Shining Through the Raindrops of TimeBy: Jani E. ChaseJani E. Chase is an author and poet. She has written another book titled Hushpuppie Autumn.Jani and her daughter, Monica June, spent one winter sharing, caring, laughing, crying and writing poetry.Shining Through the Raindrops of Time is a collection of poems written that winter. Jani writes to inspire, encourage, share and, above all, to come to a place of hope, trust, love and faith.About the Aut...

This volume of the "International Perspectives on Education and Society" series comparatively examines various two-year and community college institutions worldwide. While these institutions are called by different names and may not all be structured the same around the world, their core mission remains consistently: to respond to the needs of their local community. Inspired by the German Volkshochschule, founded in 1844, this model is now throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, Sou...

In an increasingly interconnected environment, shocks, crises, cascading failures, and surprising breakthroughs are features of our age. The ability to anticipate, intervene, innovate, and adapt is now seen as essential for governments. Public officials serve in an expanded public space that is being reshaped by the rise of social networking and modern information and communication technologies. The desired results on many public issues exceed the reach and resources of government....

How public affairs are run depends upon the degree of authority and control central government decides to relinquish to regional and local governments, and the extent to which it favors citizen involvement in the governing process. Public administrators do not operate in a vacuum. The context within which decision-making takes place greatly influences public administrators approach to public issues. Consequently, what government decides to do and how it decides to carry it out affects the ...

The strategies adopted by governments and public officials can have dramatic effects on peoples' lives. The best ones can transform economic laggards into trailblazers, eliminate diseases, or sharply cut crime. Strategic failures can result in highly visible disasters, like the shrinking of the Russian economy in the 1990s, or the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. This book is about how strategies take shape, and how money, people, technologies, and public commitment c...

Community is an elusive yet frequently invoked concept. Terms like community health, community living, community schools, community policing, community development, and community renewal have become part of the contemporary lexicon.What has led organizations, and particularly Western governments, to take such an interest in community, and why this interest now? What has caused the increasing acceptance of community as the primary vehicle through which a wide variety of government p...

In Balancing Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform, Rotberg brings together examples of current education reforms in sixteen countries, written by "insiders". This book goes beyond myths and stereotypes and describes the difficult trade-offs countries make as they attempt to implement reforms in the context of societal and global change. In some countries, reforms are a response to major political or economic shifts; in others, they are motivated by large upsurges in imm...

Can non-governmental organisations contribute to more socially just, alternative forms of development? Or are they destined to work at the margins of dominant development models determined by others? Addressing this question, this book brings together leading international voices from academia, NGOs and the social movements. It provides a comprehensive update to the NGO literature and a range of critical new directions to thinking and acting around the challenge of development alternatives...

Market-based social economy firms such as social enterprises, social purpose businesses, co-operatives, credit unions, and community economic development corporations aim to meet distinct social needs while making money. Do these types of businesses have the potential for growth in the modern economy? Are they destined to function only in areas where conventional firms cannot achieve a sufficient rate of return? Or will the role of social economy organizations change as businesses begin pl...

Environmentally and socially sustainable policies are essential for good governance. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the key tool for integrating environmental considerations into policies, programs and plans. This book focuses on SEA applied to policies. Through lessons learned from previous use of SEA on policies, it draws lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of current SEA methodology. It then goes on to analyze how policies are formulated and implemented and proposes a new ...

The fascination with the commercial value of research, coupled with the rise of neo-liberal 'new public management' in the public sector, has led to the rise of a managerial class in the university. These essays focus on the widespread use of business models and market principles that have undermined the autonomy of the professoriate.

The Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs) have, over the past two decades, entered centre stage in their active participation in the social, political and economic issues affecting both the developing and developed world. This book offers a highly stimulating and concise summary of the NGDO sector by examining their history and metamorphosis; their influence on the social, political and economic landscapes of the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ governments and societies. The author ...