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COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY PRACTICE IN LOCAL TO GLOBAL CONTEXTS ■ 15 emerged to foster human development in a more holistic way, protecting peo- ple, resources, and the environment. In describing the origins of sustainable development, Richard Estes (1993) focused on global stewardship, defi ned as human development that is just both socially and eco nom ical ly, while at the same time protective and respectful of the environment. Estes called for com- munity workers to engage others (i.e., communities, nations, regions, and world organizations) in sustainable development. Practitioners in this movement now range from local entrepreneurs and farmers to multinational corporations (Hart 2007; Khor and Lin 2001; Soeteman and Harkink 2005; Wentzel 2003). In addi- tion, many cities and countries have created task forces to focus on developing sustainable development goals, establishing benchmarks for protecting the en- vironment, and promoting equal economic and social development opportuni- ties. On a global level, the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals provide a broad, worldwide agenda aimed at achieving the fi rst steps toward sustainable development by 2015. This program’s special focus is on cutting ex- treme poverty in half, eliminating gender inequalities, preventing and treating HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainabil- ity (United Nations Development Program 2003). The United Nations evaluates a nation’s efforts to achieve sustainable devel- opment in four areas: human development, environmental recovery, economic equality, and social justice. The principles and benchmarks used in these evalu- ations are included in the annual Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since 1990. This publication includes the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a composite mea sure of a population’s development progress combining health, education, and basic economic standards. The HDI incorporates a summary of three mea sures: (a) “a long and healthy life” (i.e., life expectancy at birth); (b) “knowledge” (de- fi ned by the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and ter- tiary gross educational enrollment rate); and (c) “a decent standard of living,” defi ned as gross domestic product per capita (UNDP 2005:341). For example, even though the United States had a relatively high per capita GDP in 2005, the nation ranked only tenth on the HDI because of its lower scores for education and life expectancy (UNDP 2005:219). In the 2007– 2008 Report, the United States’ ranking dropped to twelfth (UNDP:2007). Gross domestic product (GDP) is the most frequently used mea sure of devel- opment, but it has signifi cant shortcomings as a mea sure of the human popula- tion’s true progress. Being strictly an economic mea sure (i.e., the total value of goods and ser vices produced in a country), GDP excludes important develop- ment characteristics that cannot be mea sured in terms of money (e.g., voluntary care of children by grandparents, unpaid work in community- based ser vice

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14 ■ COMMUNITY PRACTICE: PURPOSE AND KNOWLEDGE BASE The relationships among community/organizational issues, goals, objectives, inputs, outcome evaluation/documentation, and reflection, with an emphasis on the value framework of sustainable development. Community Vision—the dream of how we want the community to look in the future, including community economic development, environmental conservation, and social equity and justice did we accomplish? WhatGoal or Goals—WhatReflection— What did we learn will be accomplished from these actions? Objectives—Specific ways we want changes to happen Evaluation of Impact— Indicators and Inputs—What we have and can invest in methods to activities toward our objectives measure change in community Evaluation of social, Outcomes—Indicators and Outputs—Activities, economic, and methods to measure the projects, and programs we environmental conditions over plan and carry out to reachresults of what we did or did time social, economic, and workshops, meetings,our objectives (e.g.,not do toward changing environmental conditions in events, training, actions, our community recruitment, testifying at Short Term: how people’s public hearings, holding knowledge, awareness, press conferences, etc.) attitudes, skills, aspirations, and motivations changed Medium Term: how people’s decisions, conditions, actions, advocacy efforts, and policies changed FIGURE 1.2 Continuous Sustainable Community Development Model adapted from R. Arnold, R., Burke, B., James, C., Martin, D., and Thomas, B. (1991), Educating for a Change (Toronto, Ontario: Between the Lines/Doris Marshall Institute for Education and Action); Paul Castelloe and Dorothy N. Gamble (2005), “Participatory Methods in Community Practice: Popu- lar Education and Participatory Rural Appraisal,” in The Handbook of Community Practice, ed. Marie Weil (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications); Paolo Freire (1974), Education for Critical Conscious- ness (New York: Continuum). Source: Dorothy N. Gamble, Marie Weil, N. Kiefer, and Resourceful Community Members (2005), Mea sur ing a Movement: Evaluating Outcomes in Community Sustainable Development (Chapel Hill, NC: The Resourceful Communities Program of The Conservation Fund), p. 5. Used with permission from The Conservation Fund. Environment and Development 1987). Although traditional wisdom suggested that market- based economic development was the single most important way to decrease poverty and increase opportunities, such narrowly focused efforts of- ten came at the cost of the depletion of fi nite resources, lasting environmental damage, extreme gaps between wealthy and poor populations, and rapid extinc- tion of plant and animal species (Daly and Cobb 1989; Escobar 1995; Korten 2001; Prigoff 2000). The movement promoting sustainable development

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16 ■ COMMUNITY PRACTICE: PURPOSE AND KNOWLEDGE BASE organizations). In addition, as a mea sure of a country’s economic output, GDP incorporates as positive production such negative drags on the economy as the costs of illness resulting from toxic industrial and farming practices, the envi- ronmental toll of contaminated water and air, and the price of war and prison construction. In chapter 7, we present a further discussion of the sharp contrast between GDP and mea sures of human development by incorporating ideas from the Human Development Report and other progressive perspectives that set benchmarks for social, economic, and environmental well- being. PROGRESSIVE CHANGE The pro cess of progressive change is often rooted in ameliorating negative con- ditions in local, regional, or global locations. In this book, we focus on purpo- sive, planned change that seeks to produce better social, economic, and environ- mental outcomes for the most disadvantaged populations. Progressive change also gives par tic u lar attention to improving the lives of those who have been consistently excluded from community planning and decision making on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, limited assets, ability, age, religion, or sexual preference. From our perspective, each community must individually defi ne what kind of change would be “progressive” for them. When considering the meaning of progressive change for the local level, it may be useful to examine some international perspectives on change. INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES OF PROGRESSIVE CHANGE One example of an international perspective on progressive change is the Earth Charter, which outlines principles for “a time when humanity must choose its future” (Earth Charter 2008). Specifi cally, the Charter formulates principles that will guide a nation’s transition from a system that exploits people and resources to a system that promotes sustainable development, and thus provides a global road map for change. The concept of the Earth Charter was born in 1987 within the UN World Commission on Environment and Development. Through the leader- ship of both Maurice Strong (former secretary general of the Rio Earth Sum- mit) and Mikhail Gorbachev (president of Green Cross International), as well as the help of the government of the Netherlands, the idea of the Charter was rekindled in 1994 and launched as a civil society initiative. The Earth Charter, formally approved in 2000, outlines four main principles: • Respect and care for the community of life • Ecological integrity • Social and economic justice • Democracy, nonviolence, and peace (Earth Charter 2008:2– 5)

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