In this open access publication, the social cohesion of urban neighborhoods and their residents is examined, which is often viewed as vulnerable since increased mobility, individualization, wider socio-economic and demographic changes have fundamentally altered the basis for everyday social interaction in urban neighborhoods. Anna Steigemann gives scholarly attention to the concrete places where neighborly interactions still take place and to how these interactions affect local community building. She illuminates and explores the ordinary everyday interactions and social practices in and around shops and gastronomic facilities on a shopping street in Berlin-Neukölln, revealing how these businesses are important places where community is practiced, but also why they are increasingly threatened by commercial and residential gentrification.

Community is a central idea in urban studies but remains conceptually vague and empirically difficult to work with. Building on existing theories of community, Talja Blokland offers an important contribution to defining and understanding this key theme. Blokland argues that there has been too much focus on community as a stable construct, formed by durable relationships with kin, friends, social groups or neighbours. She draws attention to the non-durable, fluid encounters that constitute community, theorizing communities as shared urban practices in a globalizing world. The book proposes two core ways of thinking about community: the dimension of familiarity, defined by our ability to construct identities, and the dimension of access, defined by our freedom to enter and leave urban spaces. These dimensions form various urban configurations which enable us to experience and practise community in diverse ways. As this book maintains, community is after all an urban practice, not a fixed state of affairs.

Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy. Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable. Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them. Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them. Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic.

Here is the only book that gives you a comparison of model frameworks and a critique of multiple perspectives. Community Practice: Conceptual Models (along with its companion volume, Community Practice: Models in Action) illustrates the diverse ways that community practice is conceived and delineates both the central and subtle differences among models to guide community assessment, action planning, and practice. By knitting together the complex ideas from the social sciences and community practice, this book shows how to combine these ideas to improve teaching, practice, analysis, and research for social work faculty; social work students; practitioners in community work, administration, and social planning; and faculty of related disciplines. The scope of Community Practice: Conceptual Models is broad, providing the first historical report on model development and implementation since 1965. Its chapters present diverse views on community practice approaches and provide the compilation, critique, and analysis of current models --while illustrating how these approaches developed over time. Included is Rothman’s long-awaited revision and elaboration of his 1970s classic, three models conceptual framework. Other vital topics you learn about include: collaborative community development social planning, reform movements, and social action ecological theory in community practice a feminist response and critique to Rothman’s approaches to community intervention a comparison of community practice in the U.S. and U.K., with an emphasis on nonracist practice and community-based service development Community Practice: Conceptual Models offers challenges and indicates directions for practice, theory elaboration, testing, and research and shows community practice in relation to characteristics such as goals and desired outcomes, change strategies, targets of change, primary constituencies, and focus or scope of concern. This book provides the strongest perspectives on community practice to help you improve your practice, assessments, action plans, and research.

Encompassing community development, organizing, planning, & social change, as well as globalisation, this book is grounded in participatory & empowerment practice. The 36 chapters assess practice, theory & research methods.

Community Practice is a comprehensive resource for social workers and students eager to learn how to practice effectively in complex systems and diverse communities. In this completely revised edition of the definitive text in the field, the authors have thoroughly updated each chapter and added two entirely new chapters on community building and community organizing. New material on topics such as negotiation and mediation, community advocacy, participatory rural appraisal, the narrative approach to social change, community involvement, representative client boards, and the latest in grassroots endeavors make this text as inspiring as it is practical. Drawing upon the wealth of information available from local organizations, the Internet, newspapers, and academic journals, the authors introduce contemporary experiments and analyze classic modes of community practice and change. The content, exercises, and references offer instructors the flexibility necessary to tailor their courses to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level students. This new edition will continue to provide a comprehensive and integrated overview of the theory and skills fundamental to all areas of social work practice. Broad in scope, it offers students as well as practitioners the tools necessary to promote the welfare of individuals and communities.

A"Community Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Guide to Serving the Community integrates the history of health care and principles of management, marketing, and economics to provide guidelines for community practice. It examines existing occupational therapy practices that serve specific age groups and encourages professionals to identify innovative ways to aid underserved areas in their community."--[Source inconnue].

For many scholars, the study of community and community development is at a crossroads. Previously dynamic theories appear not to have kept pace with the major social changes of our day. Given our constantly shifting social reality we need new ideas and research that pushes the boundaries of our extant community theories. Theory, Practice, and Community Development stretches the traditional boundaries and applications of well-established community development theory, and establishes new theoretical approaches rooted in new disciplines and new perspectives on community development. Expanded from a special issue of the journal Community Development, Theory, Practice, and Community Development collects previously published and widely cited essays, as well as new theoretical and empirical research in community development. Compiled by the editors of Community Development, the essays feature topics as varied as placemaking, democratic theory and rural organizing. Theory, Practice, and Community Development is vital for scholars and practitioners coming to grips with the rapidly changing definition of community.

As local communities and public services reel under the impact of global economic turmoil, it is vital to find more creative ways for the services to work together with those who depend on them and who also, as citizens, ultimately govern them. Community practice is the name for that growing part of the relationship by which service providers and local residents collaborate flexibly and economically to meet needs, boost community strengths and service effectiveness, and link participative and representative democracy. Combining re-examination of theory with practical tools and approaches, Chanan and Miller provide a new framework for local involvement strategy, for policy-makers and practitioners alike. They show how this innovative but still amorphous movement can become more coherent, both on the ground and in public policy: reforming community development, building new kinds of neighbourhood partnership, measuring outcomes objectively, and combining the best innovations of the past three decades into a new synthesis. This is an important new perspective for all local public service agencies, all practitioners working in communities, and academics and students concerned with these fields.