Interviews with 27 "outsider" community development workers explored such issues as who benefits from outsider intervention, raising unrealistic expectations, and differing levels of risk. Workers must be aware of their considerable power (information, connections, and expertise) and the values that shape their use of it. (SK)

An urban renewal program in preunification Berlin involved self-help projects and a community school. The program demonstrated a holistic approach to urban regeneration and showed that the success of participatory community processes depends on community education. (SK)

Interviews with 55 British and 40 Australian community development practitioners identified common phases experienced under New Right governments: retreat/isolation, adaptation/defense, and rebuilding. Britain's experiences suggest that community development practice is resilient, but reliance on government funding may restrain activism. (Contains…

Women participating in grassroots community development in Chile received financial aid, training, and technical assistance in housing, repair and community organization. Relationships and gender played a powerful role in community change. However, their experiences illustrated the constraints on local action. (Contains 31 references.) (SK)

Concept mapping of case studies resulted in nine organizational domains for community empowerment: participation, leadership, organizational structures, problem assessment, resource mobilization, critical awareness, linkages, outside agents, and program management. The domains provide a way to define and measure empowerment. (Contains 45…

Clarifies the value-laden meanings of "community" in community work discourse. Centers on the concepts of Gemeinschaft (community), Gesellschaft (association), and Bund (league or federation). Examines the insights of community studies and the practice of community work within the Judeo-Christian value system. (SK)

The arts can play a role in regeneration of areas of economic, social, cultural, and environmental disadvantage. Field study of four arts projects in Scotland identified (1) the need for community consultation and involvement; (2) uses of hard and soft data; (3) strategic use of the arts within overall community regeneration policy; and (4) the…

Considers whether two rural traditions of Irish community development--community councils and community cooperatives--conform to models of radical and pragmatic collective action. Shows that both have features of both models but gravitate more toward pragmatic, populist action rather than radical transformative change. (Contains 24 references.)…

Funding for community development in Ireland promotes a conflict management approach. Defining women's roles as apart from conflict is a political maneuver that does not aid reduction of conflict, obscures women's political agency, and limits the access of women's organizations to funding. (Contains 52 references.) (SK)

Principles for participatory community development are as follows: humility and respect; power of local knowledge; democratic practice; diverse ways of knowing; sustainability; reality before theory; uncertainty; relativity of time and efficiency; holistic approach; and decisions rooted in the community. (SK)

Argues that community development is an appropriate arena for using participatory research techniques, since community development depends strongly on citizen involvement. Features a case study of use of the participatory research technique in a project aimed at attacking rural poverty in Nigeria. (CH)

Explores the causes of the demise of community development and shows how a community development department could become the major agency for social and economic development. (JOW)

Discusses a program of the Gandhigram Rural Institute for Higher Education (Deemed University) that attempts to improve the socioeconomic condition of neighboring villages by developing educational awareness and providing training programs for children and adults. (JOW)

Because of the importance of community development in development strategies, both in Rhodesia and, more recently, Zimbabwe, this article looks at the concept in a historical perspective. In this perspective, three major phases can be identified: the period between 1890 and 1962; the period between 1962 and 1979; and 1980 to the present. (CT)