"Towards a Livable Life: A 21st Century Agenda for Social Work explores many of today's most critical issues facing America and the profession of social work. A wide range of leading social work scholars have been brought together to explore and provide innovative solutions to these societal issues. The book is organized around ten key topics. They include reducing health disparities; alleviating poverty; confronting discrimination; addressing inequality; building assets for lower income populations; preventing child maltreatment, fostering civic engagement; building healthy communities; achieving environmental justice; and engaging older adults. Tying the book together across each of these chapters is a foundational idea - that the focus of today's social work must be to enable every individual to achieve what is referred to as a livable life. A livable life is one in which individuals are able to thrive and develop in order to reach their full potential and capacity. Whether the concern is with the household, community, or society at large, striving toward conditions in which all members of these groups can reach their full potential is paramount. It is argued that achieving such a goal must be the ultimate challenge for social work in the 21st century"--

Inspiring and accessible, Toward the Livable City combines firsthand accounts of the attractions -- and distractions -- of urban life to show how to create successful cities. For city dwellers and commuters, urban planners and architects, neighborhood groups and activists, this book outlines specific strategies for change. Fifteen leading thinkers including James Howard Kunstler, Jane Holtz Kay, Tony Hiss, Bill McKibben, and Jay Walljasper explore smart growth, riverfront redevelopment, urban farming, pedestrian rights, traffic, opportunity-based housing, and suburban vs. city living. They tell how the mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, built dedicated busways and closed downtown streets to cars; how urban agriculture in vacant lots and backyards in Boston produces 10,000 pounds of vegetables each season; and how Minneapolis successfully redeveloped its riverfront, among other shining examples. Photographs are featured.

Leo Szilard conceived of the possibility of nuclear fission sustained by a chain reaction years before it was achieved in the laboratory. He was also one of the initiators of the atomic bomb project in the United States. Yet he dedicated his final years to the causes of understanding and sustaining life. The eminent physicist became a biologist and a vital force calling, for the control of nuclear and other weapons. This book documents Szilard's energetic attempts to influence public policy on arms control and disarmament issues, both through open political processes and statements and through behindthe-scenes contacts with Washington power sources and a remarkable exercise in personal diplomacy with Nikita Khrushchev. Many of the issues Szilard deals with in this valuable record of the years 1947-1963 are still crucial today. His opposition to antiballistic missile systems, his proposal for a Washington-Moscow "hot line," his work on the Pugwash conferences that brought together scientists from the East and the West, his pivotal role in the creation of the Council for a Livable World, his advocacy of a nuclear policy of no-first-use and restricted retaliation, and his support of "minimum deterrence" in place of an overwhelming counterforce capability - all these matters are as important in the 1980s as they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Helen S. Hawkins and G. Allen Greb are affiliated with the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego. The late Gertrud Weiss Szilard also served as coeditor of the first two volumes of her husband's work: The Collected Works of Leo Szilard: Scientific Papersand Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts. Barton J. Bernstein is professor in the Department of History, Stanford University.

The Arab Awakening and other nonviolent insurrections have often failed to produce lasting democratic change. A believer in empowerment, Lakey proposes a stage-by-stage developmental framework to get better, more transformational results. Still incorporating the nonviolent coercive force that has brought down dictators, Lakey uses historical “best practices” from movements to show how people can grow a revolution that roots itself even while it confronts. The five stages begin with consciousness change, lifting an intersectional vision that inspires and provides the basis for a critical mass to join the movement as it pushes through each developmental stage. Lakey shows how to reconcile pre-figurative alternative institutions with confrontive direct action teams, making the most of inherent synergistic potentials. With actual stories from confrontation with violent authorities he describes what works best for unifying and building the movement to the point where it can carry out the mass noncooperation that opens a power vacuum. Earlier democratic organizing structures—growing as the strategy unfolds—can then fill the vacuum. This stage prevents a relapse into the old oppression and defends the new society against counterrevolutionary forces. Although focused on how each society can realize its own revolution, this book acknowledges the context of global power and proposes a vision for transformed world institutions that are on the side of peace and justice. The principles in the book have particular application in the climate crisis humanity now faces, which is why the book describes a living revolution.

Imagine renewal in fifteen minutes a day. This forty-day program includes simple, yet meaningful spiritual reflections and practices that will guide you on the path toward emotional, physical, and spiritual restoration. Simplicity reigns-just show up every day for forty days and trust the process. Living AWAKE is a gentle reminder that all in life is sacred. Busy, stressed-out people will welcome Living AWAKE's clear and straightforward approach. Drawing from diverse sources and the author's own experience as a retreat leader and spiritual companion, Living AWAKE is accessible to all, regardless of faith or background. About the Author Mary Bea Sullivan is a retreat leader, inspirational speaker, and spiritual companion. She lives in Northern Alabama with her husband, Malcolm, and children, Brendan and Kiki. She is also the author of Dancing Naked Under the Moon: Uncovering the Wisdom Within, a spiritual memoir. Praise for Living AWAKE "Mary Bea Sullivan is a wise guide because she--through her own experience--knows that being and becoming human is a craft which requires practice, like playing a musical instrument or learning how to paint. Here the reader will find a series of practices over a classic period of forty days which will heal the soul, refresh the mind and heart, and open up new pathways." --Alan Jones, Dean Emeritus of Grace Cathedral and Honorary Canon of Chartres Cathedral. "Living AWAKE is a treasure chest of insight, wisdom, and practice. This forty-day journey invites the reader to know herself with love, and to then lavish that love on others. In a day and age when a lot of spiritual pablum is in the marketplace, Mary Bea Sullivan serves up real food for body, mind and spirit, food that is like the bread of communion, giving bread so that the reader can offer bread." --Rev. Mary C. Earle, Days of Grace: Meditations and Practices for Living with Illness. "Living AWAKE is a wonderful manual for the spiritual seeker who thinks globally and is not afraid to move beyond the confines of his or her belief system. Using a combination of personal narrative and insights into the sacred traditions of the world's religions, Mary Bea offers practical exercises for everyday people whose hearts ache for something more. She writes as a seasoned mentor well familiar with the territory, inviting the uninitiated to take the first steps towards living awake because it is a journey she herself has taken." --Elizabeth-Anne Stewart, Ph.D, Jesus the Holy Fool "There is a deep hunger today to have a more intimate experience with the Divine. Living AWAKE is a great way to get started or to get back on your journey with the Divine. This meditative guide comes from the deep wisdom of both eastern and western spirituality, yet it is simple and short enough that it can realistically be done in the midst of our busy lives. And if you stick with it for forty days, you will have established a habit that becomes natural to you and you will be living more awake." --Rev. Bob Haden, Director of the Haden Institute

This is a basic Bible study book for Doing the Word. If we are to do God's word as well as talk about it, we need a vision to guide our doing and acting. Church folk already have a number of visions to be found in the Bible, but we need them interpreted, explained and applied to our daily lives to guide our attempts to work for justice, mercy and peace. - from Editor's Preface to the First Edition.

In the twenty-first century we are confronted with a rapidly changing world full of social, economic and environmental uncertainties. We are all inherently connected to this changing world and in order to create the best possible conditions for life to thrive, we must each develop an inner capacity to respond and adapt to life in new, creative and innovative ways. The author of this visionary book argues that the path to a happy, healthy and peaceful world begins with the individual. By learning to recognise our cognitive habits of interrupting and defining life through our fixed ideas, labels and judgements, we can begin to develop a dynamic way of seeing that enables us to perceive and respond to life with greater attentiveness. First Steps in Seeing reveals a practical set of stepping stones that guide the reader into this dynamic way of seeing and relating. Using personal stories, practical exercises and real-world case studies in development, education and business, the author takes the reader on a journey to explore how to give our full attention to life, and how to enliven the world that we each co-create. An inspiring guide for all those working for social change in youth work, business, education or research, or simply seeking fresh paths in life.