Hungry for change? Put the power of food co-ops on your plate and grow your local food economy. Food has become ground-zero in our efforts to increase awareness of how our choices impact the world. Yet while we have begun to transform our communities and dinner plates, the most authoritative strand of the food web has received surprisingly little attention: the grocery store—the epicenter of our food-gathering ritual. Through penetrating analysis and inspiring stories and examples of American and Canadian food co-ops, Grocery Story makes a compelling case for the transformation of the grocery store aisles as the emerging frontier in the local and good food movements. Author Jon Steinman: Deconstructs the food retail sector and the shadows cast by corporate giants Makes the case for food co-ops as an alternative Shows how co-ops spur the creation of local food-based economies and enhance low-income food access. Grocery Story is for everyone who eats. Whether you strive to eat more local and sustainable food, or are in support of community economic development, Grocery Story will leave you hungry to join the food co-op movement in your own community.
Authors are leaders in community social change and sustainability Fay Weller is a sustainability expert with an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Victoria. She studied the 'how' of transformative change using the Gulf Islands, B.C. as her research area. Mary Wilson has a PhD in curriculum theory and a MA in educational studies A practical guide to social change and transformative learning Uses storytelling as the key tool for social change and education Real life stories of how ordinary people work together to change the world Stories of despair, economic decline, globalization, corporate control and climate change are transformed into new stories of success through small actions, community development and local economic growth Allows readers to see themselves as transformers Guides the reader through personal transformation that leads to societal change Organized into three sections: what is transformative change, examples of projects, and a mini-workshop guide Audience Social change activists, community builders, educators, economic development programs, sustainability leaders, transition town groups, faith-based groups engage in social change International Market Authors have helped create a land ownership structure, the first of its kind in Canada, that designates a body of land as a «commons» based on the UK historical commons
Author is a consultant who works with leaders in the non-profit, philanthropy and social movements including Black Lives Matter and Institution for Social Change She has a background in feminist theory and organizational development for social change She is the editor of Non-profit Quarterly , the leading non-profit journal The book proposed a new theory of power and how to work with it The key message is that power skills are learnable and power relationships can be transformed The author focuses on using games and theatre to investigate and learn about power transformation The activities focus on practising power and learning where power resides It explores major concepts of power with a focus on power dynamics and how to shift them It looks at the dynamics of domination and liberation and helps identify the way power is deployed The book is in four sections: identity, choice, thresholds and games Audience Leaders of nonprofits working for social change, social activists, business leaders, human relation managers and academics
The Ultimate Fly-Fishing Guide to the Smoky Mountains does more than any other book in print to bring success to a fishing trip. This newly updated landmark volume is an essential guide for anyone planning to fish the rivers, streams, and lakes in the Smokies – these fisheries are some of the greatest in the nation. For successful fly-fishing, this guide is as important as the right tackle.The first half of this guide offers advice and history. The second half examines each of the 13 watersheds found within the park. Don Kirk and Greg Ward provide information about trail access, fishing pressure and quality, species, fly hatch information, and campsite availability.
There’s a revolution going on, as ever-accelerating developments in digital information technologies change nearly every aspect of how we live, work, play, do business and engage in politics. Share and share alike—the numbers say it all as billions of people worldwide flock to online media and use social networks to discover and spread news and information. In the process, ever-growing networks of “ordinary people” are using these powerful new tools to trim the influence long held by Big Business, Big Government and Big Media. No longer just passive recipients, participants in social networks now regularly make and break news while organizing civic and political actions that bypass censors, outpace traditional media, attract massive audiences and influence the rise and fall of brands, industries, politicians and even governments. In this insider’s look at how social media are transforming our world, Rory O’Connor explains the trends and explores what tech visionaries, media makers, political advisers and businesspeople are saying about the meteoric rise of the various social networks of friends and followers, and what they bode for our future. "Rory O'Connor is one of the smartest media guys around. He knows who's spinning, who's pandering, and who's putting money in his own pocket at the expense of logic, reason, and the public good."—Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair media critic "This is a timely book about a vital subject: How do we get information and is it reliable? With a 'cold eye,' author Rory O'Connor shows how traditional journalism cheapened its value by sabotaging its trust, and how the digital revolution wonderfully democratizes information yet often removes the journalistic curator, creating more noise, more ME and less WE news. If you want to understand the future of news, its opportunities and its pitfalls, read this book."—Ken Auletta, author and New Yorker media writer Rory O’Connor, co-founder of MediaChannel.org, is the author of Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio . He has won two Emmys and a George Orwell Award, among many other honors.
The war in Afghanistan has become the most complex foreign policy problem the United States has ever faced, spreading into Pakistan and involving the conflicting interests of Russia, India, China and Iran. Written as a companion to Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald's widely acclaimed book Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story, Crossing Zero focuses on the nuances of the Obama administration's evolving military and political strategy, the people implementing it, and the long-term consequences for the United States and the region."Fitzgerald and Gould have consistently raised the difficult questions and inconvenient truths about western engagement in Afghanistan. While many analysts and observers have attempted to wish a reality on a grim and tragic situation in Afghanistan, Fitzgerald and Gould have systematically dug through the archives and historical record with integrity and foresight to reveal a series of misguided strategies and approaches that have contributed to what has become a tragic quagmire in Afghanistan. I suspect that many of their assessments while presently viewed as controversial and contentious, will eventually be considered conventional wisdom."—Thomas Johnson "Americans are now beginning to grasp the scope of the mess their leaders made while pursuing misguided military adventures into regions of Central Asia we once called 'remote.' How this happened—and what the US can do to extricate itself from its entanglements in Pakistan and Afghanistan—is the story of Crossing Zero. Based on decades of study and research, this book draws lines and connects dots in ways few others do. It is clear, sober and methodical—an ideal handbook for anyone seeking to understand how the US became the latest imperial power to blunder into this turbulent and fascinating region."—Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah's Men and Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future "I loved it. An extraordinary contribution to understanding war and geo-politics in Afghanistan that will shock most Americans by its revelations of official American government complicity in using, shielding, sponsoring and supporting terrorism. A devastating indictment on the behind-the-scenes shenanigans by some of America's most respected statesmen."—Daniel Estulin "Gould and Fitzgerald have identified the triumphalist strain that has marked American foreign policy over the past 100 years and documented President Obama's failure to introduce change to American national security policy. The war in Afghanistan is consistent with previous failures in U.S. policymaking over the past 50 years as well as with the misuse of military force. This book should be required reading at the National Security Council and the Pentagon."—Melvin A. Goodman; CIA Senior Soviet Analyst, 1966-1990; Professor of International Security at the National War College,1986-2004; Senior Fellow, Center for International Policy, Washington, DC. Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, a husband and wife team, began working together in 1979 co-producing a documentary for Paul's television show, Watchworks. Called, The Arms Race and the Economy, A Delicate Balance, they found themselves in the midst of a swirling controversy that was to boil over a few months later with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Their acquisition of the first visas to enter Afghanistan granted to an American TV crew in the spring of 1981, brought them into the middle of the most heated Cold War controversy since Vietnam. But the pictures and the people inside Soviet occupied Afghanistan told a very different story from the one being broadcast on the evening news.
In his official response to the attacks of September 11, George W. Bush invoked the Crusades, tapping into a centuries-long history of fear and aggression. The West's longstanding perception of Islam as a threat has taken on new and more complex implications in the twenty-first century, as years of migration and resulting demographic shifts have brought the «enemy» within Western borders. Virulent opposition to the planned construction of an Islamic center near the 9/11 attack site in New York City reveals much about the intensity of public sentiments simmering just below the surface. As the United States and countries across Europe struggle with a resurgence of unexamined fear and antagonism, often directed against their own citizens, the imperative for better understanding could not be greater. Crusade 2.0 examines the resurgence of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West and its global implications. John Feffer discusses the influence of three «unfinished wars»—the Crusades, the Cold War, and the current «war on terror.» He presents a timely, concise and provocative look at current events in the context of historical trends and goes beyond a «clash of civilizations» critique to offer concrete ways to defuse the ticking bomb of Islamophobia. "John Feffer's Crusade 2.0: The West's Resurgent War On Islam offers a brief but effective exposé of a social cancer that continues to grow exponentially, in America and Europe, threatening the security and civil liberties of Muslims and the principles and values of Western democracies."—John L. Esposito "John Feffer's illuminating and important new work, Crusade 2.0, sheds light on the disturbing phenomenon of Islamophobia in America with a clear-eyed view of history, meticulous research, and persuasive arguments. This accessible and informative book shows how fear-mongering, when married to ignorance and selfish political agendas, not only threatens to marginalize entire communities of innocent people but also undermine the core values of pluralism, tolerance and fairness that define America."—Wajahat Ali "If you want to understand the particular madness of America's twenty-first century, you need to read John Feffer's account of how Washington launched «crusade 2.0,» including two invasions and occupations of Muslim lands and a Global War on Terror sporting aptly named Hellfire missiles aimed directly at the Muslim world. Add in the injection of fear of Islam directly into the American bloodstream and the rise of Islamophobia as domestic political red meat, and you have a truly American nightmare. Feffer is its Homer and this is our sad Odyssey."—Tom Engelhardt John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He is the author of several books, including North Korea, South Korea. His essays have been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere; he has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and other international news media.
The acclaimed author of The Peep Diaries and Hello, I'm Special returns to fiction, and delivers a mind-altering collection of short stories that confront the hypocrisies, humiliations and hilarities of modern life. The foibles of the 21st-century ego are on full view in this romp through social conventions—imaginative, offbeat stories that confront society's intractable dilemmas and deftly capture the zeitgeist of our fractured times. *An undergraduate gets in way over his head when a class assignment to start a terrorist organization goes viral *A pregnant 10th-grader struggles with her fetus's insistence that she abort him before both their lives are ruined. *A man trying to come to terms with the death of a friend becomes obsessed with a funeral home's online braodcasts. *A mortgage broker gets lost between the Web and the real world in pursuit of a pornography-induced fantasy. Look Down, This is Where It Must Have Happened is a biting satire of nostalgia, a send-up of the way highschool-era friendships can permanently choke off the possibility of adulthood. "Witty and wise."— San Francisco Chronicle "An equally gifted fiction writer and social critic."— Tikkun "There's tons of talent here."— NOW Magazine "Hal Niedzviecki is a remarkable writer."—Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street
Mexico is in a state of siege. Since President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drugs in December 2006, more than 38,000 Mexican have been murdered. During the same period, drug money has infused over $130 billion into Mexico's economy, now the country's single largest source of income. Corruption and graft infiltrate all levels of government. Entire towns have become ungovernable, and of every 100 people killed, Mexican police now only investigate approximately five. But the market is booming: In 2009, more people in the United States bought recreational drugs than ever before. In 2009, the United Nations reported that some $350 billion in drug money had been successfully laundered into the global banking system the prior year, saving it from collapse. How does an «extra» $350 billion in the global economy affect the murder rate in Mexico? To get the story and connect the dogs, acclaimed journalist John Gibler travels across Mexico and slips behind the frontlines to talk with people who live in towns under assault: newspaper reporters and crime-beat photographers, funeral parlor workers, convicted drug traffickers, government officials, cab drivers and others who find themselves living on the lawless frontiers of the drug war. Gibler tells hair-raising stories of wild street battles, kidnappings, narrow escapes, politicians on the take, and the ordinary people who fight for justice as they seek solutions to the crisis that is tearing Mexico apart. Fast-paced and urgent, To Die in Mexico is an extraordinary look inside the raging drug war, and its global implications. John Gibler is a writer based in Mexico and California, the author of Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt (City Lights Books, 2009) and a contributor to País de muertos: Crónicas contra la impunidad (Random House Mondadori, 2011). He is a correspondent for KPFA in San Francisco and has published in magazines in the United States and Mexico, including Left Turn , Z Magazine , Earth Island Journal , ColorLines , Race, Poverty, the Environment Fifth Estate , New Politics , In These Times , Yes! Magazine , Contralínea and Milenio Semanal . "Gibler's front-line reportage coupled with first-rate analysis gives an uncommonly vivid and nuanced picture of a society riddled and enervated by corruption, shootouts, and raids, where murder is the 'most popular method of conflict resolution.' . . . At great personal risk, the author unearths stories the mainstream media doesn't—or is it too afraid—to cover, and gives voice to those who have been silenced or whose stories have been forgotten."— Publishers Weekly , starred review "Gibler argues passionately to undercut this 'case study in failure.' The drug barons are only getting richer, the murders mount and the police and military repression expand as 'illegality increases the value of the commodity.' With legality, both U.S. and Mexican society could address real issues of substance abuse through education and public-health initiatives. A visceral, immediate and reasonable argument."— Kirkus Reviews "Gibler provides a fascinating and detailed insight into the history of both drug use in the US and the 'war on drugs' unleashed by Ronald Reagan through the very plausible—but radical—lens of social control. . . . Throughout this short but powerful book, Gibler accompanies journalists riding the grim carousel of death on Mexico's streets, exploring the realities of a profession under siege in states such as Sinaloa and just how they cover the drugs war."—Gavin O’Toole, The Latin American Review of Books
Noam Chomsky says that the freedom to challenge power is not just an opportunity, it’s a responsibility. For the past several years Chomsky has been writing essays for The New York Times Syndicate to do just that: challenge power and expose the global consequences of U.S. policy and military actions worldwide. Interventions is a collection of these essays, revised and updated with notes by the author. While Chomsky's New York Times Syndicate writings are widely published around the world, they have rarely been printed in major U.S. media; none have been published in the New York Times . Concise and fiercely argued, Interventions covers the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Bush presidency, Israel and Palestine, national security, the escalating threat of nuclear warfare and more. A powerful and accessible new book from one of America’s foremost political intellectuals and dissidents. "Interventions offers over forty of Chomsky’s columns; insightful, crisp and well-researched pieces on news events of the day. From 9/11 to the Iraq War, from the 'non-crisis' of social security to the leveling of Lebanon, Chomsky provides informed opinion and critical analysis."—Mumia Abu-Jamal "Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet."— New York Times Book Review "With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us—and to discern what they are leaving out . . . Agree with him or not, we lose out by not listening.”— Business Weekly Noam Chomsky has taught linguistics and philosophy at MIT for more than fifty years. He is a critically-acclaimed author of numerous books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Manufacturing Consent, and Media Control and Failed States .