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Full-Text Articles in Civic and Community Engagement

From City State To Medina: The Timeless Wisdom Of Aristotle’S Polis, Spencer Koehl Apr 2022

From City State To Medina: The Timeless Wisdom Of Aristotle’S Polis, Spencer Koehl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Many philosophers and thinkers have considered the idea of community and what makes it strong, beneficial, and enduring. The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is no exception. Aristotle wrote thoroughly on the nature of the ideal community, which he observed in Greek city-states. Called a “polis”, this ideal community, according to Aristotle, is one that provides for its residents to live a good life above all else. In doing so, it usually is small enough that all its residents share a similar lived experience while being big enough to be self-sufficient. While Aristotle wrote on this subject over 2000 years ago, …


Programs And Strategies For Community Resilience In A Metropolitan Area Public Library: A Case Study, Andreas Vårheim Dec 2019

Programs And Strategies For Community Resilience In A Metropolitan Area Public Library: A Case Study, Andreas Vårheim

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper reports a case study on community-oriented public library programs in a metropolitan Texan city. A main purpose of the paper is to report the findings from this explorative case study on the relationship of a public library system with its communities from a community resilience perspective. The study is a part of a research project aiming at creating empirically-based knowledge on the role of public libraries in forming community resilience. The description of specific library programs is a basis for further study of the mechanisms contributing to community resilience. Community resilience enables communities to face major environmental change …


Situating Social Sustainability On Spartanburg’S Northside: An Engaged Neighborhood Study Of Community, History, And Place Making, Helen S. Seddelmeyer May 2019

Situating Social Sustainability On Spartanburg’S Northside: An Engaged Neighborhood Study Of Community, History, And Place Making, Helen S. Seddelmeyer

Community Based Research

From the very beginning of my research, I have been interested in sustainability and what it means to be sustainable. I was previously partial to environmental sustainability but came to the realization that understanding social sustainability is a more relevant and important topic for the Northside at this time. When a neighborhood is socially sustainable, they are investing in the next generation, building sincere relationships founded on trust, are adaptable, and have networks with civil society organizations such as schools, churches and businesses. Saffron Woodcraft defines social sustainability as, “a process for creating sustainable, successful places that promote well-being by …


Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo Jan 2018

Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Through the case study of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, this research project addresses how community-based affordable housing development is operationalized to rehabilitate communities and neighborhoods experiencing effects of gentrification, mass displacement, and cultural dilution. My goals were to identify how the processes of building a sense of community, trust, and cohesion- rehabilitating and critical to affordable housing development efforts in the Mission District? And, how are nonprofit community development organizations engaging with these processes in collaboration with citizen and community partners? The final objective is to provide evidence-based strategies to assist other at-risk minority communities and neighborhoods in the …


[Re]Constructing Community: A Strategy For Post-Disaster Recovery, Ryan James Stechmann Aug 2015

[Re]Constructing Community: A Strategy For Post-Disaster Recovery, Ryan James Stechmann

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on exploring a viable solution for permanent housing after a natural disaster with an emphasis on community rebuilding in a southern coastal context. This region will continue to be affected by hurricanes and it is only a matter of time until another major disaster will happen. In any major disaster the fabric of the community is torn and takes a long time to recover. Communal places are vital to recovery after such disasters because they serve as a place where the people of the community can gather and provide support or receive support from each other and …


Detroit Works Long-Term Planning Project: Engagement Strategies For Blending Community And Technical Expertise, Toni L. Griffin, Dan Cramer, Megan Powers Oct 2014

Detroit Works Long-Term Planning Project: Engagement Strategies For Blending Community And Technical Expertise, Toni L. Griffin, Dan Cramer, Megan Powers

Publications and Research

In January 2013, civic leaders, community stakeholders, and residents came together to release Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan, a guiding blueprint for transforming Detroit from its current state of population loss and excessive vacancy into a model for the reinvention of post-industrial American cities. Three years prior, the U.S. Census had reported that the city had lost 24% of its population over the last decade and had experienced a 20% increase in vacant and abandoned property, bringing total vacancy to roughly the size of Manhattan. In addition to physical and economic challenges, Detroiters had also acknowledged significant …


Fruitful Communities: Evaluating The History And Impacts Of Treepeople’S Fruit Tree Program, Kayla B. Imhoff Apr 2013

Fruitful Communities: Evaluating The History And Impacts Of Treepeople’S Fruit Tree Program, Kayla B. Imhoff

Pitzer Senior Theses

TreePeople is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that uses environmental education, initiatives, and programs to engage with the greater community to work towards the goal of a sustainable future for Los Angeles. The Fruit Tree Program is one of TreePeople’s longest running programs of 29 years, which distributes free bare-root fruit trees to economically disadvantaged communities as a source of fresh fruit and the other environmental benefits that trees offer. This paper is a comprehensive report detailing the history of the program and the impacts it has had on communities across Los Angeles County. Looking at three communities in …


Narrative Processes In Urban Planning: A Case Study Of Swamp Gravy In Colquitt, Georgia, Ronald David Pate Jul 2012

Narrative Processes In Urban Planning: A Case Study Of Swamp Gravy In Colquitt, Georgia, Ronald David Pate

Dissertations and Theses

In 1990 many in Colquitt, Georgia considered themselves to be a dying town due to the loss of jobs and outmigration that occurred when labor intensive farming transitioned to the machine. In response citizens brought in a theater director from Chicago who helped them launch a performance series of inclusive stories that were acted by local volunteers. The resulting series called Swamp Gravy has run from 1992 to present (2012), and has led to purported claims of community revitalization. The purpose of this study was to discover what this ongoing narrative community engagement meant to the people of Colquitt in …