Editorial introduction to the Special Issue

In March 2004, a major conference on community development inthe ‘new Europe’ was held in Budapest, Hungary,to mark the accession of a further ten nation states, most ofthem in the east and central European region, to the EuropeanUnion. The conference was sponsored by the International Associationfor Community Development (www.iacdglobal.org), in conjunctionwith the Combined European Bureau for Social Development (www.cebsd.org),the Hungarian Association for Community Development (kofe@kkapcsolat.hu),and the Community Development Journal (www.cdj.oupjournals.org).The initial outcome was the Budapest Declaration, the text ofwhich was included in the CDJ issue of October 2004 (39(4),423–429 – copies     

Community development in the west of Ireland: twenty years on in the Killala area

This research returns to a 1986 Community Development Journalarticle, which highlighted the unique and successful locallydriven community development efforts in Killala, western Ireland.Since then, a variety of social, economic, and political changeshave taken place, which have reshaped Ireland and the capacityfor local community action. Twenty years on, this communitywas revisited with the goal of assessing the changes, as wellas to determine community characteristics that have persisted.This article seeks to provide an update on local conditions,presents an in-depth exploration of local grassroots efforts,and builds on the previous case study by providing an empiricalexploration of the factors shaping local community agency –a mixed-method framework consisting of extensive key informantinterviews, focus groups, and household survey data.     

Editorial

This Issue begins with an article by Glen Laverack in an examinationof visual representations of strategies to build community capacity,which he sees as being closely aligned to the process of communitydevelopment. Drawing upon his experience in Fiji and KyrgyzstanLaverack assessing the value of using visual representationin what he describes as a ‘parallel-track’ approachin relation to capacity building and programme implementation.Laverack argues that the use of visual representations can beespecially beneficial to practitioners and the democratisationof information. Paul Henderson     

Robert M. Teeter, 1939-2004

Robert M. "Bob" Teeter—political pollster, key strategistin the campaigns of every Republican president from 1968 to1992, co-director with Peter Hart of the Wall Street Journal/NBCPoll, board member and consultant to major corporations—diedof cancer at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on June 13. Hewas 65. "Teeter’s work with Hart evoked respect on both sidesof the political aisle," said Tim Russert, NBC News’sWashington bureau chief and host of Meet the Press. "You could always take Bob Teeter’s     

Participation and accountability in corporate community involvement programmes: a research agenda

Corporate community involvement (CCI) is catching up among businessesoperating in developing countries under the wave of corporatesocial responsibility (CSR). Significantly, CCI discourse theworld over is shifting from ‘involvement’ to ‘investment’,the latter advancing the business case. This shifting paradigmdepicts a calculative approach to CCI based on costs and benefits,revealing reciprocal yet unequal corporate–community relationships.This approach when implemented in already disadvantaged communitiesraises fears of exploitation rather than community empowerment.This article critiques the predominant approaches applied inCCI and their implications towards poverty reduction and sustainablecommunity development efforts in developing countries.     

Four different approaches to community participation

This paper explores some of the politics of community work byexamining four basic community participation approaches. Movingfrom the right of politics to the left, it overviews some ofthe different theoretical orientations, goals, processes andrecruitment practices that are commonly used but not alwaysrecognized to constitute different forms of community participation.Offered primarily to ‘lay’ community members, studentsand beginning practitioners, the paper is intended to clarifysome of the differences that emerge when participation projectsare designed, and to stimulate discussion about community participationmore generally.     

The Durham Miners' Gala and the spirit of community

Can industrial communities survive the loss of their industrialheritage? Can communities once thought to be in terminal declinereinvigorate themselves? Evidence from the Durham coalminingcommunities suggests that the answer to both questions is yes.This paper presents evidence from a study of the annual DurhamMiners' Gala – the ‘Big Meeting’ – thatreflects a revival of community vitality around the event. Togetherwith an analysis of the Gala itself, the complex backgroundto the resilience of the mining communities is explored.     

Revisiting 'community' in community-based natural resource management

This article is concerned with the diverse nature and interestin the concept of ‘community’ and especially asit applies to community-based natural resource management projectsthat have grown in emphasis during the past twenty years. Despiteall the rhetoric about community and its reference in a ritualisticmanner in projects and policy documents, often contrary experiencesand mixed results in the field have started stirring negativereactions from various quarters. This article delves into thechallenges and dilemmas, which the focus on ‘community’,with its lack of specificity, has conjured up for practitioners,policy-makers and academicians alike.     

Strength Broadsides from Disability on the Arts

This book is a deeply personal treatise connecting experienceto the very tangible social constructs around Dis-Ability. We are writing as what Masefield calls TAP s – temporarilyable people – with experience of working in communitydevelopment and community arts: his own life exemplifies this.Masefield was a respected and successful theatre director andcommunity arts manager when, at forty-four, he developed a debilitatingand devastating myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which renderedhim speechless and almost immobile. Indeed, one of the mostpowerful parts of the book is where he describes his own transitionfrom able to disabled like ‘trying to run a car on a torchbattery’. A very useful ‘way in’ to all ofthis     

Editorial

In an applied field of study and action such as community developmentthe process of theorization and the role of critical writingand publishing are crucial. Journals such as the Community DevelopmentJournal (CDJ), along with the countless but invaluable magazines,newsletters, reports and working papers, simultaneously provideopportunities for critical reflection and theory building onpractice and the evaluation of theorize in practice. Those whowrite within and about community development are almost inevitablyengaged emotionally, intellectually or economically with thesubject as academics, researchers, policy makers and analysts,practitioners, managers and even occasionally beneficiaries.Thus, community development can be a practice that to some extentreflects who we are and what we value. At its best criticalwriting challenges personal assumptions and behaviours and providesinsights that extend our conceptual understanding of the fieldin which we are     

Community development research: Merging (or submerging) communities of practice? A response to Van Vlaenderen

A response to Van Vlaenderen (2004) is needed both as a correctivemeasure and as a stimulus for debate. This article argues thatVan Vlaenderen incorrectly draws on the theory of ‘communitiesof practice’ (Lave and Wenger, 1999; Wenger, 1998) anddiscusses the conceptual and political implications of suchincorrect usage. The article contends that the merger of communitiesof practice that Van Vlaenderen describes using two case examplesis unlikely to have occurred and that presenting such transactionsas mergers can be unhelpful to the community development fieldin that they mask important status and power asymmetries thatexist within and between communities. This latter argument issupported by a discussion of the concepts of participation,participatory process, power, and empowerment. Van Vlaenderenappears to have written about joint activity between communitiesrather than the merger of communities of practice.     

Social capital, the social economy and community development

Social capital is increasingly used in the field of communitydevelopment and the social economy. This article describes someof the results to emerge from a three-year research project(CONSCISE Project), which looked at the contribution socialcapital can make to the social economy within local economicdevelopment. Following the definition of social capital, thearticle examines how it can be assessed and then goes on tolist the main findings on the significance of social capitalin the understanding of the social economy and community development.It concludes with a number of policy implications on how socialcapital can be used within the context of community development.     

Assumptions, Motivations and Neutrality in Rural Development: The Portuguese Paradigm

Development agents need to examine their underlying assumptions,motivations, neutrality, and their terminology, which is oftenimprecise and misleading. In addition, development is frequentlycharacterized by self-created dichotomies that obscure the veryproblems that need to be solved. The combined cooperativistand constructivist approach has proved itself successful inovercoming these problems. "A lady once said to him, ‘My maid must be pleased, Igave her my dresses.’ ‘That's nice’, he replied,‘does she give you hers?" Jean-Paul Sarrte, Saint Genet "You name it, you claim it." Max Roach, Black American jazzmusician, referring to whites, and jazz.     

A New Deal': art, museums and communities re-imagining relations

‘A New Deal’ argues that engaged or participatoryart practice can be shown to be central rather than marginalto the meaning and value of art in the ‘story’ ofhuman society, but only if we take a long view and change theposition from which we read and understand received history.It also argues that new models of art and institutional practiceare needed in the present, which foreground and validate participation,engagement and commonality – the reconnection of artistand community within social space. These new models are neededif we are to generate the new art forms that emancipate ratherthan disempower the citizen and which are not defined by thecul de sac of commodity and consumerism.     

Errata

In Table A of Werner Cohn's comment (POQ 48:661) on the articleby Himmelfarb, Loar, and Mott ("Sampling by ethnic surnames:the case of American Jews," POQ 47:247–60), there is amissing minus sign: item 15 in the DJN column should read -.18. Harold Himmelfarb points out that in the response to Cohn(POQ 48:664–65), this error makes questionable the interpretationby him and his coauthors (p. 665). In "Taking Note: Bibliographies," in Book Notes (POQ 49:141),the number of pages given for the Guide to the Bureau of AppliedSocial Research, edited by Judith S. Barton, was erroneouslygiven. The book has 202 pages.     

Non-formal education and community development in Senegal

Given the often limited capacity of most African states to addressthe needs of their populations, local communities must findways to tackle many development challenges. For example, inSenegal, villagers have had to ensure a steady supply of water,construct health huts, and dispose of waste. As these problemshave become more acute, new practices and structures are required.To effectively address different issues and problems requiresa high level of community cooperation. This article exploresthe factors that give rise to community participation and specificallythe role of non-formal education.     

Community Development and Government Response

The article contrasts two programmes aimed at improving thequality of life for older women in Australia. The CommunityOptions programme is a wellfunded Government initiative directedat personal care within the home. The Older Women's Networkis a grass-roots community development initiative. The articleexamines the relationship between control and resourcing interms of preventative and crisis care.     

The Polls Trends: Public Reactions to Global Health Threats and Infectious Diseases

Over the past two decades, newly emerging infectious diseaseshave developed into major global health concerns, sparking intensemedia coverage, and triggering fears of a global outbreak amongpublic health experts and authorities. This article focuseson trends in American attitudes toward these newly emerged infectiousdiseases by analyzing poll data over the past 6 years aboutissues relating to avian flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome,West Nile virus, and anthrax. The polls show that Americans’attention to news coverage seemed to be event driven, peakingwhen there were new human or animal cases, and decreasing rapidlywhen the diseases seemed to have been contained. Americans’perceptions of threats were usually the highest in the earlystages of major outbreaks. The public became more complacentwhen the outbreaks seemed to be under control. Both behavioralchanges and general knowledge remained largely constant, suggestinga limited impact of the various informational and awarenesscampaigns by governmental agencies in the wake of these pandemics. Abbreviations: ABC, ABC News • ABC/WP, ABC News/Washington Post • AP/IPSOS, IPSOS-Public Affairs for Associated Press • CBS, CBS News • CBS/NYT, CBS News/New York Times • GALLUP, Gallup Organization • GALLUP/CNN/USA, Gallup Organization for CNN/USA Today • HARRIS/TIME/CNN, Harris Interactive for Time and CNN • ICR/HARVARD, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security • ICR/HARVARD-RWJF, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • IPSOS/DC, IPSOS-Reid for Dittus Communications • NORC, National Opinion Research Center • OD/FOX, Opinion Dynamics for Fox News • PSRA/KAISER, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health • PSRA/NEWS, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Newsweek • PSRA/PEW, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Pew Research Center • PSRA/PMFMI, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Prevention Magazine/Food Marketing Institute     

SELF-INTEREST AND PUBLIC OPINION TOWARD SMOKING POLICIES; A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION

Numerous studies report that self-interest has a non significantinfluence upon various political and social attitudes. In contrast,a recent article by Green and Gerken (1989) reports a Californiastudy showing that cigarette smokers are significantly moreopposed than nonsmokers to public smoking restrictions and tobaccosales tax increases. The present article replicates and extendsthis analysis with data from two different states—Illinois(in 1984, N=458)—and North Carolina (in 1985, N=488)—andusing analysis techniques that differ from and expand upon theCalifornia study. Despite these methodological differ ences,self-interest is again shown to have a significant influenceon opinions concerning public smoking restrictions and taxation,as well as on several additional issues relating to smokingand tobacco.