Facing declining visitors and uncertainty about what to do about it, library administrators in the new town of Almere in the Netherlands did something extraordinary. They redesigned their libraries based on the changing needs and desires of library users and, in 2010, opened the Nieuwe Bibliotheek (New Library), a thriving community hub that looks more like a bookstore than a library.

Today’s youth are so civic minded that some social commentators have dubbed them the “civic generation.” For them, it seems the American Dream has taken on a whole new meaning: it’s all about the people. “Community service is part of their DNA. It’s part of this generation to care about something larger than themselves...”

Publicly owned networks in cities across the US preserve net neutrality and provide quality service. With the announcement by the FCC that cable and telephone companies will be allowed to prioritize access to their customers, only one option remains that can guarantee an open internet: owning the means of distribution.

Meet the tenacious gardeners putting down roots in "America's most desperate town". They're not always optimistic about the future of Camden, N.J. But they're committed to it anyway, and they've created one of the nation's fastest growing networks of urban farms.

Ever wish you could live at your CSA? Or move to a neighborhood where everyone is as excited about fresh, healthy food as you are? All over the United States people are embracing local food production in an exciting new way. Called 'agrihoods,' this new type of neighborhood serves up farm-to-table living in a cooperative environment.

As income inequality has risen in the United States, significant research and press coverage has been devoted to how Americans may be correspondingly “sorting” themselves into class-based, or high- and lower-income, communities, as well as to the rise of suburban poverty.

“People are starting to ask, ‘What can we do together that we can’t do by ourselves?’” Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s the same ethos behind the sharing economy, an economic trend that Bradley believes emerged from the Great Recession. People are beginning to understand...

I carried with me through life this lesson I learned in Middle School – the practice of viewing a culture, civilization or grouping of any kind from its edge. From that vantage point I could look within and view its dynamics and motion more clearly than from the center. I could also look outward...

People who win large amounts of money on lotteries tend to switch their political allegiances towards the right of the political spectrum and become less egalitarian, joint UK-Australian research has found.

Our problem is not technology. Our problem is using technology unwisely. We clever primates have fabricated an external brain around planet earth built from the internet, phones, and the media. But this virtual brain can...

A United Nations designation provides the perfect opportunity to invest in small- and medium-sized farms. In the broad discussion of agriculture, family farmers often don’t get as much attention as large-scale industrial farming operations.

Once we had decided affirmatively that, yes, we did want to get married, we were left with a daunting question: “What does a non-commercial, environmentalist, radical wedding look like?” Furthermore, was it possible to make the wedding not only about celebrating our commitment and bringing our families together, but about making a difference in the world?

We need to know how to stay grounded in our actual situation, and live in reality day by day. This is no snack, as T. S. Eliot reminds us: "Humankind cannot stand very much reality."

What we have is a failure to be able to differentiate between fact and fiction, between ordinary and authentic, between virtual and actual, and between believing and knowing. Life is not just about video games and text messaging, game consoles, and tracking the minutia of...

Much happened that was hopeful this year — a new pope focused on inequality, successful minimum wage campaigns spread across the country, and the number of states allowing gay marriage doubled. We look at seeds sown this year that could make 2014 transformational...

Are the arguments that porn increases pedophiliac tendencies and makes men want to rape and therefore increases the risk of child abuse and rape legitimate? Aside from any studies done on these issues, think about...

Detroit, in a lot of ways, parallels the track we are on as a nation. The snapshot of our future is staring us in the face in the stereotypical shots of Detroit. But I believe Detroit also holds the key to the future of this great nation.

It seems that our world works very much on a competitive basis. Whether it’s the university you attend, the grades you get, the scores you receive, the wages you earn, your position on the job, or the games you play, competition is at the center, the very core of it all. Is there a way to be truly competitive and not become...

Today the average calorie travels something like 1,500 miles, were told, to reach our tables. Whole fleets of 747s exist just to fly kiwi fruits to the US from New Zealand. It is time to grow locally adapted varieties right at home, or...

We are on a long journey together, yet this is just the begin­ning of our new lives and of our work in co-creating new worlds. We are a growing band of pioneering souls scattered in every culture, field, discipline, age, and background. We can have compassion for all others and ourselves. We are...

It is time for a compassionate revolution. Many revolutions have passed in history, but all have been violent. Violence is not part of the organizing principle of Oneness which will emerge, and major political and social change will occur as a natural unfolding of human evolution.

by Diana Cooper. A forecast is the likely outcome based on the situation and mindset of the people at a given time. There are many influences on the world that we are not aware of.  A forecast, therefore, is not set in stone. People are changing and moving rapidly in their ideas and consciousness, and this affects future outcomes.

by Alan Cohen. In the years to come, many social systems and institutions will likely disintegrate. They will be replaced by new systems rooted in truth, vision, and service rather than fear, greed, and illusion.