Theoretical Underpinnings
A Strategy for Sustaining the Social Ecosystem (2021)
This paper provides an approach to making explicit the local culture as the blueprint for bring diverse groups of people and institutions together in a common direction. pdf
Sustaining Change in a Market Economy: Community, Creativity, and Transformation (2018)
As the president of Wildflowers Institute, Hanmin Liu wrote this paper to help foun-
dations and local governments discover
and leverage how communities work and sustain themselves.
pdf
In Search of the Informal Capital of Community (2011)
As one of The Fetzer Institute’s Essays on Deepening the Ameri-
can Dream, this in-depth report describes the Wildflowers Approach.
pdf
Strengthening Local Leaders and Self-Organizing Structures in Vulnerable Communities (2010)
As a scholar-in-residence, Hanmin Liu produced this paper for philanthropists, faculty, and students at the Center on Community Philanthropy, Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas.
pdf
Statement on the Concept of Premises Underlying Our Efforts to Develop Personal Networks (1992)
Anthropology professor George Foster, a Wildflowers board member for nine years, came up with the concept of premises based on our work. His paper served as one of the first major inspirations for our Approach.
pdf
Case Studies
Resiliency and Self-Sustainability of the Lao Iu Mien Community (2008)
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars invited Hanmin Liu to participate in a seminar series on community resilience. His case study describes how a group of immigrants from a hill tribe in Laos relied on their informal assets to survive in Oakland, California.
pdf
Cultural Assets for Latino Community Building in East Palo Alto (2003)
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation supported Wildflowers and anthropologist Analiese Richard in mapping the aspects of Latino culture that built up the informal side of this community.
pdf
Studies 2000 (2000)
This three-day seminar was one of the first
and largest for the leading foundations to focus on Asian American communities. It was the first major demonstration of the Wildflowers Approach. pdf (68mb, right-click or ctrl-click and save)