[Dialogue] best books on community development

Sun Jun 29 09:17:30 PDT 2014

Thank you, Karen.  Wonderful!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Snyder via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sun, Jun 29, 2014 10:14 am
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] best books on community development

Discerningbooks on community development that have influenced my thinking, I find myselfasking what is the question behind the question when one asks for general literatureon community development.  In Chicago the ICA iswrestling with what does it look like to do sustainablecommunity development (adding environmental considerations to influencingcommunity change).  What are people discovering that is helpfulliterature on ‘sustainable community development?
Thefollowing books have influenced my thinking on community development:
Diers,Jim, NeighborPower:  Building community the SeattleWay (2004)
Hopkins, Rob, Transition Handbook:  from oil dependency to local resilience (2008).  Pioneered in Ireland/England since 2006,transition communities are now in 43 countries and 1,130 initiatives (including150 in the United States). 
James,Sarah and Lahti, Torbjorn,  TheNatural Step for Communities:  how citiesand towns can change to sustainable practices, 2004.  Piloted in Scandinavia, this approach has been especially effective for changing large public institutions as well as geographical communities. 
Kaplan, Allan, TheDevelopment Practitioners Handbook (1996) and Artists of theInvisible – Development Practitioners and Social Practice (2002). Allan is from Cape Town, South Africa.  You can watch a wonder-filled presentation hegave at Schumacher College in 2011 on “Reading the nature of process from aprocess of nature” at this link:  http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/community/reading-the-nature-of-process-from-a-process-of-nature
Kretzmann,John and McKnight, John, BuildingCommunities from the Inside Out:  A pathtoward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets (1993).  The community assets survey approach describedin this book launched the ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development) approach
***** 
We have been telling thepeople that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now we must go back andtell the people this is the Hour.  
And there are things to beconsidered.
Where are you living?  What are you doing?  Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?  Know your garden.
It is time to speak yourtruth.  Create your community.  Be good to each other.
And do not look outsideyourself for the leader.  This could be agood time!
There is a river flowingvery fast.
It is so great and swiftthat there are those who will be afraid. 
They will try to hold on tothe shore.
They will feel they arebeing torn apart and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has a destination.

The elders say we must letgo of the shore, and push off and into the river,
Keep our eyes open, and ourhead above the water.
See who is in there withyou and Celebrate.
At this time in history, weare to take nothing personally.  Least ofall, ourselves.
For the moment that we do,our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolfis over.
Gather yourselves!

Banish the word “struggle”from your attitude and your vocabulary. 
All that you do now must bedone in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we havebeen waiting for.

~~  Alice Walker from We are the Ones We HaveBeen Waiting For 

On Jun 28, 2014, at 4:34 PM, William Schlesinger via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

I've liked Rothman's work on locality development. Parallels our historical approach and relates it to both community organizing and planning approached.

Bill Schlesinger
pvida at whc.net

Frank Cookingham via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

The best book is Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor (revised and expanded edition), 2011, Orbis Books.

John Friedmann, Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development, 1992, Blackwell.

Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, 1999, Oxford University Press.

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Ester Duflo, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, 2011, Public Affairs Books.

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor ... And Yourself, 2009, Moody Publishers.

read Easterly and Sachs at the same time to see two very different approaches:
William Easterly, The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, 2006, Penguin Books.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, 2005, Penguin Books.

Peace, Frank Cookingham, retired evaluator of international community development

  On Friday, June 27, 2014 12:30 PM, David Dunn via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

Hi all.

An old friend has asked for recommendations on: 

general literature on community development?  I need to get out of project-think and into a more comprehensive mode.  

Any suggestions that I should pass on.

David

David Dunn
740 S Alton Way 9B
Denver, CO 80247
720-314-5991
dmdunn1 at gmail.com

_______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net
http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20140629/49fb4fde/attachment-0001.html>