The Routledge Handbook Of Community Development Research

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.

The Routledge Handbook of Community Development explores community development theory and practice across the world. The book provides perspectives about community development as an interactive, relevant and sometimes contradictory way to address issues impacting the human condition. It promotes better understanding of the complexities and challenges in identifying, designing, implementing and evaluating community development constructs, applications and interventions. This edited volume discusses how community development is conceptualized as an approach, method or profession. Themes provide the scope of the book, with projects, issues or perspectives presented in each of these areas. This handbook provides invaluable contextualized insights on the theory and practice of community development around core themes relevant in society. Each chapter explores and presents an issue, perspectives, project or case in the thematic areas, with regional and country context included. It is a must-read for students and researchers working in community development, planning and human geography and an essential reference for any professional engaged in community development.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the world’s most pressing global development challenges – including how they may be better understood and addressed through innovative practices and approaches to learning and teaching. Featuring 61 contributions from leading and emerging academics and practitioners, this multidisciplinary volume is organized into five thematic parts exploring: changes in global development financing, ideologies, norms and partnerships; interrelationships between development, natural environments and inequality; shifts in critical development challenges, and; new possibilities for positive change. Collectively, the handbook demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change. The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars across multiple disciplines including Development Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Global Studies, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies, Political Science, and Urban Studies.

Beginning with the foundations of community development, An Introduction to Community Development offers a comprehensive and practical approach to planning for communities. Road-tested in the authors’ own teaching, and through the training they provide for practicing planners, it enables students to begin making connections between academic study and practical know-how from both private and public sector contexts. An Introduction to Community Development shows how planners can utilize local economic interests and integrate finance and marketing considerations into their strategy. Most importantly, the book is strongly focused on outcomes, encouraging students to ask: what is best practice when it comes to planning for communities, and how do we accurately measure the results of planning practice? This newly revised and updated edition includes: increased coverage of sustainability issues, discussion of localism and its relation to community development, quality of life, community well-being and public health considerations, and content on local food systems. Each chapter provides a range of reading materials for the student, supplemented with text boxes, a chapter outline, keywords, and reference lists, and new skills based exercises at the end of each chapter to help students turn their learning into action, making this the most user-friendly text for community development now available.

This Handbook offers an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of core themes and concepts in community-based tourism management. Providing interdisciplinary insights from leading international scholars, this is the first book to critically examine the current status of community-based tourism. Organised into five parts, the Handbook provides cutting-edge perspectives on issues such as Indigenous communities, tourism and the environment, sustainability, and the impact of digital communities. Part 1 introduces core concepts and methodologies, and distinguishes community products from other tourism and hospitality goods. Part 2 explores communities’ attitudes towards tourism development and their engagement with and ownership of the process. It also delves into the role of community- based tourism, under the influence of governmental policies, in the economic and social development of a region. In Part 3 various management, marketing, and branding initiatives are identified as a means of expanding the tourism business. Part 4 examines the negative impacts of mass tourism and its threats to culture, tradition, identity, the built environment, and natural heritage. In the final and fifth part, future challenges and opportunities for community-based tourism initiatives are considered, and research-based sustainable solutions are proposed. Overall, the book considers engaging local populations in tourism development as a way of building stronger and more resilient communities. This Handbook fills a void in the current research and thus will appeal to scholars, students, and practitioners interested in tourism management, tourism geography, business studies, development policy and practice, regional development, conservation, and sustainability.

Community health is an emerging and growing discipline of public health and it focuses on the physical, social, and mental well-being of the people of specific districts. This interdisciplinary field brings together aspects of health care, economics, environment, and people interaction. This handbook is a comprehensive reference on public health for higher education students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers of health care. There are five key thematic sections in the book: perspectives in public health; community health in practise; planning, built, and social environment and community health; digital and mobile health; and, towards sustainable health in the community. Each theme explores the leading research and trends. This book aims to help achieve the shared goal of healthier communities and quality of life for the residents. This collaborative work should be a very useful handbook to health professionals and government bodies in the planning of initiatives to improve population health, prevent chronic diseases, control infectious diseases and outbreaks, and prepare for natural disasters. This handbook integrates research and practise of public health in the community.

Qualitative Research Methods for Community Development teaches the basic skills, tools, and methods of qualitative research with special attention to the needs of community practitioners. This book teaches students entering planning, community development, nonprofit management, social work, and similar applied fields the core skills necessary to conduct systematic research designed to empower communities and promote social change. Focusing on the basic elements of qualitative research, like field observation, interviewing, focus groups, and content analysis, Qualitative Research Methods for Community Development provides an overview of core methods and theoretical underpinnings of successful research. The book provides examples from past research used in transformative community projects across multiple disciplines. From housing, community organizing, neighborhood planning, and urban revitalization, this book gives students the skills they need to undertake their own projects, and provides professionals a valuable reference for their future research. The book serves as a primary text for courses in applied qualitative research, and as a reference book for professionals and community-based researchers. In addition to content detailing core methods used in qualitative research, it includes a chapter which provides guidance for the dissemination of qualitative results to a spectrum of audiences applying qualitative methods to action research and community empowerment.

The handbook seeks to illuminate the key concepts in the study of development-environment through showcasing some of the Majoritarian (formerly "Developing") world’s scholars in order to explore theoretical connections through critical/radical theory, “small” theory, various conceptual frameworks, and non-Western and subaltern viewpoints. The volume examines the themes around the study of the relationship between economic and social development and the environment. Part 1 covers theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of development and environment by examining the diverse ways in which people perceive, understand, and act upon the world around them. Cross-scalar topics such as neo-liberalism and globalization, human rights, climate change, sustainability, and technology are covered in Part 2. The book shifts to examinations of resources and production in Part 3, where authors with a focus on one or more environmental resources or types of economic production are presented. Topics range from water, agriculture, and food, to energy, bioeconomy, and mining. The fourth section presents chapters where people are at the center of the development-environment nexus through topics such as gender relations, children, health, and cities. Finally, policy and governance of development and environment are explored in Part 5. The section includes both academics and practitioners who have worked with policy makers and are policy makers themselves. The book is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students in geography, environmental studies, and development studies for whom it will provide an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across the range of disciplines, which converge in the study of development and environment.