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Community Practice Skills: Local to Global Perspectives resources

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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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