Activist Angela Davis poses question: Education or incarceration?

April 20, 2011

Noted scholar, activist and author Angela Y. Davis, who once spent 18 months in jail herself in the early 1970s, will discuss her ideas about incarceration during a free lecture at 5 p.m., May 5, at Neeb Hall, Arizona State University.

Davis’ talk is titled “Education or Incarceration? The Future of Democracy.” It will be followed by a question-answer session moderated by Gregory Sale, whose exhibition "It's">http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu/exhibitions/viewevent.php?eid=824">"It's not just black and white" is currently on view at the ASU Art Museum. There will be a reception following the lecture at the ASU Art Museum, and Davis will sign copies of her newest book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Download Full Image

Davis gained fame – and notoriety – in the late 1960s and early ‘70s when she was involved in the black power politics of that era. She joined the Communist Party when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. She was active with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Black Panthers.

She was arrested as a suspected conspirator in the abortive attempt to free George Jackson from a courtroom in Marin County, Calif., and was eventually acquitted of all charges.

Since then, Davis has taught at universities such as UCLA, Vassar and Stanford, and is a professor emerita of history of consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, and professor of feminist studies.

Davis also has been involved in the nation’s quest for social justice. She has written eight books, and her most recent theme has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination.

She currently works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison, and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia.

"In thinking about the possible obsolescence of the prison," Davis writes, "we should ask how it is that so many people could end up in prison without major debates regarding the efficacy of incarceration."

Davis argues that “the very future of democracy depends on our ability to develop radical theories and practices that make it possible to plan and fight for a world beyond the prison industrial complex.”

The lecture is sponsored by Project Humanities in conjunction with the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Seating is limited and attendance is first-come, first-served.

Local government action to promote sustainability

The results of a survey co-developed by ASU measures how and to what extent local governments are acting to promote sustainability.

Read the article

Local government action to promote sustainability

April 20, 2011

The results of a major survey developed by the Center for Urban Innovation in cooperation with the Alliance for Innovation and the Sustainable Cities Network in the Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU are being published in The Municipal Year Book 2011.

The 2010 survey conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the first of its kind, measures how and to what extent local governments are acting to promote sustainability. Download Full Image

“Sustainability has emerged as a major public policy issue facing countries throughout the world,” writes James H. Svara, director of the Center for Urban Innovation and Professor in the School of Public Affairs, in a chapter in the Year Book. “Sustainability requires a broad range of actions that must include contributions from all levels of government, from all sectors of the economy, and from all of the citizenry. City and county governments are uniquely positioned to make a significant contribution to the effort. They are directly involved in providing or regulating many of the human activities that affect resource use, promote economic development, and affect the protection and inclusion of persons from all economic levels and racial and ethnic groups. The ICMA Local Government Sustainability Policies and Programs survey of 2010 is a major effort to examine how local elected officials and administrators have acted so far to address the sustainability challenge.”

Overall, the responses to the survey demonstrate two opposing tendencies: most local governments are becoming active in sustainability, but most governments are involved at a relatively low level and most of the possible sustainability actions are not being widely utilized. Most governments lack goals, targets, or specific plans. Only a quarter of local governments have citizen committees and staff dedicated to sustainability, and only one in six have a separate budget to promote sustainability although local governments are spending money on specific actions.

The governments that are likely to be doing more to promote sustainability are larger governments, governments in the west, and governments that use the council-manager form of government, but there are many exceptions.

According to Svara, it appears that American local governments are still in the early stage of adopting sustainability actions with most local governments closer to the lower end of the spectrum rather than in the middle.

“This pattern is puzzling,” he concludes, “in the sense that sustainability is not a new idea, but it may be understandable because of the relative newness of sustainability as a challenge that local governments are taking on beyond the traditional and mandated activities they have been doing for some time.”

If local governments are going to make a major contribution to advancing sustainability, most still need to expand their commitment and more fully organize their efforts.

The Municipal Year Book 2011 will be released on April 22nd. For more information visit: http://bookstore.icma.org/Municipal_Year_Book_2011_P2129C29.cfm?UserID=5771260&jsessionid=4e305dd20445571a33b7">http://bookstore.icma.org/Municipal_Year_Book_2011_P2129C29.cfm?UserID=5...