This series presents and discusses new and innovative approaches to knowledge sharing used by organizational management in all fields of work. The authors provide critical analysis of issues and present solutions to selected knowledge leadership challenges in all workplace environments. It thereby contributes to improvements in knowledge management, knowledge services, knowledge strategy development, and knowledge sharing within the organization.
Online communities offer a wide range of opportunities today, whether you're supporting a cause, marketing a product or service, or developing open source software. The Art of Community will help you develop the broad range of talents you need to recruit members to your community, motivate and manage them, and help them become active participants. Author Jono Bacon offers a collection of experiences and observations from his decade-long involvement in building and managing communities, including his current position as manager for Ubuntu, arguably the largest community in open source software. You'll discover how a vibrant community can provide you with a reliable support network, a valuable source of new ideas, and a powerful marketing force. The Art of Community will help you: Develop a strategy, with specific objectives and goals, for building your community Build simple, non-bureaucratic processes to help your community perform tasks, work together, and share successes Provide tools and infrastructure that let contributors work quickly Create buzz around your community to get more people involved Track the community's work so it can be optimized and simplified Explore a capable, representative governance strategy for your community Identify and manage conflict, including dealing with divisive personalities
Despite being one of the most critical resources for all life on Earth, freshwater represents only 3 percent of the planet’s water supply, but only 0.5 percent is readily accessible to humans. In addition, the available freshwater resources (FWR) are unequally distributed across the globe, so many areas and populations face issues of water scarcity and quality. FWR are under enormous stress from agricultural systems, climate change, and other factors directly linked to human behavior—including population growth and industrialization. Moreover, the institutions intended to manage FWR under stress may be ill-equipped to do so, especially in the context of multiple, often competing claims on FWR and the complexity of water flows across time and space. Growing awareness of these challenges has given rise to a sense of urgency to raise attention and catalyze action toward improving the management of FWR, especially at the local level. This guide aims to advance the understanding of how communities can sustainably manage FWR by applying The Nature Conservancy’s Voice, Choice, and Action (VCA) framework. The original framework focused more on terrestrial resources but has been adapted here to address the unique characteristics of FWR. These characteristics present significant implications for sustainable resource management and, therefore, need to be taken into account in the design and implementation of community-based conservation (CBC) programs.
Community-Based Qualitative Research: Approaches for Education and the Social Sciences by Laura Ruth Johnson is a practical text that integrates theoretical perspectives with guidelines for designing and implementing community-based qualitative research projects. Coverage of participatory research designs and approaches is complemented by chapters on specific aspects of this research process, such as developing relationships and sharing findings to strengthen programs. Included are useful handouts and templates for applying to the reader’s own projects, and end-of-chapter questions for self-reflection and class discussion. Readers will find the book’s engaging case studies, interdisciplinary real-life examples, and insights from project participants as a helpful foundation for future work in the field.
Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy. Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable. Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them. Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them. Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Human well-being is inextricably linked to the condition of the natural environment. Environmental management decisions often aim to maintain ecosystems in a healthy and resilient condition while providing the ecosystem goods and services that humans want and need. Models, methods, frameworks, and metrics are needed to characterize and forecast the potential benefits from remediation, restoration, and revitalization that improve human health and well-being through the delivery of ecosystem services. However, ecosystems are complex, and layering on social and economic considerations can make environmental decision-making seem intractable. Dynamics of socio-ecological systems are complicated, making models a pivotal tool for identifying and quantifying relationships, assessing historical patterns, and forecasting alternative decision scenarios. The goal of this Research Topic is to leverage modeling approaches to provide science-based evidence, metrics, and frameworks and methods for quantifying how restored ecosystem goods and services lead to benefits for public health, community well-being, and economic vitality. Modeling approaches may range in complexity from conceptual models to statistical models to dynamic process models, empirically-derived to mechanistic to participatory. Research will evaluate connections between ecosystem condition, ecosystem services, and human health and well-being, and may include covarying socio-economic or biophysical factors that modify relationships between ecosystem health and perceived or realized benefits. Applications or case studies will demonstrate how to integrate community priorities with nature-based solutions to enhance benefits of environmental remediation, ecological restoration, community revitalization, and climate resilience decisions.
Effective Police Supervision, 9th ed., is a time-tested text providing complete coverage of the organizational dynamics surrounding leadership of teams in an effective police department. This revised edition provides readers with the tools to excel and advance with up-to-date and timely scholarly research and legal case law on supervision. Special attention is given to recruitment, selection, and retention of police, commonly believed to be the most challenging internal issue facing agencies today. Supervisory tactics are evaluated in terms of how they work not only in the United States but in the United Kingdom and Canada as well, and chapters are enhanced with boxed features that help the reader connect ideas with realistic situations. Combining behavioral theory and updated case studies, Effective Police Supervision is the preferred textbook for college-level classes on police supervision and is an essential resource for preparation for promotional exams and career development for law enforcement officers and supervisors. Information has been included to respond to current issues facing law enforcement with Covid-19 and managing protests.
This book provides new insights into the phenomena of global education policies and international policy transfer. While both of these issues have gained popularity in the field of international and comparative education, there remains much that we do not know. In particular, while numerous studies have been produced which examine how global education policies—such as vouchers, charter schools, conditional-cash transfers, standardized testing, child-centered pedagogy, etc.—are implemented globally, we lack research which illuminates the origins and evolution of such policies. The book addresses this critical gap in our knowledge by looking at multiple aspects of the trajectory of a particular policy which was born in El Salvador in the early 1990s and subsequently went global. Edwards explicitly analyzes the trajectory of global education policy with reference to the role of international organizations and within the larger international political and economic dynamics that affected the overall country context of El Salvador.
This book critically explores the legal tools, concepts, principles and instruments, as well as cross-cutting issues, that comprise the field of international environmental law. Commencing with foundational elements, progressing on to discrete sub-fields, then exploring regional cooperative approaches, cross-cutting issues and finally emerging challenges for international environmental law, it features chapters by leading experts in the field of international environmental law, drawn from a range of countries in order to put forward a truly global approach to the subject. The book is split into five parts: • The foundations of international environmental law covering the principles of international environmental law, standards and voluntary commitments, sustainable development, issues of public participation and environmental rights and compliance, state responsibility, liability and dispute settlement. • The key instruments and governance arrangements across the most critical areas of international environmental law: biodiversity, wildlife, freshwater, forestry and soils, fisheries, marine pollution, chemicals and waste, air and atmospheric pollution and climate change. • Crucial developments in seven distinct regions of the world: Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, South East Asia, the polar regions and small island states. • Cross-cutting issues and multidisciplinary developments, drawing from multiple other fields of law and beyond to address human rights and Indigenous rights, war and armed conflict, trade, financing, investment, criminology, technology and energy. • Contemporary challenges and the emerging international environmental law regimes which address these: the changing climate, forced migration, marine plastic debris and future directions in international environmental law. Containing chapters on the most critical developments in environmental law in recent years, this comprehensive and authoritative book makes for an essential reference work for students, scholars and practitioners working in the field.
