Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development

Author: Peter Westoby
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136272852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
This book proposes that community development has been increasingly influenced and co-opted by a modernist, soulless, rational philosophy - reducing it to a shallow technique for ‘solving community problems’. In contrast, this dialogical approach re-maps the ground of community development practice within a frame of ideas such as dialogue, hospitality and depth. For the first time community development practitioners are provided with an accessible understanding of dialogue and its relevance to their practice, exploring the contributions of internationally significant thinkers such as P. Freire, M. Buber, D. Bohm and H.G Gadamer, J. Derrida, G. Esteva and R. Sennett. What makes the book distinctive is that: first, it identifies a dialogical tradition of community development and considers how such a tradition shapes practice within contemporary contexts and concerns – economic, social, political, cultural and ecological. Second, the book contrasts such an approach with technical and instrumental approaches to development that fail to take complex systems seriously. Third, the approach links theory to practice through a combination of storytelling and theory-reflection – ensuring that readers are drawn into a practice-theory that they feel increasingly confident has been 'tried and tested' in the world over the past 25 years.

Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development

Author: Peter Westoby
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136272844
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Dialogic Organization Development

Author: Gervase R. Bushe
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1626564051
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 455

Book Description
A Dynamic New Approach to Organizational Change Dialogic Organization Development is a compelling alternative to the classical action research approach to planned change. Organizations are seen as fluid, socially constructed realities that are continuously created through conversations and images. Leaders and consultants can help foster change by encouraging disruptions to taken-for-granted ways of thinking and acting and the use of generative images to stimulate new organizational conversations and narratives. This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to Dialogic Organization Development with chapters by a global team of leading scholar-practitioners addressing both theoretical foundations and specific practices.

Dialogical Community Development

Author: Peter Westoby
Publisher: Millipede Books
ISBN: 9780975765838
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
Community development has been increasingly influenced and co-opted by a modernist, soulless, rational philosophy, which has reduced it to a shallow technique for 'solving community problems' and threatens the very legitimacy of community development as an instrument of society's renewal and fulfilment. Dialogical Community Development is a courageous, ground-breaking attempt to re-draw the parameters and re-map the ground of community development practice. By re-imagining community as dialogue and hospitality, the authors create an alternative vision of community development practice: a deep, soulful exercise that demands a re-examination of personal values, and a respect for and solidarity with the groups within the community. In a series of conversations on transformative community processes, challenges for practitioners, and practical care for the multiple dimensions of community life, the authors set out the details of this vision. Highly recommended for students, scholars, policy makers, activists, and anyone who is interested in bringing more life and collaborative movement into their ways of engaging with community.

International Community Development Practice

Author: Charlie McConnell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000460614
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
International Community Development Practice provides readers with practice-based examples of good community development, demonstrating its value for strengthening people power and improving the effectiveness of development agencies, whether these be governmental, non-governmental or private sector. The chapters focus upon the making of the community development profession and the eight core competences required of the professional practitioner, as outlined by the International Association for Community Development (IACD), whatever their job title or host agency, in order to be able to undertake community development. These are concerned with the ability of the practitioner to: Put ethics and values into practice Engage with communities Ensure participatory planning Organize for change Support learning for change Promote diversity and inclusion Build leadership and infrastructure Develop and improve policy and practice From a policy perspective, the book will reassert the role of community development approaches as related to a wide variety of global challenges, including poverty amelioration, climate change, human rights, peace building and social, environmental, political and economic development. From a practice perspective, the book will reassert the importance of high levels of professional competence building upon decades of experience in the field around the world by development practitioners working in community work, social work, health, adult education, environmental protection, local economic development, urban design, cultural work and other disciplines concerned to support effective community development.

Theorising the Practice of Community Development

Author: Peter Westoby
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131701099X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
Based on 25 years of community development practice, six of which have been lived in South Africa, Peter Westoby’s ground-breaking monograph moves away from dominant normative accounts of community development to provide an appreciative and critical analysis of concrete examples of community development theory and practice. By examining community development stories as experienced on the ground, Westoby is able to show how the poor are organising themselves using various forms of community development as well as demonstrating how the state and non-state actors are attempting to organise, engage or accompany the poor through community development. The book also breaks new ground in theorising the practice of community development, drawing inductively from the stories analysed. The diversity of South African contexts and the proliferation of different kinds of community practice, make this a hugely difficult task. Despite this, Westoby argues it is one worth undertaking given the seriousness of the challenges facing the poor and progressive social change agents within South Africa. In this undertaking, Westoby draws upon a unique analytical framework to help illuminate current community development policy and programme challenges, along with practice dilemmas and wisdom.

Theorising the Practice of Community Development

Author: Dr Peter Westoby
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1472423119
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Community Development in Action

Author: Margaret Ledwith
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1847428754
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
In a world in which social divisions are widening not lessening, it is essential for community development, or any other practice committed to social justice and sustainability, to understand how power works at every level, from grassroots projects to movements for change. This exciting and practical book is filled to the brim with useful ideas for busy practitioners. Building on the work of Paulo Freire, theories are presented in interesting and straightforward ways to provide an everyday reference for practice. Contained in these pages is all you need to give your practice a critical edge!

Social and Community Development

Author: John Eversley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137502126
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
Social and Community Development is an essential introduction to the subject for students, potential practitioners, and activists interested in community action and emancipatory social change. It reflects on the underlying principles of development: what development is, why it is promoted and the implications for practice, indicating potential strategies and goals.

The Routledge Handbook of Community Development Research

Author: Lynda Shevellar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317043863
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 594

Book Description
This handbook sets a new research agenda in community development. The contributors redefine existing areas within the context of interdisciplinary research, highlight emerging areas for community development related research, and provide researchers and post-graduate students with ideas and encouragement for future research activity. To do this, the editors have deliberately chosen to frame this book not through a traditional sociological lens of class, race and gender, but through a "Wicked Problems" framework. Drawing upon the work of 37 international authors, in diverse settings such as West Papua, Peru, the USA and Australia; and with methodologies equally as diverse, from case studies and interviews to the use of music and story-telling, this handbook focuses upon five Wicked Problems: forced displacement; family, gender and child related violence; indigenous marginalisation; climate change and food security; and human survival in the context of disaster and recovery work. By drawing together leading scholars from community development, social work and social policy, this handbook provides an up to the minute snapshot of current scholarship as well as signposting several fruitful avenues for future research. This book is both an invaluable resource for both scholars and practitioners and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and in the field.