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This chapter focuses on the training of Muslim community leaders as advocates against domestic violence (DV). The imam trainings and interviews with these leaders illustrate the tension between their claims to religious authority and their lack of knowledge about DV, which is borne out in their interactions with one another and with the (mostly female) leaders of the imam training sessions. There is an evident tension in the ways in which speaking out about DV draws leaders into the vortex of discussing marriage and family and through that, inevitably, gender roles. There is risk involved in speaking about DV because doing so can pose a threat to their communal authority. On the other hand, if a community is in support of anti-DV efforts, not taking leadership on the issue can also undermine leadership roles and authority. Thus, imams and scholars walk a fine line of negotiating their leadership roles and authority in relation to the textual interpretations and arguments for peaceful families they put forward.

This chapter outlines the process by which community leaders engage with regeneration partnerships through leadership coalitions. It describes a cycle of leadership, which operates differently in areas with different histories of community activity, and considers how far leaders relate to their wider constituency and how they deal with issues of succession. It uses Hirschman's conceptual framework of exit, voice, and loyalty to explore the way in which leaders negotiate partnerships at different points in the leadership cycle. It discusses how far community leaders actually become part of local leadership coalitions rather than being left on the margins.

This chapter begins with an examination of the 1960s, and looks at heightened concerns about urban unrest following the riots at Notting Hill and in Nottingham. Each event created further concerns for White Britons, who nervously studied the increasing racial tensions on city streets, yet these events encouraged West Indians to speak out even more about programming issues and hiring practices within the BBC. Soon after, the Second Coloured Conference at Broadcasting House allowed management to meet with African-Caribbean community leaders about planned television programmes and their potential impact. Critical analyses of racially themed BBC television programming in the 1960s and 1970s includes Till Death Us Do Part (BBC, 1965–68, 1972–75), Rainbow City (BBC, 1967) and the iconic Empire Road (BBC, 1978–79), one of the first BBC ‘soaps’ to feature a first- and second-generation Black British family attempting to navigate life in an English urban setting. The Community Relations Commission was important in providing a voice for West Indians, included recruitment efforts at the BBC for African-Caribbean employees, much to the dismay of the dominant press.

This chapter seeks to demonstrate by through looking at the lives of four local community leaders how the two central concepts of community and social organization were lived in Sarajevo on the eve of the Second World War. The four men chosen—Fehim Spaho, Sarajevo's grand mufti; Leon Finci, a well-known humanitarian and patron of the arts; Father Božidar Bralo, the pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church; and Borivoje Jevtić, a well-known intellectual, author, and playwright—are not intended to parallel one another or to serve as microcosms of the communities they represent in this story. Instead, by presenting the complex relationship of local, national, and international dynamics through their personal experiences, they provide a window into the world of interwar Sarajevo. These stories illuminate the city's political and cultural dynamics, linking Yugoslav political events to broader European developments. In so doing, each portrait highlights the conflicting allegiances to one's state, confessional community, national group, family, and city—conflicts that would carry through the war. Each man thus represents one of the four confessional pillars of Sarajevo's society; yet his story simultaneously reveals the difficulties of using one person to represent an entire community.

During the democratic transition, the South African women’s movement focused on creating governmental institutions for women’s empowerment. However, these institutions have not been sufficient to ensure social change. This chapter examines the stories of community leaders who are attempting to fill in the gaps and to address gender-based violence, as well as the stories of community organizers, religious leaders, and tradition leaders who challenge patterns of violence in homes, relationships, and communities. Relying on individual leaders and policy advocates is a tenuous model, given that success is linked to people rather than institutions, and people are not permanent. Similarly, while many community leaders break with “traditional” ideas of male superiority, others continue to deploy these norms to the detriment of women’s empowerment.

This chapter offers a biographical sketch of Rashi. There are numerous folk legends about Rashi's birth, especially the miracles wrought for his mother during her pregnancy, and about his father and his father's journeys outside France and meetings with various sages, including Maimonides. None of these legends is reliably documented, however, and nothing can be gleaned from them about the events of Rashi's life. Ultimately, they reflect the cultural world of Jewish society in the late Middle Ages—a time that saw the composition, in Jewish circles as in Christian, of numerous hagiographical works recounting the miracles performed for holy men. Rashi is renowned throughout the Jewish world not only for his wide-ranging literary productivity but also for his unique character. Five qualities stand out in his warm and radiant personality: humility and natural simplicity, pursuit of truth, concern for human dignity, great confidence in his own abilities, and a sense of mission as a community leader. These qualities are evident in his actions, his relations with other people, his ties to his students, his world-view, his scorn for arrogance, his love of peace, his literary output, and even in his writing style. The chapter then considers Rashi's status and fame.

This chapter discusses Rashi's views on the Jewish community. Rashi greatly honoured scholars, considering them to be the most exalted of men. They ensure the continued existence of the world, which is based on the study of Torah and observance of its commandments. Rashi recognized that the scholars bore much of the brunt of leadership in the Jewish communities of the time, and he believed it was their strength and steadfastness that ensured the continuation of Jewish life in the diaspora. In his commentary on the Torah, Rashi cited rabbinic midrashim that emphasize the duties of community leaders and the ingratitude they are shown. The chapter then looks at Rashi's position on the important issue of forced and voluntary converts from Judaism, as well as his position on the status of women and their place in society and family.

This chapter first describes the changes the Gilroy Garlic Festival has undergone over the years. It then discusses why food festivals are so popular among community leaders seeking to distinguish their towns; how the festival creates and sustains a sense of community; and how the Gilroy Garlic Festival serves as a model for other festival organizers.

This chapter focuses on government witness Vernon Dahmer, who served as president of Forrest County’s tiny, furtive, but durable NAACP chapter until the year before his death. Dahmer was also a generous, courageous, and respected community leader. His testimony helped demonstrate the pattern of discrimination in the county.

This chapter based on fieldwork in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts describes the communal incidents from 2011 onwards and the riots in September 2013. Contrasting narratives emerged from discussions with community leaders in Muzaffarnagar town and selected Jat-dominated and Muslim-majority villages forming the epicentre of the riots, which indicate high levels of aggression, a pogrom and Muslim exodus in some villages. The fieldwork revealed the deeply implicating role of political parties: local BJP leaders were aware of and in some cases involved in the rioting; SP leaders remained largely silent hoping to gain Muslim support in the 2014 elections. As the BSP’s support base and cadre straddles the Hindu, that is, Dalit and Muslim community, local leaders found it difficult to deal with the rioters. These developments indicate the successful creation in these districts particularly in the sample villages, of a system of institutionalized everyday communalism, visible two years after the riots.

This chapter offers guidelines for recruiting a leadership planning team for a worker center. The initial leaders are likely to be the most active volunteers, promoters, and supporters, including financial supporters. It is therefore good to think carefully from the beginning about who could and should be invited to the initial leadership table. This chapter outlines the steps for finding a balanced, thoughtful, and committed founding group, from considering the categories of community leaders to clearing the possible dates with people whom you believe must be at the first planning meeting, calling each person on the prospective planning leadership list, and thinking about what kind of leadership is needed on the permanent board. The chapter also emphasizes the importance of continuously inviting people during the planning process, watching for leadership values and developing skills, preparing for challenges, and confirming formal board leadership roles only after the planning process has been completed.

This book begins by arguing that America's high incarceration rate prompts impassioned debate. Politicians and activists, editorialists and community leaders consider a range of issues. They discuss the severity of drug crime sentencing, the ethics of for-profit prisons, and the inordinate number of racial minorities behind bars. The focus on these admittedly important issues, however, has obscured the ongoing discussion about what prisons should do. For more than two hundred years, Americans have debated the prison's purpose. Should it be retributive or reformative? Do we put people in prison to punish them or to rehabilitate them? Or is it a little of both? In 2010, California officials considered releasing thousands of inmates in order to balance the budget. The human cost—counted in broken families and decimated communities—can hardly be calculated.