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Area of Focus: Social Ecology, Social Capital of Governance, and Public Policy
Jim Kent's current focus is on the social ecology of heart and soul
in community, where citizens set public policy. Jim continues to use the
Discovery Process that he developed in the 1960s, working with informal networks,
discovering how they communicate and the culture within which they operate.
It is this understanding that drives public policy formation in our work.
Click
the icon to the left to watch a 3-minute video on the social ecology of community
archetypes. This was a recent lecture given by Jim to the Orton
Family Foundation conference, "Place Matters '07" in Burlington, Vermont, October, 2007.
Biographical Sketch
James Kent was born and raised in the northern mountains of Appalachia on a farm near Panama, New York. He received his B.A. in Human Relations from Salem College in Salem, West Virginia, his M.A. in Sociology from Kent State University, and his Jurist Doctors degree from Denver University. He worked on establishing the programs of the Great Society, including Head Start and Neighborhood Health Centers.
Early in his career, he developed The Discovery Process and the Human Geographic Issue Management Systems that are widely used today to prevent disruption in human and natural systems. Centered on empowering community, government and the private sector people, they create alignment and harmony with the culture of the people that are impacted by external forces.
He is widely published. His most recent work (with Kevin Preister) is the chapter "Social Ecology: A New Pathway to Watershed Restoration", which appears in the ecosystem textbook Principles and Practices of Watershed Restoration.
Jim lives in Basalt, Colorado, where he helped develop that community's Master Plan, to include a section on how to govern through the application of Social Capital principles as an essential base for determining the quality of Basalt's growth. He heads up James Kent Associates, the Center for Social Ecology and Public Policy (CSEPP) and Natural Borders LLC. His national offices are in Basalt, Colorado; the CSEPP offices are in Ashland, Oregon. His international and Pacific centered activities are located in Kona, Hawaii. For more information please go to: www.jkagroup.com.
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