Kaplan (founder and leader of the Community Development Resource Association in Cape Town, South Africa) explores the practice of organization development and group change. Drawing on his consulting experience as well as on the work of Goethe and Jung, he challenges the tendency to reduce development to a technical operation that attempts to control. The 23 chapters address the complexity of the process of social transformation, describing social change and providing exercises through which practitioners can enhance their abilities to respond to a mixture of chaos and order. They also show how development groups can intervene in social situations in a humane and effective manner. Distributed by Stylus. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Based on 25 years of community development practice, six of which have been lived in South Africa, Peter Westoby’s ground-breaking monograph moves away from dominant normative accounts of community development to provide an appreciative and critical analysis of concrete examples of community development theory and practice. By examining community development stories as experienced on the ground, Westoby is able to show how the poor are organising themselves using various forms of community development as well as demonstrating how the state and non-state actors are attempting to organise, engage or accompany the poor through community development. The book also breaks new ground in theorising the practice of community development, drawing inductively from the stories analysed. The diversity of South African contexts and the proliferation of different kinds of community practice, make this a hugely difficult task. Despite this, Westoby argues it is one worth undertaking given the seriousness of the challenges facing the poor and progressive social change agents within South Africa. In this undertaking, Westoby draws upon a unique analytical framework to help illuminate current community development policy and programme challenges, along with practice dilemmas and wisdom.
As the educational system continues to evolve, it is essential that educators of today devise innovative and strategic approaches to program development and assessment. The Handbook of Research on Program Development and Assessment Methodologies in K-20 Education is an essential reference source for the latest terminology and concepts related to program development. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as cognitive diagnostic assessments, self-directed learning, and digital education, this publication is ideally designed for educators, students, program designers, and librarians seeking current research on inventive strategies and practices to enhance education in the 21st century.
Effective community development means that many different stakeholders have to work together: governments, development organizations and NGOs, and most importantly, the people they serve. Knowledge Partnering for Community Development teaches community development professionals how to mediate community needs and development agendas to make community-based solutions for development challenges. Based on the newest research in community and global development, Eversole shows readers a strong research and theoretically based framework for understanding local development processes, and gives them the skills to turn this into cutting-edge practice. Each chapter features global case studies of innovative community-state partnerships, and practical application exercises and strategies for professionals looking to bring new approaches to their research. Knowledge Partnering for Community Development is essential for community workers and students of community development looking to bridge the gap between research insight and best practice between community actors.
Walking through social development’s key theoretical principles and practice strategies, this book shows how it promotes peoples’ wellbeing not only in the Global South, where it first emerged, but in the Western countries as well. It covers: Definitions and an historical evolution of social development Key theoretical debates around social well-being, human rights and social justice Social development practice such as human capital interventions, community development and cooperatives, asset building, employment creation policies and programmes, microenterprises and social planning among others Future challenges; global poverty, international aid and trade, and global inequality, conflict and injustice. Complete with international examples drawn from around the world, Social Development: Theory and Practice demonstrates how social development theory translates into practical application. This book is essential reading for students in development studies, social policy, public administration and social work, and for policymakers and development practitioners everywhere. James Midgley is the Harry and Riva Specht Professor of Public Social Services at the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley.
"This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society. It has been developed by the Barefoot Collective. The guide, with its supporting website, includes tried and tested concepts, approaches, stories and activities. It's purpose is to help stimulate and enrich the practice of anyone supporting organisations and social movements in their challenges of working, learning, growing and changing to meet the needs of our complex world. Although it is aimed at leaders and facilitators of civil society organisations, we hope it will be useful to anyone interested in fostering healthy human organisation in any sphere of life"--Barefoot Collective website.
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work. Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical, and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and many others, to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust, and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven ‘conservative revolution’ currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice. The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world.
Global Perspectives in Professional Reasoning is the first text of its kind to address the broader scope of occupational therapy practice and the different types of professional reasoning that can be employed, including strategic, political, nonlinear, creative, and social reasoning. This text encompasses a wide range of thinking skills and cognitive processes used by occupational therapists, from reflecting on practice to solving problems, and from reasoning in the clinic to reasoning in the wider political, social, and cultural worlds. Marilyn B. Cole and Jennifer Creek and their contributors are therapists, educators, and scholars who have explored new areas of professional practice and written about the thought processes that reinforced their actions. The authors come from around the world, providing a global perspective while also demonstrating that occupational therapists within different cultures serve remarkably similar human needs: to be included in their communities, to have occupational choices, and to determine their own life course. Many of the contributors in Global Perspectives in Professional Reasoning have identified and analyzed their own thought processes as they tackled complex and challenging tasks, often in unfamiliar contexts. These challenging tasks have produced several entirely original conceptualizations of professional reasoning, such as development and spiritual reasoning. The contributors start by observing what is going on, try to make sense of the situation, and then work out what to do. Other contributors are fascinated by a theory, a policy, or an approach; study it; and then look for ways to utilize it in practice. Most of the time, contributors focus their attention on the process of reasoning rather than on the specific types of reasoning they are employing or on desired outcomes. Inside Global Perspectives in Professional Reasoning, each chapter charts the learning process that contributors went through as they extended their thinking skills and processes to meet the challenges they encountered. All the chapters describe reasoning in practice and all of them utilize theory. A broad and fresh take on professional reasoning in occupational therapy practice, Global Perspectives in Professional Reasoning is the perfect resource for occupational therapy students and clinicians who want to utilize reasoning to tackle the most complex and challenging of tasks.
