Based on the findings from wide - ranging studies of community variation (eg, why Aboriginal teen suicide and Aboriginal employment levels vary
hugely from band to band; why seniors die during heat waves in some neighbourhoods and not others; why some watershed communities maintain sustainable agriculture over a millennium while others do not; why the United States biogenetic technology industry is now concentrated in only three
places, compared with thirty areas a few decades ago) there is now a strong evidentiary base revealing common underlying characteristics of groups, at the nongovernmental level, that successfully address these
challenges.