links for 2010-03-30

• Urban Environment – Sustainability Comes of Age – NYTimes.com
  universities offering doctoral or master’s degrees in urban sustainability studies, and many more programs include the urban environment as a central part of their studies.

  In some ways, the shift reflects a coming-of-age of sustainability as a field, away from the back-to-nature ethos of earlier efforts and toward a realization that there are grittier problems — and solutions. “The environmental movement has expanded to understand that people are at the center of these issues,” Mr. Pattison says. “It’s not just save the trees for the trees’ sake.”

  (tags: education sustainability urban development environment academia policy)
• Arab Reform Initiative
  The annual report-card, titled The State of Reform in the Arab World – The Arab Democracy Index, shows that the region has developed the institutional means to transition to democratic governments but has not yet universally applied them into practice. Think tank warns of need for progress in the area of practices extending to all aspects of life, or advances could be lost

  The Index, in its second edition, covers ten Arab countries with the mission to eventually cover all the countries in the Arab world. The study measures forty indicators to gauge four major values and principles relevant to the democratization process: strong and accountable public institutions, respect for rights and freedoms, the rule of law, and equality and social justice. The selected indicators measure daily political, economic and social issues, and reflect the entire democratic decision-making process

  (tags: arab democracy report humanrights economy law)