these groups live and interact daily. Through the lens of numerous examples across the globe and drawing on a compelling combination of research techniques including field and laboratory experiments, big data analysis, and small-scale interactions, this timely book provides a new understanding of how geography shapes politics and how members of groups think about each other. Enos' analysis is punctuated with personal accounts from the field. His rigorous research unfolds in accessible writing that will appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike, illuminating the profound effects of social geography on how we relate to, think about, and politically interact across groups in the fabric of our daily lives.
Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice
Gregory C. Ellison II - 2017
In cities around the United States and now the world, the program's founder, Gregory C. Ellison, and his team create conversations among community members who have never spoken to one another, the goal of which are real, implementable, and lasting changes to the life of the community.These community transformations are based on both face-to-face encounters and substantive analysis of the problems the community faces. In Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice, Ellison makes this same kind of analysis available to readers, walking them through the steps that must be taken to find common ground in our divided communities and then to implement genuine and lasting change.
No Innocent Bystanders: Becoming an Ally in the Struggle for Justice
Christopher Doucot - 2017
In answering the biblical call to act justly and love mercifully, can Christians cross lines of privilege to walk humbly not only with God but with their marginalized neighbors as well? No Innocent Bystanders looks at the role of allies in social justice movements and asks what works, what doesn't, and why. It explains what allies legitimately can accomplish, what they can't, and what kind of humility and clarity is required to tell the difference.This book is a start-up guide for spiritual or religious people who are interested in working for social justice but don't know how or where to begin, drawing on the lessons of history, the framework of Christian ideas, and the insights of contemporary activists. It offers practical guidance on how to meaningfully and mindfully advocate alongside all who struggle for a more just society.
Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons
Shareable - 2017
It both witnesses a growing global movement and serves as a practical reference guide for community-based solutions to urgent challenges faced by cities everywhere. This book is a call to action meant to inspire readers with ideas, raise awareness of the impressive range of local efforts, and strengthen the sharing movement worldwide. "Sharing Cities" shows that not only is another world possible but that much of it is already here.
Revisioning Activism: Bringing Depth, Dialogue, and Diversity to Individual and Social Change
David Bedrick - 2017
This book of essays highlights, celebrates, and broadens the vision of activism to include the intersection between people and the social and political world, while encouraging dialogue across diverse viewpoints and exhorting psychology to become a social-change agent. The author deconstructs racism by looking at white denial and divergent views of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he deconstructs sexism by critiquing the diet industry and the way women feel about their bodies. He brings this same psychological eye to understanding societal problems, national celebrities, and popular psychology’s failure to create sustainable change. Whether used in a classroom or with a group, a friend, or alone, this book provokes critical thinking, feeling, and dialogue.
Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders
Christina Richards - 2017
It considers theoretical, research, practice, and activist perspectives; and outlines a basis for good practice when working with non-binary individuals. The first section provides an overview of historical, legal and academic aspects of this phenomenon. The second section explores how psychotherapeutic, psychological and psychiatric theory and practice are adapting to a non-binary model of gender, and the third section considers the body related aspects, from endocrinology to surgery. This work will appeal to a wide readership, from practitioners working with non-binary individuals - including psychologists, surgeons, social workers, nurses, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, psychotherapists and counselors, lawyers, and healthcare workers - to researchers interested in the study of gender identities, to students and gender activists.
Kuxlejal Politics: Indigenous Autonomy, Race, and Decolonizing Research in Zapatista Communities
Mariana Mora - 2017
This in-depth ethnography summarizes Mariana Mora’s more than ten years of extended research and solidarity work in Chiapas, with Tseltal and Tojolabal community members helping to design and evaluate her fieldwork. The result of that collaboration—a work of activist anthropology—reveals how Zapatista kuxlejal (or life) politics unsettle key racialized effects of the Mexican neoliberal state.Through detailed narratives, thick descriptions, and testimonies, Kuxlejal Politics focuses on central spheres of Zapatista indigenous autonomy, particularly governing practices, agrarian reform, women’s collective work, and the implementation of justice, as well as health and education projects. Mora situates the proposals, possibilities, and challenges associated with these decolonializing cultural politics in relation to the racialized restructuring that has characterized the Mexican state over the past twenty years. She demonstrates how, despite official multicultural policies designed to offset the historical exclusion of indigenous people, the Mexican state actually refueled racialized subordination through ostensibly color-blind policies, including neoliberal land reform and poverty alleviation programs. Mora’s findings allow her to critically analyze the deeply complex and often contradictory ways in which the Zapatistas have reconceptualized the political and contested the ordering of Mexican society along lines of gender, race, ethnicity, and class.
Healthy Body, Peaceful Earth, Loving Heart: The Compassionate Jewel of Vegan Buddhism (The Buddha, The Vegan, and You Book 2)
John Bussineau - 2017
He cared about people and animals. Health was not something to be attached to but also not to be discarded, as he found while doing ascetic practice for 6 years prior to this enlightenment and almost starved himself to death. He cared for life and the planet. Central to all Buddhist teachings is a reverence for the web of life, our mutual dependence on one another. This principle relates to the doctrine of dependent origination, the concepts of emptiness or voidness, and the King of Logic, where all phenomena happen due to causes and conditions. Emptiness or voidness is not nothingness but rather the opposite, and the knowledge that all things lack an inherent existence (independently on their own). Phenomena, it is taught, are inextricably connected in a web of unbreakable relativity based on their conditions and causes. The Buddha taught: •When this is, that is. •From the arising of this, comes the arising of that. •When this isn’t, that isn’t. •From the cessation of this, comes the cessation of that. Conditions change, Buddhism informs us, as all created phenomena are impermanent. When conditions change, a new analysis may be needed, based on the new situations and empirical evidence. For instance, are the deeply held opinions and habits related to eating meat, fish, dairy, and eggs holistic, healthy, and ethical in 2017? What does the science say about health today? Are we informed by science that the eating of meat, fish, dairy and eggs is a healthy habit or an unhealthy one? Where is the data and evidence, and what does it suggest? What about the environment? Is there a connection between what 7 billion humans choose to eat and the environmental crisis we find ourselves in today? Most importantly, if as a Buddhist practitioner or any spiritual person who lives a logical life based on reason and compassion, what should we do when we find we are harming our health, sickening and perhaps even killing ourselves early? What is the ethical thing to do? Should we investigate the changing causes and conditions, which are the foundation of any transformation for moral and ethical behavior? The Buddha taught that when situations change we should use wisdom to analyze them and make changes accordingly. This book explores the relationship to animal-based foods to plant-based foods as it relates to health, the environment and ones Dharma practice.
Equal but Different: WOMEN LEADERS' LIFE STORIES: Overcoming Race, gender & Social Class
Judy Dlamini - 2017
It is a belief that equity across gender, race, social class and sexual orientation will be attained in my lifetime”. Equal but Different is based on my doctoral thesis which investigated the intersection of race, gender and social class in women leaders’ career progression. The women leaders came up with strategies for gender transformation at a leadership level. The book presents life stories of women leaders in South Africa and abroad and men who believe in gender equality and contributed towards this goal. The common thread across the life stories of women who contributed to the book are: - A message from family that said ‘’you can be anything that you set your mind to be’’ - Supportive men who sponsored and mentored them. - Pursuit of education - Determination to succeed - Your initial social class should not determine the person you become. Though the lower your initial social class is, the harder you have to work to achieve your ambitious dreams. This book is relevant for people across gender, race and social class who want advice on personal strategies and tactics to succeed; leaders who want to be inclusive with an empowerment agenda for minorities; mentors across gender, corporate and government leaders who are committed to transformation.