Hardly anyone can have failed to pick up on the recent flurry of stories in the national press about the Big Society, sparked off by Dame Elisabeth Hoodless's remarks that funds for volunteers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is undermining the very idea of a "Big Society". At the same time, under the government's…

This book highlights the community building experience at Maricopa Community College District (MCCD) in Arizona. Sixty-five percent of upper division transfers at Arizona State University come from MCCD, and 80% of The University of Phoenix's graduates have done a major portion of their lower division work at MCCD. At any given time, 50 to 60…