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Community and the Politics of Place

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by Daniel Kemmis -- University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma. 1990.

Author
Daniel Kemmis is the Director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Missoula, Montana. He is the former Mayor of Missoula, and a former Speaker and Minority Leader of the Montana House of Representatives. Mr. Kemmis serves on the Boards of Directors of the Northwest Area and Kettering Foundations, Redefining Progress, the Institute for Environment and Natural Resources, the Bolle Center for People and Forests, and the American Planning Association's Growing Smart Project. He serves on the Advisory Boards of the Western Governors' Association's Enlibra Project and of the Brookings Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

Blurbs
“Kemmis’s book is eloquently written and wonderfully readable. Its descriptions of what communities might be and how they might work together are enormously attractive. And it makes a point that is relatively new even in the very ancient field of political theory: that location is crucial to our very concept of community.” -- Utah Humanities Council.

“Theoretically sophisticated and practically relevant, this book is the most cogent statement to date of the emerging New Regionalism. Kemmis has worked out the elements of the new political vision others have called for. Without nostalgia or utopian hope, he argues for a moral and political ecology of place which can invigorate and inspire entrepreneurial energy. A stirring book.” -- William M. Sullivan, Professor, La Salle University.

Why Read It
This book changed our firm’s practice with respect to public process and also changed our approach to guiding clients through decision processes. Kemmis is an advocate for something he calls “new regionalism” – the idea that people know their own communities better than “experts” ever could, and are capable of resolving their problems without external guidance from states or the federal government. Kemmis is an unabashed Jeffersonian and some of the early chapters can be a little dry – Political Science 101. But other parts of the book are absolutely inspiring and revelatory.


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