Tag: Features

Social Movements Need Strong & Weak Ties to Thrive

By Melinda Blau

11.30.10, 5:03pm Comments (0)

Recently, I asked an American woman whether she’d moved to Paris in 1952 because she’d fallen in love with a Frenchman. Without missing a beat, she said, “It’s a little more complicated than that. Read more »

Real Girl Talk: Is Remix Culture A White Spin on Mixtapes?

By Malcolm Harris

11.17.10, 5:45pm Comments (11)

Popular music has always had an ambivalent relationship with American law and order, so it's unsurprising that the mash-up DJ Girl Talk has become a living example of what stringent intellectual property law makes impossible. Read more »

A Circle of Gifts

By Charles Eisenstein

11.01.10, 12:37pm Comments (16)

Wherever I go and ask people what is missing from their lives, the most common answer (if they are not impoverished or seriously ill) is "community. Read more »

Participatory Budgeting: Sharing Power Over Public Resources

By Mira Luna

10.28.10, 11:09am Comments (0)

With many US city governments now declaring bankruptcy and cutting vital services, local officials may be wise to take the lead from Brazil and get their constituents directly involved in tough budgetary decisions. Read more »

"Little Tasks"

By Sarah Noack

10.05.10, 3:49pm Comments (8)

Two months ago, I discovered that my daughter Shayna had lice. Not just one or two: a LOT of them. It was strange, because I spend hours every week brushing her thick curls and had never found anything. Read more »

From Utopia to Everywhere

By Mineko Brand

10.03.10, 10:18pm Comments (0)

Worker-owned cooperatives are growing as an alternative business model that puts workers in control. And they are getting a lot more organized than in the recent past, turning local networks into regional and national organizations. Read more »

Bicycling as a Way of Life

By Jay Walljasper

09.21.10, 12:41pm Comments (1)

One of the most dramatic seizures of the commons over the past century happened right in our streets. Public roads that once belonged to everyone - kids, old people, the poor - are now are the exclusive property of motorists. Read more »

The Most Sustainable College in America?

By Amy Hamilton

09.12.10, 9:47pm Comments (5)

Tucked in a mountain valley on the outskirts of Asheville, North Carolina, Warren Wilson College has earned a reputation as a college whose graduates are well-versed in the practical realities of ecological work and life. Read more »

A School Without Money

By Lauren Anderson

09.08.10, 9:13pm Comments (5)

On New York’s Lower East Side, there is a creative community working hard to turn skills into a source of community, through a unique "school" where students barter for lessons. Read more »

What So-Called Slums Can Teach American Cities

By Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian

09.07.10, 8:50pm Comments (9)

What if there were a better way of living? A way that was more environmentally sound, more economical, more conducive to the building of community, and didn't require huge monetary investments? What if this new method of existence was already vis. Read more »