Community Development Journal – Open Call for Journal Editor

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

Since 1966 the Community Development Journal (CDJ) has been the leading international journal in its field, covering a wide range of topics, reviewing significant developments and providing a forum for cutting-edge debates about theory and practice. It adopts a broad definition of community development to include policy, planning and action as they impact on the life of communities. We particularly seek to publish critically focused articles which challenge received wisdom, report and discuss innovative practices, and relate issues of community development to questions of social justice, diversity and environmental sustainability. The Journal is published four times a year and is circulated in over eighty countries.

The CDJ’s current Editor plans to stand down as of January 2016. To ensure continuity and handover, and following a selection process in spring 2015, new editorial arrangements will be set in place by July 2015. Between July 2015 and January 2016, it is anticipated that the current and incoming Editor(s) will work in parallel in order to ease the transition and passing on of roles.

The CDJ is now seeking applications for the role of Editor(s). It is expected that the incoming Editor(s) will share our commitment to the CDJ’s values and mission, and to the on-going development and enhancement of the journal itself. It is likely that Editor(s) will be UK based though candidates from other locations may make a case as to why they feel it would be possible to meet the demands of the editorial role from another location. The Editor(s) should have an outstanding knowledge of community development and a commitment to ensuring that the Journal retains its unique focus on providing a critically reflective and contextual account of the theory and practice of community development as it is practised and understood internationally. The Editor(s) will work with an engaged and highly participatory Editorial Board and International Advisory Board.

The CDJ Board is open to different editorial models and invites applicants to state, in their application letters, their preferences in that regard. For example, the following models will be considered:

Sole Editor with contracted administrative support
A model of co-editorship – with a maximum of two editors with contracted administrative support
Managing editor with Associate Editor.

Current remuneration for the Editor role is appropriate to the role, responsibilities and work undertaken. This will be discussed on application, and may be negotiable, within limits, according to the circumstances of the applicant.

The initial term of office will be for three years.

Contacts: A detailed Job Description is available on request. Prospective applicants are invited to send a written expression of interest, detailing their suitability for the position, along with a CV to: Ruth Pearce, Ruth.Pearce@warwick.ac.uk and /or Rosie Meade, r.meade@ucc.ie

Applications should be submitted by: Friday, February 27^th 2015.

EVENT: Community Development Society Conference

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

19-22 July 2015

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

The theme of the 2015 CDS Conference is Creativity and Culture: Community Development Approaches for Strengthening Health, Environment, Economic Vibrancy, Social Justice and Democracy.

The deadline for submissions is the 31st January 2015.

For more information, and to submit an abstract online, go to the CDS website.

International task force to map community development training programmes and national networks

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

At its October 2014 meeting, the international Board of the IACD agreed to set up a task group, chaired by Vice President, Stewart Murdoch, to map, country by country community development training programmes and national networks that support development practitioners.

This will be funded as a legacy from the Community is the answer conference, held in Glasgow in June 2014.

Research interns will be appointed in December, to undertake the research mapping, which we hope to complete by July 2015.

Read more on the IACD website.

Community development standards: Phase 2: the revised draft

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

The Federation for Community Development Learning (FCDL) are holding meetings on the occupational standards for community work on 13th November (in London) and 28th November (Leeds).

FCDL is working with partners across the UK to review the Community Development National Occupational Standards (CDNOS). The standards describe what a person needs to do, know and understand to carry out good quality community development practice, and they can be used in many ways. The first phase of the review went well, and there is a draft set of revised CDNOS ready for consultation.

Are the revised CD standards easier to use and understand and a more powerful tool for supporting communities?

Anybody who is involved in community development practice, in any setting or role, is welcome to come along, find out more, and share your views.

Details of the Leeds event will be announced soon on the FCDL website.

Details of the London event are as follows:

Thursday 13th November
10.00am – 1.00pm (with registration from 9.30 am)

London Metropolitan University,
London Metropolitan University, GC1-08, Graduate Centre, North Campus, 166-220 Holloway Road, N7 8DB

You can book a place at the London event here, by emailing Matt Scott: scottm3@staff.londonmet.ac.uk

Thinkery on the Commons – resources now available

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

We’ve just put up a new page with information and resources from Commons Sense: A Thinkery on the Commons, which was held in Dublin during June.

“‘Race’, Ethnicity and Community Development” – expressions of interest requested

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

This is for a proposed book, to be edited by Gary Craig and others, on ‘race’, ethnicity and community development for the series Rethinking Community Development, to be published by The Policy Press, a leading UK social and public policy publisher.

At this stage, the title has been accepted as part of the series, and we are seeking short expressions of interest (100 words) to contribute chapters. Once the chapter outlines have been agreed, then a full proposal will be submitted to The Policy Press for review and final acceptance.

The chapters, which can be drawn from anywhere across the world, will be no more than 6000 words long and should address some aspect of how community development works within a context defined by different ethnic groups, cultures and/or religions.

Although many countries have had a mix of ethnic groups within their borders for thousands of years, one of the major social and economic trends of the post Second World War period has been the increasing globalisation of migration. This has led to many countries now having countries in which there is a mix of minority populations alongside a settled majority, all generally defined in terms of their ‘race’ or ethnicity. There has been no publication to date which has addressed the role that community development might play in addressing work across ethnic boundaries.

Contributions might include work of the following kinds:

1. Work within specific minorities (e.g. capacity building or empowerment work)

2. Work with specific types of migrant: (e.g. with refugees, economic migrants or particularly excluded groups such as Gypsies)

3. Work with migrants within specific ‘industrial sectors (e.g. migrant domestic workers)

4. Work between minorities/migrant and majority communities

5. Work in situations of conflict (e.g. interethnic work)

6. Work to assert the rights of First Nations people.

If you are interested in contributing to this publication, please send a note with your organisational affiliation and a summary of the proposed content of the chapter – at this stage no more than 100 words – to gary.craig@durham.ac.uk as soon as possible. He will acknowledge your interest and let you know as soon as possible if he thinks it will fit the proposed publicatio.

Free Special Supplement: “Commons Sense: New thinking about an old idea”

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

We’re delighted to announce that articles from the Community Development Journal Special Supplement on “the commons” are freely available for anyone to read on a permanent basis. With contributions from internationally influential scholar-activists, the supplement contains a series of critical reflections on the current blossoming of new interest in this old idea.

The special issue can be found in full on the Oxford University Press website.

Introduction
Mary McDermott

Learning from The Wealth of the Commons: a review essay
Mae Shaw

The commons, the Battle of the Book and the cracked enclosures of academic publishing
Órla O’Donovan

An Urban Commons? Notes from South Africa
Richard Pithouse

The water is ours damn it! Water commoning in Bolivia
Alexander Dwinell and Marcela Olivera

Playing, praying and preying: cultural clash and paradox in the traditional music commonage
Fintan Vallely

The commons: a brief life journey
Massimo De Angelis

Green politics and the republican commons
Derek Wall

Commons against and beyond capitalism
George Caffentzis and Silvia Federici

No commons without a community
Maria Mies

Community and commons: The role of community development support in sustaining the commons
Frank Van Laerhoven and Clare Barnes

From imagination to action: building a commons movement from the ground up: an interview with Julie Ristau and Alexa Bradley
Tom O’Connell

Commoning in the new society
Gustavo Esteva

EVENT: Community is the answer

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

9th-11th June 2014

Glasgow, UK

Registration for the IACD conference Community is the answer is now open.

This major international gathering will showcase community-based solutions to issues of Health, Wealth and Power. It will allow community members, activists, practitioners, researchers and policymakers from Scotland and around the world to come together and explore what actually matters to people – and how to place it at the core of what we do.

The conference takes place in the vibrant city of Glasgow, Scotland, in the run-up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Book your place as a full 3-day delegate or day delegate here.

Early bird booking rates apply. Discounted places are available for members of IACD and for practitioners in Scotland registered with the CLD Standards Council.

NEW PUBLICATION: Participation in Community Development

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Ruth Pearce

We are pleased to announce that Participation in Community Development: Problems and Possibilities is now available in digital form for the first time.

First published in 2006, this volume reflects both shifts in policy and community development over a significant period of time, reflecting not only the interests and concerns of government policy, but how these connect with those of practitioners and the local communities with whom they work. It features a collection of articles from the Scottish journal Concept. Published by Concept with support from the Community Development Journal.

To read the report, please click the below image, or visit our publications page.