Critical Community Practice

With the increasing focus on 'community' as the site for renewing democracy, improving policymaking and enhancing service delivery, this book provides a challenging approach to understanding community practice. It offers a much-needed theoretical perspective, sets out an analysis of power and empowerment and explores new ways of understanding active citizenship.

The book covers a wide range of theoretical and practice topics. First presenting a model of critical community practice, the authors draw upon a variety of case studies from Britain and elsewhere to discuss this in the context of work in and with community groups; management; policy and politics; and development of the critical practitioner.

Demands being placed on individuals and organisations have become increasingly complex and greater clarity about community practice is needed. This book, designed to complement the authors' edited volume "Managing Community Practice" (The Policy Press, 2003) provides just that.

The book's content will be of particular interest to those following the debates on community involvement in regeneration, social inclusion and health improvement programmes. It will provide a resource for those already engaged in community practice and thus inform the work of local authorities, government agencies, voluntary organisations and partnerships. It will be relevant reading for all those people working to promote change and development in communities. It will also be an essential text for students on a range of professional and management programmes in community development, health, housing, planning and other disciplines with a community focus.

Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences and Co-director, Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, Durham University, UK. She teaches and researches in the fields of community development, professional ethics and participatory action research. She was Coordinator of Imagine North East.

Paul Henderson is Director, Practice Development, Community Development Foundation

Editor - Managing community practice (Banks, Butcher, Henderson and Robertson), 2003