Article history: Received 24 June 2009 Received in revised form 10 December 2009 Accepted 11 January 2010 Available online xxxx To understand how the senior rights movement in the United States shapes social policy, it is necessary to look at the role played by large institutionalized organizations and those of smaller grassroots groups. This sociohistorical analysis compares AARP, the Alliance...

Health-related crises impact each community differently depending on the geographical dimensions of the crisis. Both local efforts and the efforts of global communities sharing the same relief goals are needed to prepare for and respond to emergencies. In this paper, local and global communities providing relief services for prevention and response are described. A specific attention is paid to...

This paper reports on outcomes and lessons learned from a 15-month initiative aimed at strengthening collective action to address natural resource conflict in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake. Employing the Appreciation-Influence-Control (AIC) model of participatory stakeholder engagement, the initiative aimed in particular to build collective understanding of the sources of vulnerability in fisheries...

T his chapter is about creating opportunities for men and women to build more just relationships and about transforming oppressive governance arrangements. The insights in it are derived from the experiences of Seva Mandir, a grassroots nongovernmental organization (NGO) in India that has been working closely with women and indigenous people for the past 40 years. The emphasis in our work has b...

Preservation of traditional urban neighborhoods in China has long been a government-oriented process. In particular, since the “Old and Dilapidated Housing Renewal Program” implementation in the late 1990s, the Beijing Hutong neighborhood renewal has become an important trigger for the municipal governments to engage with the real estate market. Yet over the years, the official forces have been...

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is unique among international human rights instruments for including a “civil society mandate”. Within the convention, disabled persons organizations (DPOs) are identified as having the responsibility to “be involved and participate fully in the monitoring process” of the CRPD. In response to this mandate, international funders, N...

Low-income populations, especially those belonging to minority groups, are among the most vulnerable groups before, during, and after a natural disaster. One of the factors that can be attributed to their vulnerability is the ineffectiveness of traditional risk communication systems in reaching this population. Many low-income populations are distrustful of government agencies and those who typ...