Building Something Better

Building Something Better
Author: Stephanie A. Malin
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-04-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1978823681

Showing that it is possible to challenge social inequality and environmental degradation by refusing to continue business-as-usual, Building Something Better shares vivid case studies of small groups who are making a big impact by crafting alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. It offers both a call to action and a dose of hope in these troubled times.

Building Something Better

Building Something Better
Author: Stephanie A. Malin
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1978823703

As the turmoil of interlinked crises unfolds across the world—from climate change to growing inequality to the rise of authoritarian governments—social scientists examine what is happening and why. Can communities devise alternatives to the systems that are doing so much harm to the planet and people? Sociologists Stephanie A. Malin and Meghan Elizbeth Kallman offer a clear, accessible volume that demonstrates the ways that communities adapt in the face of crises and explains that sociology can help us understand how and why they do this challenging work. Tackling neoliberalism head-on, these communities are making big changes by crafting distributive and regenerative systems that depart from capitalist approaches. The vivid case studies presented range from activist water protectors to hemp farmers to renewable energy cooperatives led by Indigenous peoples and nations. Alongside these studies, Malin and Kallman present incisive critiques of colonialism, extractive capitalism, and neoliberalism, while demonstrating how sociology’s own disciplinary traditions have been complicit with those ideologies—and must expand beyond them. Showing that it is possible to challenge social inequality and environmental degradation by refusing to continue business-as-usual, Building Something Better offers both a call to action and a dose of hope in a time of crises.

Fewer, Better Things

Fewer, Better Things
Author: Glenn Adamson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-08-07
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1632869667

From the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, a timely and passionate case for the role of the well-designed object in the digital age. Curator and scholar Glenn Adamson opens Fewer, Better Things by contrasting his beloved childhood teddy bear to the smartphones and digital tablets children have today. He laments that many children and adults are losing touch with the material objects that have nurtured human development for thousands of years. The objects are still here, but we seem to care less and know less about them. In his presentations to groups, he often asks an audience member what he or she knows about the chair the person is sitting in. Few people know much more than whether it's made of wood, plastic, or metal. If we know little about how things are made, it's hard to remain connected to the world around us. Fewer, Better Things explores the history of craft in its many forms, explaining how raw materials, tools, design, and technique come together to produce beauty and utility in handmade or manufactured items. Whether describing the implements used in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, the use of woodworking tools, or the use of new fabrication technologies, Adamson writes expertly and lovingly about the aesthetics of objects, and the care and attention that goes into producing them. Reading this wise and elegant book is a truly transformative experience.

Start Here, Start Now

Start Here, Start Now
Author: Liz Kleinrock
Publisher:
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-05-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9780325118642

Most educators want to cultivate an antibias and antiracist classroom and school community, but they often struggle with where and how to get started. Liz helps us set ourselves up for success and prepare for the mistakes we'll make along the way. Each chapter in Start Here, Start Now addresses many of the questions and challenges educators have about getting started, using a framework for tackling perceived barriers from a proactive stance. Liz answers the questions with personal stories, sample lessons, anchor charts, resources, conversation starters, extensive teacher and activist accounts, and more. We can break the habits that are holding us back from this work and be empowered to take the first step towards reimagining the possibilities of how antibias antiracist work can transform schools and the world at large. We must remind ourselves that what is right is often not what is easy, and we must continue to dream. Amidst the chaos, our path ahead is clear. This is our chance to dream big and build something better.

Build Beyond Zero

Build Beyond Zero
Author: Bruce King
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2022-06-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 164283212X

“Net Zero” has been an effective rallying cry for the green building movement, signaling a goal of having every building generate at least as much energy as it uses. Enormous strides have been made in improving the performance of every type of new building, and even more importantly, renovating the vast and energy-inefficient collection of existing buildings in every country. If we can get every building to net-zero energy use in the next few decades, it will be a huge success, but it will not be enough. In Build Beyond Zero, carbon pioneers Bruce King and Chris Magwood re-envision buildings as one of our most practical and affordable climate solutions instead of leading drivers of climate change. They provide a snapshot of a beginning and map towards a carbon-smart built environment that acts as a CO2 filter. Professional engineers, designers, and developers are invited to imagine the very real potential for our built environment to be a site of net carbon storage, a massive drawdown pool that could help to heal our climate. The authors, with the help of other industry experts, show the importance of examining what components of an efficient building (from windows to solar photovoltaics) are made with, and how the supply chains deliver all those products and materials to a jobsite. Build Beyond Zero looks at the good and the bad of how we track carbon (Life Cycle Assessment), then takes a deep dive into materials (with a focus on steel and concrete) and biological architecture, and wraps up with education, policy and governance, circular economy, and where we go in the next three decades. In Build Beyond Zero, King and Magwood show how buildings are culprits but stand poised to act as climate healers. They offer an exciting vision of climate-friendly architecture, along with practical advice for professionals working to address the carbon footprint of our built environment.

Something Better

Something Better
Author: Genie Gabriel
Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2021-04-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1624206174

The legend of a Special One who travels in the light of the merkaba comes into being as Chessie Durand and her Collie travel through dimensions to rescue banished peoples who will help Chessie and Peter Stravel, her Chosen One, build a new world. However, shadows of the past follow the refugees, threatening their dreams and their lives. Are they strong enough to explore this primitive paradise with its unknown dangers and enchantments? Can betrayals be forgiven and former enemies forge new alliances? These pioneers must be strong enough to banish their fears and form new beliefs to build their dream of Something Better.

Has It Come to This?

Has It Come to This?
Author: J.P. Sapinski
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2020-11-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1978809352

Geoengineering is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system in an attempt to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming. Now that a climate emergency is upon us, claims that geoengineering is inevitable are rapidly proliferating. How did we get into this? What options make it onto the table? Which are left out? Whom does geoengineering serve? These are some of the questions that the thinkers contributing to this volume are exploring.

To Build a Better World

To Build a Better World
Author: Philip Zelikow
Publisher: Twelve
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538764660

A deeply researched international history and "exemplary study" (New York Times Book Review) of how a divided world ended and our present world was fashioned, as the world drifts toward another great time of choosing. Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world. Zeroing in on the key moments of decision, the might-have-beens, and the human beings working through them, they explore both what happened and what could have happened, to show how one world ended and another took form. Beginning in the late 1970s and carrying into the present, they focus on the momentous period between 1988 and 1992, when an entire world system changed, states broke apart, and societies were transformed. Such periods have always been accompanied by terrible wars -- but not this time. This is also a story of individuals coping with uncertainty. They voice their hopes and fears. They try out desperate improvisations and careful designs. These were leaders who grew up in a "postwar" world, who tried to fashion something better, more peaceful, more prosperous, than the damaged, divided world in which they had come of age. New problems are putting their choices, and the world they made, back on the operating table. It is time to recall not only why they made their choices, but also just how great nations can step up to great challenges. Timed for the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, To Build a Better World is an authoritative depiction of contemporary statecraft. It lets readers in on the strategies and negotiations, nerve-racking risks, last-minute decisions, and deep deliberations behind the dramas that changed the face of Europe -- and the world -- forever.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-02-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0735280452

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this urgent, singularly authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical--and accessible--plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid an irreversible climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help and guidance of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance, he has focused on exactly what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only gathers together all the information we need to fully grasp how important it is that we work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases but also details exactly what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. He describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions; where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively; where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions--suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but by following the guidelines he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Building Inclusion

Building Inclusion
Author: Marsha Ramroop
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2024-08-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1040098509

Building Inclusion: A Practical Guide to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Architecture and the Built Environment is just that – a manual to support and provide essential guidance to the profession on these key issues. Acknowledging that the existence of EDI procedures does not necessarily ensure their use, it focuses on demonstrating behaviours that help create, implement and enforce policies, procedures and practices to deliver inclusion. Written by Marsha Ramroop, former inaugural EDI Director at the RIBA and award-winning EDI strategist, the book targets the pain points of talent attraction and retention, public sector procurement, community engagement and inclusive design. It utilises case studies from organisations across the sector and the world with successful EDI practices, as well as testimonials of lived experiences of discrimination which provide important insight to the reader. The book takes an intersectional approach, considering not just the separate identities of race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender and sexual identity, disability, neurodiversity and class but the overlap of these. Clearly written and accessible, with key points at the end of each chapter, this book is essential reading for those in the profession seeking to implement EDI practices in their work and workplace.