Breaking down the stereotypes surrounding "socially engaged architecture," this book shows who can actually impact the lives of communities. Like Bernard Rudofsky's seminal , it explores communal architecture produced not by specialists but by people, drawing on their common lives and experiences, who have a unique insight into their particular needs and environments. Running through their stories is a constant theme of social justice as an underlying principle of the built environment. This book is about opening one's eyes to new ways of interpreting the world, and how to go about changing it.