Wimby

"2001 marks the beginning of the International Building Exhibition (IBE) Rotterdam-Hoogvliet with the theme WiMBY! - Welcome into My Backyard!" "One of the biggest obstacles for contemporary urban planning and the urban environment is the NiMBY phenomenon - Not in My Backyard. This represents the personal fear of the urbanite for the implications of collectivism, for everything that is unusual or new. It also refers to the fear and unwillingness of large institutions, companies and governmental organizations to share their knowledge and coordinate their agendas in communal projects." "WiMBY! (Welcome into My Backyard!) is the motto for a new design and organizational culture in which complexity is deliberately confronted in order to discover and apply innovative and pioneering possibilities. It also signifies the application of an urban ethic in which the changes that overcome the urban dweller are seen as potential sources of enrichment for the resident of the collective city." "The objective of IBE Rotterdam-Hoogvliet, set to continue through 2010, is to heighten the profile of Rotterdam's urban planning and architecture and make a decision contribution to the repositioning of Hoogvliet as a sustainable and attractive place to live and work." "WiMBY! is first and foremost a voyage of discovery into the potential of all the New Towns, satellite towns, Trabantstadte, Garden Cities, Villes Nouvelles and other growth epicentres that were built in the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From participatory architecture to interaction design, the question of how design accommodates use is driving inquiry in many creative fields. Expanding utility to embrace people’s everyday experience brings new promises for the social role of design. But this is nothing new. As the essays assembled in this collection show, interest in the elusive realm of the user was an essential part of architecture and design throughout the twentieth century. Use Matters is the first to assemble this alternative history, from the bathroom to the city, from ergonomics to cybernetics, and from Algeria to East Germany. It argues that the user is not a universal but a historically constructed category of twentieth-century modernity that continues to inform architectural practice and thinking in often unacknowledged ways.

She's sassy and opinionated - but maybe not the sharpest feeli on four legs. When Megsy is checked in to the Lap of Luxury Cat Resort, she soon learns there's a lot she doesn't know, like: talent, pedigrees, surfing the Intercat, and where her kisskies went. But, with the help of her fellow feeli inmates - Raffles, Big Dan, Zsa Zsa, Hamish the Handsome, and The Colonel - she gets a new perspective on life; and new name from cattery owner, Miss Steph. A.K.A. Fudgepuddle is not a kids' book but is suitable for children - from 6 to 106. It's a book for Cat People - or deuxjambs, as the feelis call us - of all ages. Even Dog People (or quiffo-lovers) will enjoy it. With a grown-up sensibility - of ridiculous proportions - the adventures of Fudgepuddle and her feeli friends is a hilarious tour de fur!

This collection of essays by local activists and nationally recognized scholars deals with the history, status, and dilemmas of environmental justice. These essays provide a comprehensive overview of social and political aspects associated with environmental injustices in minority and poor communities. It will provide a solid platform for dialogue between activists and policymakers or between teachers and students.

"The Gentleman From Indiana" by way of Booth Tarkington is a gripping tale that brings readers to America's heartland, wherein a young newspaper editor named John Harkless struggles with love, loyalty, and the ethical complexity of small town existence. Set in rural Indiana around the turn of the 20th century, the novel addresses issues of integrity, justice, and the battle between subculture and progress. As Harkless navigates the challenges of his career and struggles with his own ideals, he turns into entangled in an internet of political intrigue and personal drama. Along the method, he develops robust bonds with the humans in his community, from the active younger lady he adores to the peculiar folks who inhabit the city. Through Tarkington's first rate prose and profound perception into human nature, "The Gentleman From Indiana" gives a brilliant imaginative and prescient of a bygone era and examines everlasting concerns approximately honor, duty, and sacrifice. As Harkless faces corruption and deceit in his pursuit of truth and justice, he epitomizes the values of a actual gentleman, garnering readers' admire and admiration for many years to return.

In the United States, few issues are more socially divisive than the location of hazardous waste facilities and other environmentally harmful enterprises. Do the negative impacts of such polluters fall disproportionately on African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans? Environmental Injustices, Political Struggles discusses how political, economic, social, and cultural factors contribute to local government officials' consistent location of hazardous and toxic waste facilities in low-income neighborhoods and how, as a result, low-income groups suffer disproportionately from the regressive impacts of environmental policy. David E. Camacho's collection of essays examines the value-laden choices behind the public policy that determines placement of commercial environmental hazards, points to the underrepresentation of people of color in the policymaking process, and discusses the lack of public advocates representing low-income neighborhoods and communities. This book combines empirical evidence and case studies--from the failure to provide basic services to the "colonias" in El Paso County, Texas, to the race for water in Nevada--and covers in great detail the environmental dangers posed to minority communities, including the largely unexamined communities of Native Americans. The contributors call for cooperation between national environmental interest groups and local grassroots activism, more effective incentives and disincentives for polluters, and the adoption by policymakers of an alternative, rather than privileged, perspective that is more sensitive to the causes and consequences of environmental inequities. Environmental Injustices, Political Struggles is a unique collection for those interested in the environment, public policy, and civil rights as well as for students and scholars of political science, race and ethnicity, and urban and regional planning. Contributors. C. Richard Bath, Kate A. Berry, John G. Bretting, David E. Camacho, Jeanne Nienaber Clarke, Andrea K. Gerlak, Peter I. Longo, Diane-Michele Prindeville, Linda Robyn, Stephen Sandweiss, Janet M. Tanski, Mary M. Timney, Roberto E. Villarreal, Harvey L. White

This study presents a refined Afrocentric critique of world politics. Rejecting earlier wholesale condemnations of Eurocentrism, the author instead roots Afrocentrism in its capacity to offer itself as a worldview supportive of scientific paradigms suggesting social science theory. Arguing that African peoples—their history and humanity—are denigrated in many Eurocentric analyses, Henderson makes clear that Africans in particular, though not exclusively, must promote paradigms rooted in their own historical image and interests. The author offers kimira, an historical African-centered paradigm rooted in an analysis of cultural groups, as a distinct framework for explicating global political dynamics, and an appropriate starting point toward a new understanding of international affairs.