The purpose of this text is to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the nature of violence, aggression, extremism, and ethnic hate crimes in the US, and to explicate how community development, stewardship, and service may be implemented to address and reduce these problems. When individuals of diverse backgrounds are provided with engagement, interaction, and community-building stewardship programs, negative ethnic stereotypes are debunked, conflict is reduced, and individuals are more likely to communicate and build a more resilient and empowered community. Recent political and administrative policies have created a very tense environment among cities within the US, especially within communities that have larger populations of immigrant refugees and persons of varied ethnicities. This book aims to ameliorate some of that tension.
1. Introduction: Society and the Role of Community Development:
Providing Opportunities of Engagement.-
2. Community Development,
Stewardship Activities and Volunteerism: How Connectedness and
Interdependency Help Strengthen Communities.-
3. The Virtues of Community
Development: Teaching Communities the Inherent Benefits of Community Service
Work Activities.-
4. The History of Aggression and Ethnic Conflict: Why
Polarization Fuels Hate and Violence.-
5. The Evolution of Aggression: Why
Religious and Territorial Conflict has Existed for Centuries.-
6. Restorative
Justice and Community Development: The Pathway to Justice.-
7. Cultural
Dimensions of Extremism: Perceptions of Similarity and Dissimilarity as
Factors that Influence Social Integration and Reduced Conflict.-
8. The
Evolution of Altruism and Prosocial Behaviors: How Helping Others Helps Us.-
9. The Role of Interdependency and Conflict: We Need to be Needed.-
10. The
Mechanics of Community Service Work Activities: Howto Implement in Schools
and Communities.-
11. Redefining the Role of Law Enforcement: Creating
Coalitions within the Community.-
12. Conclusion: Understanding the Virtues
of Community Service Work: Biology is Not Our Destiny.
August John Hoffman is Professor of Psychology at Metropolitan State University, USA, and President of the IFO Faculty Association. Saul Alamilla is Associate Professor of Psychology at Kennesaw State University, USA. Belle Liang is Professor in the Counseling and Developmental Psychology Program at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, USA.
