The Minnesota Response

The Minnesota Response
Author: George Wilson Morse
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2009
Genre: Budget deficits
ISBN: 1440155410

About the Book The Minnesota Response explains how Minnesota Extension responded to its mission and money crisis in 2004 with a sweeping restructuring. Breaking with 95 years of tradition, Minnesota Extension shifted from a county delivery model to a regional/county model. Regionalization, however, is the tip of the iceberg. Several other policies define Minnesota's new approach, including changes in funding sources, degree of specialization of the regional educators, more statewide program teams, development of business plans and public value statements, supervision of field educators by program specialists rather than geographic supervisors, new scholarship and promotion expectations, and new evaluation efforts. The Minnesota Response describes these policies and reports on their initial impacts on program quality, scholarship, access, and public support. As land-grant universities seek to rebuild programs based on 'best practices,' this book contributes valuable, experience-based insights into the choices available as Extension programs continue to evolve and respond. Michael V. Martin, Chancellor of Louisiana State University.

Decentralization and the Social Economics of Development

Decentralization and the Social Economics of Development
Author: Christopher Brendan Barrett
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1845932706

There has been broad agreement in recent years that decentralization is key in achieving democracy at local level. Examining the successes, failures, possibilities and limitations of efforts across rural Kenya, this book analyses the socioeconomic and institutional prerequisites for successful decentralization, and the role of community groups and producer organizations in reducing poverty and promoting empowerment. Original empirical studies explore the fundamental elements of coherent, inclusive and ultimately effective decentralization, and how these can be applied to efforts across the African continent and beyond.

Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level in the United States

Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level in the United States
Author: Paul R. Lachapelle
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2018-12-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1351211706

The concept of community, in all its diverse definitions and manifestations, provides a unique approach to learn more about how groups of individuals and organizations are addressing the challenges posed by climate change. This new volume highlights specific cases of communities developing innovative approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation around the United States. Defining community more comprehensively than just spatial geography to include also communities of interest, identity and practice, this book highlights how individuals and organizations are addressing the challenges posed by climate change through more resilient social processes, government policies and sustainable practices. Through close examinations of community efforts across the United States, including agricultural stakeholder engagement and permaculture projects, coastal communities and prolonged drought areas, and university extension and local governments, this book shows the influence of building individual and institutional capacity toward addressing climate change issues at the community level. It will be useful to community development students, scholars and practitioners learning to respond to unexpected shocks and address chronic stress associated with climate change and its impacts.

Social Innovation and Sustainability Transition

Social Innovation and Sustainability Transition
Author: Geoff Desa
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2022-12-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3031185609

This book uses a historical and modern lens to reimagine the role that Extension could potentially play in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. The establishment of statewide extension systems was once seen as a way to ensure that Land-Grant Universities would be accessible and responsive to all of a state’s residents. Extension systems continue to offer a front-door to a major public university in almost every county of the United States, but they tend to be viewed primarily as a way to translate science or distribute information from the university to the public. This books argues for the importance of Extension and shows that we are conceiving of this system too narrowly. Only by retelling the stories of the Extension and getting people to see themselves as part of the story can we imagine a different future in which state universities and land-grant colleges engage more authentically and equitably in two-way relationships with their local constituents.in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. Chapter “Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk", chapter “Feeding the melting pot: inclusive strategies for the multi-ethnic city", chapter "A carrot isn't a carrot isn't a carrot: tracing value in alternative practices of food exchange", chapter “Virtualizing the 'good life': reworking narratives of agrarianism and the rural idyll in a computer game" and chapter "'Workable utopias' for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.

Home-Based Employment and Family Life

Home-Based Employment and Family Life
Author: Ramona Z. Heck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1995-04-25
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0313037744

This book is about families who combine home life and income-producing work under the same roof. Based on 899 homeworking households in nine states, the analysis presents detailed information about individual worker and household characteristics; work characteristics for both business owners and wage workers; family functioning types; management behavior; and adjustment strategies used in family life, the community context, and the home-based employment experience over an extended period of time. This is the first publication of a serious longitudinal study of the phenomenon of working from home with historical considerations of how and why so many people are choosing this option. It points to the significantly positive impact at-home workers are having on their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities.

Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture

Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture
Author: Carolyn E. Sachs
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2020-10-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0429578466

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture covers major theoretical issues as well as critical empirical shifts in gender and agriculture. Gender relations in agriculture are shifting in most regions of the world with changes in the structure of agriculture, the organization of production, international restructuring of value chains, climate change, the global pandemic, and national and multinational policy changes. This book provides a cutting-edge assessment of the field of gender and agriculture, with contributions from both leading scholars and up-and-coming academics as well as policymakers and practitioners. The handbook is organized into four parts: part 1, institutions, markets, and policies; part 2, land, labor, and agrarian transformations; part 3, knowledge, methods, and access to information; and part 4, farming people and identities. The last chapter is an epilogue from many of the contributors focusing on gender, agriculture, and shifting food systems during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters address both historical subjects as well as ground-breaking work on gender and agriculture, which will help to chart the future of the field. The handbook has an international focus with contributions examining issues at both the global and local levels with contributors from across the world. With contributions from leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and with a global outlook, the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture is an essential reference volume for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in gender and agriculture.

The United States Government Internet Directory 2010

The United States Government Internet Directory 2010
Author: Peggy Garvin
Publisher: Bernan Press
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2010-12
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1598884212

The Directory: contains more than 2,000 Web site records, organized into 20 subject-themed chapters. It provides descriptions and URLs for each site and describes sites to help in choosing the proper resource. It also provides Web site descriptions that includes information about the sponsoring agency and notes the useful or unique aspects of the site as well as listing some of the major government publications hosted on the site. It evaluates the most important and frequently sought sites providing a roster of congressional members with members' Web sites and includes a one-page ’’Quick Guide'' to the major federal agencies and the leading online library, data source, and finding aid sites. There are multiple indexes in the back of the book to help locate Web sites by agency, site name, subject, and government publication title. The Master Index combines the agency, site name, and subject indexes. A separate index lists Web sites with full or substantial Spanish-language versions.

Urban Agroecology

Urban Agroecology
Author: Monika Egerer
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2020-12-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000259501

Today, 20 percent of the global food supply relies on urban agriculture: social-ecological systems shaped by both human and non-human interactions. This book shows how urban agroecologists measure flora and fauna that underpin the ecological dynamics of these systems, and how people manage and benefit from these systems. It explains how the sociopolitical landscape in which these systems are embedded can in turn shape the social, ecological, political, and economic dynamics within them. Synthesizing interdisciplinary approaches in urban agroecology in the natural and social sciences, the book explores methodologies and new directions in research that can be adopted by scholars and practitioners alike. With contributions from researchers utilizing both social and natural science approaches, Urban Agroecology describes the current social-environmental understandings of the science, the movement and the practices in urban agroecology. By investigating the role of agroecology in cities, the book calls for the creation of spaces for food to be sustainably grown in urban spaces: an Urban Agriculture (UA) movement. Essential reading for graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers, this book charts the course for accelerating this movement.