Ethnic Community Builders: Mexican-Americans in Search of Justice and Power is an oral history of Mexican-American activism in San JosZ, California, over the last half century. The authors present interviews of 14 people of various stripes—teachers, politicians, radio personalities—who have been influential in the development of a major urban center with a significant ethnic population. These activists tell the stories of their lives and work with engaging openness and honesty, allowing readers to witness their successes and failures. This vivid ethnography of a Mexican-American community serves as a model for activism wherever ethnic groups seek change and justice.

Addressing relevant urban issues, a careful look at the relationships between neighborhood associations and development.

Put the power of arts and culture to work in your community Part 1 of this unique guide distills research and emerging ideas behind culturally driven community development and explains key underlying principles. You'll understand the arts impact on community well-being and have the rationale for engaging others. Find inspiration and ideas from twenty case studies Part 2 gives you ten concrete strategies for building on the unique qualities of your own community. Each strategy is illustrated by two case studies taken from a variety of cities, small towns, and neighborhoods across the United States. You'll learn how people from all walks of life used culture and creativity as a glue to bind together people, ideas, enterprises, and institutions to make places more balanced and healthy. These examples are followed in Part 3 with six steps to assessing, planning, and implementing creative community building projects: 1. Assess Your Situation and Goals; 2. Identify and Recruit Effective Partners; 3. Map Values, Strengths, Assets, and History; 4. Focus on Your Key Asset, Vision, Identity, and Core Strategies; 5. Craft a Plan That Brings the Identity to Life; 6. Secure Funding, Policy Support, and Media Coverage. Detailed guidance, hands-on worksheets, and a hypothetical community sample walk you through the entire process. Each section includes additional resources as well as an appendix listing books, web sites, organizations, and research studies. By understanding the theoretical context (Part 1), learning from case studies (Part 2), and following the six steps (Part 3), you'll be able to build a more vibrant, creative, and equitable community.

Suburban development is often considered synonymous with enhanced personal mobility, single-family housing, and life cycle homogeneity. According to this view, individual suburbs are residence-only enclaves, isolated commuter-sheds for a managerial and mercantile elite. Magnetic Los Angeles challenges this common vision of the expanding, twentieth-century city as the sprawling product of dispersion without planning, lacking any discernable order.

A study of political and social issues posed by the rise of CIDs (common interest housing developments) in the US. The work explores the consequences of CIDs on government and argues that private, residential government has serious implications for civil liberties.

This book, in applying the asset mapping theory of Kretzmann and McKnight (1993), developed a positive communication strategy for minimizing conflicts and building a more Collaborative Communities in Organizations and Churches, with much emphasis on inclusivity, consensus and commitment to common vision and ideals. While critically reviewing the traditional conflict theories in their approaches to conflict management; the book uses the new lens provided by the asset mapping theory, to recommend for a paradigm shift in the way people look at organizations and conflicts. A new emphasis therefore is on the positive elements in organizations, the assets that lie within individuals and groups, as the key to minimizing conflict in organizations. Besides, unlike the traditional conflict theories which sees conflict as a problem, this new lens, sees conflict within organizations, as functional and opportunities for growth. The book equally identifies some of the significant factors that cause ethnic conflicts within organizations; such as, Prejudices among Ethnic Groups; Differences of Ethnic Groups; Power Struggle among Ethnic Groups; Discrimination and Injustice against Groups; Lack of Participatory Communication; and Lack of Participatory Leadership. Finally, in reviewing the relevant literatures on Community Building, the book underlines the various variables that make Community Building possible. Such variables include: Discovering and Mobilizing the Assets of Individuals and Groups within Organizations; Building Relationships among Individuals and Groups within Organizations; Building a more Participatory Leadership within Organizations; Building a more Participatory Communication within Organizations; Creating more Awareness on the necessity of Collaborative Initiatives, as well as, Promoting the Common Cultural Values and Ideals that holds Individuals and Groups together within Organization.