The Role of Community Colleges in Skills Development by
This book presents key features, attributes, and defining characteristics of Canadian Community Colleges and Institutes of Technology and the lessons they offer to developing countries in Asia. Internationalizationinitiatives of community colleges suggest that partnerships in skills and human capital development are possible in countries at various stages of development and are in fact the hallmark of successful global economies. The publication draws lessons from Canadian approaches while suggesting that no model can simply be transplanted to Asia and the Pacific. Rather, Canadian approaches should inspire countriesto create their own new models and practices.
Decision Science for Housing and Community Development by
A multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving in community-based organizations using decision models and operations research applications A comprehensive treatment of public-sector operations research and management science, Decision Science for Housing and Community Development: Localized and Evidence-Based Responses to Distressed Housing and Blighted Communities addresses critical problems in urban housing and community development through a diverse set of decision models and applications. The book represents a bridge between theory and practice and is a source of collaboration between decision and data scientists and planners, advocates, and community practitioners. The book is motivated by the needs of community-based organizations to respond to neighborhood economic and social distress, represented by foreclosed, abandoned, and blighted housing, through community organizing, service provision, and local development. The book emphasizes analytic approaches that increase the ability of local practitioners to act quickly, thoughtfully, and effectively. By doing so, practitioners can design and implement responses that reflect stakeholder values associated with healthy and sustainable communities; that benefit from increased organizational capacity for evidence-based responses; and that result in solutions that represent improvements over the status quo according to multiple social outcome measures. Featuring quantitative and qualitative analytic methods as well as prescriptive and exploratory decision modeling, the book also includes: Discussions of the principles of decision theory and descriptive analysis to describe ways to identify and quantify values and objectives for community development Mathematical programming applications for real-world problem solving in foreclosed housing acquisition and redevelopment Applications of case studies and community-engaged research principles to analytics and decision modeling Decision Science for Housing and Community Development: Localized and Evidence-Based Responses to Distressed Housing and Blighted Communities is an ideal textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in decision models and applications; humanitarian logistics; nonprofit operations management; urban operations research; public economics; performance management; urban studies; public policy; urban and regional planning; and systems design and optimization. The book is also an excellent reference for academics, researchers, and practitioners in operations research, management science, operations management, systems engineering, policy analysis, city planning, and data analytics.
Constructing a New Framework for Rural Development by
"This volume seeks to answer modern questions and concerns regarding peasants, their production techniques, and their links to wider society. In the past, peasants and their seemingly simple production models have been criticized for being unable to fully meet the needs of modern society, especially when it comes to world hunger, food quality, and sustainability. However, often neglected is the myriad of new initiatives that alter the way food is produced and marketed. New 'peasant markets' are created everywhere and new products and services abound. This volume argues that these initiatives represent "seeds of transition"; they are the "sprouts" out of which new socio-technical modes for organizing production and marketing emerge - "sprouts" that, taken together, can be summarized as "rural development". This book critically discusses these new practices and the actors engaged in them. In doing so, it deals with several countries in three different continents (Asia, South America and Europe). It proposes new concepts and approaches for a better understanding of the re-emergence of peasants as indispensable part of modern societies."
Democratizing Urban Development by
Rising housing costs put secure and decent housing in central urban neighborhoods in peril. How do civil society organizations (CSOs) effectively demand accountability from the state to address the needs of low-income residents? In her groundbreaking book, Democratizing Urban Development, Maureen Donaghy charts the constraints and potential opportunities facing these community organizations. She assesses the various strategies CSOs engage to influence officials and ensure access to affordable housing through policies, programs, and institutions. Democratizing Urban Development presents efforts by CSOs in four cities across the hemispheric divide: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Washington, DC, and Atlanta. Donaghy studies the impact and outcomes that ensue from these efforts, noting that CSOs must sometimes shift their own ideology or adapt to the political environment in which they operate to ensure access to housing and support the goals of an inclusive city.
Identity, Culture and the Politics of Community Development by
This volume takes as its starting point that issues of identity and culture are important and relevant for community development in nearly every society. It is therefore essential that community development practitioners acknowledge both culture as well as the political necessity of incorporating cultural systems, cultural values and traditions into community development initiatives. This book argues that including identity and culture in community development design, and treating identity and culture as an intrinsic asset can be beneficial for all types of community action, from social cohesion to community economic development. This book is a rethinking and reconceptualising of "community" in an international context, and interrogates what community building, community engagement and community development could entail in this context. The contributors in this volume address identity, culture, and community development in both developing and developed countries from multidisciplinary perspectives. The chapters explore different conceptual and theoretical frameworks in analysing identity and culture in community development, and provide empirical insights on community development efforts around the globe. Furthermore, the chapters explore different community engagement processes, different development models and different stakeholder participation models and processes in an effort to demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all design when it comes to community development.