Originally published in 1985 this book addresses important questions about the nature and meaning of development as these concern adult education in the developing world. It contributes to the development debate as well as discussiong what part adult education can play in reducing poverty and inequality. It consists of 7 case studies by adult educators and researchers involved in adult education programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The introductory, linking and concluding sections draw out and highlight common issues and themes leading to conclusions about the potential of large-scale, mainly governmental, adult education programmes to effect social change.

This book is about the process of rural development in the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) in the world. The first section describes the realities of world poverty, to make concrete what is now generally abstract, to bring these realities of sickness and disease, illiteracy and fatalism, malnutrition and passivity, violence and political instability to the Western World's consciousness. The second section presents a three stage process of rural development, with a set of six case studies which outline how single individuals have sought to implement programs and projects to benefit the rural areas of their respective countries, and finally to outline a set of lessons learned about how such people have been able to 'Make a Difference.' The third section introduces to the reader the process by which one might become a rural development facilitator (RDF). The fourth section presents field-tested programs, strategies, approaches and action step interventions in various activities of the five dimensions of rural development in health, literacy, income generation, environment protection, and local culture enhancenment. Further attention is given to the fact that the rural development facilitators that will make a difference must have the commitment, the cultural sensitivity, the social awareness, and field experience needed to help people help themselves, but also the specific information, knowledge, and competency in areas of interest and relevancy to villagers themselves. One of the interesting dilemmas of this work of village development is finding a balance between the acquiring experience and the necessary training and skills.

Papers.

The Indigenous languages of Australia have been undergoing a renaissance over recent decades. Many languages that had long ceased to be heard in public and consequently deemed 'dead' or 'extinct', have begun to emerge. Geographically and linguistically isolated, revitalisers of Indigenous Australian languages have often struggled to find guidance for their circumstances, unaware of the others walking a similar path. In this context Re-awakening Languages seeks to provide the first comprehensive snapshot of the actions and aspirations of Indigenous people and their supporters for the revitalisation of Australian languages in the 21st century. The contributions to this volume describe the satisfactions and tensions of this ongoing struggle. They also draw attention to the need for effective planning and strong advocacy at the highest political and administrative levels, if language revitalisation in Australia is to be successful and people's efforts are to have longevity.

Against a background of profound wordwide social and economic change, the purpose of schooling and the place of learning in our everyday lives, educational institutions are opening up to those traditionally deprived of the opportunity. These books, originally published between 1979 and 1992 with many including global case studies reflect upon major issues confronting adult educators worldwide and discuss the role of adult education in social and community action; examine the relationship between class and adult education; look at the concept of culture and the transmission of cultural values in relations to adult education; evaluate the role of adult education in reducing unemployment.

Releasing the genius of an individual, an enterprise and a society is a central pre-occupation of the contemporary business environment. A fascinating approach to how we can begin to tackle this challenge is presented by the authors of Integral Polity. Integral spirituality, integral philosophy and the integral age, at an overall or holistic level of consciousness, has therefore become a strong enough idea to form the genesis of a movement over the course of the last half century. Taking as a starting point the ground-breaking work of the Trans4m Centre for Integral Development this book applies such an ’integral’ notion to the realms of business, economics and enterprise. To be successful, an integral approach must recognise the nuances of its environment - an integral approach in India is different from that in Indonesia, or Iceland, and they may in fact complement rather than conflict. Therefore this book also provides a fascinating alignment of such ’integrality’ with, and between different ’southern’ and ’eastern’, ’northern’ and ’western’ worlds. Using case studies ranging across the globe this review of a newly integral theory and practice provides a new lease of life to what may increasingly be perceived as the self-seeking, insulated and occasionally violent and corrupt, realm of the political.

Outline of the Sarvodaya movement devoted to the upliftment of the rural poor in Sri Lanka.

In 2010 Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer published their seminal work on Integral Research and Innovation, whereby they identified the four R’s; relational and renewal, reason and realization based research paths that altogether encompass the major qualitative research methods and methodologies. Within each path they identified a trajectory from origination to transformation via foundation and emancipation. However these paths, underlying the research process, conventionally termed 'method', were disconnected from the integral economic and enterprise content, conventionally termed 'literature', with which they were concerned. In this book, Integral Renewal they seek to remedy such, in two major respects. As transformative masters and PhD programs are focused on the 'Global South', where the vast majority of the world’s population is based, as well as those developmental agencies focused on such, the great majority of the people with whom the authors deal select the relational research path, and the path of renewal, over and above the paths of reason and realization. The focus of this book will be on these two paths of integral research, now interconnected with integral enterprise and economics. Uniquely, the authors pursue research and innovation in a systematic way. In that respect, while their prior Integral Research book still provides the research foundation for the four southern and eastern, northern and western paths, this book will focus on the former two relational (southern) and renewal (eastern) from the combined perspectives of research process and economic and enterprise content.

Why on earth is economics perceived to come in only one or at best two different a-cultural if not a-moral guises? There are real, and many, alternatives to the economic mainstream. The trouble is, of course, that they are hidden from us. In Integral Economics Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer pave the way for a sustainable approach to economics, building on the richness of diverse economic approaches from all over the globe. By introducing the most evolved economic perspectives and bringing them into creative dialogue they argue that neither individual enterprises nor wider society will be transformed for the better without a new economic perspective. Here, they introduce a comprehensive framework based on the same 'Four Worlds' model that is applied to enterprise and research in their earlier works. Given the richness of even mainstream economic theory reviewed in this book, let alone the variety of alternative approaches introduced, it is frustrating that policymakers and business practitioners are impoverished by a lack of apparent economic choice - between a seemingly failing capitalism and an already failed communism. The 'villains of the piece' in relation to this lack of choice are not so much the financial community and governments, though they do have much to answer, but the schools of economics and the business schools, that have created the very social ethos, the philosophical principles, and the mathematical models, that influence events. Integral Economics is partly addressed to academics and students in those very schools, who have either realized the error of their ways, or, less dramatically, are curious to explore whether our businesses and communities could be run in a different way. It will be welcomed by informed senior practitioners, eager to understand the current rethink of economic theory and practice and to discover how to position themselves, their organizations, and their society within a new framework.