New Community Paradigms

Feeding The World--With Math http://ift.tt/2aQVpxH

Rolling along: Bicycles, mobility, and the future of cities http://ift.tt/2aV4WA2

How social entrepreneurs can solve the talent problem http://ift.tt/2b7091L

The solution lies not in a freer marketplace with less government intervention, but in a marketplace that expresses the wishes and best interests of the majority, in one that fairly protects the rights of minorities with what we might call a "democratic marketplace," driven by a commitment to justice, equity, interdependence, ecological regeneration, and the well-being of all life. 

Two weeks ago, we announced a crowdsourced database project in collaboration with Urban3 that aims to collect information on tax productivity of big box stores in comparison with other, more compact developments. We invited your submissions from towns, suburbs and cities across the country. Below is a preliminary map of that data, created by Josh McCarty.

This slow growth is not some new phenomenon, but rather the way it has been for 15 years and counting. In the United States, per-person gross domestic product rose by an average of 2.2 percent a year from 1947 through 2000 - but starting in 2001 has averaged only 0.9 percent. The economies of Western Europe and Japan have done worse than that.

Systems thinking is an approach to integration that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when isolated from the system's environment or other parts of the system. Standing in contrast to positivist and reductionist thinking, systems thinking sets out to view systems in a holistic manner. 

What is Public Comment? Public commenting is a process that allows individuals, organizations, agencies, and businesses to provide input on proposed environmental decisions. (From the Environmental Law Institute Ocean Program) Public comments are important for a variety of reasons. When it comes to environmental decisions, a good aim is to get as many people to submit comments as possible. Often the "other side" (ie: big industries) will comment asking for rules to be more lax -- the specific ask totally depends on what the issue is. The point of getting a lot of people involved and submitting comments is to balance out the "other side" requests -- if more people ask an agency for better protections, then it gives them the support they need to make decisions that will better protect environmental resources.

Local Progress is a national network that supports, connects, and unites progressive local elected officials and allied organizations from across the nation. We are driven by a commitment to a strong middle and working class, equal justice under law, sustainable and livable communities, and government that serves the public interest effectively.

There is not enough affordable housing in the United States. For every 100 extremely low income households, there are only 29 adequate, affordable, and available rental units. That means two parents who both work minimum-wage jobs might wait years to find a safe, affordable place to live with their two kids. With such high demand, why aren't developers racing to build affordable apartments?

Systems thinking. An individual or organization must first be able to put forward a new solution or set of solutions to a pressing social challenge. This sounds obvious, but we're suggesting that organizational theories of change, business plans, and other foundational materials need to reflect systems thinking. The most important tool in the new systems entrepreneur's suite is the ability to embed the solution into the larger system being targeted.

If we want a high-growth society with broadly shared prosperity, and if we want to avoid dislocations like the one we have just gone through, we need to change our theory of action foundationally. We need to stop thinking about the economy as a perfect, self-correcting machine and start thinking of it as a garden.

Since the 2011 Stanford Social Innovation Review article introduced the concept, collective impact has been widely adopted as an effective form of cross-sector collaboration to address complex social and environmental challenges. Though collective impact has proven to be a powerful approach in tackling a wide range of issues in communities all over the world, many practitioners are searching for the tools they need to be successful in this work. The thought leadership and resources below, and in the Resources and Blog sections of this website, will help you build a foundation for doing this work

We find that a powerful approach to understanding your stakeholders is to view them as parts of a wider ecosystem. To do this, we start with a group mapping exercise. The power of the group process means you're more likely to uncover the best information and the learning goes much deeper. Once you've defined the audience, you can go on to identify relationships, who influencers who and then to develop appropriate messages and channels to connect with them.

Democratise (formerly FutureDigital) was founded in New Zealand in 1997 as Wairua Consulting. Our new name reflects our relaunch in 2012, our new based in Europe and our broader approach. Away from digital democracy towards a more strategic and systemic approach to democratic strengthening, open government and effective engagement. It reflects our mission to operate as a collaborative social business, where we partner for good and put people and communities ahead of profit.

Why diversitydatakids.org? diversitydatakids.org is a state-of-the-art research project designed to meet the urgent need for a national, integrated information source that helps us understand: Who our children are, by documenting and tracking the rapidly changing demographics of children and families in the U.S.; What our children need, by establishing a system for monitoring not only child outcomes, but also key factors (including opportunities, conditions, and resources) that drive child outcomes; How to improve opportunities for all children, especially those that may need the most help, by focusing explicitly and rigorously on issues of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic equity in child health and wellbeing.

This report uses absolute income thresholds adjusted for inflation and family size to show that the size of the upper middle class grew from 12.9 percent of the population in 1979 to 29.4 percent in 2014. In terms of shares of total income, the middle class controlled a bit more than 46 percent of all incomes in 1979, while the upper middle class and rich controlled 30 percent. By 2014, the rich and upper middle class controlled 63 percent of all incomes, while the middle class share had shrunk to 26 percent.

Doubtful News' "Beyond Doubtful" list of no-go-to sources The purpose of Doubtful News is to expose questionable claims in stories you find on the internet. Mostly we deal with major news outlets because those are the stories that people will search on to find additional information. We get those searchers who then can see some science-based, rational takes on paranormal, anomalies and alternative subjects in the news.

Ours is a movement that understands the urgency of slowness, that believes small is the new big, that asserts that we are inextricably connected to each other, the food we eat and the ecology we move through, and that moves through us.

Efforts to get the middle class back on track have focused mostly on the jobs lost due to automation, and on programs that could retrain people to do the types of jobs that are now being created in the economy-jobs in healthcare, technology, and advanced manufacturing. But this focus on apprenticeships and employment probably won't be enough to pull the middle class from its tailspin. That's because these types of programs ask the worker to adjust to the changing economy, and in essence blame the worker for not getting the skills they need.