Community Work:
Theories,
Experiences
and Challenges
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BOOK REVIEW
Community Work: Theories,
Experiences & Challenges
Goel, K., Pulla, V. and Francis, A. P. (Eds.),
2014. Bangalore: Niruta Publications, 262
pages, A$29.95, Rs. 350/-
Jennifer Woods †
“Community
development has
been identified
as
a core social work
approach or method to work with
communities who
are disenfranchised, marginalised
and
faced with
broad social
issues resulting from unjust policies
and
planning at global, national, state and
local level.” (Goel et al, 2014, p.
5)
This text re-explores community development
within a contemporary
social work framework
for
service provision in
a changing world. With increased
technology
that has changed the
nature of community
to
encompass online
aspects and a changing
political and economic
climate, community
development must adapt
to this ever-changing environment. The
introductory chapter outlines the content
of the fifteen chapters that this book offers to its reader, which include:
community development and microfinance, community development
for
immigrant communities,
safety-net groups for community building, community development
and organisational
change, the impact
of globalisation
on communities, culturally competent community development work,
rural community
development, African diasporic community
development, health promotion
and community enhancement,
community development and disaster management, arts and community development and mental
health in community
development.
Kalpana Goel, in the first chapter of this book, offers new definitions
for contemporary communities and discusses the improved
awareness of the functions of a community.
Here, Goel identifies social work
as ideally placed to address
issues of social
justice,
marginalisation and human suffering within a community
development framework but stresses that community
development must fit
into
the community context in which it is
being applied, taking account of contemporary heterogeneous society.
Goel
further comments on
the principles and strategies of community
development and their application within social
work
and completes her chapter
with discussion
on education for social workers in
community development frameworks.
Chapter 2 by Gopalkhrishnan explores the
concept of globalisation and the impact it has on communities and individuals. He further goes on to
discuss the role that social workers
can
play, utilising
community development frameworks,
to address
the issues and problems that globalisation
has
created.
The third chapter by Riggs and Pulla provides an in-depth discussion regarding the ability
of visual and theatre-based arts to enhance community development and create a
healing modality for trauma, leading to increased resilience
at the individual
and
community
levels.
©2014 Woods. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Continuing, Penman in Chapter 4 uncovers
the potential for community
development
frameworks to enhance community capacities
via the delivery of health education at the grassroots level. The grassroots programmes
evaluated in this
chapter have been delivered utilising a spiritual setting
and
analysed on the
basis of the impact they have on the health of the
participants. Enhancing the
health capacity of a community inevitably has a
positive
correlation with resilience building
and
thus provides a means to community development.
Percey and Orpin consider, in
their chapter, the
involvement of community
development
practices in
rural communities. Of particular
interest is the discussion regarding
the
static nature of the rural community with its isolation and readily identifiable boundaries, which also
allow for easy recognition of community identity.
Safety-net groups are
identified as community
support groups, which facilitate collective
work
towards community development.
This is the
concept
discussed in the
chapter by Francis and
Zuchowski which links community
development with group work—two well-defined social work practice interventions.
Safety-net groups allow
for self-determined and empowered community development that is in the best
interest
of the community itself.
Disaster management, a
growing field for social
work
for
which community development is an
appropriate model
in a global situation of increased impact and intensity
of disasters with less state-provided intervention. The
application of strengths-based theories
for social work with a community development
framework,
which enhance resilience, is the focus for this chapter by Bhadra and Pulla.
In their Chapter 8,
Velander
and
Schineanu explore community development, which is culturally competent, and
with
particular regard
to Australian indigenous communities.
The authors discuss
what constitutes culturally
competent community development work and endorse the
use of strengths-based practice theories, which endeavour to
promote
wise practice, the best choice of practice
frameworks for
community work with
Australian indigenous communities in remote areas.
The next chapter by Nikku investigates the means to
educating the
South Asian social work profession with regard to
community
development work
that
attempts
to alleviate the issues of
an increasingly globalised world coupled with internal
conflict and decreased governance.
A chapter which considers the
application of
community development frameworks for social
work with regard to mental health promotion is presented by Francis,
Pulla
and Goel. The authors endorse the use of strengths-based theories to address
mental health issues by
way of increasing
resilience and promoting community
spirit.
Microfinance as a means to supporting people
with mental illness issues in Uganda is the next topic for discussion in this book. This chapter looks at the way in which microfinance can
bridge
the
gap in coping with mental health problems that has been caused by families becoming
nucleated or isolated in urban areas.
The
role of microfinance is seen as providing
social support for people as a means to
increasing their social capital and building the community.
Goel in Chapter
12 explores the role
of community-based organisations in humanitarian resettlement programmes.
Goel goes on to conclude that
community development programmes and principles are the
“backbone (p. 196)” of ethical
and professional service provision for refugees and
humanitarian entrants.
Similarly, wa Mungai in Chapter 13 looks
at Ubuntu approaches to
community development
with
immigrant communities referring to
the
view of the African communities as self-determining rather than accepting of the marginalised position offered
by the dominant, hegemonic
culture and looks at
the role
of extended family
to African cultures and the issues faced by diasporic
African communities in Australia.
Finally, Mamidi and Chada look
at the co-
operative organisation of the street vendors
in India, who form a major
economic component and are creating significant civil issues within their community.
Community
development can
pave
the way forward
to
safe organisation of what is an historic component of
urban life
for India.
The concluding chapter wraps up the concept
of community development for the future
of social work in an
era of
downsized
governments and increased need with uncertainty a key
feature
of contemporary
society. Here, Francis
and
Pulla once again
reiterate the
appropriate pairing of strengths-
based practice
theories
with
community
development frameworks
for ethical social work service
delivery that aims to alleviate the
issues created in an uncertain
world.
Clearly, with significant
chapters that relate to both the Australian and wider, global context, this text provides a wealth of information for
social work in a new environment brought about by globalisation,
climate change and neoliberal
political ideology that is witnessing the increased widening of the gap between rich
and
poor, increased numbers of people living in poverty and people facing increased risk of impact
from
disasters instigated by changes in climate. A comprehensive text,
priced competitively, this text has the
potential to add great benefit to the available literature on community development in
the
Australian context. The book also makes for a good textbook in South Asia and
South East
Asia. With clear and concise chapters written
with
respect to
the
ethical guidelines for Australian social
work practice, this text fills the gap with a fresh lens
that promotes community development in contemporary context.Courtesy :Woods. Space and Culture, India 2014,
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