Long Description:
This pamphlet is part of the series, “Moving Beyond Capitalism – Now.”

The first two parts appear here, and two additional parts by Howard Waitzkin will follow. These four parts show: Capitalist-oriented industrial agriculture and its destruction of habitat are the upstream causes that led to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other past and future pandemics of devastating, emerging viral pathogens. COVID-19 may trigger a collapse of the global capitalist system but it is not the cause. Health-care and public-health systems organized around capitalist principles don’t do well in pandemics, compared to those not organized around capitalist principles. The current economic collapse, triggered by a pandemic, opens a door for revolutionary transformation.

Several chapters by other authors will appear soon.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns (info@darajapress.com).

Word Count: 14444

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Short Description:
In this introductory book on CSR and Sustainability Communication, we discuss the evolution of the sustainability story in corporate, political, and environmental discourses as well as paradigms and theoretical approaches to better understand communication about, of and for sustainability. The textbook follows a strategic communication perspective and offers practical examples and exercises for making sustainability and related issues accessible and comprehensible, for co-creating social change. The book offers students and instructors as well as (future) communication strategists and campaigners foundations, strategies, tools and methodologies of sustainability communication to create a new story and take authorship for the new narrative. Furthermore, it attracts professionals, advocates, and academics who are passionate about taking proactive roles in restoratively addressing the pressing interrelated sociocultural and ecological issues if our times, to become reflexive leaders and advocates.

Long Description:
Over the last two decades, sustainability has become a widespread normative framework or regulatory idea – mostly communicated in a context of sustainable development and thus as ‘alternative to’ or ‘fight against climate change’. Sustainability is generally defined as the fact that a given activity or action is capable of being sustained and therefore continued, related to the responsibility for the future, meeting global needs, the protection of the environment, development and ecocultural consciousness as a deeper logic and matter of life, as well as participation and engagement. Thus, sustainability communication encompasses the relationship between humans and their environment and focuses on social discourses (Godemann at al., 2011). Here, a critical approach seems to be fruitful to grasp the largely amorphous concept of sustainability that gets bent into many different shapes in the public sphere (Weder et al., 2019a; 2021; Dimitrov, 2018).

For the introductory book at hand, we focus on the role of strategic communication in shaping sustainability as current narrative of our society in relation to the ‘old’ climate change narrative of destruction and imbalance between human and nature. Therefore, we conceptualize the evolution of the sustainability narrative as core process of strategic communication. We focus on organizations and their responsibility towards the society (Corporate Social Responsibility) and identify the potential of strategic communication for a transition of the old to the ‘new’ narrative.

After the clarification of the basic paradigms of Corporate Responsibility, Environmental and Social Governance, and Sustainability as normative framework and narrative of the future, we introduce the basic paradigms of communication, communication from a functional, rather instrumental and critical, social-constructivist perspective, before we focus on sustainability and CSR communication and related strategies and tactics of content-related, storytelling-focused communication management.

In this introductory book on CSR and Sustainability Communication, we discuss the evolution of the sustainability story in corporate, political, and environmental discourses as well as paradigms and theoretical approaches to better understand communication about, of and for sustainability. The textbook follows a strategic communication perspective and offers practical examples and exercises for making sustainability and related issues accessible and comprehensible, for co-creating social change. The book offers students and instructors as well as (future) communication strategists and campaigners foundations, strategies, tools and methodologies of sustainability communication to create a new story and take authorship for the new narrative. Furthermore, it attracts professionals, advocates, and academics who are passionate about taking proactive roles in restoratively addressing the pressing interrelated sociocultural and ecological issues if our times, to become reflexive leaders and advocates.

Word Count: 36013

ISBN: 978-1-74272-361-7

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Short Description:
The eight chapters of this book encapsulate the past, present, and future of Canadian immigration and settlement. The topics, in part, cover the history of immigration to Canada through an objective lens that allows readers to learn what transpired with the settlement of specific ethnic groups, as well as address Canada’s current policies and approaches to immigration. This leads to an exploration of the challenges that newcomers to Canada and the settlement sector are encountering today. Readers and learners of settlement studies will embark on a journey of self-reflection throughout this book as they engage in many activities, quizzes, and interactions which may be self-directed or instructor led.

Long Description:
The OER textbook is an introduction to key issues in the settlement sector rather than a comprehensive exploration of this dynamic and multifaceted field. Maria MacMinn Varvos situates the history of settlement services in Canada, including a look at delivery models and perspectives. She also explores the relationship between literacy levels of women and its affect on their settlement. Alexandru Caldararu introduces and situates social justice and anti-oppressive practice in settlement worker practice. He also presents a detailed discussion on climate migration and its implications on settlement. Christina Hamer presents types of migration-related trauma and the mental health challenges many newcomers face before arriving in Canada. Rennais Gayle discusses the settlement experiences of older arriving immigrants, particularly focusing on family dynamics. In her chapter, Julie Clements provides an overview of how settlement workers can effectively navigate intercultural communication contexts. Lynn Sutankayo delves deeply into how related concepts in settlement act as a conduit towards further understanding of issues in gender, sexuality, and culture. While the textbook chapters can be read in the order presented, each chapter presents a unique issue and can also be enjoyed in non-sequential order.

Word Count: 89622

ISBN: 978-1-55195-472-1

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Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Faculty and Staff

Short Description:
"Capacity to Connect: Supporting Students’ Mental Health and Wellness" includes a facilitator’s guide with handouts and a PowerPoint presentation. This adaptable training resource covers foundational mental health and wellness knowledge for post-secondary faculty and staff and ways to support students in distress. It can be used for two-hour online or in-person training or for self-study.

Long Description:
Capacity to Connect: Supporting Students’ Mental Health and Wellness includes a facilitator’s guide with handouts and a PowerPoint presentation. This adaptable training resource covers foundational mental health and wellness knowledge for post-secondary faculty and staff and ways to support students in distress. It can be used for two-hour online or in-person training or for self-study. This resource incorporates a decolonized perspective and was guided by the following principles: accessible, adaptable, culturally located, evidence-informed, inclusive, and trauma-informed. Handouts include a wellness wheel self-assessment tool and information on supporting students in distress.

Word Count: 21886

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A Career in Sociology was written for introductory undergraduate courses on sociological practice. The book was designed for faculty and students searching for an open educational resource (OER) that provides sociological terms, concepts, and theories in the study of sociological practice. To adapt to the educational needs of individuals using this book, the instructor or learner must understand the underlying content. And, instructional approach may require additional resources and/or other methods to make the learning experience her or his own.

Short Description:
“Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition” was inspired by students and co-authored by people who are usually under-represented in higher education. These realistic, emotional cases are designed to help students grapple with ethical issues related to discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. These valuable cases are appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, business, healthcare, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. In addition to the background description and scenario, each case comes with modifiable discussion questions, notes on teaching strategies, and a reading list.

Long Description:
This Open Education resource, “Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition”, includes valuable cases for student use on issues of discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. Included are cases for discussion on workplace scenarios as follows: homophobia; working with Indigenous communities; oil and gas pipelines and the family ranch; invisible disabilities; employee anxiety; safety for women, transgender women and non-binary people; and the bullying of new immigrants and refugees. The critical events portrayed in the cases are realistic and emotional, and most feature the experiences of under-represented and marginalized people. These thoughtful, contemporary cases pose ethical dilemmas about social issues that encourage post-secondary students and instructors to have stimulating, inclusive, and compassionate discussions. Inspired by input from post-secondary students and authored by students and people who are usually under-represented in education material, this resource is designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, business, healthcare, science, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. Each case is supplemented with modifiable discussion prompts, notes for teaching strategies, and a short reading list.

Word Count: 35076

ISBN: 978-1-989864-68-5

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First Edition

Short Description:
This guide provides an overview of the different types of abuse, including signs to look for when a child is being abused or neglected. Legal responsibilities to identify and report suspected child abuse are also presented. This resource also contains case studies with interactive questions that allow for theory to be applied to practice.

Long Description:
This guide provides an overview of the different types of abuse, including signs to look for when a child is being abused or neglected. Legal responsibilities to identify and report suspected child abuse are also presented. This resource also contains case studies with interactive questions that allow for theory to be applied to practice.

Word Count: 32873

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Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an introductory text in the field of Child and Family Studies. It provides a lens for understanding the evolving definition of “family”. It promotes strategies for culturally sustaining and deeply collaborative relationships. Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an adapted OER text from Rebecca Laff’s and Wendy Ruiz’s "Child, Family, and Community".

This course's aims are two-fold:

to offer students the theoretical and practical tools to understand how and why cities become torn by ethnic, religious, racial, nationalist, and/or other forms of identity that end up leading to conflict, violence, inequality, and social injustice; and
to use this knowledge and insight in the search for solutions

As preparation, students will be required to become familiar with social and political theories of the city and the nation and their relationship to each other. They also will focus on the ways that racial, ethnic, religious, nationalist or other identities grow and manifest themselves in cities or other territorial levels of determination (including the regional or transnational). In the search for remedies, students will be encouraged to consider a variety of policymaking or design points of entry, ranging from the political- institutional (e.g. forms of democratic participation and citizenship) to spatial, infrastructural, and technological interventions.

Citizen participation is everywhere. Invoking it has become de rigueur when discussing cities and regions in the developing world. From the World Bank to the World Social Forum, the virtues of participation are extolled: From its capacity to "deepen democracy" to its ability to improve governance, there is no shortage to the benefits it can bring. While it is clear that participation cannot possibly "do" all that is claimed, it is also clear that citizen participation cannot be dismissed, and that there must be something to it. Figuring out what that something is — whether it is identifying the types of participation or the contexts in which it happens that bring about desirable outcomes — is the goal of the class.

Portraits de femmes engagées pour le bien commun

Short Description:
Série de 31 portraits de femmes engagées pour le bien commun, du XVIIIe siècle à 2014, sur tous les continents.

Long Description:
Ce livre propose les portraits de 31 femmes de différents pays et de différentes époques qui ont un point commun : elles se sont engagées à un moment de leur vie pour transformer la société dans laquelle elles vivaient, dans l’espoir de la rendre plus vivable, plus juste, plus équitable, plus libre. Le cœur du message est que la politique n’est pas l’affaire d’une seule élite, les citoyens et citoyennes doivent et peuvent se la réapproprier. D’Olympe de Gouges, rédactrice de la Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne en 1791 à Laure Waridel, militante environnementaliste québécoise, en passant par Wangari Maathai (Kenya) ou Irena Sendler (Pologne), découvrez ces femmes ordinaires devenues exceptionnelles par leur engagement en faveur du bien commun. Une production de l’Association science et bien commun, au profit d’Accès savoirs, la boutique de science de l’Université Laval qui œuvre à rapprocher les étudiantes et étudiants de la société civile. Pour plus de renseignements, consultez scienceetbiencommun.org et accessavoirs.ulaval.ca.

Word Count: 60160

ISBN: 978-2-9814827-3-0

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Comment s’engager dans des actions en faveur de la vie et du bien commun en cette période marquée par des problèmes d’envergure planétaire tels que le réchauffement climatique, la pollution accrue, l’acidification des océans ou les menaces sur la biodiversité? Des gouvernements tentent tant bien que mal de s’entendre pour agir.

This class is intended to introduce students to understandings of the city generated from both social science literature and the field of urban design. The first part of the course examines literature on the history and theory of the city. Among other factors, it pays special attention to the larger territorial settings in which cities emerged and developed (ranging from the global to the national to the regional context) and how these affected the nature, character, and functioning of cities and the lives of their inhabitants. The remaining weeks focus more explicitly on the theory and practice of design visions for the city, the latter in both utopian and realized form. One of our aims will be to assess the conditions under which a variety of design visions were conceived, and to assess them in terms of the varying patterns of territorial "nestedness" (local, regional, national, imperial, and global) examined in the first part of the course. Another will be to encourage students to think about the future prospects of cities (in terms of territorial context or other political functions and social aims) and to offer design visions that might reflect these new dynamics.

This course is a service-learning, project-based studio course that focuses on collaborative design of civic media. Students will work in diverse teams with community partners to create civic media projects grounded in real-world community needs. This course covers co-design and lean UX methods, and best practices for including communities in iterative stages of project ideation, design, prototyping, testing, launch, and stewardship. Students should have an interest in collaboration with community-based organizations.

In recent years both scholars and policymakers have expressed a remarkable amount of interest in the concepts of social capital and civil society. A growing body of research suggests that the social networks, community norms, and associational activities signified by these concepts can have important effects on social welfare, political stability, economic development, and governmental performance. This discussion based course examines the roles played by these networks, norms, and organizations in outcomes ranging from local public goods provision and the performance of democracies to ethnic conflict and funding for terrorism.

Short Description:
There are many excellent introductory readers to sociological theory out there. Why another one? The primary reason is that this is an Open Access textbook, free to you, the student, thanks to Oregon State University. We know that textbooks can be very expensive, and we think it is particularly problematic to charge students for access to work that has been published, in its original form, several decades ago. If you wanted, you could find all of the work included here in your local library, although you would have to put together many different books and articles. That is the second reason for this textbook – important passages have been collected for you, assembled here in one handy volume. Data dashboard

Word Count: 129508

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Weaving Climate, Environmental Justice and Civic Engagement into Your Courses

Short Description:
As the inequitable impacts of climate change become more evident and destructive, it is essential for climate and environmental justice, as well as methods of civic engagement, to be taught at a high-level to college-level students. This book provides real examples of how professors at the University of Washington integrated these critical issues into their teachings, both in targeted lessons and as throughlines across an entire course. These samples of how environmental and climate justice have been successfully integrated into higher-level education can serve as both a record of the UW's progress towards centering JEDI at the heart of all students, and as a model for future instructors to use as they work to incorporate more aspects of justice and engagement into their own material.

Long Description:
With the increased effect of anthropogenic climate change, the impact of environmental issues on human societies has never been more essential to understand. With science-backed research showcasing that human activities are actively worsening the effect of many environmental issues including severe temperatures, natural disasters, and biodiversity loss, there is severe need for all, whether we are scientists, activists, educators, or policy-makers, to take action. However, the global nature of both our society and the dangers we are facing necessitates careful consideration in analyzing and combatting environmental issues in a modern world. To properly adapt to and mitigate these issues, which may directly target specific communities or affect societies across the globe, not only do we need a proper grasp of environmental and climate science, but we need to ensure that solutions are mindful of the communities and ecosystems that are affected. We must not be content with climate and environmental solutions that fail to consider diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as key tenets. In short, justice must be at the heart of our climate and environmental work going forward.

Yet, facilitating just solutions cannot be done while the institutions that teach the next generation fail to highlight climate and environmental justice in their teachings. Without a natural and focused inclusion of DEIA values in environmental courses in higher education, there is reduced capacity for students who wish to engage to garner an understanding of what just solutions look like and how to implement them. This book seeks to remedy that gap.

Throughout this book, we synthesize the current efforts towards including climate, environmental justice, and civic engagement in courses taught at the University of Washington – Seattle. These examples range from specific lessons on environmental injustice to course-long integration of climate justice values, and include course details, lesson plans, and other resources provided by course instructors in an easy-to-access format. The chapters in this book each constitute a real method of integrating climate and environmental justice into a course, and thus provide a bounty of instruction for increasing the inclusion of justice in course material for instructors across any discipline. Lessons will be regularly added to the book as they are implemented and adapted. The existence of this book marks not only the history of environmental justice in courses at the UW, but also the emphasis on the topic of justice that the college is placing in the current day, as well as serving as a guide or model for instructors to use as more courses begin to fully integrate justice into their curriculum. Through this work, we can be more reliably assured that the people we are training to practice civic engagement and climate and environmental action can not just protect the planet, but preserve the life of the people, communities, and ecosystems who depend on it.

This book has been created with support from the University of Washington Program on Climate Change, the UW Program on the Environment, and the University of Washington College of the Environment, especially from material created at our annual Climate and Environmental Justice Faculty Institute.

Word Count: 9944

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This Open Educational Resource text has been created from a combination of original content and materials compiled and adapted from a number of open text publications.Attributions are more clearly delineated in the License and Attributions area of this textbook, including descriptions of which sections were edited prior to their inclusion.This Open Textbook is designed to be a comprehensive coverage of Psychopathology and Abnormal behavior in a clinical context, reflecting past and current research, including coverage of the DSM-5.  Note from the author* : The variability of the in text citations and the absence of foot notes, reflect the very nature of this compilation of various source materials. We hope that this will not distract the reader. Original texts can be found by following the attribution url, for those interested in original authors, especially when a reference to research has been made.*Dr. Sonja Miller is a Clinical Psychologist and Visiting Assistant Professor at Suny Albany and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Hudson Valley Community College (at the State University of New York at Albany). 

How do individuals and families interface with larger systems, and how do therapists intervene collaboratively? How do larger systems structure the lives of individuals and families? Relationally-trained practitioners are attempting to answer these questions through collaborative and interdisciplinary, team-focused projects in mental health, education, the law, and business, among other fields. Similarly, scholars and researchers are developing specific culturally responsive models: outreach family therapy, collaborative health care, multi-systemic school interventions, social-justice-oriented and spiritual approaches, organizational coaching, and consulting, among others. This course explores these developments and aims at developing a clinical and consulting knowledge that contributes to families, organizations, and communities within a collaborative and social-justice-oriented vision.

College Success takes a fresh look at what it means, in today’s world, with today’s students, to be successful in college.Although many of the topics included—from study skills to personal health, from test-taking to managing time and money—will look familiar to those who have used student success texts that have been around for many editions, College Success takes a new approach. The focus is on realistic, practical tools for the students who need them. This is a book designed, frankly, for students who may have difficulty with traditional college texts. The style is direct and to the point. Information is presented concisely and as simply as possible. This is not a weighty tome that discusses student success—this is a manual for doing it.College student demographics have changed considerably in recent decades. More than a third of all students enroll not directly from high school but after a delay of some years. More students are working and have families. More students come from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds. More students are the first in their family to attend college. More students have grown up with electronic media and now read and think in ways different from the previous generation. With these and so many other cultural changes, more students are not well prepared for a college education with the study skills and life skills they need to become successful students.For each student to get the most out of College Success and their college experience they must understand who they are as it relates to college. To that end, in every chapter students explore themselves, because success starts with recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses. Students make their own goals based on this self-assessment, determining what success in college really means for them as individuals. Interactive activities then help students learn the choices available to them and the possibilities for improving their skills. Skills are presented in step-by-step processes, tips for success in manageable highlighted displays. Most important, students always see the value of what they are reading—and how they can begin to apply it immediately in their own lives.College Success is intended for use in Freshmen Orientation, Study Skills or Student Success courses. A 2009 study revealed that currently nationwide, 34% of college freshmen do not return to their college for their sophomore year. This book is designed to help change that.