Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117590 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-02
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Review
"This is a wonderfully readable and thoughtful book that merges theory and practice in challenging social inequality - the late Paulo Freire's central concern. Margaret Ledwith's long experience in community work underlies the vitality and insight in this new volume. For studying community needs, and for the future of 'those-not-yet-in-power', Ledwith's new book is essential reading." --Professor Ira Shor, City University of New York Graduate School, USA

About the Author
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.

Customer Reviews

Inspiring approach to Community Development
This book should appeal to all those who dream of a better world based on social justice and ecological sensitivity. Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and a host of other writers/activists in the fields of critical pedagogy (Ira Shor and Peter McLaren in particular), community development (eg. Saul Alinsky, Marjorie Mayo), feminism (eg. Magda Lewis, Kathleen Weiler, Janet Kenway) and environmental issues (eg. Chet Bowers, Vandana Shiva), it seeks to map out a strategy for radical community development that combines cultural and political economic analysis. It is an approach to community development that aspires to be transformative rather than ameliorative in nature.
Ledwith combines sophisticated theoretical analysis, especially with regard to the work of Gramsci, Freire and feminist politics, with reflections on a specific site of practice, Hattersley, where the author had been engaged for several years in community organizing and development. She also provides concrete examples of community organizing and examples of key events in the emergence and action of community organisations that form part of larger social movements. Moreover, one of the more riveting parts of the book is her account of community development policy making during the Thatcher and the more recent New Labour years in Britain.
Despite the strong interplay between theory and action (the book shuttles beautifully between the two) and the detailed discussions on the work of Gramsci and Freire, the text is very readable and compelling. The basic call throughout the book is for the development of a Freirean-feminist approach to community development. The strengths and lacunae of both Gramsci and Freire are outlined in detail, with reference to some important critiques of this work, especially the work of Paula Allman and Peter McLaren; their work serves to anchor Gramsci and Freire's ideas in the context of a critique of capitalism. There are also lengthy biographical accounts of the lives of these two figures, and that of others such as Saul Alinsky. Their ideas are embedded in praxis and therefore cannot be transplanted from one context to another in `cargo cult' style. In the words of Freire, they ought to be reinvented. Ledwith takes nothing for granted in her biographical presentations; she intends to convey her ideas to as large a readership as possible. In keeping with the recommendation of bell hooks, Ledwith finds much that is necessary for a transformative community development politics in the work of these two icons of critical pedagogy and radical adult education. She combines these insights however with other insights derived from feminist, antiracist and ecologically sensitive praxis to advocate a holistic and `glocal' radical approach to community development, one which calls for an articulation of efforts carried out at the local level with those of larger and congenial movements operating at the global level. The emphasis is on praxis derived from material and ecological concerns and which comprises the important areas of experience and feeling. Emphasis is here placed on the promotion of life-centred rather than simply market-oriented values. This book also makes a contribution to the current discussion concerning the recuperation and reconstruction of public spaces. These spaces, on the one hand, often fall into decay. On the other, they are often the target of corporatist commodification and encroachment.
I would like to react to two points made in this book. First: it is true that Freire's major pedagogical writings come across as being rooted in an anthropocentric conception of the world, as Stanley Aronowitz makes clear in his Preface to Pedagogy of Freedom. It is also true however that Freire's proposed curricular reforms in Sao Paulo, when he served as Education Secretary, placed environmental issues very much at the heart of some of the thematic complexes developed within the `popular-public' schools. Furthermore, the Paulo Freire Institute that continues his legacy devotes great attention to issues concerning biodiversity in keeping with the Earth Charter (Carta da Terra). One author whose work is worth consulting in this regard and who would certainly add much to the Freirean project carried forward by Ledwith is Thomas Berry, much of whose ideas have been developed in a radical and critical pedagogical context by his good friend, Edmund O' Sullivan. The latter's works include Transformative Learning (Zed Books and University of Toronto Press, 1999) and the edited volume, Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2002), that comprises work by members of the Transformative Learning Centre at OISE/University of Toronto. Furthermore, there is much in Gramsci's writings, especially his letters from prison, which can offer insights for an ecologically sensitive holistic approach to community development, despite the Sardinian's otherwise strong fascination for the rationalisation of Fordist production.
Second: Margaret Ledwith uses the now popular term `social capital,' drawing, as is customary, on the work of Robert Putnam and James Coleman. My own personal reluctance to use this term is based on the feeling that it somehow keeps us trapped within the logic of capital accumulation and is therefore hardly an ideal concept to use in relation to proposed alternatives to capitalist social relations. Furthermore, it can accommodate the current Neo-liberal discourse that places the emphasis for prosperity on individuals, groups and communities rather than on the State. The State thus continues to abdicate its responsibilities in consolidating public goods and adopting equity measures. The blame for failure is therefore placed squarely on individuals, communities and groups - "they lack social capital". Furthermore, as some studies have shown, greater trust, affiliation and networking, some of the key indicators of `social capital,' can be exclusionary and lead to narrow as opposed to more general social interests.

Fab reference book for practitioners
A really useful text for community development practitioners and students.
Easy to understand, well written - no jargon.
Excellent Purchase!!!