The San community in D’Kar and surrounding villages has developed a Community Based Planning Programme focused on a community farm. The San are a population who has a history of marginalization and poverty within Botswana. The farm serves as a community organizer as well as food source and is administered by the San women. The program highlighted in this case study was developed to build leadership systems and capabilities for the women of the village while developing sustainable business opportunities for economic transformation. The tension between addressing issues of sustainability and business development are discussed.

This chapter examines Alan Watts' relationship with the Beats, as well as Christianity, which is the dominant religion of North America, and its common points with the philosophies of Hinduism, Zen, Taoism and Buddhism. It takes note of Watts' doubts about the Beats' spiritual authenticity and discusses his philosophy, which is rooted in the tradition of the American Transcendentalists, where mysticism is considered to be the most important goal of religion.

For the first half of 1976, the UK's punk world was a network of interactivity involving no more than 100 people and a handful of focal places in central London. This chapter considers how London's punk world began to spread out, generating a national punk world. Media networks broadcast information regarding punk to individuals living both within and beyond London stimulates many to become involved and spark a process which led to the emergence of local punk worlds in cities across the UK. The chapter also considers the 'moral panic' which brought punk into the mainstream cultural arena, massively increasing rates of adoption and adherence among the youth population. Television, radio and other organs of the mass media are key elements in the broadcast networks responsible for diffusing culture during the punk era.

This chapter illustrates the importance and a postcolonial analysis of the Irish context. It outlines some assumptions of postcolonial psychology and considers the ways in which psychologists have described the Irish psyche, particularly through assigning attributes. Postcolonial psychology engages with contexts and concepts related to historical processes of colonisation, postcolonial development and decolonisation. It draws on early writings on the psychology of colonisation, notably those of Frantz Fanon and Albert Memmi, and on postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory elaborates concepts that are of interest to psychologists, such as culture, discourse, identity and consciousness. A recurring theme in postcolonial psychology concerns the loss or suppression of indigenous psychologies and healing practices as a result of colonisation. An approach to both psychological and political transformation utilises both traditional psychological practices and emerging indigenous or transpersonal practices. The chapter focuses on discussions that make explicit links to our history of colonisation.

This chapter focuses on the experiences of immigrants as a part of Irish society and on their relationship with the twenty-first-century Irish nation. Politicians and media refer immigrants as the new Irish. Non-Irish nationals according to the 2011 Census made up more than eleven per cent of the population of the Republic of Ireland. But immigrants constituted only about one half of one per cent of Irish citizens living in the Republic. The vast majority of Irish citizens are drawn from the same ethnic group. Irishness still seems to be heavily associated with the majority ethnic identity. The place of naturalised immigrants within this Irish nation remains somewhat ambiguous. Most immigrants lie empirically outside the Irish nation as this is institutionalised though citizenship. Localism within politics and community life has the potential to offer wider definitions of what it is to be Irish than those institutionalised within the nation-state.

Scottish play-acting in continental Europe began with pipe and drum bands. This chapter examines the history of Scottish piping in Europe. It also examines what a pipe band is and how bagpiping came to be associated with Scotland. Joshua Dickson of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama suggests that the bagpipe has acquired symbolic meaning as a national instrument 'in communities both in Scotland and throughout the Scottish diaspora'. The chapter explores what the continental pipe bands of today have in common and what makes them part of an international piping community rather than just Dutch, Flemish, and Austrian phenomena. It looks at the two main motivations which seem to inspire the European pipe bands, namely the imitation of kilted soldiers and the quest for a seemingly lost European folk music tradition.

Chapter 8 examines the growth of Islamic identity and political organisation. It starts by discussing different approaches to Islam and the meaning of Islamism. It looks at groups linked to Jamaat-e-Islami, whose ultimate aim is an Islamic state, and how they build support through strong organisation, grassroots community work, prosletysing, and civic engagement. And it also looks at more radical groups – Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al Muhajiroun - who see themselves as a revolutionary vanguard for the restoration of an Islamic state. It argues that the turn to religion, which has happened throughout the Islamic world, is a consequence of the decline of a left alternative. Young Bengalis face alienation, racism, inequality, and no future. Islam offers them brotherhood, certainty and pride. It also argues that, while a very few have gone on jihad, it is dangerous to claim that Islamist ideas lead to extremist violence. However, Islamism has led to conflicts with non-political Muslims (especially concerning alleged war criminals from 1971) and has put difficult peer pressure on college students. It also perpetuates separatism.Finally, the chapter looks at how governments have deliberately promoted faith groups - which has consolidated religious power, encouraged conservative values, and cut across class-based organisation.

This chapter introduces Gary Snyder, who has had the reputation of being a serious, committed Buddhist. His poetry imparts religious knowledge and spiritual insight, and his dedication to Zen has gone hand in hand with ecological activism. The chapter reveals that Snyder demonstrated that spirituality may be complemented by political engagement, and also studies the dialectic between nature and vision.