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Rethinking Community Development

Series editors: Mae Shaw, University of Edinburgh, UK, Rosie R. Meade, University College Cork, Ireland, and Sarah Banks, University of Durham, UK. 

Rethinking Community Development is an international book series that offers the opportunity for a critical re-evaluation of community development – to rethink what community development means in theory and practice. It is intended to draw together international, cross-generational and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Contextual specificity will be used as a lens through which to explore the localised consequences of wider, global processes.

Books in the series are designed to:

  • provide an international perspective on contemporary Community Development
  • stimulate policy debate amongst a range of established and upcoming authors
  • encourage practitioners to engage more critically with their work
  • include contributions from a range of geographical contexts and academic disciplines
  • theorise issues and practices in a way that will encourage diverse audiences to rethink the potential of community development

These books will be essential reading for academics, upper level undergraduate and graduate level students in Community Development and related disciplines, including Geography, Social Policy, Sociology and other related fields. The series will also appeal to practitioners and policy makers looking to explore the tensions between policy imperatives and the interests and demands of communities at grass roots level.

Would you like to make a timely and original contribution to the community development literature?
Find out more about the series, including how to submit your idea for a new title, here (PDF)

You can find out more about writing for Bristol University Press and Policy Press on our Information for authors page.

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Young People, Radical Democracy and Community Development

Focusing on youth activism for greater equality, liberty and mutual care - radical democracy - this timely collection explores the movement’s impacts on community organisations and workers. Essays from the Global North and Global South cover the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental activism and the struggles of refugees.

Policy Press

Arts, Culture and Community Development

Edited by Rosie Meade and Mae Shaw

Drawing on international examples, this book interrogates the relationship between the arts, culture and community development. Contributors from six continents, reimagine community development as they consider how aesthetic arts contribute to processes of peacebuilding, youth empowerment, participatory planning and environmental regeneration.

Policy Press

Funding, Power and Community Development

This edited collection critically explores the funding arrangements governing contemporary community development and how they shape its theory and practice.

Policy Press

Ethics, Equity and Community Development

Drawing on theory and a range of cross-disciplinary and international perspectives, this book examines the place of ethics and ethical practice in community and development across a global spectrum of political, ecological and economic contexts.

Policy Press

Populism, Democracy and Community Development

Using international perspectives and case studies, this book discusses the relationships between community development and populism in the context of today’s widespread crisis of democracy. Exploring the synergies and contradictions between populism and community development, it offers new ways of understanding and responding to populism.

Policy Press

Environmental Justice, Popular Struggle and Community Development

This book examines the dynamics of agency and solidarity in the ways in which community, development and environment interact in the pursuit of environmental justice.

Policy Press

Politics, Power and Community Development

Presenting unique and critical reflections on international policy and practice, this book addresses the global dominance of neoliberalism. It examines the extent to which community development practitioners, activists and programmes can challenge, critique, engage with or resist its influence.

Policy Press

Class, Inequality and Community Development

Edited by Mae Shaw and Marjorie Mayo

This book, the second title in the Rethinking Community Development series, argues for the centrality of class analysis and its associated divisions of power to any discussion of the potential benefits of community development.

Policy Press

Peacebuilding, Conflict and Community Development

How can local communities effectively build peace and reconciliation before, during and after open violence? This trailblazing book gives practical examples, from the Global North and Global South, on communities alleviating conflict and enabling transformation in divided societies.

Policy Press