Small Scale Big Change

Published to accompany the exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 28 Sept. 2010-3 Jan. 2011.

Community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalize their downtowns or neighborhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can't fulfill.

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast is based on the key business transformation guidance that futurist Jim Carroll has been providing to his global client base for over 25 years. He has shared his insight with over 2 million people in more than 1,500 keynote presentations worldwide. The book provides a glimpse into the uniqueness of the work that Jim has done in preparing for these events, and is based on insight from a long career as an advisor to countless global organizations. Jim came to realize this unique experience -- a life on the stage -- provided him with some very unique observations into how people try to deal with a world of massive change and challenge. Over time, he began to capture these observations, usually inspirational, sometimes controversial. Notes Jim: "In late July 2016, through a variety of colliding circumstances, the opportunity to focus my thinking into a message of hope and inspiration took on a life of its own. Since that moment in time, I have started each workday, without fail, very early in the morning, with my coffee, my laptop, and a moment of quiet reflection. They are a critical part of a very important journey, that of painting a picture of hope and optimism for what the day might bring. I have not missed one day, since starting this in early August 2016. I mark my personal progress and success one day at a time by my ability to inspire myself and others each and every day through this small personal thought." The book is a story of inspiration and transformation. It provides motivational guidance to those who seek how to navigate our increasingly complex and ever faster world. It provides insight into what people and organizations must do to deal with a world of massive disruption and transformation in everything they know: disruptive business models; competitive markets, product and service lines; changing consumer behaviour; the impact of accelerating technology, and more.

Architect and author Chapin describes existing pocket neighborhoods and co-housing communities while providing inspiration for creating new ones.

Can making things smaller make the world a better place? No Local takes a critical look at localism, an ideology that says small businesses, ethical shopping and community initiatives like gardens and farmers’ markets can stop corporate globalization. These small acts might make life better for some, but they don’t challenge the drive for profit that’s damaging our communities and the earth. No Local shows how localism’s fixation on small comes from an outdated economic model. Growth is built into capitalism. Small firms must play by the same rules as large ones, cutting costs, exploiting workers and damaging the environment. Localism doesn’t ask who controls production, allowing it to be co-opted by governments offloading social services onto the poor. At worst, localism becomes a strategy for neoliberal politics, not an alternative to it. No Local draws on political theory, history, philosophy and empirical evidence to argue that small isn’t always beautiful. Building a better world means creating local social movements that grow to challenge, not avoid, market priorities.

Bookbuilders of Boston Winner -- Professional, Illustrated Category The key to fixing our broken patterns of urban development does not lie in grand plans or giant projects; rather, it lies in the collective wisdom and energy of people harnessing the power of many small ideas and actions to make a big difference. We call this making "Massive Small" change. In an increasingly complex and changing world where global problems are felt locally, the systems we use to plan, design, and build our urban neighborhoods are failing. For three generations, governments the world over have tried to order and control the evolution of cities through rigid, top-down action. Yet, master plans lie unfulfilled, housing is in crisis, the environment is under threat, and the urban poor have become poorer. The system is not broken: it was built this way. And governments alone cannot solve these problems. But there is another way--the Massive Small way--a concept developed by Kelvin Campbell, the innovative founder of Urban Initiatives, an internationally recognized urban design practice based in London, and curator of Smart Urbanism [Massive Small], one of the largest LinkedIn communities in the field of online urbanism. Making Massive Small Change, the first truly comprehensive sourcebook to come out of this work, showcases cities as they really are--deeply complex, adaptive systems. As such, it offers an alternative to our current highly mechanistic model of urban development. With roots in the work of great urban theorists such as Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and E. F. Schumacher, Making Massive Small Change integrates this thinking with Complexity Theory and a scientific understanding of sustainability and resilience in cities. It sets out the enabling protocols, conditions, and behaviors that deliver Massive Small change in our neighborhoods. It describes and illustrates the ideas, tools, and tactics being used to help engaged citizens, civic leaders, and urban professionals to work together to build viable urban society, and it will show how effective system change can be implemented. Highly illustrated with stunning graphics and photographs of cityscapes and urban life, this essential toolkit for the future can be called the next Whole Earth Catalog for twenty-first century urban planning and development.

The book reveals a new understanding of the ways that design shapes our lives and gives professionals and interested citizens the tools to seek out and demand designs that dignify.

What are the challenges architects face when designing dwelling spaces of a limited size? And what can these projects tell us about architecture – and architectural principles – in general? In BIG little house, award-winning architect Donna Kacmar introduces twenty real-life examples of small houses. Each project is under 1,000 square feet (100 square meters) in size and, brought together, the designs reveal an attitude towards materiality, light, enclosure and accommodation which is unique to minimal dwellings. While part of a trend to address growing concerns about minimising consumption and lack of affordable housing, the book demonstrates that small dwellings are not always simply the result of budget constraints but constitute a deliberate design strategy in their own right. Highly illustrated and in full-colour throughout, each example is based on interviews with the original architect and accompanied by detailed floor plans. This ground-breaking, beautifully designed text offers practical guidance to any professional architect or homeowner interested in small scale projects.