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Gandhi and Ambedkar offer a fascinating picture of community organizers fighting against caste oppression and caste discrimination. Both were committed to transforming the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions of 'Dalits'†. They claimed that only through social action could societal transformation take place. As a result, they placed a strong emphasis on mobilizing the public against untouchability. They envisioned the removal of untouchability through popular struggles and popular participation. Not only did Gandhi and Ambedkar undertake popular campaigns, but they also saw them as necessary and beneficial. This paper explores the implications of integrating the constructs of the Gandhian and Ambedkarian models to tackle the problem of untouchability. It re-reads the Constitution of the Anti-Untouchability League (AUL) which was prepared by Gandhi himself in January 1935 in conjunction with a comprehensive letter penned by Ambedkar in November 1932, containing a plan of action for the AUL to carry out for the uplift of 'Dalits', to shed light on the lessons that are still important for the modern-day community organizers in India. The paper argues that synergizing Gandhi's and Ambedkar's emancipatory discourses can enrich the present-day activism for social action combatting untouchability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, community organizing has been initiated by different government and non-government organizations in corruption prevention through creating social awareness and motivation. The question arises: Can community-based organizations or community organizing empower people to raise their voice to prevent corruption? Based on empirical evidence, this research argues that engaging the community in anti-corruption initiatives can be an effective way to avert corruption and empower people's voice. The finding shows that anti-corruption initiatives through spontaneous individual and collective involvement at the local level have an impact on creating accountability and transparency. Despite several challenges, these group and individual efforts have had significant results in promoting anti-corruption efforts in Bangladesh. Effective anti-corruption initiatives in engaging the community need 'spontaneous' participation by individuals or groups. As such, the government should give primacy of these individuals and groups and use them to create more formalized corruption watchdog bodies at the sub-regional level and make it a stronger National Integrity Systems foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By integrating a learning experience with community organizations, service-learning (SL) can be considered a tool to facilitate rural communities' development, acting as a resource mobilizer. This study presents a participatory process based on the assets-based approach for community development approach. Six local organizations and 16 university students in three Italian rural communities were engaged to assess local resources and co-construct rural SL (RSL) projects. A two-phase rural participative process was developed and evaluated using qualitative instruments, such as focus groups and students' reflexive journals. Results indicated that rural communities uncovered a set of material and intangible inner assets to develop. Indeed, they identified internal (and potentially external) resources that could effectively bring some insights to rural challenges. Moreover, community members experienced new paths through SL to count on their internal assets through effective collaboration with university students. The collaboration between students (and university) and community organizations delivered new local and rural development opportunities while supporting the partnership for RSL. Students experienced themselves as potential agents of change, enhancing their psychosocial resources and competencies, and strengthening rural development. The result's implications involve the development of rural policies, including effective participation of rural communities (and organizations) and regarding different dimensions of development, like economic or psychosocial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores and extrapolates an emerging concept within community practice: namely that of organic community co-production. The concept is influenced by previous uses of the term 'organic', specifically as applied by Tönnies in relation to certain types of community, and Gramsci in respect of a concept of leadership. Our development of the term has been generated within the context of reflective practitioner experience, located in a community-led action campaign Voice4Deptford, in South East London. The case study explores the interdisciplinary roots of this form of co-production. It highlights the way that these pre-existing principles and methods have been adapted, reflected upon and improvised in the light of 30 years' grassroots engagement by Green to evolve a bespoke approach that we are proposing to call 'organic community coproduction'. The case study outlines several original dimensions or modalities of community organic co-production including; stepping aside; the academic as a non-expert and giving voice. It unpacks the different elements of impact and transformation, that are consequent upon organic community co-production. These include; evidence of change; working together and community reflective time. The article concludes with a discussion of the issues involved in reframing of local power, the campaigns early successes and its continuing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]