Leading from Within

Leading from Within PDF Author: Gretchen Ki Steidle
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262536188
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A roadmap for integrating mindfulness into every aspect of social change: how to lead transformation with compassion for the needs and perspectives of all people. Gretchen Steidle knows first-hand the personal transformation that mindfulness practice can bring. But she doesn't believe that transformation stops at personal wellbeing. In Leading from Within, Steidle describes the ways that personal investment in self-awareness shapes leaders who are able to inspire change in others, build stronger relationships, and design innovative and more sustainable solutions. Steidle argues that both personal and societal transformation are essential for a just society, and with this book she offers a roadmap for integrating mindfulness into every aspect of social change. Conventional methods attempt to compel people to change through incentives or punitive measures. Conscious social change calls for leading with a deeper human understanding of change and compassion for the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders. Steidle offers mindfulness practices for individuals and groups, presents the neuroscientific evidence for its benefits, and argues for its relevance to social change. She describes five capacities of conscious social change, devoting a chapter to each. She writes about her own experiences, including her work helping women to found their own grassroots social ventures in post-conflict Africa. She describes the success of a group of rural, uneducated women in Rwanda, for example, who now provide 9,000 villagers with clean water, ending the sexual exploitation of disabled women unable to collect water on their own. Steidle also draws from the work of change agents in the United States to showcase applications of conscious social change to timely issues like immigration, racism, policing, and urban violence. Through personal stories and practical guidance, Steidle delivers both the inspiration and tools of this innovative approach to social transformation. About Global Grassroots: In post-conflict Africa, Global Grassroots equips emerging women leaders, including war survivors, subsistence farmers, and the undereducated, with the tools and resources to create conscious social change. Our core program is our Academy for Conscious Change, a social entrepreneurship and mindfulness-based leadership program that helps vulnerable women design their own non-profit solutions to address priority social issues. In our first decade of operations we have trained over 650 change agents who have designed 150 civil society organizations benefiting over 150,000 people.

Gender, Governance and Empowerment in India

Gender, Governance and Empowerment in India PDF Author: Sreevidya Kalaramadam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317246837
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Since the mid-1980s, the presence of women in governance has become a major marker of successful democracy in global and national discourses on the democratization of society. A diverse set of nation-states have legislatively mandated gender quotas to ensure the presence of elected women representatives (EWRs) in various rungs of governance. Since 1993, the Indian state has legislated a massive program of democratization and decentralization. As a result, more than 1.5 million EWRs have taken office within the lower rungs of governance or the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). This book is an ethnography of the Indian state and its policy of legislated entry of women into political life. It argues that political participation of women is necessary to change the political practices in society, to make institutions more gender, class and caste representative, and to empower individual women to negotiate both formal and informal institutions. Its locus is the everyday life contexts of EWRs in the southern Indian state of Karnataka who negotiate their own meanings of politics, state, society, empowerment and political subjectivity. Analysing three factors – structural boundaries, sociocultural divisions and conjunctural limitations imposed on the participation of EWRs by political parties – the book demonstrates that the social embeddedness of PRIs within everyday practices and social relations of identity and power severely constrain and shape the political participation and empowerment of EWRs. Providing a valuable insight into contemporary state and feminist praxis in India, this book will be of interest to scholars of grass-roots democracy, gender studies and Asian politics.

Reinventing Japan

Reinventing Japan PDF Author: Y. Takao
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781349539666
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
The book is about new dynamic forces that are driving change in Japan. It is developed around two key concepts of civil society and social capital. The focus is on pathways to Japan's social renewal that promotes stronger communities and more participatory citizenship beyond the reach of economic growth.

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy PDF Author: Michael Kaufman
Publisher: International Development Research Centre Books
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The collected essays in this book provide a comparative examination of the process of grassroots mobilization and the development of community-based forms of popular democracy in Central and South America. The first part contains studies from individual countries on organizations ranging from those supported by governments and integrated into the country's political structure to groups that were organized against the existing political system. The organizations studied included those focusing on a particular concern, such as housing, and those with wide responsibility for community affairs; but all were organizations based on common interests where people lived and, in some cases, where people worked. The second part offers theme studies on men, women and differential participation; problems and meanings associated with decentralization, especially in relation to devolution of power to the local level and the construction of popular alternatives; and the competing theoretical paradigms of new social movements and resource mobilization.

Democratic Governance and Political Participation in Nigeria 1999 - 2014

Democratic Governance and Political Participation in Nigeria 1999 - 2014 PDF Author: Femi Omotoso
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 1942876394
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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Book Description
The year 1999 was a watershed in the history of Nigeria as it witnessed the peaceful transfer of power from the military to the political class. Given Nigerias tumultuous history of successive military interventions, this development was the first genuine transition that saw the military elite transferring political power to civilians without itching to stage a comeback. This edited volume, composed of 22 chapters discusses the form, trajectory and substance of democratic governance in post-military Nigeria between 1999 and 2014. It is a compilation of well researched essays and narratives on Nigerian government and politics. The book is a multi-disciplinary assessment of Nigerias democratic strides, including contributions from scholars in a broad range of disciplines such as history, sociology and anthropology, political science, economics, international relations, among others. The book examines the factors responsible for the resilience of the current democratic governance structures, in spite of centripetal and centrifugal forces frustrating democratic consolidation in the country. It equally interrogates these factors and makes appropriate recommendations for overcoming them. Key themes covered in the book in the Boko Haram insurgency, governance and corruption, militancy, sharia law, Islamic banking amongst others. It sheds light on contending issues affecting, afflicting and retarding the countrys progress. Issues like ethnicity, electoral corruption, human rights abuses, privatization of national assets, kidnapping and armed robbery, overbearing leadership personality and many more are critically discussed. Local government autonomy and the challenges of grassroots development and civil service administration are also thoroughly analysed. Democratic Governance and Political Participation in Nigeria 1999-2014 is a detailed, exhaustive, deep, stimulating and captivating narrative of the Nigerian situation. It is enthusiastically recommended for those who wish to know more about contemporary Nigerian history. As a collection of contemporary issues on the Nigerian government and politics, the book is recommended for courses in politics and governance in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It is an invaluable companion for both graduate and undergraduate students as well as scholars of African politics.

The State of Civil Society in Japan

The State of Civil Society in Japan PDF Author: Frank J. Schwartz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521534628
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Table of contents

Gendered Paradoxes

Gendered Paradoxes PDF Author: Amy Lind
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271076364
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Since the early 1980s Ecuador has experienced a series of events unparalleled in its history. Its “free market” strategies exacerbated the debt crisis, and in response new forms of social movement organizing arose among the country’s poor, including women’s groups. Gendered Paradoxes focuses on women’s participation in the political and economic restructuring process of the past twenty-five years, showing how in their daily struggle for survival Ecuadorian women have both reinforced and embraced the neoliberal model yet also challenged its exclusionary nature. Drawing on her extensive ethnographic fieldwork and employing an approach combining political economy and cultural politics, Amy Lind charts the growth of several strands of women’s activism and identifies how they have helped redefine, often in contradictory ways, the real and imagined boundaries of neoliberal development discourse and practice. In her analysis of this ambivalent and “unfinished” cultural project of modernity in the Andes, she examines state policies and their effects on women of various social sectors; women’s community development initiatives and responses to the debt crisis; and the roles played by feminist “issue networks” in reshaping national and international policy agendas in Ecuador and in developing a transnationally influenced, locally based feminist movement.

Practices in Regional Science and Sustainable Regional Development

Practices in Regional Science and Sustainable Regional Development PDF Author: R. B. Singh
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811622213
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
This book brings together the emerging trends and techniques incorporated in regional science during the first two decades of this millennium. The book includes systematic and analytical notes making scientific commentary on the innovative methods of regional development, measurement of the development, regional development models, and policy measures that have significant implications and wide applicability instrumental for India as well as the other global south countries. There is clear evidence in the global south of the uneven spatial distribution of resources, economic activities, literacy, and health conditions. The most striking fact is the coexistence of development and underdevelopment that makes the planning process complicated. This can hardly be explored without taking a deep insight into the matter of how the regional parameters are impacting regional society or economy to shape the development of that region. There can be no effective global policy framework that will be effective equally for each and every region to mitigate local issues of society or economy. It is here that the book integrates the efforts of practitioners working towards addressing these regional issues and striving for sustainable regional development through their innovative ideas. Through its contributions, the book addresses development issues, regional impact of climate change, social justice, migration, well-being, livelihood vulnerabilities, and regional urban-environmental issues from the standpoint of regional science. It is a significant resource for researchers of spatial science, and policy makers.

Capability of Elected Women Representatives on Gender Issues in Grassroots Governance

Capability of Elected Women Representatives on Gender Issues in Grassroots Governance PDF Author: Joseph Vanishree
Publisher: Concept Publishing Company
ISBN: 9788180697333
Category : Feminism
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Study conducted in Dindigul District of Tamil Nadu, India.

Essays on Gender and Governance

Essays on Gender and Governance PDF Author: Martha Craven Nussbaum
Publisher: MacMillan India
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The relationship between gender and governance has too often been neglected in both theoretical and empirical work. Until very recently, most influential political thought has been built around a conceptual distinction between the public realm of politics, military affairs, and administration, and the private realm of family and domestic life. Women s role, in a wide range of traditions and in theoretical work influenced by them, has typically been associated with the private realm, and men s role with the public realm. The public/private distinction has been thoroughly criticized as being in many ways misleading and untenable. Nonetheless, it continues to influence both theoretical and empirical work, with the result that women s efforts to gain a voice in governance have often been ignored. The papers in this volume aim to set the record straight. They advance a theoretical structure, both positive and normative, within which the question of gendered governance may usefully be pursued. They also analyze some current developments that indicate many ways in which women are actively participating in governance, in both government and the institutions of civil society, and the obstacles that remain. The essays in this volume are the outcome of a year long collaborative exploration of the multiple factors that influence the process of engendering governance in complex societies, in particular the changing roles of various actors including women s movements, the state and civil society.