Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change - Hardcover

Daniel C. Taylor, EdD, holds an endowed professorship of Equity & Empowerment at the Future Generations Graduate School. He is co-founder of The Mountain Institute as well as the seven Future Generations organizations around the world. He is also senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has been knighted by the King of Nepal, was made the first honorary professor of quantitative ecology by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and decorated with the Order of the Golden Arc by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands.

The late Carl E. Taylor, MD, DrPH, was founding chair of the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also served as UNICEF Representative to China and Country Director for Future Generations Afghanistan. He co-authored the policy paper for the 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma Ata. Many of his scientific discoveries were foundational for the Child Survival Revolution that has dramatically lowered child mortality around the world. He was the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and awards.

Jesse O. Taylor, PhD, received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written articles on a variety of topics relating to environmentalism and culture, empire, and aesthetic representations of pollution and climate change, and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor and American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) New Faculty Fellow at the University of Maryland-College Park.

"This remarkable book, written by three generations of accomplished and engaged members of an extraordinary family, is worth careful scrutiny. Despite half a century of well-meaning global plans and programs, supported by trillions of dollars in foreign assistance, far too many people still live under miserable circumstances, even as our common planet grows increasingly less hospitable. The Taylors provide an alternative path to development-one that they have practiced from China to Afghanistan for most of their lives-scaling up the power and impact of local communities to solve their own problems." -- Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Dean Emeritus, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

"This is a powerful read that goes to the heart of the social, political, and economic change in a part of the world that has witnessed revolution after revolution, even as the nation of Nepal has struggled to catch up with global human advances. It is a history of change that dates back to the colonial era, to freedom, emancipation, and advancement through a combination of human effort with technological gains. This book is sure to enrich all who read it." -- Bhekh B. Thapa, PhD, formerly Nepal's Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Ambassador to the United States and India

"Beautifully written and quite inspiring." -- Dani Rodrik, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"This book breaks new ground in advancing knowledge for action for the field of international development. The transformative argument offers a field-proven alternative to efforts of the last decades that lost time, money, and human energy. Distinctly different from other approaches on development in the authors' use of complex systems analysis, this book illustrates a practical way to succeed in local settings and take results to scale." -- Patricia L. Rosenfield, PhD, formerly Director, Carnegie Scholars Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York