Heritage as Community Research explores the nature of contemporary heritage research involving university and community partners. Putting forward a new view of heritage as a process of research and involvement with the past, undertaken with or by the communities for whom it is relevant, the book uses a diverse range of case studies, with many chapters co-written between academics and community partners. Through this extensive work, the Editors show that the process of research itself can be an empowering force by which communities stake a claim in the places they live.
Issues of displacement and dispossession have become defining characteristics of a globalised 21st century. People are moving within and across national borders, whether displaced, relocated or moving in search of better livelihoods.
This book brings theoretical understandings of migration and displacement together with empirical illustrations of the creative, cultural ways in which communities reflect upon their experiences of change, and how they respond, including through poetry and story-telling, photography and other art forms, exploring the scope for building communities of solidarity and social justice.
The concluding chapters identify potential implications for policy and professional practice to promote communities of solidarity, addressing the structural causes of widening inequalities, taking account of different interests, including those related to social class, gender, ethnicity, age, ability and faith.
‘Community’ is a much used yet little understood term. Through a set of detailed case studies of communities in action this book examines the sources of community activism, the ways in which communities define themselves, and are defined by outsiders, and the nature of the interface between communities and public agencies via partnerships.
The essays indicate how communities are sites for internal conflict between the young and old, men and women, and for external conflict with local and central government and other public agencies. The important role of women is another strong theme.
Contested communities provides detailed pictures of community life on run-down estates in some of Britain’s most deprived communities; looks at the way in which local government reorganisation has been influenced by ideas of community; examines some of the problems of partnership; looks at new directions in community organising, such as networking.
A vivid picture of people struggling to keep community spirit alive in the face of crime, apathy and public ignorance is built, showing that policies relating to crime prevention and economic regeneration are often made in ignorance of the complexity and variety of communities, often with negative effects. This book seeks to remedy this problem and as such will be highly relevant to both policy makers and practitioners, as well as to students and researchers in the field of public and social policy.
Understanding community is a highly topical text offering a clear understanding of policy and theory in relation to community. By examining areas of government policy, such as economic development, education, health, housing, and community safety, this book explores the difficulties that communities face and discusses new concepts such as community cohesion, social capital and community capacity building. Somerville challenges our understanding of community, both social and conceptual, and assesses the strengths and limitations of this understanding.
This book is essential for students studying social policy, social work and sociology, and an invaluable resource for policymakers in community development, urban regeneration and allied fields.
Encouraging neighbourhood social mix has been a major goal of urban policy and planning in a number of different countries. This book draws together a range of case studies by international experts to assess the impacts of social mix policies and the degree to which they might represent gentrification by stealth.
The contributions consider the range of social mix initiatives in different countries across the globe and their relationship to wider social, economic and urban change. The book combines understandings of social mix from the perspectives of researchers, policy makers and planners and the residents of the communities themselves. Mixed Communities also draws out more general lessons from these international comparisons - theoretically, empirically and for urban policy. It will be highly relevant for urban researchers and students, policy makers and practitioners alike.
9 TWO Urban policy and communities Stuart Wilks-Heeg Introduction In one form or another, all UK governments since 1945 have pursued policies aimed at addressing urban problems. A concern with community has been evident throughout, although the assumptions about how communities would be engaged with, and benefit from, these policies have varied enormously. In the first two decades after the end of the Second World War, communities were regarded as the passive beneficiaries of planned decentralisation to new towns and the replacement of ‘slums’ with modern
There is growing recognition in practice and policy of how networking contributes to the vitality and cohesion of community life and civil society. The Well-Connected Community provides theoretical insights and practical guidance for people working with and for communities.
This updated edition takes account of the changing political and economic context, including rising social inequalities and community tensions. It considers new approaches to well being, such as social prescribing and the use of social media for local and global organising. This model of community development explains and promotes networking as a skilled and strategic intervention and provides recommendations for good practice.
With trust in top-down government faltering, community-based groups around the world are displaying an ever-greater appetite to take control of their own lives and neighbourhoods. Government, for its part, is keen to embrace the projects and the planning undertaken at this level, attempting to regularise it and use it as a means of reconnecting to citizens and localising democracy.
This unique book analyses the contexts, drivers and outcomes of community action and planning in a selection of case studies in the global north: from emergent neighbourhood planning in England to the community-based housing movement in New York, and from active citizenship in the Dutch new towns to associative action in Marseille.
It will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and for postgraduate students on social policy, planning and community development courses.
In the past decade community groups have been portrayed as the solution to many social problems. Yet the role of ‘below the regulatory radar’ community action has received little research attention and thus is poorly understood in terms of both policy and practice.
Focusing on self-organised community activity, this book offers the first collection of papers developing theoretical and empirically grounded knowledge of the informal, unregistered, yet largest, part of the voluntary sector. The collection includes work from leading academics, activists, policy makers and practitioners offering a new and coherent understanding of community action ‘below the radar’.
The book is part of the Third Sector Research Series which is informed by research undertaken at the Third Sector Research Centre, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Barrow Cadbury Trust.
Based on a four-year research project which highlights the important role of community organisations as intermediaries between community and culture, this book analyses the role played by cultural intermediaries who seek to mitigate the worst effects of social exclusion through engaging communities with different forms of cultural consumption and production. The authors challenge policymakers who see cultural intermediation as an inexpensive fix to social problems and explore the difficulty for intermediaries to rapidly adapt their activity to the changing public-sector landscape and offer alternative frameworks for future practice.
