Resource for Social Behavior Change

Hi Folks
Here's a resource I've put together that may help if you're looking for more ways to advance the Social Change efforts. the lens used here is Building Social Capital.

Ideas for Building Social Capital- 09/24/2007

Get to know 1 or 2 of your immediate neighbors on the bloc, on the floor you live or work on, etc., in an ongoing, substantial way

Recognize others in your everyday life (bank tellers, grocery clerks, colleagues, etc.) for their unique presence and gifts, as you go about your day. Be open and loving to a wider range of people than is your current pattern.

Get to know one or two people well over time who are part of a world you rarely connect with (elders/children, low-income/working class people, people of color/immigrants, people with disabilities, people with different sexual preferences than yours, etc.)

Practice being a bridge. Link isolated parts of your community and your life. See yourself as a connector between people, groups, disconnected domains (such as the social justice and sustainability worlds)

Help your social group/block/neighborhood/community etc. find effective, engaging ways to discover & share:
• Common skills and interests
• Common needs they have, barriers to meeting those needs, and ways to overcome the barriers
• Playful ways to connect outside of the usual talking mode (games, music, dance, outdoor experiences, etc.)
• How they are shaped by their diverse backgrounds, cultural heritages. Could also include ways to celebrate those heritages
• A common vision and core values, and ways to realize that vision
• Stories of our lives (could include drawing & sharing a timeline of key turning points in one’s life, or a map of key elements of one’s life)
• Facilitation, communication and other community-building skills

Link people by supporting each other’s wish to live more sustainably, such as:
• Finding alternatives to solo car travel
• Creating a local/organic food purchasing coop, community garden, etc.
• Sharing resources of any kind (tools, skills, vehicles, local knowledge, childcare, garden produce and seeds, etc.)
• Home energy efficiency parties
• Monitoring and reducing trash levels, ecological footprint, energy use levels , etc.
• Creating sustainable living learning circles and/or video/discussion series
• Etc

Co-create attractive common indoor & outdoor places for people in your life to connect in

Create shared artistic experiences, (visual, musical, theatrical, movement, etc.) in common spaces

Create festivals for sharing peoples’ different cultures

Agyeman Ch 4: Just Sustainability in Practice and Greening the City

Reading Agyeman's Chapter 4 andthe Greening the City article and resource sheets supplied by Elan ensured that I spent much of my recent time reading about case studies, exemplary organizations, and best practices.
Additional resources:
saveourenvironment.org (from Agyeman)
fingerlakesbuygreen.org (from the Trumansburg State Fair)

Summary of Agyeman:
In this chapter Agyeman uses a methodological approach he calls the Just Sustainability Index to measure organization's commitment to justice. Agyeman then looks at Land Use Planning, Solid Waste Management, Toxic Chemical Use, Residential Energy Use, and Transportation Planning and identifies organizations throughout the US that have a high rating on the JSI that are addressing these urban hazards. For example, Residential Energy Use is "often seen as incompatible with affordable." (p. 124). What can organizations do to help low-income residents of cities improve the energy efficiency of their homes. The National Center for Appropriate Technology In Butte, MO, The Massachusetts Energy Consumer's Alliance in Boston, MA, and Communities for a Better Environment in Oakland, CA all run programs, work to institute policy, and create funding for efficient residential energy use for all.

Synthesis/Application
To build on the example I have just offered of residential energy use... as a preservationist our field is criticized for lauding a building stock that no longer allows for ease of heating and cooling and other environmental factors. Efficient residential energy use is "often seen as incompatible with affordable" and I would say affordable is often seen as incompatible with preservation. While the reality is more complex, I was particularly interested in this example because we should be able to give people efficient, low-cost housing, and I believe that using our existing building stock can help us achieve this goal. Agyeman points out, correctly, that a "filtering principle" often gets applied to the generation of affordable housing stock in cities. This filtering principle is that older, less-efficient homes become occupied by lower income residents. As preservationists, proponents of green architecture and sustainability it is imperative we keep this at the forefront as we move forward.

Websites and other Resources:
Elan's list of resources includes links to all of the organizations evaluated in Agyeman's Chapter 4. I took a look at some of these during my reading. When looking into further resources included in the handout I concentrated on those that provided tools and data for policy implementation. I found policylink.org to contain information, and toolkits which could be used in a myriad of ways as advocacy tools. I encourage everyone to visit.

new resource

From a valuable Australian website http://www.sustainability.murdoch.edu.au/main.html, with excellent case studies

CITIES AS SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEMS
Principles and Practices

Shipping Rates
Author/Editor: Peter Newman, Isabella Jennings
Price: $35.00
Format: Paperback | 296 Pages | 7 x 10 | Tables. Figures.
You may prefer the Hardcover edition.
Publisher: Island Press
Series:
Subject:
ISBN: 1-59726-188-2
Pub. Date: 11/30/2007
***Status: Available in the Fall
or call 1-800-621-2736

Modern city dwellers are largely detached from the environmental effects of their daily lives. The sources of the water they drink, the food they eat, and the energy they consume are all but invisible, often coming from other continents, and their waste ends up in places beyond their city boundaries.

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature’s organizing principles in mind. Taking cues from living systems for sustainability strategies, Newman and Jennings reassess urban design by exploring flows of energy, materials, and information, along with the interactions between human and non-human parts of the system.

Drawing on examples from all corners of the world, the authors explore natural patterns and processes that cities can emulate in order to move toward sustainability. Some cities have adopted simple strategies such as harvesting rainwater, greening roofs, and producing renewable energy. Others have created biodiversity parks for endangered species, community gardens that support a connection to their foodshed, and pedestrian-friendly spaces that encourage walking and cycling.

A powerful model for urban redevelopment, Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems describes aspects of urban ecosystems from the visioning process to achieving economic security to fostering a sense of place.

Peter Newman is professor of city policy and director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. He recently completed a Fulbright scholarship, which he spent at the University of Virginia studying sustainability initiatives in the U.S. He is the author of Sustainability and Cities (Island Press, 1999).

Isabella Jennings is a graduate student in the School of Environmental Science at Murdoch University. Her past and current research is related to the cities as sustainable ecosystems idea.

Guidelines for leading discussions

GUIDELINES AND TIPS FOR LEADING READING & REFLECTION-BASED DISCUSSIONS

PREPARING FOR AND STARTING THE DISCUSSION:

Read the reading for the week and the blog entries for the week's readings in search of engaging themes, questions, or dilemmas that seem critical to what we are doing in the course and what we need to do to effectively create sustainable cities in this country. Consider introducing the discussion topic with a thought-provoking question (or short statement or quotation) that addresses one of these significant issue or dilemmas - and that stimulates people's creative thinking and engagement with it. (Have another stimulating question handy, if needed). You can even do this a day in advance through the blog to warm things up.
Alternatively, summarize for the group the main concerns and interests that came up in the blog reflections and let the group decide what it wants to focus on.
A third option is to warm up the conversation in pairs, triads, or small groups
with the same approach you were going to use in the large group or with a more specific topic or task suited to a smaller unit, e.g. apply the readings & reflections to improving a real or imagined urban situation and then share in the large group.

Be clear about the goals of the conversation. Among other things, they could include:
• Group Learning - to learn collaboratively (from each other and together) about an aspect of the readings you think participants will really care about.
• Resource Sharing - to discover new approaches from each other & together
• Engagement/Application- to engage people in the relevance of the material to enhancing their lives, their professional development, and their community
• Hope/Empowerment - Bonus (may not be possible in a short session): thoughtful, heartfelt conversations about issues that really matter to people, can build, hope, empowerment and sustainable community.

Your primary role is to facilitate and support the group in having a substantial and satisfying conversation where as many members as possible participate and interact. (Ideally, for the group to experience itself as a creative, self-regulating system or “learning community”).
Creating a relaxed, trusting and inclusive atmosphere (not a rushed, heavily task-oriented feeling) is essential to the success of the conversation.

Participate but don’t dominate- If you have experience and expertise in the area being discussed, it's OK to let people know you are a resource and to respond as one when it seems especially helpful to the conversation. Be sure, however, NOT to become the center of the conversation. Similarly, if you have perspectives you'd like to share on the topic, participate respectfully and sparingly as a member of a circle, but don’t use your role as discussion leader to dominate and direct the conversation.

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DURING THE DISCUSSION:
Note: It’s hard for one person to do all of these functions well, so divvying up tasks with a co-leader is a great way to go. Either way, do you best and that will be fine.

Model the openness, respectfulness, inclusiveness and engagement you'd like to see happen in the conversation.

Read the group energy and people’s “body language” to sense what it needs next and to see if hidden issues, disagreements, or misunderstandings need surfacing and clarification.

Summarizing- Sense if and when it may be helpful to summarize where the conversation is going part way through, or near the end, but avoid giving your slant about what it all means.

Inclusion- Choose whether to use a “go-around” or anyone-goes/”popcorn” discussion format. If using the latter format, notice over time who is not speaking at all and draw them out by asking for comments from those who haven’t spoken yet.
If someone keeps dominating the conversation, you can: state clearly that we want to hear from as many members as possible, and/or turn to others and draw them out, and/or, gently but firmly ask that person to give others a chance to speak.

Drifting Conversation- If the group seems to wander off in many directions incoherently, you can:
a) Remind people of the main theme and ask them to come back to it. b) Summarize (or ask the group or a group member to summarize) the major thread(s) of the conversation so far, and invite people to build on it (them)them or move on to the next piece that seems appropriate. c) Gently but firmly rein in the 1 or 2 members who may be derailing the focus.

Airy conversation- If the conversation feels nebulous and abstract, remind people of the special opportunity they have to learn from each other’s experiences, resources, connections, etc.

Closing - Optional, very satisfying: Use the last 5 minutes to do a short (20 second or one sentence each) go-around on what people got from the discussion and/or what’s an action step they’re going to follow-up on/try on, when they get back home or back to work.

Thanks for eagerness to share leadership and learning!
Elan