Global Networks, Local Actions: Rethinking adult education policy in the 21st century examines public policy developments in adult education, exploring the policy framing of adult education practice in a range of socio-cultural contexts, and contributing to the development of policy research from global and comparative perspectives. Drawing from multidisciplinary fields such as adult education, comparative and international education, and sociology, chapters analyse empirically grounded studies from the US, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Each study helps to identify how political agents interact at international, regional, national and local scales, and what the implications are for publically-funded interventions in adult education. While this book recognises the complexity of adult education policy, it argues for the need to deconstruct the false belief that what is global in adult education may be intrinsically distinct from the characteristics of geographical or social territories in which adult education occurs. Instead, it points to localised norms and ideas on Adult Basic and Secondary Education as ultimately contained in, and constituting, what is at times perceived as global, or abstracted from definite geographical or social territories. This book calls for a global sociology of adult education in response to global challenges, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of developments in public adult education policy. As such, it will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of adult education, comparative and international education, education policy and politics, sociology of education, and global studies.

Over the past two decades it has become widely recognized that housing issues have to be placed in a broader framework acknowledging that civil society in the form of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their allies are increasingly networking and emerging as strong players that cannot easily be overlooked. Some of these networks have crossed local and national boundaries and have jumped political scales. This implies that housing issues have to be looked at from new angles: they can no longer simply be addressed through localized projects, but rather at multiple scales. The current debate is largely limited to statements about the relevance of individual organizations for local housing processes and tends to overlook the innovativeness in terms of re-scaling those processes and of influencing institutional change at various levels by transcending national boundaries. There is a significant lack of a systemic understanding of such globally operating grassroots networks and how they function in the housing process. This book brings together different perspectives on multi-scalar approaches within the housing field and on grassroots’ engagement with formal agencies including local government, higher levels of government and international agencies. By moving away from romanticizing local self-initiatives, it focuses on understanding the emerging potential once local initiatives are interlinked and scaled-up to transnational networks.

As the world's governments become overwhelmed with the many interntaional crises we see today, we need to turn to Global Action Networks to address these pressing issues

The fragile forest ecosystems in Latin America have long served domestic economic interests through timber production, mining, land resettlement, and cattle ranching. Over the past two decades, the demands on this natural resource base have been exacerbated by transnational commercial and political forces. These forces include MERCOSUR (the world's second largest customs union, composed of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay), the Kyoto Protocol, and international environmental organizations. As threats to the region's endangered ecosystems have grown, so have new approaches to stem the damage by incorporating local populations in decentralized systems of resource management. This volume examines several of the innovative strategies being tested in the Amazon rainforest. These attempts, involving multi-institutional responses to environmental threats, are showing initial results that offer cautious hope for the future. Contributors include Martin Coy (Geographical Institute, University of Innsbruck, Austria), Hervé Théry (Ecole Normal Superieur, Paris and Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Brasilia), David Cleary (Nature Conservancy, Brazil), Phil Fearnside (National Institute for Amazonian Studies, Brazil), Neli Aparecida de Mello (Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Brasilia), John Redwood (Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank), Martina Neuburger (University of Tuebingen, Germany), Dan Pasca (University of Tuebingen), Judith Lisansky (World Bank), Sergio Rosendo (Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, University of East Anglia, UK), Fábio de Castro (Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change, Indiana University, and Nucleo de Estudos e Pesquisa Ambiental, University of Campinas, Brazil), and Larissa Chermont (London School of Economics and Political Science, and Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil).

Today, interest in networks is growing by leaps and bounds, in both scientific discourse and popular culture. Networks are thought to be everywhere – from the architecture of our brains to global transportation systems. And networks are especially ubiquitous in the social world: they provide us with social support, account for the emergence of new trends and markets, and foster social protest, among other functions. Besides, who among us is not familiar with Facebook, Twitter, or, for that matter, World of Warcraft, among the myriad emerging forms of network-based virtual social interaction? It is common to think of networks simply in structural terms – the architecture of connections among objects, or the circuitry of a system. But social networks in particular are thoroughly interwoven with cultural things, in the form of tastes, norms, cultural products, styles of communication, and much more. What exactly flows through the circuitry of social networks? How are people's identities and cultural practices shaped by network structures? And, conversely, how do people's identities, their beliefs about the social world, and the kinds of messages they send affect the network structures they create? This book is designed to help readers think about how and when culture and social networks systematically penetrate one another, helping to shape each other in significant ways.

What counts as 'indigenous religion' in today ́s world? Who claims this category? What are the processes through which local entities become recognisable as 'religious' and 'indigenous'? How is all of this connected to struggles for power, rights and sovereignty? This book sheds light on the contemporary lives of indigenous religion(s), through case studies from Sápmi, Nagaland, Talamanca, Hawai`i, and Gujarat, and through a shared focus on translations, performances, mediation and sovereignty. It builds on long term case-studies and on the collaborative comparison of a long-term project, including shared fieldwork. At the center of its concerns are translations between a globalising discourse (indigenous religion in the singular) and distinct local traditions (indigenous religions in the plural). With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this book is a must read for students and researchers in indigenous religions, including those in related fields such as religious studies and social anthropology.