Abstract

Collaboration between experts and the public is vital for effective community engagement aimed at improving the lives of the most vulnerable in society, whether at the local or global level. Using case-based and theoretical chapters that examine rural and urban communities of practice, this volume illustrates how participatory researchers and students, as well as policy and community leaders, find ways to engage with the broader public when it comes to global sustainability research and practice.

Carl A. Maida is a professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Director of the Pre-College Science Education Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. His publications include Sustainability and Communities of Place (2007) and Pathways Through Crisis: Urban Risk and Public Culture (2008). He co-edited with Sam Beck Toward Engaged Anthropology (2013) and Public Anthropology in a Borderless World (2015). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Sam Beck is a senior lecturer in the College of Human Ecology and the Urban Semester Program at Cornell University. His publications include Manny Almeida’s Ringside Lounge: The Cape Verdean Struggle for Their Neighborhood (1992). He co-edited with Carl A. Maida Toward Engaged Anthropology (2013) and Public Anthropology in a Borderless World (2015). He was recognized by Cornell University with the 2006 Award for Outstanding Community and Public Service.