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Distance from markets and from the mental maps of urban-centric policy-makers means that small, remote settlements do generate economic practices locally. This paper draws on two case studies to argue that remote sustainability requires an emphasis on the local economy (the settlement and multi-settlement region), and that long-term strategies held at the local level by locals are most favourable to both economic and social life. While some settlements are clearly better positioned in terms of natural resources and opportunities, all settlements need access to supportive policy and infrastructure at national and regional levels. The paper argues that current economic policy facilitates national prosperity to the detriment of local economies. It points to the necessity for desert regions, of developing an internal economic agenda held by a local agency, in ways that bring both Aboriginal and settler cultures into economic expression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a flurry of research activity surrounding the Transition Movement, yet no previous inquiry has examined the movement's political economy. This investigation fills this gap in scholarship by analysing the movement's localization agenda and gives particular emphasis to the implications for political relations between community members and with local governments. Through direct participation with the movement and interviews with Transition activists in the United States, a theoretical picture of an economically and socially localized future is offered. However, when theory is translated into practice, a point of internal tension--functional independence versus government institutionalization--is created in the movement's development strategy. The paper identifies and evaluates a politically active subset of the movement that is seeking to more effectively accelerate and expand the localization process by directly influencing policy making and implementation though local governments. Whereas this heightened level of political activity suggests that some Transition groups are being drawn towards institutionalization, it creates new areas of potential tension. Specifically, if the Transition Movement continues to integrate its political economy into the local community through institutionalized policy making and implementation power, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain and justify its traditional identity as a non-political and socially inclusive movement that avoids divisive political conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of human services is increasingly adopting narrow practice approaches, driven by contemporary funding priorities. Such approaches reflect a reductionist understanding of human need, and run contrary to the wisdom, accumulated knowledge, experience, evidence and ethics of social and community development work. Drawing from a small group of refugee women's accounts of everyday challenges as well as their efforts to develop personal agency in resettlement, this paper highlights the mismatch between the complexities that such women face in everyday settlement processes and the focus of services available to them. It argues for a more responsive person-in-environment focus that could enable and enhance women's own efforts and aspirations for themselves and their children. The current tendency towards case management and away from community development is contributing to what we call the diminishing architecture of community development, and therefore represents a shift that is difficult to reverse. Refugee settlement work requires developmental actions within the cultural group, between new arrivals and the host community, and between new arrivals and the host society's resources systems and structures. Concurrently, the field needs to reclaim a broader paradigm of human service practice allowing for joined up, locality-based, capacity building work that is responsive to people, contexts and specific issues emerging over time. A broader funding paradigm that values social and community knowledge and practice, locality work and enables on-going, incremental, proactive changes is also needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides a clearer conceptual exposition of the nature of social transformations around large-scale mining by theoretically delineating the place of corporate community development (CCD) initiatives in the transformations that mining brings to adjacent communities, and the livelihoods and developmental prospects of the affected peoples. We illustrate this argument with reference to an examination of CCD initiatives at four Papua New Guinea mine sites. This highlights the diversity of contexts (geographic, institutional and transnational), structures, activities and motivations that drive these activities. One aspect that is particularly apparent is the conservative nature of these CCD initiatives in the face of the often chaotic social transformations that the presence of the mine has sparked. We conclude with reflections on how such CCD activities can be shaped to provide more positive, sustainable outcomes for communities and livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although there has been a series of devastating natural disasters since December 2004 – from Hurricane Katrina to the 2010 floods in Pakistan – the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami remains the most significant in human history in terms of the number of communities affected and the size of the global response. Yet interest in the lessons of tsunami recovery has faded and there is little evidence to suggest that the global aid ‘industry’ has learnt very much from that experience in terms of moving from relief to long-term social recovery. This paper is based on an intensive four-year study conducted across five local areas of Sri Lanka and India, and presents a new way of thinking about the transitions from short-term relief to long-term social recovery; a more ‘deliberative strategy’. It demonstrates why a community development approach to disaster recovery has more chance than ‘asset replacement’ for delivering on the promise of ‘build back better’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The microcredit programme initiated in the 1980s is celebrated by the Indian state and international development institutions as an ‘ideal’ poverty alleviation programme for women. It is based on the principle of activating self-help among women and is considered as being empowering. The period 1980–1990 defined a minimalist neo-liberal role of the state that allowed for the free working of the market and a belief that it will solve problems of poverty. Many have argued that the microcredit programme was influenced by this philosophy (Joseph, 2007; Swaminathan, 2007). In addition, that microcredit does not always have a positive impact on poverty alleviation because the official programme does not have the capacity to displace patriarchal structures that bind women (Goetz and Sengupta, 1996). By focusing only on ‘economic’ issues it fails to address the way deprivation of nutrition and health, increasing violence and insecurity are affecting women as economic actors. Without addressing these questions it is not possible for women to get empowered. In this paper I examine the inter-linkages between citizenship, gender and development by evaluating the design of a microcredit programme for women presented by a feminist rural womens organization called Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) in Maharashtra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community economic development (CED) framework has its roots at the margins of society but has gained a broader interest. This paper examines some key principles associated with the CED framework. Interviews with practitioners within three CED organizations in Vancouver resulted in themes that link CED as a strategy for sustaining a broader vision of the organizations. CED ventures provide opportunities that enhance the connection for marginalized peoples to participate in local community organizations. Yet, there are challenges around delivering services within an alternative framework operationalized within a market-based paradigm. Nevertheless, CED initiatives can have far reaching impacts beyond the individual and the organization. Indeed, CED is about networks of communities within communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]