COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: A Critical Approach

Margaret Ledwith is one of the UK’s most highly regarded community development practitioners and academics. This book, developed from her classic text, “Participating in transformation”, is an invaluable new resource for students and practitioners in the field.

The book advocates a critical approach to community development that locates theory in practice, emphasising its transformative rather than ameliorative potential. Grounded in the pedagogy of Paulo Freire and drawing on feminist and other relevant theories, it helps readers to:

• gain an understanding of key community development theories;

• develop practical skills alongside the ability to analyse and reflect;

• situate local practice within a global context.

The text is brought to life through a series of narrative case studies, drawn from the author’s own experiences, which clearly illustrate how to apply the ideas, models and analyses discussed. Dimensions of practice ranging from the personal to the political, and the local to the global, are addressed in relation to current crises of poverty, justice and sustainability.

Practitioners, students and educators involved in community development, youth and community work, social work, health and education, as well as those in other professions that have a community development focus, will find this an invaluable contribution to theory and practice today.

Margaret Ledwith lives in Lancaster where she is Reader in Community Development at St Martin’s College. She has worked in a variety of community settings in Scotland and North-West England.