Economic changes and the machinations of the treadmill of production have dramatically reduced the number of jobs provided by extractive industries, such as mining and timber, in the United States and other affluent nations in the post-World War II era. As the importance of these industries to national, regional, and local economies wanes,…

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…

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)

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.)…

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)

Argues that those activities variously called community development, organization, action, or education involve the imposition of the values and beliefs of community workers or agencies upon their clientele and that community work has a strong, albeit unintentional, manipulative or exploitative aspect. (SK)

In an assessment culture, credit-based education and training are increasingly important in voluntary and community sectors. Examples from Hungary and Britain were used to develop a democratic participative model to identify the need for and relevance of credit and to use qualifications to further civil society. (Contains 53 references.) (SK)

The article explains the "demilitantization" of the Chicano movement; the resulting foundation, philosophy, and strategy of the Trinity Concept of Community Development (TCCD); and the history, projects such as the Congress for United Communities, and political accomplishments of the National Institute for Community Development, an…

The Llano Grande Center is a non-profit education and community development organization founded in the mid-1990s by youth and teachers out of a public high school classroom in a rural South Texas (USA) community. The Center was created, in large part, to cultivate youth voices as important elements of curriculum development and teacher training…

The recommendations of Scotland's 1975 Alexander Report for increasing adult education participation and Tom Lovett's development of a social action model with working class adults in Liverpool and Ireland are used as background to an examination of Scottish projects that use a community work approach to involve nonparticipating adults in…

A switchover by any government to a more integrated, community-based approach to rural development will inevitably require the recruitment, training, and effective "backstopping" of large numbers of front-line workers. (SSH)

The author discusses the growth of community action in Northern Ireland and the significance of adult education to further social change during a time of conflict. He describes two different approaches to community education: adult education as the "education arm" of the activist movement, and adult education as a general community…

Conventional anti-poverty efforts have failed because they have not created the structures for the poor to help themselves, and they are designed and controlled by people outside of the affected communities. Introduced in 1968 by the National Association of the Southern Poor, the Assembly is a non-political structure that organizes community…

Disengagement, the final phase in the community development process, receives little attention in the literature. Many community development practitioners make decisions regarding disengagement intuitively. This exploratory study of disengagement from community units was based on interviews with eleven University of Missouri Extension Community…

Uses question-and-answer format to profile Edna Compton, director of Dungannon (Virginia) Development Commission, an economic development group formed and managed by local people. Commission improved education, housing, and employment in area. Compton discusses process, achievements, and goals held by commission and herself. (TES)