Sustainable People: A New Approach to Community Development

Gertrude MacIntyre and Jim Lotz

This book deals with a new role that has emerged as communities all over the world struggle to gain more control over their destinies, as globalization accelerates. Community entrepreneurs create organizations that encourage people to learn their way out of poverty, dependency and marginalization. By participating in such innovative ventures, individuals become more self-sustaining and able to create good lives for themselves and others in their own communities or wherever they choose to settle.

Sustainable People moves discussion about social and economic change from abstract terms such as “community” and “development” by focusing on what individuals and groups are actually doing to encourage personal and community development. It documents the background of the role of the community entrepreneur, the kinds of organizations they create, their learning processes and the moral basis of their initiatives