Community Development - Brescia

This is an ideal reference for those looking to understand, study, and practice community engagement and outreach. It discusses the different ways individuals - including faculty, administrators, and management in organizations - engage in their communities. It supplies case studies, best practices, and theoretical approaches to the study of community engagement. Scholars active in this field can use this book as an integration of the current knowledge concerning community engagement and as an inspiration for future research agendas. Whilst directing how to implement effective community engagement practices, the book also facilitates the application of organizational theory to community engagement. It will appeal to academics who are interested in the theoretical background of community engagement.

All over the world immigration is one of the most urgent political issues, creating tensions and unrest as well as questions of justice and fairness. Academics as well as politicians have been relating to the question of how states should cope with immigrants; but 96% of immigrants end up incities, and in Europe and the USA, two thirds of the immigrants settle in seven or eight cities. Indeed, most of us encounter with immigrants as city-zens, in our everyday life, rather than as citizens of states. So how should cities integrate immigrants? Should cities be allowed to design theirautonomous integration policies? Could they issue visas and permits to immigrants? Should immigrants be granted voting rights in local elections before naturalization? And how do cities think about these issues? What can we learn from cities which are thought to be successful in integrating andassimilating immigrants? Is there a model of integration within the city which is best?The book discusses these questions both empirically and normatively. The book is based on hundreds of in depth discussions of these matters with city dwellers in San Francisco, New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Thessaloniki and Jerusalem. It shifts the discourse on immigration from 'thinking likea state' to 'thinking like a city' .

Many people want to help bring about changes in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities. Leaders and scholars of change efforts are likewise eager for insights into what makes some organizations and coalitions capable of building and exercising power. Why are some groups successful in making changes in policies and systems and in sustaining their momentum over time, while others struggle or never really get off the ground? With Community Power and Empowerment, Brian D. Christens brings the most comprehensive analysis of empowerment theory yet conducted to bear on these questions, taking aim at many of the longstanding weaknesses and ambiguities of empowerment theory, research, and practice. For example, one major hindrance is that most notions of empowerment have not been coherently connected with community power. In addition, research has emphasized psychological aspects of empowerment over organizational processes, and has neglected community empowerment processes to an even greater extent. By linking empowerment and community power, Christens constructs a holistic framework for assessing and comparing community-driven change efforts. This book offers new guidance for inquiries into outcomes and impacts of empowerment processes on health and well-being, providing a resource for researchers, organizational leaders, practitioners, and anyone interested in collective action for change.

Urban theorists have tried for decades to define exactly what a neighborhood is. But behind that daunting existential question lies a much murkier problem: never mind how you define them--how do you make neighborhoods productive and fair for their residents? In Making Our Neighborhoods, Making Our Selves, George Galster delves deep into the question of whether American neighborhoods are as efficient and equitable as they could be--socially, financially, and emotionally--and, if not, what we can do to change that. Galster aims to redefine the relationship between places and people, promoting specific policies that reduce inequalities in housing markets and beyond. Drawing on economics, sociology, geography, and psychology, Making Our Neighborhoods, Making Our Selves delivers a clear-sighted explanation of what neighborhoods are, how they come to be--and what they should be.

The demise of community as a social construct is re-examined in this book using the lens of Ray Oldenburg's concept of third place to view contemporary issues of alienation, loss, safety, mobility and sense of place. Third places are the spaces where we interact with people and society outside of home and work, and are vital in creating a sense of place and community.As an essential component of urban life, there is a need to understand the importance of third places and how they can be incorporated into urban design to offer places of interaction, promoting togetherness in an urbanised world of mobility and rapid change. Presenting the latest research on the evolution of third place thinking, this book explores new conceptual approaches and new ideas about what constitutes a third place: public transport, online places, music archives, sidewalks and community gardens.Rethinking the concept of third places from virtual and geographical perspectives, this book will prove an insightful read for researchers and planners in the fields of sociology and urban planning as well as urban, social and cultural geography.