Gender as well as the structure of women's lives are important variables that must be included in social analysis. Although there appear to be linkages between community organizing theory and women's movement organizing, there has been insufficient interchange of ideas and challenge of the theoretical assumptions. (JOW)

Although women are a prime collective force in communities, alliances across different cultures are often undermined by caution or hostility. Critical alliances across differences, with more sustained horizontal relationships, are vital to the process of collective action for social justice. (SK)

Discusses whether the politics of individual practitioners actually influence the causes they adopt and therefore the outcomes; describes research that reinforces the argument that no such congruency exists; and argues that barriers to radical community work are such that its major impact is to strengthen pluralism while making minimal…

An approach to integrating casework and community development includes the practices of empowerment, community building, and social action. The aim is to give disadvantaged people more choice and control over their lives. (Contains 14 references.) (SK)

Principles of feminist community action--working against inegalitarian social relations, promoting egalitarian working relations, self-reflection; and evaluation--are explained and demonstrated with the example of the Greenham Commons Women's Peace Movement in Britain. (SK)

Muintir na Tire was founded in 1931 as a cooperative society for rural development in Ireland. From 1937-70, it shifted to a vocationalist mode; 1970 to the present focused on restructuring the movement. Currently, it needs to press for its share of available funding for community development. (SK)

Developing countries cannot simply pattern their social welfare programs after the programs in developed nations because their needs are quite different. Educational levels, degrees of urbanization, and wealth of the countries must be considered. Individual communities must be involved in a real sense if social welfare programs are to succeed. (AG)

Governmental and nongovernmental community work in Israel is examined through five dimensions: locus of initiation, funding, goals, intervention methods, and levels of complexity. A new division of labor among public, voluntary, and private sector community work is proposed. (SK)

Engaging with social movements, adult educators can make the educational political and the political educative. Four ways of linking with social movements are developing critical intelligence, creating democratic educational experiences, supporting progressive social movements, and rethinking social movements as adult education and community work.…

Empowerment as social action addresses lack of control by enhancing participation in community action. An alcohol and substance abuse prevention program for New Mexico adolescents used Freire's problem posing and critical thinking philosophy and methods to empower young people to change their health behavior. (SK)

Examines the relationship between adult education and community development by means of a comparison of the SA (social action) and CD (community development) programs. Some general observations concerning the links between adult education and development in the west of Ireland are advanced. Also presents an overview of the curricula of the SA and…

Three practice-based articles highlight common experiences and challenges in dealing with the impact of globalization: "Maori Volunteers: Finding a Voice for the Voiceless" (Te Momo); "Empowering Women through Income-generating Projects: Evidence from Indonesia" (Prihantinah, Marinova, Stocker); and "Empowering Kenyan…

Distinguishes among six strategies of community change, identifies citizen participation as only one of several approaches, and challenges practitioners to fit the strategy to their situation and determine which is most apt to empower their community. (Author/JOW)

A participatory research process with inner-city unemployed people in New Zealand demonstrated that (1) consumers of social services should have greater input in policymaking and (2) consumers can work actively and collectively to effect change without blind commitment to a particular ideology. (SK)

The author reviews the "Cultural Missions Programme" of Mexico's educational reform after 1920, in which groups of teachers using Catholic missionary methods fought poverty and ignorance in rural Mexico. These mission programs embody most of the community development principles and are still needed. (MF)