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Tending the Garden Island is an inspiring progress report on community-building that integrates recent work in "social capital" and "ecological economics" and applies it to the Kauaian style of living in ecosystems and a history of initiative in this isolated rural place.
More than a first-hand account of one plantation-cum-resort island on the edge of over-development, this forward-looking assessment charts a course for dramatic change in how Kauaian community resources are managed and island sustainability attained.
In 100 fact-packed pages, what is known about this Kauaian economy, ecology and community is presented with lots of graphics (maps, charts, images) and a prosaic narrative tightly woven around the island's current situation and coming challenges.
A "new paradigm" is now emerging-a more inter-connected way of seeing our world that is being taken up by folks around the planet. This book is one attempt to sum up the new paradigm as it stands now with respect to Kaua'i and Kauaians.
Written from an inclusive Kauaian point-of-view, eight chapters build upon the citizen-as-gardener metaphor as well as proto-typical characteristics of our multi-cultural residents to present both a record of how far we have come and a sense of who we are becoming-from indigenous legacy to island leadership in the movement toward "globalization-from-below."
Inspired by the work of Paul Hawken, Jane Jacobs, Donella Meadows and Paul Ray, this book brings a bias for bottom-up thinking/doing that can help any Kauaian feel competent and confident to join forces with neighbors in the transition to community-based governance as we "just do it" for our island home.
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