References

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These are the references which have inspired SLGC development. They have been collected over twenty years. The consistency and quality of references vary. The overall focus has been on solving poverty and working toward a more sustainable physical and social world.

Human Rights 

[Website] United Nations Declaration Of Human Rights Human rights are one of the pivotal ideas in the United States of America as asserted by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence when he writes about inalienable rights. Specifically endorsing a declaration of human rights is imperative in the process of understanding what the basis for rights, needs and wants of human beings are. These are the building blocks for many of the freedoms Americans take for granted and highlight some of the gaps which need to be closed. Many of these rights are foundational beliefs which inform the Sustainable Lives philosophy. 

Global Goals

[Website] UN Millennial Goals – The Millennial Goals were devices to create a pathway to end poverty by 2015. There were great successes leading up to 2015 and the desire to end poverty is not deadened until it is achieved.

[Website] UN World Sustainability Goals – UN world sustainability goals are a measure of social goals which relate to solving quality of life issues. Some of these may include overcoming hunger, health, safety, sanitation etc.

Social Work Grand Challenges

[Website] Grand Challenges The Social Work Grand Challenges, listed below, are a means to galvanize the social work profession and solve some of the biggest social problems facing the nation (USA).

1. Maximize productive and meaningful activity throughout life
2. Ensure all youth get a good and healthy start
3. Reduce isolation and loneliness
4. Stop family violence
5. End homelessness
6. Create greater healthy equity
7. Safely reduce our incarcerated population
8. Strengthen financial security
9. End racial injustice
10. Strengthen social responses to environmental changes
11. Reverse extreme inequality
12. Harness digital technology for social good

Building Community. Asset Based Community Development– I don’t know where this fits yet but I want it here because it is key concept that should be integrated into the Sustainable Lives.

Poverty

This section is for materials which can help broaden your understand of poverty. While many books which fall under the category of energy and economics can also supplement an understanding of poverty, the books here are specifically about poverty or meant to illuminate dynamics of poverty.

Global Poverty 

[Website] World Hunger Map – This is a real time map which tracks imperative statistics world wide which affect hunger and poverty including Covid, Climate Change, War and other statistics.

[Book] How Change Happens (2016) by Duncan Green. This book talks a lot about how large non profit and government agencies work toward change. It also talks about some of the pitfalls of change organizations. It gives a good deal of historic context. I put it under the section on global poverty because it is more relevant to global change than changes in America. Amazon.

[Book] Out of Poverty, What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2008) by Paul Polak. This book is an important take on poverty which focuses on farming world wide with a focus on low pressure irrigation using human powered pedal pumps and low pressure delivery systems. This book is imperative in understanding poverty in relation to agriculture world wide. Amazon.

[Book] The End of Poverty, Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2005) by Jeffrey D. Sachs. This book is important for an understanding of how to end poverty around the world and some of the unique problems on the ground in a variety of places to include America. It can be found Amazon.

Racial Disparities – Poverty in America 

America is one of the richest countries on earth but the severe disparities between wealth of Whites and Black in America must be addressed through a separate conversation on poverty. In order to understand why African Americans are so poor on average, it is important to understand the history of why it became that way, rather than the mythology of African Americans as lazy, welfare recipients who are excessively violent. Poverty of African Americans is by design; to understand this the following books help.

[Book] The New Jim Crow (2010) by Michelle Alexander. This book is imperative for understanding how African American males are systematically jailed.  Amazon.

[Book] Slavery by Another Name (2008) by Douglas A. Blackmon. This book follows a family from plantation slavery to convict leasing; from an agricultural south to an industrial south and how African Americans continued to be enslaved until the 1940s.  Amazon.

[Book] The Color of Money, Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap (2017) by Mehrsa Baradaran. The color of money belongs here as well in the economics section. It is important to understand that Black banks were supposed to raise African American communities out of poverty however the limitations of African American wealth and segregation of the banking systems made it nearly impossible for a Black run bank to grow the way other banks who did not have such restrictions grew. Amazon.

[Book] The Color of Law (2017) by Richard Rothstein. This book is an imperative for understanding how laws were designed to limit the prosperity of African Americans. The major argument is that racism in America is not a cultural phenomena but a legal phenomena and therefor systemic racism is not just a cultural reality but one that is rooted deeply in American institutions. Amazon.

Poverty In America 

[Book] Bridges out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities (2001) by Ruby K. Payne, PHD, Philip E. DeVol, Terie Dreussi Smith.  This book talks about some of the cultural differences between poor, middle class and affluent people. Some reviews have expressed it is diminutive towards poor people; however, it has concepts about poverty which may be insightful toward anyone interested in learning more about poverty dynamics. Amazon.

[Book] The Mole People, Life In The Tunnels Beneath New York City (1993) by Jennifer Toth. This book illuminates the lives of homeless in New York City and some of which who take refuge in the tunnels under the city. Before I added this book to this site I did a bit more looking around because I wanted to know if it was actually true. There is a lot in this book that can illuminate a life of homelessness; however, there is a good amount of information which points out the inaccuracies and possible fictionalization of a serious issue. Critique of Mole People.  Amazon.

[Book] The Working Poor: Invisible in America (2004) by David K. Shipler. This is an honest look at people who work but still struggle to make ends meet in America. It almost functions as a sort of case study. Amazon.

[Book] So Rich, So Poor, Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America (2012) by Peter Edelman.This book is written from a policy perspective. It is important to read this book to understand the difficulties of building policies which solve systemic poverty issues in the United States. Amazon.

[Book] Broke, USA: From Pawnshops To Poverty, Inc.- How The Working Poor Became Big Business (2010) by Gary Rivlin. This book helps understand the sub prime financial market was created and grew to astronomical proportions which helped lead to the 2008 financial crisis and recession. It can be found Amazon.

Poverty, Psychology, Physiology 

[Article] The Atlantic: How Poverty Changes the Brain  This article looks at an organization called EMPath which has found that giving individuals the tools they need has allowed them to improve their economic condition on their own.

Resources for Coaches/Therapists/Social Workers

[Book] Real Self Care (2023) by Poona Lakshmin MD. This book was brought up by one of my class mates in a social work class. Self care is very important in any helping profession. This book is written by a woman and is very woman centric but it is an excellent read for men as well; especially if you are in coaching, therapy or human services work. She speaks a lot about fake self care versus real self care. Fake self care could look like retail therapy, bubble baths, spa days or binging Netflix. Real self care is about building meaning, developing self compassion, creating boundaries and developing personal power.

[Book] Becoming a Professional Life Coach: Lessons from the Institute of Life Coach Training (2007) by Dianne S. Melendez and Patrick Williams. This book is excellent as a resource for anyone who is doing anything remotely similar to coaching. It is strongly based in counseling theory and so provides a very strong foundation for what coaching is. It’s important to recognize the difference between therapy and coaching both for coaches and clients although the process is different the foundation is similar if not the same. Amazon.

[Organization] International Coaching Federation: There are a lot of coaching resources out there. This is one of the best and is also doing a lot for the field of coaching.

[Book] Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006) by Carol Dweck Ph.D… This book is excellent because it can help a person understand how to move from a person mired in stagnancy toward becoming a learning, growing person. Amazon.

[Book] The Definitive Book of Body Language (2004) By Alan and Barbara Pease. I’ve added this book because it is a good resource on body language which can be very helpful for coaches who do so in person. Amazon.

[Book] Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016) by Angela Duckworth is an excellent book on passion and perseverance. This book talks about what it takes to succeed and how it often has less to do with talent than the right kind of hard work and the right kind of motivation.  Amazon.

[Book] Nasty People  (revised edition): How to STOP BEING HURT (1989) by them without stooping to their level by Jay Carter, Psy.D. This book is all about the invalidator mechanism. Learn how to respond to the invalidation mechanism and keep from using it yourself. This book can be really helpful in how to deal with people. Amazon.

[Book] The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and how to make the most of them now (2012) by Meg Jay PhD. I read this book several months ago because it was on my room mates bookshelf. I was reminded of the importance of this book for anyone in their 20’s or perhaps even anyone in their 30’s or later years who are redefining their lives or have young children, teenagers or adult children. One of the best things to come out of this book is this: in a world when and where anything is theoretically possible how do we make choices which will define the rest of our lives. Too many choices can be paralyzing and this book can help put things into perspective. Amazon.

[Book] Man’s Search For Meaning (1946) by Victor E. Frankl This is one of the most important books written about deriving meaning from life. Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist who survived various concentration camps during world war II. He developed his ideas of Logotherapy across his life time. His time in the concentration camp is a proof for the idea that a person can live a life of meaning even if they are suffering. Logotherapy focuses on the development of meaning through examination of future and future goals. It is less about where one has come from or what causes one to be a certain way than about how to get where one is going. In this respect Logotherapy may be useful to coaches because while coaches are not conducting therapy they assisting their clients in finding meaning and getting to where they are going. Better World Books.

[Audio Lecture Series] Why You Are Who You Are By Mark Leary, The Great CoursesThis lecture series speaks to human personality to include explaining extroversion, agreeableness, motivations, emotionality, moral character, beliefs, relationships and other topics. I found it immensely helpful in adding to my knowledge and understanding of human behavior. Amazon.

[Audio Lecture Series] Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior by Mark Leary, The Great Courses. This lecture covers some similar concepts to those in the above listed lecture series but focuses on behavior. This talks about the purposes of emotions, what makes people happy, why people forget, what are the purpose of dreams and other topics. Amazon.

[Book] How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (2017) by Lisa Feldman Barrett. This book explains the constructed emotions theory, which fills in some gaps from the universal framework of emotions. This book talks about where feelings come from, how they are created in the brain, how mental constructs take part in the building of emotions, how emotions affect us, how emotion has an impact on disease, how emotion is relevant in legal situations and how emotions shape the world in which we live.

[Book] The Power of Neurodiversity (2021) by Thomas Armstrong PhD. This book is great because it offers a strengths based perspective on some of the most common neurodiverse conditions which are classified in the DSM V-TR. It covers ADHD, autism, learning disabilities (dyslexia), moods, anxiety, diversity in intelligence, differences in thinking types such as bipolar or schizophrenia. Much of this book talks about the behaviors of these classifications as survival traits which have allowed humanity to thrive. Rather than thinking about how each of these experiences are illnesses, it is just as important to realize them for what they add to humanity.

[Book] Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (2021) by Anna Lembke MD. This is not only a sociological look at the indulgences of a society but it also helps explain what is happening in the brain surrounding the neurotransmitter dopamine. It explains what the main uses of the transmitter are and some problems that occur with its over indulgence such as instant gratification, social media use or substance use for example. It also gives some good examples of how to balance the fast inculcations of dopamine for a more balanced experience of pleasure, pain and peace.

SPARK (Learning)

[Website] Wikiversity: I came upon Wikiversity after reading about how wikipedia works in the book, “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal. Wikipedia has a number of different projects which are extremely useful but Wikiversity may be an excellent tool for the learning and educational elements of Sustainable Lives. Another wikipedia project that may be useful is wikibooks. Wikibooks is for the creation and collaboration on ebooks and textbooks.

[Website] Archive.org is a project which is designed to catalogue the internet. It is a free resource which I have used to link to Durant’s work in the economic section of the resource page.

[Website] Gutenberg is a free resource which lists over 53,000 e-books.

[Website] World Library is not free but it’s less than $9.00 a year for a membership and organizations can help reduce the costs of membership. The reason I like it is because it does offer another method of looking for resources.

[Website] Better World Books Better world books allow individuals to donate their books and then sells them for a reduced cost. Better World Books is a social enterprise. If you buy books, and want to support social business entities buy from Better World Books.

[Book] The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters (2017) by Tom Nichols… I’ve added this book to the SPARK resources because it talks about some of the pitfalls which can negatively impact the advancement of learning. It also illuminates the rarity of a self taught expert which lead to the importance of learning institutions which provide peer review.  Amazon. 

[Blog] “The importance of The Death of Expertise”

[Book] Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. (2014) Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III Mark A. McDaniel. This book uses learning research to talk about how common methods of learning aren’t as successful as we think they are and we aren’t learning as much as we feel we are. It talks about the importance of retrieval: Asking questions about what you just read or learned; Elaboration: finding additional meaning in new material; Generation: answering a question or problem before being shown the answer; Reflection; review what has been learned in a class or experience; Calibration: avoiding cognitive error by checking what you think you know against material; Elaboration: building on what you know and adding to it. This book has some sections which cover learning difficulties as dyslexia and many examples of individuals and businesses which do a good job of helping people make it stick. Amazon.

[Book] Reality is Broken, Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change The World (2010) by Jane McGonigal. This book is an important look at how the way we organize in the real world is not as effective as how we organize our game play. This book offers insight into ways we can take lessons from game creation and use those lessons to save the real world by working together. Amazon.

[Book] Everybody Lies (2017) By Stephens-Davidowitz. This book endeavors to expound on research that was done using big data to answer questions which people typically don’t tell the truth about like, sexuality, racism or whether or not they file their taxes honestly. It belongs in the SPARK section as it reveals truths about how big data can be used at answering big questions. Amazon.

Economic

[Book] The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant. Chapter II: The Economic Elements of Civilization.  I’ve added this particular reference because it is one of the best explanations of economic pillars: the mechanism of transport, the process of trade and the means of exchange (pg 14). The other foundation being precursors toward creating a good or service.

[Calculator] Bank Rate – More Calculators for houses, cars, credit cards. Bank rate has more calculators than smart asset.

[Business] Credit Karma – Credit Karma gives a good overview of your credit history. It can help guide you along the path of building better credit.

[Website] Family Budget Fact Sheets – These are cost of living facts from each county of the United States. The original cost of living was based on the costs of a moderate diet multiplied by three. While this measure has been in place for a long time it is no longer an accurate measure of cost of living.

[Publication] http://strikedebt.org/drom/ – “The Debt Registers Operational Manual”

[Blog] “Muhammad Yunus: Banker To The Poor”

[Website] http://www.muhammadyunus.org This website lists many of the past projects of Muhammad Yunnus and the Gramen companies.

[Website] http://www.yunussb.com This website is Yunus Social Business. It is a non-profit venture fund which is focused on social business.

[Book] Banker to the Poor: Micro Lending And The Battle Against Poverty (1998) by Muhammad Yunus. Banker to the poor led me to the rest of Yunnus’ work and has been influential in my development of Sustainable Lives. This book tells the story of Yunnus and the development of Gramen Bank which led to winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Amazon.

[Book] Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business And The Future Of Capitalism (1998) by Muhammad Yunus This book advances the ideas of micro lending toward social business which is business created by the poor or for the poor. This book enumerates how Social Business can fit into the Capitalistic model while ensuring all human beings are represented in the market place where by solving issues related to meeting basic needs and a better life for all. Amazon.

[Book] Building Social Business: The New Kind Of Capitalism That Serves Humanities Most Pressing Needs (2008) by Muhammad Yunus.This book is a how to guide on social business. This book talks a lot about the creation of social business entities and how these entities can help serve humanity. As with all of Yunus’ work there are numerous examples of businesses which have been set up as social businesses. Amazon.

[Book] A World of Three Zeroes: The new Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions (2017) by Muhammad Yunus. This book by Yunnus creates the future vision for a world in which all people can live sustainably. It illuminates how world leaders can come together to identify problems related to poverty and set goals to achieve solutions to those goals in a meaningful time frame. The idea of using human ingenuity of the poor to solve their own problems through social business development and entrepreneurship is essential to solving poverty and unemployment. Yunus believes in a world where all humans can lead sustainable lives meeting each of their needs. By giving the poor access to financing and other supports toward creating social business, poverty and unemployment can be eliminated. Yunus argues that we must create a sustainability in our lives and our environment so that we can pass prosperity on for generations to come. Amazon.

[Book] Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) By Daniel Kahneman. This book has a lot of economic theory related to how people make economic decisions (it is commonly known as behavioral economics). Behavioral economics simply supplants the idea in economics that humans are rational players and takes the time to look at how human actually make economic decisions. The overwhelming argument of the book is to slow one’s thinking so that economic decisions are made based on the best possible outcome. By thinking fast we tend to make decisions with far worse outcomes. Amazon.

[Book] Freakonomics, A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side of Everything (2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This book is a really fun way to get into thinking about economics without having to get too serious about the academic side of things like statistics, models, studies etc.  Amazon.

[Book] The Armchair Economics (2012, 1993) by Steven Landsburg. This book covers a range of economic principles. The book gives a layperson a good scope of the field of economics and the principles the field utilizes. While some examples seem infuriating, it does expect that following sound principles of economics will result in better policy creation.

[Book] Poor Economics, A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011) by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo. This book could easily broaden an understanding of poor people anywhere; however, it focuses on global poverty from both personal live’s of the poor and institutions affecting the poor. I believe this is a must read for people interested in Sustainable Lives. Amazon.

[Book] Good Economics for Hard Times (2019) by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo. This book is an important look at how some of the things people think about economic situations are flawed because the premises of their ideas are flawed. This book explains how immigration and migration does not negatively affect local jobs. It explains how poor people are not lazy. It explains how creating substantial social safety nets does not incentivize people to stop working. It explains how Universal Basic Incomes and Negative Income Tax (NIT) either do function or can function. This book spends a good deal examining the ideas behind growth and how policies based on ideas which are wrong continue to be the way business is conducted within the United States in particular.

[Book] The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty and the Well-Being of Nations (2018) by David Pilling. This book does a good job of explaining how Gross Domestic Product (GDP) became a measure used to indicate the overall state of the economy. It argues that the GDP is only a good indicator of what it measures. Often some economic output are not included in the GDP such as mothers raising their children, while others, military spending are. Likewise, negative impacts on society may not be included in the GDP. Further, this book is an argument which illuminates the ridiculous idea of constant growth as a requirement for the sustainability of the economy. Constant growth is problematic as it drives many of the decisions which are creating an unsustainable world.

[Article] Living Without Money Yes, money is one means of exchange but your word is another.

[Wiki] Impact Investing Impact investing is an investing style which focuses on making the work a better place. I’ve linked the wikipedia page for the purposes of leaving a strong definition.

Organizations of Merritt

[Organization] EMPath or Economic Mobility Pathways This is an example of an organization that focuses on giving individuals, families and organizations the tools they need to overcome poverty issues on their own.

[Organization] http://strikedebt.org – This is a good reference which explores a variety of alternative ideas to common finance and credit systems.

[Organization] Delancey Street Foundation – Is the leading residential self-help organization for substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom in the United States.

[Broken Link]  Means of Exchange This website is a community and list of resources focused on creating resilience in economies. One of the focuses here is on the means of exchange or the currency we utilize to share goods and services. It also lists a number of different means of exchange styles to sharing goods and service.