Cities
Urban Renewal?
The Fairmount Corridor project revealed a central tension in community development: Community-based organizations both enhance and undermine democracy. A Research article from the Fall 2019 issue.
Tag: Housing
Social Services
Inside Switzerland’s Radical Drug Policy Innovation
A look at how Switzerland radically and successfully changed its approach to drug policy following a heroin epidemic in the late 1980s and 90s, and what the effort teaches us about the social innovation process.
Philanthropy & Funding
The Downside of Social Impact Bonds
After more than three years researching social impact bonds, a filmmaker argues we need to consider the ways they might be doing more harm than good.
Technology
Fail-Safe Keeping of Personal Records
The MyPass Austin project aims to help people experiencing homelessness by using blockchain technology to secure their personal documents. From the What's Next department of the Summer 2019 issue.
Technology
A Click-to-Print Solution to Housing
New Story’s 3-D printing software builds houses cheaply and efficiently, demonstrating how technology can leapfrog traditional limitations in local economies and infrastructure. A Field Report from the Summer 2019 issue.
Nonprofits & NGOs
What Nonprofit Leaders Wish More People Knew
Four takeaways from a recent nonprofit survey, and how the broader social sector should respond.
Cities
Communities Need Neighborhood Trusts
The current approach to community revitalization has helped arrest and even reverse the degradation of American neighborhoods. But it cannot solve the problem without local ownership and control of assets and the decommodification of property.
Foundations
Listening to the Community to Reimagine How a Foundation Delivers on Its Mission
Based on feedback from community listening sessions and consultations with local experts, The San Francisco Foundation reshaped its grantmaking strategy and role in addressing the inequities facing Bay Area residents. Part of a series produced for SSIR with the support of the Hewlett Foundation.
Review
Civic Engagement
Not Quite Everything
Nathan Schneider's chronicle of the cooperative movement dazzles with stories but is short on solutions.
Leadership
Wielding Power with Community: Creating Pathways for Change and Transformation
Finding viable solutions to social problems requires that we reconfigure the relationships between those who hold power over communities and those who are impacted by how that power is used.