San Antonio College Library

"In this era of globalization's ruthless deracination, place attachments have become increasingly salient in collective mobilizations across the spectrum of politics. Like place-based activists in other resource-rich yet impoverished regions across the globe, Appalachians are contesting economic injustice, environmental degradation, and the anti-democratic power of elites. This collection of seventeen original essays by scholars and activists from...

Considering the importance which Latinos will have on American culture and politics in the 21st century, very little of a nonscholarly nature has been written about them. Rogers fills the gap somewhat with this journalistic biography of Ernesto Cortes,a grass-roots leader who teaches Latinos how to use the political system. A man who combines religion and secular ideology, Cortes is doing for the Latino communities nationally what Jesse Jackson did...

Through a national survey of 1,500 Americans and more than 250 in-depth interviews with community leaders, volunteers, and ordinary citizens, Robert Wuthnow focuses his trained and caring eye on America's quest for community and spirituality in the contemporary world. "Loose connections" are Americans' new ways of joining together, from neighborhood task forces to support groups to meetings around single issues such as toxic waste or local schools....

From the publisher. Freedom Is an Endless Meeting offers vivid portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on meticulous research and more than one hundred interviews with activists, Francesca Polletta challenges the conventional wisdom that participatory democracy is worthy in purpose but unworkable in practice. Instead, she shows that social movements have often used bottom-up decision making...

Cities and Disasters presents interdisciplinary and multinational perspectives on emergency management policy, economic development, and the various factors that affect the recovery process after natural disasters strike urban areas. The book has three central themes: policy, urbanity, and the interplay of events after disasters that affect the process of a community's return to normalcy. It covers differing approaches to emergency management policy...

"The third edition of Community Organizing and Community Building for Health and Welfare provides new and more established ways to approach community building and organizing, from collaborating with communities on assessment and issue selection to using the power of coalition building, media advocacy, and social media to enhance the effectiveness of such work. With a strong emphasis on cultural relevance and humility, this collection offers a wealth...