Water is Life! Cochabamba, Bolivia against Privatization

By Don Leonard Water is life! This was the battle cry for a coalition of labor unions, activists, cocaleros(coca producers), students, professionals, small farmers and community groups that gathered in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia in January of 2000. They organized…

Categories: Fall 2006

Israel’s War for Water

By Marie Kennedy In South Africa, residents of Soweto are smashing water meters and taking Johannesburg Water to court in protest against prepayment meters, which they claim are unconstitutional (the South African constitution guarantees water as a human right). In…

Categories: Fall 2006

Resource Rights and Wrongs

By Nikhil Aziz Water and other natural resources are at the center of conflicts worldwide, in large part due to their unequal distribution. These conflicts are both paradigmatic and traditional, involving a fundamental difference over whether water is a human…

Categories: Fall 2006

Urban Planning as a High School Theme in Brooklyn , New York

By Meredith Phillips The Academy of Urban Planning in Brooklyn taps into the curiosity of high school students about their environment, teaches skills needed for modern careers, and puts the students on a path aimed towards higher education. As a program…

Categories: Summer 2006

America ‘s “Dietary Divide”

By Peter Zelchenko I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. –Langston Hughes, “I, Too, Sing America ” Lately grassroots and higher-level activity…

Categories: Summer 2006

Femicide in Ciudad Juárez: What Can Planners Do?

By María Teresa Vázquez-Castillo Femicide is a word whose definition women in Ciudad Juárez can explain very well. They learned and appropriated the word in the process of trying to make sense of the more than 400 murders of women…

Categories: Spring 2006

Origins of Community Design

By Henry Sanoff Community design stands for an alternative style of practice, based on the idea that professional technical knowledge is often inadequate in the resolution of social problems. It is an umbrella term covering community planning, community architecture, social…

Categories: Winter 2006

Diversity in Practice

By Kathy Dorgan Each community design center (CDC) has a unique and winning personality. The character of these participatory public interest professional design practices are shaped by the communities they serve, their funders and, perhaps most importantly, their leadership. Centers…

Categories: Winter 2006

Community Engagement

By Ron Shiffman Though the practice of community design has a history that includes over four decades of accomplishments, its contribution to the practice of architecture and its role in the rebuilding of communities, neighborhoods and cities is still often…

Categories: Winter 2006