Community Development in an Uncertain World
Vision, Analysis and Practice

Community Development in an Uncertain World is an essential resource for students and professionals in the human services.

Jim Ife (Author)

9781107543362, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 September 2016

412 pages, 8 b/w illus.
24.7 x 17.5 x 2.1 cm, 0.74 kg

In Community Development in an Uncertain World, Jim Ife draws on the principles of social justice, ecological responsibility and post-Enlightenment and Indigenous perspectives to advance new holistic approaches to community development. The book explores the concept of community development on a local and international scale in the context of globalisation and postcolonial theory. Students will gain the essential skills and practical understanding required to navigate the existing managerial environment and cultivate new community practices. This new edition incorporates current research into community development and includes important new work on 'alternative visions' for a sustainable and just future. It introduces the foundational theories of community development and explains their importance in shaping solutions to uniquely modern issues. Readers are encouraged to critically engage with the material through the accompanying discussion questions. Written in an accessible, engaging style, this text is an essential resource for students and professionals in the human services.

1. Crisis, transition and community
2. Alternatives and transitions
3. Foundations of community development: ecological and social justice perspectives
4. Foundations of community development: post-Enlightenment and Indigenous perspectives
5. A vision for community development
6. Change from below
7. The process of community development
8. The global and the local
9. Colonialism, colonialist practice and working internationally
10. Community development: social, economic and political
11. Community development: cultural, environmental, spiritual, personal and survival
12. Principles of community development and their application to practice
13. Roles and skills 1: facilitative and educational
14. Roles and skills 2: representational and technical
15. The organisational context
16. Practice issues.

Subject Areas: Sociology: work & labour [JHBL], Social theory [JHBA], Sociology [JHB], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Society & social sciences [J]