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A classic part of the community development process is people facing an acute economic or social problem connecting with others specializing in conceptual solutions. For example, South Asian villagers confronting chronic poverty may work with non-governmental organizations offering micro-credit schemes. These are two sides of the development relationship, the doers and the helpers. While the doers face problems that are unique to themselves, the helpers offer solutions that tend to be generic, applicable to a variety of contexts. In this paper we seek to bring some conceptual clarity to the relationships between doers and helpers in development, with a focus on the social sector that operates between business and government. We present a typology of the organizational forms involved in development, and then look at the gaps between helpers and doers and the approaches used to bridge them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Though the concept of community crosses all political divides – from the reactionary, progressive and radical – it is a notion that is rarely problematized. Rather, ‘community’ is seen as something natural that emerges organically, reflecting all the elements of oxygen: it is unseen, cannot be felt unless it disappears and said to be vital for our survival. This paper raises concerns about such an approach, arguing it can lead to exclusion and divisiveness. Building on the arguments of Brent (in The desire for community: illusion, confusion and paradox, Community Development Journal, 39, (3), 213–223, 2004), I argue that community can only be created through ‘reciprocated’ desire. Using a community development project as a case study – the stage production of ‘Maralinga’, a story of nuclear veterans exposed to fallout – I highlight how community building can fail and how desire for community can emerge from unexpected places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper analyzes how development is articulated by three distinct groups of actors, donors/development sponsors, facilitators/program staff, and the beneficiaries/local village residents, within a specific development situation in the Ouelessebougou region of Mali, West Africa. The findings indicate some overlap among these groups regarding what the development process is intended to produce, i.e. self-reliance. However, there are important disparities in the specific meanings attached to development by each group of actors. Similarly, there was little consensus regarding stakeholder views of the role that they played in the development process. This case study suggests that persistent failures with development can be attributed, in part, to this incongruence of approaches and worldviews and concludes with several recommendations for a more nuanced and responsive approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United Kingdom, the role of the active citizen is often understood in terms of the importance and value attached to community-based citizen involvement. However, the structural issues that prevent people from participating are often ignored. Drawing on in-depth interviews with twenty young mothers living in Greater Pilton, Edinburgh, this paper argues that the involvement of young mothers in their community must be viewed as existing along a ‘continuum of active citizenship’ that highlights the factors that influence how and when young mothers participate in their communities as well as the barriers that young mothers experience regarding their inclusion in community based participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses a government health department's attempt to implement a community development strategy in a remote Aboriginal Australian community after identifying deficiencies in one of its health programmes. The reluctance of non-Aboriginal departmental clinic staff to share control of health decisions with Aboriginal participants, together with the deeply embedded power inequalities, undermined the development process and the achievement of project objectives. After lengthy critical reflection and supported by the project team and other community agencies, a group of community members addressed the priority issue they identified with a community-owned strategy in opposition to health professionals. This study raises questions about the capacity of government departments to practise community development, particularly given the unequal power relations, and their reluctance to share power between such departments and marginalized, disadvantaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a strategy designed to catalyse a process of civic dialogue and social learning in an economically distressed section of Virginia typically referred to as Southside or the Dan River Region. The model underpinning this initiative employs the arts and a grassroots leadership programme simultaneously to encourage a broad-scale civic conversation concerning the past and potential future of the principal communities located in the Southside region. The combination of broad participation and development of an effective leadership cadre at the grassroots level should encourage the creation of robust community problem solving coalitions across the region. The initiative aims to engender specific forms of locally driven community-based problem-solving coalitions: those that emphasize inclusiveness and value the full participation of historically disenfranchised individuals. The project also employs non-traditional forums to promote creative dialogue and to encourage reflection among the broader citizenry on the significance and possible character of a new and regional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that integrated community development and conflict resolution strategies could help to sustain peace in ‘post-settlement’ contexts. The conceptual background to this argument is unfolded through the tracking of key concepts such as convergence, post-settlement contexts, civil society, community development, conflict resolution, peace building, and multi-track approaches to peace building. Empirical evidence for convergences at the practice level is presented through excerpts from two case studies, one from Northern Ireland and the other from South Africa. Some of the key issues around which community development/conflict resolution strategies coalesce relate to addressing human needs, encouraging people participation, and building democracy. These are critical peace building tasks. Despite the positive potential of such integrated strategies, both South Africa and Northern Ireland face crucial challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years and certainly through the 1980s and 1990s, Christchurch has stood out amongst local governments in Aotearoa New Zealand for its steadfast support to social and community development. This paper charts that support from the beginnings of professional community development in the early 1970s to the period when it seemed only Christchurch keep the flame alive and was criticized for it. It is a case study of recent activities of the Anglican Care response to urban needs using its parish structure and action-research to develop innovative practice. The current challenges to community development activity both from the reduction in other social and health services and from government rationalization have placed considerable strain on community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case study of an attempt, using community development methods, by local members of a state-local partnership to gain more governance control in the face of central government dominance. The process highlighted in this case study was a community visioning exercise that built on existing networks at a local level to develop the higher degree of active community involvement required to achieve more autonomy to meet felt community needs throughout the local district.The resources activated through the community development process enabled the partnership to successfully challenge central government dominance and develop local initiatives. It also raised issues around the autonomous development of mana whenua (the indigenous people of that place) initiatives and those of outlying rural communities. The overall conclusion is one that supports a strategic approach to local empowerment through the community development processes of enhancing local interactive multi-stakeholder networks and using leverage to negotiate change, in this case, by exploiting seemingly endemic structural weaknesses of the central government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of local government as set out in section 10 of the New Zealand Local Government Act 2002 is to enable democratic decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities and to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of communities in the present and for the future. This paper will cover the following areas.Articulate the purposes and objectives of the 2002 rewrite of New Zealand local government legislation, including the empowerment of communities, and the parallel with international practice in local government.Examine the theoretical and practical implications of the long term council community plan and the community development process.Critically examine the effectiveness of the approach to community development by New Zealand local councils where, unlike in other countries such as the United Kingdom, they do not have the role of providing social services.Explore the paradox of community development within the New Zealand statutory sector.Provide a framework that enables a more effective community consultation process for community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case study that illustrates how privileging children's voices in conversations has assisted our work with children who have witnessed domestic violence. Using the Child Crisis Team in Auckland, New Zealand as case study, we argue that as an inclusive practice child advocacy seeks to position children as active participants in the community development process rather than the passive recipients of adult hopes and dreams. To break the cycle of violence in the home, children's experiences and knowledge should be enabled to enter the space for the production of strategies and actions that enhance the creation of safe home environments, by incorporating their voices through respectful practice by professionals working in the areas of domestic violence and child protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community development in Aotearoa New Zealand can be conceptualized as three concurrent processes such as (1), statutory work undertaken by the State through central government departments and local authorities (consisting of a system of legislation, funding assistance to individuals, groups and organizations and the provision of social services), (2) social change processes undertaken primarily through the collective action of individuals, groups and organizations that give voice to marginalized groups and communities and (3) the forces of change within Tangata Whenua communities working for tino rangatiratanga, self determination. Three time-periods are identified to help structure the discussion that begins from 1840, the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Queen of England and Maori, the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, signalling the birth of modern Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper argues that community development as policy and the practice (methodology) of social change through organizing, coordinating and initiating activities that enhance the wellbeing of individuals, groups and communities is more than ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ and, therefore, cannot be conceptualized simply in terms of ‘resistance’. It is a holistic process of transformation encompassing socio-economic, political, cultural, environmental and spiritual dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch urban renewal policies aim to engineer a mixture of different income groups in previously working-class neighbourhoods. The underlying notion is that such a social mix will improve the ‘liveability’ of the neighbourhood and that the more affluent residents will prevent the poorest from falling into a culture of poverty. As a result of this policy, the composition of the population in such neighbourhoods has changed and one can distinguish between the so-called native Dutch, immigrants, and ‘newcomers,’ who face problems in living together and sharing public spaces. This paper discusses the dynamics between the different groups in a Dutch neighbourhood, including its norms and values, and the role of intervening agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Vermont's Land Use and Development Law (Act 250) as a means of promoting community development through public policy. Central to the law are mechanisms that invite citizen participation in the development and planning process. Accordingly, citizens can organize and undertake collective action against development projects that are understood as posing a threat to the ongoing life of the community. A case is explored in which citizens organized under the banner of Act 250 to prevent Wal-Mart from entering their community, in order to protect a vulnerable downtown area that had centred public and commercial life for generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for multilevel, comprehensive health promotion programmes has become widely accepted, as has the importance of community approaches. However, many health promotion programmes focus on change at the individual level, no doubt partly due to the difficulty of implementing all-inclusive health promotion. This paper discusses two strategies for guiding multilevel projects: multiple methods for community assessment and charting project activities by level of change (a possibility framework). These strategies help ensure a multilevel focus and provide valuable information that can assist with the implementation of multilevel health promotion research projects in specific community contexts. Our primary purpose, therefore, is not to focus on theory or research findings. Rather, our goal is to make visible two strategies that have been helpful in one health promotion research project in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a case study of a grassroots community development initiative in St. John, New Brunswick. It was part of a larger study designed to investigate the sustainability of community-based crime prevention activities. This case study highlights a unique strategy for addressing local community needs. The lessons learned in St. John address many of the common challenges related to community development such as community mobilization, capacity building, planning, partnerships and sustainability. Some attention is also directed at the role of government and non-governmental agencies in community-based initiatives since this represents an ongoing concern for those involved in community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In planning practice it is common to argue, discuss and bargain before creating a plan that most stakeholders can endorse. But what happens when the distrust between civic leaders and residents is so intense that there can be no common ground? Does planning theory intuitively guide our practice or does the gap between theory and practice make the former irrelevant to community development and planning professionals? Within the context of planning theories and principles, this paper offers a description of the setting, the planning concerns, and the process and evaluates a consultant planning firm's actions with respect to the revitalization of the Broad Street Business District in New Britain, Connecticut. It concludes with lessons for other planners and community development professionals involved in planning projects that take place in a climate of hostility and value conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I have been involved in community development in Hungary since 1980 and during this period international work has always played a significant part in my work. However, four years ago, the Hungarian Association for Community Development (HACD) began to reorganize its contacts in other central and eastern European countries. In this paper I seek to avoid generalities and instead focus on a small portion of our joint work in the region, describing the experience we gained through carrying out comparative research. I begin by exploring the concept of civil society as the ideal goal of community development. I then introduce the situation in Hungary and, to a certain extent, the central and eastern European region, and outline some of the findings we have obtained in measuring social capital. I go on to raise some issues concerning the main challenges facing community development in the region and, in a concluding section, I discuss the position of community development workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can industrial communities survive the loss of their industrial heritage? Can communities once thought to be in terminal decline reinvigorate themselves? Evidence from the Durham coalmining communities suggests that the answer to both questions is yes. This paper presents evidence from a study of the annual Durham Miners' Gala – the ‘Big Meeting’ – that reflects a revival of community vitality around the event. Together with an analysis of the Gala itself, the complex background to the resilience of the mining communities is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses community development work undertaken by the author in the largest Hungarian Refugee Camp [‘Camp’], between May 2001 and September 2002, while working for a Hungarian NGO. The programme was supported by the Phare Access programme of the European Delegation to Hungary and the UNHCR BO Budapest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study focuses on the work of a Cairo-based project working with the southern Sudanese refugee community on sexual and reproductive health issues related to young people. The paper reports on the lessons learnt from refugee training and awareness-raising events organized during 2002–2004 and the challenges facing such initiatives in what can be a hostile climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates critically the socioeconomic and spatial implications of conceptualizing the different forms of community involvement as a hierarchy rather than a spectrum. Drawing upon evidence from the UK, where government policy views participation in community-based groups as a ‘mature’ form of involvement and one-to-one aid as ‘simple’ and ‘immature’, such a hierarchical representation is revealed to privilege the participatory cultures of affluent over deprived populations. Based on this recognition of how participatory cultures differ, the paper thus concludes by calling for the different forms of community involvement to be reconceptualized as a spectrum and the adoption of a variegated policy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997, area-based regeneration initiatives in Britain have focused upon the development of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) involving public authorities, statutory agencies and community and voluntary organizations in order to address the problems faced by deprived areas. In particular, the UK government’s National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal outlines a key role for community and voluntary sector groups in facilitating effective regeneration strategies in the eighty-eight Priority Areas identified by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. This paper draws upon a series of interviews with a range of participants involved in the development of the West Cornwall Neighbourhood Renewal partnership in order to explore the challenges and obstacles to effective voluntary and community sector involvement in regeneration initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable environmental development can only be achieved through sustainable community development. To achieve this objective a number of challenges need to be addressed: overcoming the legacy of the past, eradicating rural poverty, understanding local conditions and planning programmes accordingly, avoiding the use of community development as a PR exercise, coordinating efforts, finding a fit between conservation and tourism and, finally, making the community a partner in conservation management. In this paper these challenges are illustrated with examples from practice and with a case study of a successful community project in a nature conservation area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely agreed that the poor are not passive in the development process. Participation, once radical and controversial, is now mainstream management theory. Harnessing self-help potential is the order of the day. Properly ‘empowered’ or at least ‘enabled’, the poor are assumed to be able to overcome deficits of infrastructure and services and exhaust their tremendous entrepreneurial potential. Without altogether denying the validity of the self-help approach, the paper scrutinizes both its practical assumptions and ideological underpinnings. Does it work for all urban poor communities, and critically, for all people in such communities? And is it its efficiency, or rather the implicit justification of cutting subsidies and transfers, which make it so popular with governments and international financial institutions? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon contemporary perspectives in the philosophy of the social sciences to identify four contending perceptions of community. It then locates the communitarian perspective, within this framework, so as to explore the limitations of its epistemological and ontological premises. Communitarians claim to understand the dynamics of an ‘authentic community’. They maintain that enlightened citizens, experiencing this spontaneous social construct, will discover the futility of the liberal and existential self because both deny the significance of shared values and attitudes, and thus will realize the fundamental contradiction of this position in the light of the inherently social nature of human beings. Through increased social cohesion, arising from citizens’ active participation in community discourses, authoritarianism will be constrained and mutuality, which nurtures a more egalitarian society, will be promoted. The realization of these assertions, however, must rely on communitarianism accommodating citizens’ differing ontological and epistemological understandings of their social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit unions play an important role in Irish community development by providing essential local financial services and by contributing resources to local development initiatives. General accounts of their development tend to focus on the longer established credit unions formed in the 1960s and 1970s. This paper tells the story of credit unions formed since 1990, focusing on those designed to serve the needs of rural Irish communities. We conclude that the majority of these new credit unions have become well established, are steadily growing, and are providing a valuable contribution to local development during a time of consistent rural rationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship has great potential as a self-development strategy for rural communities with declining economies, but nascent entrepreneurs often lack the knowledge necessary for starting a business and their communities often lack the physical and social infrastructure to support them. The EDGE (Enhancing, Developing, and Growing Entrepreneurs) educational programme developed by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, University of Nebraska, is a community-based development programme that builds community capacity while providing grounded skills for entrepreneurs. This paper discusses the theoretical basis of EDGE and outlines an action model that has general relevance for the implementation of community development programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activities associated with cultural evaluation and change can be viewed as ‘indispensable’ to community development. However, their conceptualization and application remain underdeveloped. This paper contributes to this dialogue in three areas. Firstly, it discusses these issues as they relate to development initiatives with low-income migrant communities living in two core, Western, capitalist nations – Aotearoa/New Zealand and to a lesser extent Canada. Secondly, it articulates a ‘powerculture’ view of community empowerment, in which development processes are influenced by the dynamics of power and culture that occur from context to context. Thirdly, it highlights critical postmodernist theory as illuminating these dynamics and informing how cultural change may be influenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and likeminded nonprofit networks have assisted colonias – or poor, marginalized communities in the four states along the US–Mexico border – in community organizing and providing basic services. This paper explores the successes and challenges of NGOs in this region, considers the ways in which local NGOs have partnered with larger NGO networks, and assesses the advantages and risks of NGOs partnering with NGO networks. It concludes with recommendations as to how NGO networks might assist in ‘scaling up’ the successes of local NGOs to improve the quality of life in colonias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the empowering potential of community-based health promotion schemes is acknowledged as problematic, not least because of the conceptual ambiguity surrounding community empowerment. This paper discusses the problems involved in evaluating community empowerment, using policy developments in the UK since 1997 as a case study. It seeks more clearly to delineate the concept of community empowerment from other community-based approaches to health improvement, and suggests that the urban political science literature provides some useful insights with regard to the operationalization of community empowerment in process-focused evaluative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two approaches to community planning in the United States, advocacy planning and collaborative planning, are compared and evaluated with respect to their ability to empower community residents. Advocates claim they each provide opportunities for residents and their organizations to have meaningful input into decisions made about their communities. However, the approaches differ in the ways in which citizen voice is heard. Two case studies in Chicago, Illinois are used to demonstrate the application, use and limitations of each. Attention is paid to how citizens’ views and aspirations were incorporated in each of the planning situations and how the final outcomes were affected. The paper concludes with comments about conditions under which the two approaches may be effective tools for citizen involvement and community empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK ‘New’ Labour Government has introduced a number of regional, local and neighbourhood initiatives. These claim to share similar characteristics based upon the concepts of ‘partnership’ and ‘multi-agency’ cooperation. New structures to ensure the accountability and the delivery of these new forms of governance and service delivery have been established. Local Strategic Partnerships, with an emphasis on community ‘capacity’ building are the latest policy response. This paper, drawing upon research in Manchester and Glasgow, suggests that whilst these initiatives use a new language, they are steeped in old practices. Changing structures does not, of itself, alter the power differences inherent in local neighbourhoods where community groups are cast as ‘dependent’ by regeneration managers seeking to meet performance targets. The paper seeks to identify ways in which this relationship can be altered to enable local groups to negotiate a new agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study highlights methods supporting critiques of the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique stating that participation is most successfully achieved through a thorough understanding of community heterogeneity. Findings outlined in the paper demonstrate that this can be achieved through a two-stage approach: (1) the identification of varied heterogeneous groups and (2) through a process of ‘social inclusion’ of potential community leaders. The paper presents an understanding of community heterogeneity in the context of construction and management of community water supplies in Angola, South West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic researchers in developing countries are increasingly called upon to gear their research efforts towards solving contemporary social problems. The dominant research paradigm in their academic institutions is however not conducive to such endeavours. This paper proposes a participatory paradigm, based on the principles of activity theory, as a basis for community development work. The paper elaborates on the process needed to develop a participatory research project and presents two examples to illustrate the characteristics of such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both in its ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in its policies on urban renewal, the UK Government has committed itself to realizing children’s participation in decision-making. Critically reflecting on the author’s experience as a secondee from an NGO to a government regeneration project, this paper investigates the politics of childhood in urban renewal, illustrating the gap between rhetoric and reality and examining what needs to change to ensure that children really benefit. It highlights the double exclusion from regeneration processes and outcomes that children on neighbourhood estates experience in terms of social class and ‘generation’. While noting the qualified progress made in tackling class-based exclusion of adults through the development of local accountability, it suggests how this can be complemented by extending accountability to children. Lastly, it asks what roles the big UK children’s charities can play in supporting this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses attention on the ways in which knowledge operates to structure and limit what can possibly be done in community-building initiatives. Specifically, we devote attention to the forms of knowledge either categorized as ‘local’ or ‘expert’. This paper draws out a theoretical basis to understand how community-building as a process, and professional community-building practitioners themselves, often create, maintain, and police these epistemological boundaries, and through case studies illustrate how this impacts people's access to putting knowledge into action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time banks are new community-based initiatives in the UK that use time as a unit of local currency. Participants give and receive help in exchange for time credits. Reciprocal volunteering, community participation and active citizenship are encouraged, particularly for the socially excluded who normally volunteer least. The findings of case study research with an inner city time bank from Glasgow in Scotland are presented, to assess their role and potential as tools for promoting community development and overcoming social exclusion. The paper concludes with a summary of important lessons learned for practitioners, and policy recommendations to help them to achieve their objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a number of indicators constituting the construct of 'perceived community cohesion'. These include; a sense of belonging, perceived social support, solidarity, rootedness, social ties, and alienation. A sample of residents in three different communities according to their socioeconomic structure was administered questionnaires. Results indicate that a sense of belonging, solidarity, rootedness, and social ties were higher amongst residents of rural communities (kibbutz and village) than amongst residents in an urban centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social quality is a recently developed standard for assessing social and economic progress. It aims to measure the extent to which communities can participate in social, political and economic life under conditions which enhance both individual and community well-being. It also has a potentially radical policy dimension in that it is concerned with social justice and has been formulated as a corrective to the over-reliance on economic measures of well-being. This paper explores ways in which communities can enhance their social quality in their dealings with national institutions in relation to the following social quality elements: socioeconomic security, social inclusion, social cohesion and empowerment. Finally, illustrative indicators for community social cohesion and social inclusion are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people are competent citizens who can create community change, but the media often emphasize troubled youth and the services they require. This paper reports on a national effort to increase youth participation in community-based organizations in the United States. It provides cross-site analysis of their issues and strategies, the impacts of participation and the factors that facilitate and limit the process. It concludes with observations about the changing context of youth participation and the participatory community-based research methods needed to increase its understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arts projects have become an important part of community development strategies. In addition to any creative achievements, projects are expected to have positive and measurable impacts on local social capital. Funding organizations routinely demand evidence for this, and formal evaluations of projects have become a condition of investment. However, quantifying the impact of the arts in terms of social gain presents considerable difficulties, arguably greater than in any other field of evaluation. These problems are not just methodological. They also raise the question of the extent to which creative processes can - or should - be managed and controlled. This paper discusses these issues and reviews evaluations of community-based arts programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community work is not easily captured in a diagram, and any attempt to visually represent the complex nature of community development is a ready target for criticism. While the Department for International Development's (DFID) sustainable livelihoods framework can be strung up on the same charges of enticing people into simplicity and rigidity, this paper argues that, used flexibly, it can be an effective tool for organizing and analysing ideas. Using a UK community energy scheme as a case example, it demonstrates how, by stirring in an individual project's needs, a little creativity, and a staunch lack of respect for rigid diagrams, the sustainable livelihoods framework and its accompanying approach can cook up an excellent stock for a community development toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses community economic development when communities discover that market-based growth is not providing economic security. This situation typically arises when market forces turn against a community. A process-discursive methodology is suggested as a way forward. This is in contrast with prescriptions for growth based on allegedly scientific economic analysis. These prescriptions necessarily emphasize restoring market success by policies such as greater savings or enhanced entrepreneurship, policies that reflect the economist's professional socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community economic development models (CEDM) have become the latest fashion in the field of regional development policy. However, CEDM means different things to different people, including institutional building at the community level, economic development in a specific geographical area, bottom-up rather than top-down development or the development of a community enterprise. This paper focuses on the most contentious aspect of this approach to regional development policy - capacity and opportunity - in order to draw some conclusions and recommendations about the viability of CEDM for regional communities. It draws on research literature from Canada and Australia to inform this debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chart is presented depicting data on books, documents, and papers received "by the Community Development Journal" including "The Celtic Tiger and Social Partnership," "Critical Education Against Global Capitalism: Karl Marx and Revolutionary Critical Education," and "Family and Community in Ireland."

This paper addresses social and economic issues relating to closures of bank branches in rural communities. It examines research on the issues at government and academic levels and then applies the results to rural communities, where local people have identified their own needs and set about instigating change. Of note is the local management of change when communities recognized what was occurring in their towns threatened the long‐term viability of their local economy and thus their community's survival. Community development theory is then used to examine the processes these communities went through to achieve their notable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the significance of emotions in community life. Emotions are defined as value judgements about ‘objects’ over which individuals and communities have little control. These objects could be places, things, events or people. When we respond to objects with sadness, anxiety, anger, gratitude, joy, or a range of other emotions, we are making value judgements. It is asserted that emotions cannot be separated from community life or rational thought. We also address one aspect of a community's emotional life, a ‘great faith in soul.’ We define soul and investigate how a community developer can help a community to respond to its ‘great faith in soul’ in ways that recognize the messiness in community. Community rituals dealing with transition and chaos, celebration and healing are explored. These rituals are links between the ideals associated with soul and the disorderly aspects of community life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins by noting the range of contradictions and dilemmas facing those involved in community development today. It then draws on research into the operating frameworks that set the stage for much current community development activity. It discusses four key operating frameworks and how each framework can affect community development practice. The final section deals with the ways in which the frameworks, and the discourses associated with them, come together. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The transformation of welfare in South Africa is examined through a survey of welfare agencies in KwaZulu‐Natal. Under apartheid, race was employed as an instrument of control and community work had a ‘group’ character. Post‐apartheid welfare policy seeks to increase community participation and eliminate the historic racial character of agencies. Social policy also places the burden of delivery on the voluntary sector. In this paper the age, gender, and racial characteristics of the boards and management of agencies are assessed. Measured by these and other criteria it is concluded that transformation has yet to be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]