Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Prescription For Community Change In The Early 21st Century
  • Going Global instead of Going Local
  • New hope for South Africa found in Amazon!
Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series)
Douglas Henton , John G. Melville , and Kimberly Walesh
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0787908274

Book Description

A seminal work in fleshing out the kind of leadership we need to renew and prepare communities for the demands of democracy in the coming era.

Ronald Heifetz, director, Leadership Education Project, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Jolted by the economic downturn of the early 1990s and the rapid globalization of the economy, a group of California business, government, education, and community leaders formed Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, a collaborative regional alliance that helped create a strengthened economy and an improved quality of life in their community. Now three of Joint Venture's advisers outline the process that led to this dramatic turnaround, as well as success stories in Florida, Ohio, Kansas, and Texas. They reveal the powerful new concept of civic entrepreneurship, and they offer practical, proven strategies that community leaders across the country can employ to foster local economic development and renewal.

Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy explains the unique leadership qualities that set civic entrepreneurs apart, and illustrates how these leaders can emerge from all levels of private, public, social, and civic organizations. The book shows how civic entrepreneurs forge powerfully productive linkages at the intersection of business, government, education, and community, and it demonstrates how they operate at the grassroots level to create collaborative advantages that make it possible for their economic communities to compete on the global stage.

Citing numerous real-life examples, authors Douglas Henton, John Melville, and Kimberly Walesh illustrate the necessary steps to build an economic community. They show how civic entrepreneurs motivate and network to organize for action, set priorities, and mobilize resources to get things done. Finally, they demonstrate how to sustain cross-sector collaboration over the long haul for the good of the community. An indispensable resource, Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy offers step-by-step guidance and practical advice equally useful to business executives, elected officials and public managers, community development practitioners, or concerned citizens who want to take an active role in shaping the future of local economic development.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Prescription For Community Change In The Early 21st Century.......2002-05-13

Beginning several decades ago with Alvin Toffler and carried on by Peter Drucker, Thomas Friedman and a host of other writers, a number of examinations of change in our world and how we can/should/may cope with all of it have made their way to bookstore shelves.

This current epistle by three writers who've had some hands on experience in working with communities who want to adapt to the switch in the United States from that of a manufacturing based society to a technology based one offer some insights garnered over the past decade or so by communities that are changing the focus of their notion of what the change means to their communities.

Using diverse regional examples such as San Jose, California and Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas, Cleveland, Ohio and Phoenix, Arizona, the notion of the civic entreprenuer as the force for change is nicely developed. The writers demonstrate how leaders from government, business, as well as the education sectors can come together to become a powerful source of community improvement. A specific example of this used in the book is Enterprise Florida; an organization clearly focused on garnering a fair share of the economic opportunities available to communities in the Sunshine State.

For those who understand the forces being brought to bear on communities, and for those who want to practice the mantra of thinking globaly while acting locally, this work can be especially meaningful, and well worth the time it takes to read.

1 out of 5 stars Going Global instead of Going Local.......2002-01-04

Having looked at the sample pages, I am led to be very skeptical about the thesis. Anyone reading this book should also read Michael Shuman's "Going Local." Some of the examples Henton et al. use appear as counerexamples in "Going Local."

Henton et al. are right in one sense, it is possible to create a more prosperous community by going global, but it may not be the most desirable prosoperity:

1. There is likely to be more inequality, as the split between lucky winners and unfortunate losers increases.
2. The prosperity is likely to be cyclical and unstable because it will be dependent on the world economy and the whims of external investors.

The correct solution (Shuman's solution) is to focus on providing the basics to as many local community members as possible.

5 out of 5 stars New hope for South Africa found in Amazon!.......1997-07-12

As we grapple to build a new society in South Africa, Grassroots Leaders for a new Economy shone like a beacon to show there is a way. A way to build trust and collaborative relationships in an emerging economy.

Although based primarily on examples of US communities, many of the problems faced by cities and regions around the world have remarkable simialarities. There is much we can all learn from each other and this book is remarable in sharing the insights gained by 1000's of community leaders.

Practical and down to earth, Doug Henton and his co-authors give a step by step guide to building the necessary trust and dynamic working relationships in a diverse community.

This is essential reading for anyone involved in community development.

Tony Heher,Pretoria,South Africa
Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Do it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • a must read
  • Wonderful
  • From The Innovation Road Map Magazine
  • More than just a good little book...
Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies
Ernesto Sirolli
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0865713979

Book Description

After six years of economic development work in Africa, Ernesto Sirolli witnessed how little most foreign aid programs were actually doing for the people they hoped to help-from creating a communal tomato field on the banks of the Zambezi river (only to be demolished by the river's hippos at harvest time) to donating snow-plows to African nations! However well intentioned, Sirolli points out, inappropriate development often creates more problems than it solves.

Thus was the genesis of this exciting and unique alternative to traditional economic development termed "Enterprise Facilitation"- where depressed communities can build hope and prosperity by first helping individuals to recognize their talents and business passion, and then providing the skills to transform their dreams into meaningful and rewarding work.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Do it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-04-11

Don't read this book. DO WHAT IT SAYS! I seldom applaud things. This I do.

5 out of 5 stars a must read.......2006-09-30

I loved the book. Not only it gives great insights on enterpreneurship, it also teaches us that facilitation can be applied in all aspects of life, from work to family with fantastic results.

I highly recommend the book.

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful.......2005-07-22

I work with small businesses and developing entrepreneurs and this book helped me see another view and perspective in the work i go. I recommend it for anyone who works in the small business (and micro business) community and who would like some new direction on how to build local economies.

5 out of 5 stars From The Innovation Road Map Magazine.......2005-05-13

"I can't myself raise the winds that might blow us, or this ship, into a better world. But, I can at least put up a sail so that, when the wind comes, I can catch it."

E. F. Schumacher

This was a fun and insightful book to read. Amidst all the discussion about radical, disruptive and breakthrough innovation, this book is a refreshing reminder that small things can make a big difference. It's a reality check for big budget innovation programs and economic development programs that usually end up stealing a company from one community in order to develop the economy of your community (a zero sum game by the way). This book is about dedicated, skilled innovators with a passion for their innovations and facilitators who provided the missing ingredients preventing these passionate innovators from making their ideas a reality. Sometimes, those missing ingredients were connections to the right people. Sometimes they were small sums of money (ridiculously small amounts of money that yielded great returns). And, sometimes it was adding small supportive or enabling innovations that turned an idea into a viable business model. And, always it's about the pattern of product, process and procedure innovation that worked.

Sirolli's journey began as a member of an Italian economic aid organization in Zambia. They noticed that the land along the Zambezi River was incredibly fertile. They thought that if they brought modern farming knowledge and applied it to the land, they would demonstrate to the natives just how much they could benefit. Of course, what did the Italians decide to grow? Tomatoes. The soil and weather were perfect. And, the tomatoes grew - the biggest most beautiful tomatoes the Italians had ever seen. The Italians watched with pride as their crop matured. The natives silently watched and laughed among themselves. One morning, just when the crop was about ready to be harvested, Sirolli reports that they came to the fields to find them totally destroyed. The hippos of the Zambezi had eaten all the tomatoes and laid the fields to waste, and the only tell tale signs were the ripples in the water.

Sirolli quotes Pliny the Elder, "There is always something new out of Africa." Sirolli writes, "Those who have worked in an African country will tell you, if they are honest, that they always learn from the expereince much more than they had bargained for...I am no exception." Later he states, "I became conscious of the fact that we were not doing the right thing - and consciousness is an extraordinary thing."

"Right now, in your community, at this very moment, there is someone who is dreaming about doing something to improve his/her lot. If we could learn how to help that person to transform the dream into meaningful work, we would be halfway to changing the economic fortunes of the entire community," the author comments. This is Sirrolli's credo. It is clear upon reading the book that the author has had a good classical education (formal or informal). His thinking about innovation is colored by Schumacher, Maslow and Rogers.

His advice, based on Schumacher is, "If people don't ask for help, leave them alone. And, there is no good or bad technology to carry out a task - only an appropriate or inappropriate one. Something big, modern and expensive is not necessarily best; it all depends on the circumstances."

"Because of Maslow and Schumacher," he writes, "I came to understand that successful development has to do with the quality, not quantity of life." Human beings are striving creatures. When one level of need is met, people move on to higher levels in an endless cascade. Is it any wonder that this country grew as it did because the founders understood this about people and claimed equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

With this framework, the author was able to explain his experiences in Africa. "They were secure and did love and had self esteem in the same proportions Western people had, maybe even more. Some of them were beautiful, wise, self-actualizing people reaching for the apex of full humanness," Sirolli writes.

The level of what is enough at each stage of development is set by cultural and psychological factors. Some people get stuck in the pursuit of material goods and others have lower levels of satisfaction and move on to the next higher state of development. The natives had enough food, safety and security for them, and they could move on to higher levels of human development.

From Carl Rogers he found that "that it was possible to help people heal themselves by simply being there, listening, facilitating and responding to the client's needs for communication and finding values to live by." "The aim is not to solve one particular problem but to help the individual to grow so that he can cope with the present problem and with later problems in a better, more integrated fashion."

Later, he continues, "Reading about the champions of the human race, I couldn't avoid creating, in my mind, a demonology - that is, a list of the demons oppressing us. Contrary to Dante's Inferno, however, my hell wasn't populated by naked gluttons, greedy merchants, and assorted petty sinners. The torturers had no tails; rather they were well-dressed authoritarian figures who, in the name of an idea, would torture and beat the psychological life out of the people in their power. From unyielding bureaucrats to religious fanatics, from political extremists to avid do-gooders, my demonology started to contain anybody who dreamt up a code of conduct and tried to manipulate or coerce others to follow it."

Sirolli's encourages his facilitators to support clients who have a marriage of both passion and skill. "But becoming what we are is invariably difficult," he writes. "We have to commit ourselves to a course that may prove to be unpopular with our peers, unfashionable among our friends, and unbecoming in the eyes of our parents. Striving for individuality is always a lonely business. Passion is what propels us during our solitary journey." Commenting on skill he writes, "Our generation is a generation without masters. We are still under the impression, and like to think, that The Beatles didn't have to learn how to play music; that Jimi Hendrix picked up a guitar one morning, put a big joint in his mouth, and started to play like a god. Does the next, younger generation, understand that there cannot possibly be art without skill?"

"Facilitation," he writes, "is based on the belief that it is human to dream and desire. Faith in human nature is what makes it work." "The skill of the facilitator is to become available to those who have the dream and to help them acquire the skills to transform it into meaningful and rewarding work. The skill of facilitation is therefore a communication skill with a twist. It isn't so much that facilitators have to communicate to their client; rather they have to be the kind of person one likes to talk to." Their role is to simple remove the obstacles that stifle a client's growth.

He identifies the characteristics of facilitators:

 Facilitators are passive
 Facilitators are visible
 Facilitators provide just-in-time help
 Facilitators work in confidence
 Facilitators act like swans
 Facilitators love action
 Facilitators are a loaded spring
 Facilitators assess the person and the motivation behind the idea.
 Facilitators understand that ideas are cheap, passionate individuals are rare
 Facilitators establish true communications and build trust
 facilitators don't play power games
 Facilitators are non-threatening, unassuming friendly listeners who make people want to talk to them.


The book is full of examples and case histories, and is divided into 14 chapters:
1. Out of Africa
2. The Technology Fix
3. Homo Cupeins - The Desiring Man
4. Out of the Mountain Cave Back to School
5. The Art of Shoemaking
6. The Esperance Expereince
7. The Esperance Model Applied
8. On Facilitation
9. Training Facilitators
10. A Word of Caution
11. Facilitation and Economic Development
12. A Quiet Revolution
13. The Politics of Personal Growth
14. Epilogue - Civic Society, Social Capital, and the Creation of Wealth

As you can see from the outline, the discussion covers a good deal of territory and Sirolli has meaningingful insights in all the topics. For example, "The shift by governments away from resource driven economies to valued-added ones cannot take place without recognizing that our greatest assets are not the ones that lie underground. Our greatest assets must be our energy, imagination, and skill - our commitment to good work and to the pursuit of excellence and the courage to fulfill our ambitions. Every single person is important in the creation of a better, wealthier, smarter society. Whether employed are not, engaged in export service industries, in the arts, sports or tourism, the quality, both of personal and professional, of every single person is what will make a country prosperous."

And, "Thus the freedom to become is the key to unlocking civic society and long term economic prosperity. Wealth can be generated in the short term in exploiting natural resources, but 1,000 years of prosperity can only be created intelligently by working together, exchanging ideas, sharing technology and resources, and helping each other do well in the understanding that a myriad of wealthy self-employed people produce an economic system immensely more resilient than any alternative."

And, "The beauty of Maslow's theory is that it explains that helping each other is not done out of charity, but out of our need to be appreciated, loved and respected."

Michelangelo, who believed his role as a sculptor was to release the images that were already in the stone, wrote:

"The best of artists hath no thought to show
which the rough stone in its superfluous shell
doth not include; to break the marble spell
is all the hand that serves the brain can do. "

To make his point, he carved a series of "unfinished" works depicting humans emerging from the rock (The Prisoners).

Metaphorically, the facilitator's role is the same.

And, if the facilitator is blessed with double insightful vision and can not only see the beauty inside the innovator, but can see the community that could emerge as a result, then a community transformation can occur.

You just have to read this book. And, when you do, write something about it. Better yet, use it.

5 out of 5 stars More than just a good little book..........2003-05-11

I bought "Ripples from the Zambezi" thinking, okay, person-centered development from an Italian who did government-sponsored work in Africa, perfected his methods in remote western Australia, and now spreads his gospel in the United States. Ought to be an interesting read and a good 'little' story.

I was *way* off.

This is - in my estimation - a great book by a true visionary, Ernesto Sirolli. The two chapters in the middle of this book "The Esperance Experience" and "The Esperance Model Applied" are as good as business-writing gets. In Sirolli's world, the glass is neither half empty nor half full. Rather, the water is gushing over the top of the cup. The stories he tells here of enterprises 'facilitated' in the bleakest economic conditions imaginable...well, it can't help but turn you into an optimist.

But Sirolli goes further. He takes these experiences and imagines them on a grand scale where, as he says, "reciprocity matters." Calling it a "civic economy," he envisions a world benfiting from "generalized reciprocity, from people helping people to succeed, with the understanding that well-being of the community is to everybody's advantage."

Don't misinterpret these sentiments. Sirolli is a capitalist at heart, but he presses for a system "beyind capitalism...which enhances participation in the creation of wealth, not only in its accumulation."

How does he connect the dots from tiny Esperance to his grand vision for a civic economy? I urge you to read "Ripples from the Zambezi" to find out.
Grassroots NGOs by Women for Women: The Driving Force of Development in India
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Grassroots NGOs by Women for Women: The Driving Force of Development in India
    Femida Handy , Meenaz Kassam , Suzanne Feeney , and Bhagyashree Ranade
    Manufacturer: Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd
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    ASIN: 0761935002

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    Based on empirical evidence from first-hand interactions with 20 Indian women founders of NGOs, this book presents a theoretical understanding of the role and impact of NGOs in women's development. It looks at what motivates and facilitates female entrepreneurship in NGOs, the structures that evolve based on their feminist ideologies, the services they provide and the social impact of these NGOs in promoting the empowerment of women.
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        Carolyn Rosenstein , and Ivan Light
        Manufacturer: Aldine Transaction
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          "The argument is important and very well buttressed by statistical analysis. The sociologists who have worked on Asian and minority entrepreneurship will certainly respond, and the debate will be lively." -- Nathan Glazer, Professor of Education and Social Structure, Harvard University

          Race, Self-Employment, and Upward Mobility refutes conventional notions about entrepreneurship with a wealth of unimpeachable data. Timothy Bates finds that self-employment and upward mobility are open to those who are highly educated and skilled, often possessing significant personal financial resources. This is true among Asian Americans, African Americans, and everybody else, too. Asian immigrants are prominent in low-profit, high-risk small-scale inner-city retailing, Bates explains, because they are often pushed into it by poor English language skills and problems of credentialing -- when they can secure other employment, they do so. African Americans, in contrast, who have the education, capital, and inclination to become entrepreneurs find better-paying opportunities and avoid ghetto shopkeeping.

          Bates compares black and Asian self-employment. He reviews who becomes self-employed, what factors encourage continuing self-employment, and how people escape unsuccessful self-employment. He addresses the place of entrepreneurship in upward mobility among disadvantaged persons and the role of government in assisting them. Bates's analysis is based largely on the massive Characteristics of Business Owners survey compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, which provides nationwide information on small business success and survival patterns.

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          Asian Entreprenuerial Minorities: Conjoint Communities in the Making of the World Economy, 1570-1940 (Nias Monographs , No 71)
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            Energizing Entrepreneurs: Charting a Course for Rural Communities
            Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
            • E2 a great resource tool
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            5 out of 5 stars E2 a great resource tool.......2006-05-13

            I like the assessment tools throughout the book. It makes it easy to collect data from our community that helps us to make sense of our goals and direction!
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            ASIN: 0521620732

            Book Description

            Commodifying Communism is an ethnographic study of the role of personal ties between private entrepreneurs and local officials in the organization of China's emerging market economy. It is based on almost two years of fieldwork in Xiamen City, Fujian, one of China's five special economic zones. A close examination of how private business is conducted through these ties sheds light on the dynamism of China's market economy and its political consequences.

            Customer Reviews:

            5 out of 5 stars Informative about Chinese entrepreneurial culture.......2004-12-15

            This book does a good job of describing typical small business activity in a city that the author lived in for a couple of years.
            I have long been puzzled by the reports that China has a booming economy in spite of widespread corruption and hardly any rule of law, when those problems seem to ensure poverty elsewhere.
            This book does a good deal to resolve this mystery. It suggests that Fukuyama's claim that "there is a relatively low degree of trust in Chinese society the moment one steps outside the family circle" is misleading because the Chinese notions of family ties aren't as rigid as in the west. Family-style trust is more like a commodity that can be readily acquired by most people who have decent reputations, via friend of a friend type connections between people. And the networks of reputation do well at ensuring the reasonableness of corrupt or arbitrary actors.
            It would be nice if we could copy the good parts of these aspects of Chinese culture, but I suspect that's as hard as copying the social capital that Fukuyama describes in his book Trust.

            5 out of 5 stars Providing a Context to Understand Economic Embeddedness.......2000-11-22

            Economic activities are embedded in social relation. In his criticism of economics, Mark Ganovetter (1985) pointed out the "atomised and undersocialised view of human action" held by neoclassical economics tended to undermine the role of institutions on economic activities. This view of embeddedness has long been noted by economic sociologists (Ganovetter, 1985; Dacin, Ventresca, Beal, 1999) which theorised organisational embeddedness.

            Prof. Wank's interesting book "Commodifying Communism" provides an excellent context for readers to understand the concept of economic embeddedness. Drawing from years of ethnographic research in Xiamen, the author vividly illustrated how institutions both formal and informal collectively influence the cognition and behaviour of agents during the process of transformation. Observation in the field led to what the author believed institutional commodification of Communism which as a process refutes simplistic views on market transition.

            Methodologically, the multidisciplinary approach adopted by the author not only successfully integrates sociology into institutional analysis but also skilfully incorporates different theories into an eclectic paradigm. Practically, the book also sheds lights into the business process and culture in southern China and helps readers to understand the context Chinese business.

            As a reader from Xiamen, I felt familiar with various characters described in the book and wondered whether they had managed to survive the latest anti-corruption campaign centre-staged there. The ethnographic approach adopted by the author possesses much power of story telling, and as a result, the research had not drained analysis of life compared with the formalist's account on China. Methodologically, the deconstruction of language truthfully illustrated how norms, values and belief were construed and constructed by various actors. Indeed, one strength of this book that I found particular enlightening is its power to reveal what most Chinese would think as "common sense" but turns out to be incomprehensible to most foreigners.

            Theoretically, these penetrating insights have helped distinguish the "institutional commodification account" from the normativism of political economy. I consider these aspects thoughtful and revealing, trully capable of providing an distinctive informal approach to conventional analysis. This approach not only acknowledges the importance of social institution beyond market but also highlight the degree of complexity in transitional economies.

            Structurally, the book consists of three parts. Part one familiarises readers with contenting arguments, outlines the research design and introduces its central argument: `institutional commodification'. Part two explores the process of commodification in the context of agents' behaviour response to formal and informal institutions. Finally in Part three some interesting comparison were made between China and Eastern Europe while the major argument was further pursued in the context of politics, economics and sociology. The time scale of research was set in one of most dramatic period in modern China demarcated by the event in 1989.

            The institutional commodification account is certainly an innovation in the sense that it captures the reality and dynamics of growth and most importantly presenting the complexity in its wider social context of network. Indeed, I really admire the angle where the author choosed to present the context of arguement. From there, the reader may appreciate how ingrained value, belief and relations have collectively shaped the process of transformation.
            Community innovation through entrepreneurship: grantmaking in Canadian community economic development.: An article from: Journal of the Community Development Society
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              Community innovation through entrepreneurship: grantmaking in Canadian community economic development.: An article from: Journal of the Community Development Society
              Edward T. Jackson
              Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Digital

              NonfictionNonfiction | Subjects | Books | Audiobooks | Automotive | Crime & Criminals | Current Events | Economics | Education | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Government | Holidays | Law | Philosophy | Politics | Social Sciences | Transportation | True Accounts | Urban Planning & Development | Women's Studies
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              ASIN: B000ALO3ZC
              Release Date: 2005-10-25

              Book Description

              This digital document is an article from Journal of the Community Development Society, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2004. The length of the article is 7103 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

              Citation Details
              Title: Community innovation through entrepreneurship: grantmaking in Canadian community economic development.
              Author: Edward T. Jackson
              Publication: Journal of the Community Development Society (Magazine/Journal)
              Date: October 1, 2004
              Publisher: Thomson Gale
              Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Page: 65

              Distributed by Thomson Gale

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