Building Community - Twelve Principles for a Healthy Future
CEESP News: James S. Gruber, PE, PhD, the director of the Environmental Studies' doctoral program at Antioch University New Englandand CEESP Member
Dr. Gruber's book, publishing in Spring 2020, entitled Building Community - Tweleve Principles for a Healthy Future, looks through 28 case studies of communities around the world conserving natural resources while promoting economic and social justice, this resource gives concrete examples of how leaders can engage their communities to enhance their well-being.
Building Community - Twelve Principles for a Healthy Future
This book seeks to help answer the questions:
- How can local communities be part of addressing our global challenges such as climate change, inequality/injustice, and ecological conservation of critical resources
- How can local communities lead the way in findingsolutions to a more sustainable society?
The thesis of this book is that strong local communities are the foundation of a healthy, participatory, and resilient society. Rather than looking to national governments, corporations, or new technologies to solve environmental and
social problems, we can learn and apply the successes of thriving communities to protect the
environment, enhance local livelihood, and grow social vitality.
Joyful children and youth of Ou Allons Nous-Oan, Kinshasa, DRC (Photo credit: James Gruber)
Exploring how community building can be approached by local citizens and their local
leaders, Building Community features:
• A chapter on each of the 12 Guiding Principles, based on research in 27 countries
• Over 30 knowledgeable contributing author-practitioners
• Critical practical leadership tools
• Notes from the field – with practical dos and don'ts
• Twenty-five case studies of communities that have learned to thrive, including towns and
villages, inner-city neighborhoods, indigenous groups, nonprofits, women's empowerment
groups, and a school, business, and faith community
It was written for community leaders, activists, planners, policy makers, and students looking to
help their communities thrive. More information about book by James Gruber (New Society
Publishing) is provided on this website:
A community visioning in Bassar, Togo (Photo credit: Nicole Wengerd)
I hope this book can be useful for lay-leaders of local communities. Unfortunately, it will only be available in English. Please let me know if you have any questions about this resource at [email protected]
Case studies and examples are from:
Town of La Gonave, Haiti Lake Victoria area, Kenya
Community of Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico Alanya, Turkey
Towns of Ohrid and Struga, Macedonia Apuseni Mountain Communities, Romania
Town Pogradec, Albania Village of Bikotiba, Togo
Inner-City Community of Kinshasa, DRC Village of Hiwara Bazar, India
Geshwati Community Forest Community, Rwanda Loja, Ecuador
Magombera Forest in Tanzania City of Sophia, Bulgaria
Village of Fian, Ghana Local Communities in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
Rural Northern Ghana Thirteen US cities and towns
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