Crisis -- whether natural disaster; technological failure; economic collapse; or shocking acts of violence -- can offer opportunities for collaboration; consensus building; and transformative social change. Communities often experience a surge of collective energy and purpose in the aftermath of crisis. Rather than rely on government and private-sector efforts to deal with crises through prevention and mitigation; we can harness post-crisis forces for recovery and change through innovative collaborative planning.Drawing on recent work in the fields of planning and natural resource management; this book examines a range of efforts to enhance resilience through collaboration; describing communities that have survived and even thrived by building trust and interdependence. These collaborative efforts include environmental assessment methods in Cozumel; Mexico; the governance of a "climate protected community" in the Blackfoot Valley of Montana; fisheries management in Southeast Asias Mekong region; and the restoration of natural fire regimes in U.S. forests. In addition to describing the many forms that collaboration can take -- including consensus processes; learning networks; and truth and reconciliation commissions -- the authors argue that collaborative resilience requires redefining the idea of resilience itself. A resilient system is not just discovered through good science; it emerges as a community debates and defines ecological and social features of the system and appropriate scales of activity. Poised between collaborative practice and resilience analysis; collaborative resilience is both a process and an outcome of collective engagement with social-ecological complexity.
#1242116 in eBooks 2011-01-04 2011-01-04File Name: B00557VNCM
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Edward RomeroEvery artist should own it. Period.11 of 13 people found the following review helpful. A fascinating read in the wake of Fahrenheit 9/11.By waitingtoderailThis slim volume (I read it in an hour) by famous (or infamous. depending on your point of view) revisionist historian Zinn is direct and to the point: "It is the job of the artist...to think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say things that no one else will say." Of course. what Zinn thinks that artists should be saying is to speak out against war in ways that traditional journalists do not. CAN not. He cites Catch-22 by Joseph Heller as a case in point: "If. right after World War II. someone had written a nonfiction book on the ambiguities of war and the atrocities committed by the supposed good guys...such a book would have been difficult to publish. But...artists can be sly. They can point to things that take you outside traditional thinking because you can get away with it in fiction."This makes me think of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and how remarkable it is that Michael Moore has broken through that wall to bring forth a nonfiction artistic statement about the current administration and war. I think Zinn would be pleased. Now if only someone would make some of the movies he suggests in this book (the story of Emma Goldman. the Ludlow Massacre. the Phillipine-American war to name a few).14 of 16 people found the following review helpful. Zinn Calls Us to Wake Up!By A CustomerWhere is our public debate about excesses of government? If the radical perspective in national affairs continues to be hidden. what then? Zinn deserves prizes and accolades for bringing the radical perspective to the fore in this book at this urgent time. Like sheep. our nation wanders. but nonetheless follows the well-oiled public relations machine of our American president who spins and grins his way into the projection of power that is his prime directive.Zinn provides a very different. critically important lens through which we might view life in these United States and our impact beyond our shores. He calls for the artist in each of us to be voice of those who are "collateral damage." left behind or otherwise choose peace. while the genius-not at the helm chooses war.He speaks to the impact of the US rushing pell-mell into the maelstrom of a consumerism that transforms our nation-state into a market-state with increasingly more losers and fewer winners. and a state of public affairs and policy determined by a smaller and smaller group of corporate and business imperatives in a global Realpolitik.Zinn gives us a strong reminder of that separate. but critically important reality of everywoman and -man that is more arresting than the cable that brought Ws plane to an abrupt stop on the carrier.Had enough? Read this book and get active! Or. at the very least. let Howard remind you in his ever-passionate way that governments always lie.
