Engineers and Development: From Empires to Sustainable Development -- Why Design for Industry Will Not Work as Design for Community -- Engineering with Community -- Listening to Community -- ESCD Case Study 1: Sika Dhari's Windmill -- ESCD Case Study 2: Building Organizations and Mapping Communities in Honduras -- Students' Perspectives on ESCD: A Course Model -- Beyond Engineers and Community: A Path Forward.
Recently there has been a chorus of demands to "re‐imagine" social care. Community and faith‐based organisations, policy, and academic communities are engaged in discussions on issues such as human rights for older populations, the future of residential care, how to better support family/community care, and strengthen local place‐based community development. Moreover, the Covid‐19 pandemic has added new urgency to this mission, galvanizing developments for change and collective action and exposing public troubles of endemic system failings, prevailing discourses of ageism, tensions with health systems, and limitations of market models of care and support. Prevention is a central social welfare principle in many countries. It is associated with policy and practices that aim to meet social care needs early and is explored in this thematic issue.
Place-based strategies are widely discussed as powerful instruments of economic and community development. In terms of the European debate, the local level – cities, towns and neighbourhoods – has recently come under increased scrutiny as a potentially decisive actor in Cohesion Policy. As understandings of socio-spatial and economic cohesion evolve, the idea that spatial justice requires a concerted policy response has gained currency. Given the political, social and economic salience of locale, this book explores the potential contribution of place-based initiative to more balanced and equitable socio-economic development, as well as growth in a more general sense. The overall architecture of the book and the individual chapters address place-based perspectives from a number of vantage points, including the potential of achieving greater effectiveness in EU and national level development policies, through a greater local level and citizens' role and concrete actions for achieving this; enhancing decision-making autonomy by pooling local capacities for action; linking relative local autonomy to development outcomes and viewing spatial justice as a concept and policy goal. The book highlights, through the use of case studies, how practicable and actionable knowledge can be gained from local development experiences. This book targets researchers, practitioners and students who seek to learn more about place-based based development and its potentials. Its cross-cutting focus on spatial justice and place will ensure that the book is of wider international interest.
Place-based strategies are widely discussed as powerful instruments of economic and community development. In terms of the European debate, the local level – cities, towns and neighbourhoods – has recently come under increased scrutiny as a potentially decisive actor in Cohesion Policy. As understandings of socio-spatial and economic cohesion evolve, the idea that spatial justice requires a concerted policy response has gained currency. Given the political, social and economic salience of locale, this book explores the potential contribution of place-based initiative to more balanced and equitable socio-economic development, as well as growth in a more general sense. The overall architecture of the book and the individual chapters address place-based perspectives from a number of vantage points, including the potential of achieving greater effectiveness in EU and national level development policies, through a greater local level and citizens' role and concrete actions for achieving this; enhancing decision-making autonomy by pooling local capacities for action; linking relative local autonomy to development outcomes and viewing spatial justice as a concept and policy goal. The book highlights, through the use of case studies, how practicable and actionable knowledge can be gained from local development experiences. This book targets researchers, practitioners and students who seek to learn more about place-based based development and its potentials. Its cross-cutting focus on spatial justice and place will ensure that the book is of wider international interest.
The unit committee in Ghana's local government is believed to facilitate participatory development. After decades of practice, there is little research on the unit committee's role in participatory development. This paper contributes to this research gap by drawing on the experiences of participants sampled from the Kumasi Metropolitan and Ahafo Ano South-west districts. The paper argues that the unit committee–participatory development interface is spatially differentiated. While unit committees promoted instrumental participation in urban localities, their counterparts promoted transformative participation in rural communities. The findings suggest a rethink of the role of sub-district structures to reflect spatial characteristics of their localities.
Prevention is becoming ever more central in UK care policy for older people, though precisely what this entails, and how it works most effectively in social care and support, remains ambiguous. Set against the "newness" of recent social care legislation in Wales, this article explores the perspectives of professionals on prevention and community development, particularly for older people. This draws on qualitative data collected from 11 Welsh local authorities, four NHS Wales health boards, and eight regional third-sector organisations, incorporating 64 interviews with directors, executives, and senior managers. Recent research has highlighted concerns over the slipperiness of prevention as a concept, resulting in multiple interpretations and activities operating under its banner. Consistent with this, our data suggested a kaleidoscopic picture of variously named community-based initiatives working to support the intricate web of connections that sustain older people, as well as provide practical or material help. Similarly, professionals highlighted varied agendas of community resilience, individual independence, and reducing the need for state-funded health and social care, as well as a range of viewpoints on the roles of the state, private sector, and the third sector. Analysis revealed fragments of familiar themes in community development; positive hopes for community initiatives, tensions between the mixed agendas of state-instigated activities, and the practical challenges arising from systems imbued with neo-liberal ideas. Realising the promise of prevention will require deft steering through these challenges.
Purpose This study aims at understanding how higher education institutions (HEIs) can contribute to sustainable development, by designing their programmes for bringing about a transformative impact on communities and students, and also to examine what alternative pedagogical approaches could be used for that. In the past decades, HEIs have increasingly created social innovation (SI) programmes, as a way to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These community-oriented and field-based programmes are difficult to ally with conventional classroom education. This study explores how these programmes could integrate the participatory approach and what would be the benefits. It also investigates the effectiveness of the experiential learning approach for teaching sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach A case study method is used to document SI projects initiated by an HEI programme in rural India.
Findings It was found that the participatory approach contributes to empowering communities and also benefits the students in terms of academic, professional and personal growth. Empirical findings show that experiential learning is an efficient method to teach sustainability. Ultimately, both pedagogical approaches are found to be mutually beneficial.
Originality/value This study fills a gap in the literature, by providing empirical evidence on how HEI can implement innovative educational strategies such as participatory approach and experiential learning in their programmes towards teaching sustainability. A conceptual model for HEI interested in developing similar programmes is also proposed. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first studies focusing on the context of Indian HEI.
The current research determined the role of family development associations in reducing the phenomenon of divorce in Ha'il. The current research was an analytical descriptive social survey. Data was collected through a questionnaire applied to a sample of (98) participants who were frequent visitors to the family development associations in Ha'il. The research concluded that the role of family development associations was average in qualifying those about to get married, treating the problems of the newlyweds, and satisfying social, psychological, economic and legal needs of divorcees. Results, also, revealed that the role of family development associations in satisfying the social needs of divorced women ranked first compared to other roles
Keywords: Roles - Family development associations - Family development – Divorce
This book analyses regional development policy or the lack thereof in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which forms a key trading bloc on the African continent as well as the Global South. It explores the main attributes relevant to the formulation of regional policy in terms of socio-economic policies as well as spatial planning instruments. Further, it integrates macro and sectoral policy frameworks and applies the goals and objectives thereof practically through the appropriate and timely application of spatial targeting instruments within the SADC as a developing region.
The focus of the research is to reflect on the social, economic, environmental, and political arguments through a focused analysis of relevant planning instruments, policies, and barriers in terms of the regional policy goals for the SADC region. The book provides insight into the role of the SADC in the context of regional development, analyses regional policy on a national, regional, and continental scale with reference to the SADC, and evaluates the inherent potential in the regional economy as well as barriers to regional development. It identifies gaps in the existing regional policy framework of the region and its constituent members and makes recommendations for improved regional policy frameworks and their implementation.
The book is targeted at scholars, researchers, and students studying international trade as well as regional and economic development, and urban and regional planning and policy. It will also be a useful resource for policymakers, as it provides practical policy guidelines for improved regional planning towards a comprehensive regional policy framework.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
"In this book, influential development practitioners reflect on their careers by writing letters of advice to their younger selves. Sharing their successes and failures, the challenges and barriers they have encountered, and the changes and continuities within their work, these deeply personal accounts provide an invaluable window into the world of development practice. The authors come from nearly 20 countries. They have held a rich mix of jobs across a range of sectors and organisational types, bringing a long-term perspective to the sector's contemporary challenges. The distinguished list includes a Nobel prize winner, senior figures in government and international organisations, those working at the frontline of humanitarian aid and civil society organisations, and those who might not even have thought of themselves as 'development professionals', such as technologists and social entrepreneurs. Despite the differences, common themes emerge: the pursuit of meaningful change, the navigation of barriers, and the ongoing sense of hope. This book will inspire those about to embark on their professional careers and remind new entrants and current development practitioners alike how much there remains to be done"--
Community-based tourism (CBT) operates on a paradigm of community self-governance wherein traditional communities assume the role of instigators and protagonists in the realm of tourism within their territories. Within this framework, CBT emerges as a means of realizing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) articulated in the United Nations' Agenda 2030, outlined in 2015. The present study aims to compare three TBC communities with the SDG criteria and their contribution to the 2023 Agenda. To achieve this aim, we employed a methodological approach rooted in case study, leveraging secondary sources and adopting a qualitative methodology. The principal findings underscore that the three scrutinized CBT communities—Tekoá-Pirá, Chã de Jardim, and Amucafé, located in Brazil—directly contribute to the attainment of seven SDGs and indirectly influence two others. As prospective research avenues, we advocate exploring additional initiatives and implementing empirical studies to delve more profoundly into the realities of these communities.
Part 1. Complex practice in a complex world -- 1. Introduction: social work in a changing context -- 2. The strengths and limitations of social work -- 3. Becoming a complexity thinker: towards an epistemology of social work practice -- 4. Thinking complexity and acting pragmatically -- Part 2. Thinking complexity in practice -- 5. Early doing and thinking complexity: the Multiple and Complex Needs Initiative -- 6. Thinking complexity across fields of practice: children and older people -- 7. Thinking complexity in management -- 8. Thinking complexity in community development -- 9. Thinking complexity in hospital social work practice -- Part 3. Thinking complexity in Policy, Research and Education -- 10. Thinking complexity in public policy -- 11. Thinking complexity in research -- 12. Thinking complexity in social work education and professional practice -- 13. Next steps: what do we know about thinking complexity and acting pragmatically in social work?.
Extant literature has not fully accounted for the changes underway in China's perspectives on the ethical risks of artificial intelligence (AI). This article develops a community-of-practice (CoP) approach to the study of Chinese policymaking in the field of AI. It shows that the Chinese approach to ethical AI emerges from the communication of practices of a relatively stable group of actors from three domains—the government, academia, and the private sector. This Chinese CoP is actively cultivated and led by government actors. The paper draws attention to CoP configurations during collective situated-learning and problem-solving among its members that inform the evolution of Chinese ethical concerns of AI. In so doing, it demonstrates how a practice-oriented approach can contribute to interpreting Chinese politics on AI governance. (J Contemp China / GIGA)