Critically examines community development assumptions through historical analysis and mapping of political discourse. Using the methods of Foucault, Said, and Gramsci, demonstrates how participatory research, concerned with releasing people's knowledge through transformation, can expose and resist dominant discourses. (SK)

A diagnostic model for evaluating community-based organizations takes into account the political, legal, social, economic, and cultural environment and the organization's structure, membership, goals, resources, philosophy, leadership styles, and rewards/sanctions. The ways in which both sets of variables either facilitate or inhibit the…

Community workers should leave training with a foundation for liberatory practice. Their educational experience should be consistent with the rhetoric of community development; it should use learner-centered methods and transformative learning, and provide conditions in which learners can create their own knowledge. (SK)