Community Development Theory to Action

Building on first-year foundations, this unit deepens students’ understanding of the ideas and values that shape community development. Drawing on diverse traditions including critical, feminist, and decolonial approaches, students will examine community development and social and political processes grounded in collective action, participation, and transformation from below. Students will examine how theory and practice come together through the concept of praxis, considering how community work can respond to inequality while avoiding colonial and top-down approaches.

The unit emphasises the importance of values such as justice, care, participation, and reciprocity, and how these are enacted in practice across diverse contexts. Through case studies and collaborative workshops, students will engage with national and international frameworks for ethical community practice and reflect on how community development can contribute to individual and collective wellbeing.

Teaching in this unit is experiential and dialogical, combining short lectures, case studies, collaborative workshops, and reflective activities that link theory to practice and foster ethical, values-based community development praxis.