Community, Identity and Stability'
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Aldous Huxley's `Brave New World' takes place in Europe, in 625 after Ford (people started a new era in 1908, the year in which the American industrialist Henry Ford produced his first Model-T car). There is a New World society. People are no longer born the natural way, but the state creates and conditions them. Humans are being mass produced and preconditioned to become members of one of the social classes, ranging from Alpha plus to Epsilon minus. People are going to work and get their soma. They get their education at their level and they get sleep teaching. It's a totally arranged life.
Aldous Huxley was born at Godalming in 1894, into a prominent family of scientists. The nearly blind man was educated at Eton and Oxford and writer of many novels, short stories, essays, drama and verse, but `Brave New World' has proved to be his most lastingly popular work. The title was taken from Shakespeare's `The Tempest', in which Miranda, when seeing the first glimpse of the world outside the island on which she grew up, speaks the words: "O brave new world that has such people in it."
In this novel-of-ideas and dystopia, or in other words, a savage criticism of the scientific future, the motto is Community, Identity and Stability. There is no love, no individualism and people do not have emotions. Everybody belongs to one big group. No one is alone, because everybody is the same. The motto is, off course, an ironic contrast with the battlecry of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It's obvious that Huxley wants to point out the dangerous aspects of the advancement of science. People will abuse the results of investigations, which will make the individual disappear.
The link of the motto with the battlecry of the French Revolution is not the only one. Many of the character's names are composed by use of the names of historical heroes. For example Benito Hoover, is made of Benito Mussolini and Herbert Hoover. This way the writer is parodying all the time.
The story starts at the London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where the Director explains some students how humans are being made by the Bokanovski-process. Eggs divide again and again (sometimes even 96 humans are beings hatch from one egg). When the Director asks a student whether he knows what a parent is, he answers: `"Human beings used to be." he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. "Well, they used to be viviparous."'
Bernard Marx is different from others. Something went wrong when he was in his bottle. He turned out to be, although he is, too small for an Alpha. He doesn't look like and has more emotions than other Alphas, which makes him not belonging to the big group. He and his colleague Lenina, a very pretty girl, who is very popular among the Alphas, go to New Mexico, to the Savages. Here the people haven't been scientifically produced. They meet John and his mother and take them to their world, which John really likes. He would love to see the New World. John hasn't been manipulated, so he's still able to have strong feelings....
A real pessimist can only think of a world like this. Therefore I think it's amazing how Huxley made up this story. It's been a great pleasure reading it, and it makes you start thinking about what the world will be in the future. Next to that, there's another, an educational aspect in the book. People have to be aware of abusers of knowledge. Huxley sure makes clear what he wants to say. It's a perfect novel.
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Fischer's treatment of the four distinct British folkways in America goes a long way to explaining regional vatiation in the US.  However, I'm not sure that I agree with his conclusion that social scientists need to develop better explanations of stability in social norms.  Social scientists generally see norms as stable and passed on by childhood socialization.  The challenge is to explain cultural change and why social institutions transform, as in this case, so that the four cultures melded to form one common civic culture.  Fischer's second volume addressing this change is much anticipated.
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A scholarly explanation of what Canada is doing to combat terrorism through identifying and dealing positively with young people who are at risk of becoming radicalised or who have become radicalised. This author analyses case histories and compiles a list of factors to use in the identification process so State agencies can better target their efforts to counter terrorism. This requires the assistance of family, friends, colleagues, teachers, church leaders etc so the author carefully avoids an analysis of the Koran and the life of Mohammed as ultimate sources of radicalisation.
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If you're a practitioner with some experience in community development wanting to focus on assets - then read Kretzmann, J. P., & McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building communities from the inside out:  A path toward finding and mobilizing a community's assets. Skokie, IL: ACTA Publications.

If you're a community developer or someone interested in changing communities and you want a broad perspective, read this book because it covers a range of topics including background, historical framework, key tenets, case studies, and additional resources relative to Asset approaches to community development.  Green and Haines provide a wonderful description of:
The Role of Assets in Community Based Development
A History of Community Development in America
The Community Development Process - a TERRIFIC chapter for walking you through community organizing and visioning
The Role of Community Based Organization
Human Capital and Workforce Development
Social Capital:  Building the Trust, Norms, and Networks
Physical Capital:  The Role of Housing
Financial Capital:  Community Credit
Environmental Capital:  Controlling Land Development
Political Capital:  Organizing for Power
Cultural Capital
Community Sustainability
The Role of Community Based organizations in International Development
The Future of Community Development

The book is worth its weight in gold for the chapters on 'capital' providing a holistic view, description, and considerations.  Each chapter identifies additional reading and/or resources!

While it has the feel of a textbook in the way information is presented.  I actually found this to be its strength in the consistency with which each chapter is presented, the breadth of topics covered, and that there are additional resources identified for those topics where I wanted to dig deeper.  A good overview.

Note:  This review based on 2nd edition
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How can valued faith traditions remain relevant and helpful in the context of our ever-changing contemporary culture?  C. Wess Daniels describes a model of church renewal that combines the core of tradition with the current participatory culture of remix, resistance, and wide participation in a way that produces, in Martin Buber's words, "change and preservation function[ing] in the identical current."  He then describes how this convergent model is being lived out at Freedom Friends Church, a Quaker congregation in Salem, Oregon.  Daniels observes that "Freedom Friends is ... seeking to bring about renewal by drawing on its tradition in dialogue with its postmodern context in ways that remix, resist and decentralize while creating a participatory and newly formed expression of community within Quakerism."

This is a book to expand one's horizons, not a how-to manual.  For persons like myself who Daniels would identify as "apprentices of the tradition," the convergent model illustrates how elements of participatory culture can bring forth new spiritual growth to our tradition, and are worthy of embrace.  For those persons most at home in the participatory culture but not attached to a religious tradition, this model offers the possibility of having both an individually suited spiritual home for oneself and access to the wisdom of previous generations.  I recommend it highly for anyone who is concerned about how to share the gospel effectively in the current day.
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In this book Allee considers the changing nature, structure and identity of organizations, and the larger patterns of change that are currently unfolding in society. Taking the view that businesses are evolving into 'networked patterns of living systems', Allee observes that we require a different mindset and management tools to respond to these changes. This new mindset includes thinking of organizations as living systems, understanding the principles of networks and how they operate, taking a 'whole-system' view of the organization, understanding how intangibles go to market, and the significance of value networks, people and relationships.
Overall, the book offers a fresh, thought-provoking look at what have become already become well-worn concepts in the knowledge management field. Allee has synthesized a diverse array of ideas and concepts and theories from multiple disciplines to this work.
Part I tends to be a little abstract and theoretical and some of the ideas here about the new knowledge economy and intangible assets will not be new to anyone familiar with knowledge management. However, it does provide a useful context for subsequent chapters. At the end of chapter 5, the checklist of 'where we are now in the learning journey or knowledge continuum' is a useful summary of current thinking. Allee takes an organic view of knowledge networks and communities, such that rather than trying to create them in organizations, it is better to simply find those that already exist and make them visible to themselves and the rest of the organization.
 The discussion on how intangibles 'go to market' challenges the notion that we can create value from them in the same way that we do from tangible assets. But perhaps the most interesting section of the book is that which discusses mapping value networks, and the practical examples that are provided. It is here that Allee brings together the concepts discussed in Part I and we begin to see the whole picture that she is building. These chapters will be of particular interest to practitioners who are attempting to grapple with creating value from knowledge in their own, or their client's organizations, and identifying where to focus their attention.
 Allee has the capacity to discuss complex issues in a simple and straightforward way without allowing us to feel that we've been shortchanged. Essentially, each chapter offers a simple message. In her discussion of communities of practice, there is a clear message is that knowledge cannot be separated from the human networks that create it, use it and transform it. Similarly, in Chapter 6, she argues that the best technology infrastructure does not guarantee knowledge sharing - organizational intelligence is not a technology question, it is a human question.
 At one point, Allee refers to the ancient saying that one cannot step into the same river twice (pp. 143) because the water is never the same water. This is analogous to what Allee has done with in this book - although the concepts, and ideas may seem familiar and have certainly been discussed previously in the plethora of books and articles currently available, she has presented them in a refreshing new way and brought together diverse ideas to challenge our assumptions. It is well worth reading.
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This straightforward guide to family and friends of transgender people meets an important social need.  As Jamison Green observed in the foreword, the book discusses the challenges faced by transgender people - particularly those who are transitioning from their birth gender role to that of the other sex, that is, those who have often been called "transsexuals" - without lapsing into emotion-driven argument, reliance on personal narrative or anecdote, or ideology.  It is a slim, manageable book that touches on a range of issues.  The author, Nicholas Teich, acknowledges that individuals may prefer different labels or have different ways of analyzing their identities without allowing the multiplicity of opinions to distract from his clear, direct explanations.  Family members of transgender people who have basic questions or misgivings about the prospect of someone shifting gender roles should certainly read this book to empower themselves with a good general sense of how many transgender people understand their identities within a broader social context, as well as the sorts of resources that are available to help.
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I really enjoyed this one- discussing how to tighten a community or tribe. We are seeing so much attention in this area and Seth Godin provides some additional insights, stories, and processes/frameworks to think about community development. Loved it!
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Race, Gender, and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations has value not only for readers interested in working in nonprofit organizations, but also for readers interested in understanding the psychosocial and emotional growth trajectory of African Americans and women who push past the barriers to leadership in arenas in which there are few role models as well as arenas not well known by the general public.  The organizing structure of the book itself provides readers with a variety of first person explanations of how minorities (African Americans and women) psychologically become leaders despite social barriers.  Optimal racial identity development and optimal gender development are not givens in our society.  Accessible and readable accounts of individuals who have successfully negotiated the triple threat of human chronological-growth stage development, racial identity development, and gender identity development are valuable additions in the arsenal of knowledge aimed toward personal identity development.
My interest in studies that investigate the development of leaders focuses on (1) their overcoming personal defense mechanisms developed in childhood to cope with less than optimal upbringing, (2) their fears about surpassing their parents financially and/or socially, and (3) most importantly, the change in identity that leadership and success necessitate.  While the text does not address points numbered one and two above, it does give some insight into "the change in identity that leadership and success necessitate".  The authors of Race, Gender, and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations conclude that the leaders presented in their text use the social and psychological barriers encountered in their lives as catalysts for defining self as opposed to being limited or boxed into a psychological corner by social and psychological barriers.
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This book details exquisitely the challenges of transnational migration in a global market economy and the impact to cultural norms. This book addresses the gender and social norms and practices of the people of a state in India. It shows the reader an inside look at the relationships between class and caste systems and how emigration can alter or shift deeply held cultural norms while still maintaining connections to their home community and religious practices as best possible. The author shows the reader how immigrants attempt to maintain identity in both places, which proves challenging. A good book.
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It has been widely and vehemently put forth that the Inklings, a group comprised mainly of writers (including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams) who met regularly to read their works to each other over the course of more than fifteen years, was simply and solely a social club.  Biographers, scholars, and in some cases the Inklings themselves have denied that the members of the group either exerted influence over or were influenced by the others.  Glyer, however, presents a convincing argument that it is a gross error to take such statements at face value.

In The Company They Keep, Glyer defines and delineates a number of areas in which the various Inklings did indeed have an impact not only on each others personal lives as friends, but also on their professional lives and works as colleagues.  Exhaustive evidence is provided to support these claims, demonstrating how these men acted and reacted upon each other as resonators, encouragers, sometime opponents, editors, collaborators, and referents.

Additionally, in the course of proving the influence of the Inklings on one another, Glyer makes a strong case for the importance of community in the life of every writer.

P.S. Don't skip the footnotes - they contain excellent content in themselves!
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The notion of identity can actually be difficult to define, as it's definition is flexible and contextual. But Dave Birch does a great job of digging into the way identity works in both the real and cyber world, and how it impacts the lives of people. Money is the other part of the equation, and like identity, there is a real shift going on in how the internet changes the notion of what is a currency and how value is exchanged. Dave shows us how all of that comes together, and points towards how things might develop. A great read if you want to be ahead of the curve.
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As we go through life in work or social situations, we often develop communities or become parts of them. Some are dynamic and exciting, others  seem to just go through the motions. This book explains what makes communities large, small, and in between effective and even fun and how to improve most any organization so its members can feel a stronger part of it. Vogl shows how we can become better connected to each other and build strong bonds. He doesn't say that "one size fits all," but presents basic principles, examples and worksheets so we can make communities work.
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Longitudinal studies have long been the bedrock of the human development research world.  In her new book, Barbara Rogoff has developed a creative and interesting variation of this approach in which the key players are the researcher and her subject and the time frame is 35 years. In very clear language, easily accessible to non-social scientists, Dr. Rogoff describes the interesting and important role played by a Mayan sacred midwife in her Guatemalan community, as well as the cultural changes that occur in this community over the course of decades. The influence of culture - in some instances centuries old - on human development is fascinating, as is the equally powerful transformation of cultural practice as the community increases its collective engagement with the modern world. A most enjoyable narrative illustrated with numerous photographs.

Michael F, EdD
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Bit by bit our society is learning the value of eating locally and supporting the local community. Wendell Berry has understood this for years and has lived his life with community and fidelity at its core. The interviews in this book begin in 1973 and extend through 2006. I found some of the interviewers more interesting than others. The one that drew out the most from Berry was Jordan Fisher Smith.

Here are Wendell Berry's thoughts on a stable community in the Plowboy interview in 1973.
"You've got to have people who talk to each other a lot and who have experiences in common. In a settled farming community old friends get together to work and one thing they do is tell each other again the stories they already know. This is a complex community function. They celebrate their old acquaintance in that way, they celebrate themselves. They alert each other to the realities of their lives and their history. And the effect that it has on story-telling is that it improves the stories.

But the stories in the media today cater to the wish people have for everything to be new. That's very much the emphasis in our arts today, for example. That's not different at all from the Madison Avenue ideal that thrives on the establishments and immediate wearing out of fashions and fads. Any culture building itself on this kind of novelty is bound to run thin."
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Cyberspace has created different virtual communities some of which are moderated and some that are not. Whatever the need for each of the groups, it is important to know that this trend will continue to exist even as we use the Internet for different activities going into the future. Good topic for all age groups. Recommended.
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In Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community Wendell Berry presents us with eight essays on a variety of topics, ranging from tobacco farming to sexual ethics.  All are very well written and thought provoking.  Most I agreed with, some left me questioning and disagreeing, especially the final essay in which Berry is overly tied to the idea that monogamous, heterosexual marriage resulting in children is the norm which provides the greatest happiness and security.  While not denying that monogamous heterosexual marriage can lead to these results, as a gay man I strongly do not believe that it is the only path to fulfillment of both the individual and the community.  happiness, security and commitment can result from other paths.

That said, his essays on ecology and peace are truly wonderful.  He espouses the concept that the sustainability of the local community and the respect for other communities is essential for wholistic survival.  Berry's naming of these concepts helps me to better understand things that are dear to my heart and personal ethos.