Edging Forward: Achieving Sustainable Community Development
By Ann Dale
Print: $29.95 + tax
Click here to order from the Amazon
eBook: $14.95 + tax
Click here to purchase from Fernweh Press
All e-books contain reproductions of the Edging Forward Painting Collection by Nancyanne Cowell. If you are interested in purchasing an original oil mixed-media painting from the series, click here.
As Canadians, we are faced with a choice: do we continue to allow communities to merely survive or can we help them to thrive? Dr. Ann Dale has dedicated her life to studying Canadian communities and how they can transition towards more sustainable development paths. Since publishing her book At the Edge over fifteen years ago, her new book chronicles the various options that Canadians have to leap forward and actively implement sustainable community development practices. But what factors are stopping Canadian communities? How can a single ‘story’ dominate our development? What are the barriers and drivers and how do we reconcile competing agendas, and vested interests against changing the single story? Once again, Dr. Dale draws upon both the personal and the professional to discuss her own journey in reconciliation, reconnection and the power of relationships and ultimately love and compassion as one of the most important pathways for transforming human development. With 10-years of new research backed by many social innovations and progress in implementing sustainable community development, Dr. Dale concludes that there is hope but there is much more to do. As a country, we’re only edging forward when we need to be leaping forward.
Reviews
"Taken as a whole, Edging Forward comprises a kind of intellectual parkour. In its call for a more authentic engagement with nature, it’s a rabbit hole we’d be wise to go down."
- Quill & Quire (read full review here)
"Her book is a call to break barriers, speeches, and traditional agendas which are harmful to the environment and to take a chance and embrace sustainability in our lives, communities and country."
- Dan Donavon, Ottawa Life (read full review here)
"A remarkable book about the power of stories, love, human innovation and the critical need for the world to leap forward in a post-truth era. Dale offers tools and solutions for transformational change, to build resilient communities that will allow us all to live in a climate-safe world while preserving what's left of that which truly interconnects us all: the earth's wondrous biodiversity."
- Rebecca Foon, Urban Planner, Co-Founder of Pathway to Paris and internationally acclaimed cellist, winner of the 2014 Juno award for her band Esmerine
"Storytelling is powerful – a first step to understanding the other. Whether drawn from childhood fables or alarming current affairs and a broad professional network of sociologists, ecologists and economists this collection informs and thoughtfully exposes the patterns of relationships that can guide positive societal change. What courage it took for Ann Dale to share an intensely personal journey. It teaches us much about resilience and empathy."
- Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
"A wonderful book that is most simply stated but unbelievably complex. It is no small feat to articulate such interrelated themes—story, science, and the personal."
- Dr. Mary Bernard, Former Associate Vice-President Research, Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads University
"Ann Dale's new book Edging Forward is both brave and bold. She bravely faces the loss of her beloved son, with great struggle to courageously create a Plan B based on love and hope. Ann also boldly, though lucid and clear storytelling, calls for a leap forward to develop a sustainability ethos, protect and enhance biodiversity, and deal with climate change and global warming."
- The Honourable Mike Harcourt, Former premier of British Columbia, mayor of Vancouver
"In this thought-provoking book, Dr. Ann Dale builds on her more than 30 years of experience in government and academia to advocate awareness and adoption of sustainable practices. Ann frames her message of engagement in familiar stories from childhood, and brings in voices from the Indigenous and displaced as well as her own research in sustainable communities. This book is both information rich and a joy to read."
- Dr. Valerie Behan-Pelletier, Co-author Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas, Research Associate, Canadian National Collection
Community Vitality: From Adaptation to Transformation
By Ann Dale, Rebecca Foon, Robert Newell, and Yuill Herbert
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE THROUGH THE ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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Print: $34.00 + tax
Community Vitality: From Adaptation to Transformation explores key themes related to what makes a community vital and illuminates the importance of the concept of vitality in order to inspire and guide critical shifts towards thriving, resilient and sustainable communities. In an era of global climate change, the increasing divide between the wealthy and poor and the overwhelming dependency on digital technology and the internet, the need for a dialogue on sustainable community planning efforts focused on community vitality has never been stronger.