Philosophy confronts two existential crises: the threats to its existence from scientists like Stephen Hawking who claim that philosophy is dead; and the threat to life itself from catastrophic climate change. The essay's first theoretical part critiques Nietzsche's claim that philosophy's primary function is to guarantee the future of life. The…

The purpose of this article is to provide an educational, theoretical, and methodological framework for using a special kind of action research, namely PALAR (participatory action learning and action research). This integrated methodology of lifelong action learning (AL) and participatory action research (PAR) has been developed over the past…

As rural communities experience rapid economic, demographic, and political change, program interventions that focus on the development of community leadership capacity could be valuable. Community leadership development programs have been deployed in rural U.S. communities for the past 30 years by university extension units, chambers of commerce,…

Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

Alabama has serious economic and social problems, and the situation is worse in rural areas and small towns than in urban areas. The solutions to the problems of small communities must be found within the communities themselves. Sustainable communities are those that aggressively manage their destiny, based on a realistic and well planned vision.…

Decentralization and budget reduction in the public sector, and globalization and downsizing in the private sector have placed more responsibility on localities to address challenges to the health of their economies, ecosystems, and people. Community development theory and practice are also changing, evidenced by changes in vocabulary. Community…

The Master Teacher in Family Life model, developed by the University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension, is intended to provide natural leaders within poor communities with information that will enable them to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Building on strengths from within the community, the program trains leaders to: (1)…

Details the planning of an education center intended to introduce community education more effectively to Indian communities by providing them with technical assistance and facilitator-type leadership training in a field-based mode. Notes the goals, proposed functions, and planning timetable of the center, and what makes it unique. (SB)

"Microville II," a simulation-game idea, is a creative effort to develop and apply resources, processes, and programs necessary to resolve contemporary problems faced by rural and urban leaders. The strategy is that a community council has been established within the community of "Microville" and participants assume the various…

Estimates impact of community resource development (CRD) programs on a variety of quality of life indicators for 73 Arkansas counties that were nonmetropolitan in 1960. Results indicate that few quality of life indicators were affected in the direction intended by CRD programs. Examines substantive and methodological implications of the findings.…

The following papers were presented at a research preconference on the implications of Afrocentrism for adult education: "The African American Adult Education Pre-Conference: Historical Reflections" (Colin); "The Perspective 'Is' the Paradigm: The Congruence of World View and Research Methodology" (Dozier-Henry);…