A new book advocated a critical approach to community development that emphasized its transformative rather than ameliorative potential.
Source: Margaret Ledwith, Community Development: A critical approach, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Nov
A report examined the links between crime, tenure diversification, and assisted mobility for housing tenants.
Source: Rowland Atkinson, Neighbourhoods and the Impacts of Social Mix: Crime, tenure diversification and assisted mobility, CNR Paper 28, Centre for Neighbourhood Research (0141 330 5408)
Links: Paper
Date: 2005-Nov
A report examined the scope for community land trusts to counter the problem of high land values preventing access to affordable housing. Experience showed that they could not only guarantee long-term affordability, but also act as a successful means of community empowerment by giving people collective control of land and property assets within their neighbourhoods.
Source: Diane Diacon, Richard Clarke and Silvia Guimar es, Redefining the Commons: Locking in value through community land trusts, Building and Social Housing Foundation (01530 510444)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Oct
A report analyzed the development and use of networks to achieve community development aims.
Source: Alison Gilchrist with Tanwir Rauf, Community Development and Networking, (Revised edition), Community Development Foundation (020 7226 5375)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jul
An article said that the Labour government used the term 'empowerment' to denote the engagement of local people in decision-making about the services and structures which affected their daily lives. Local participation was given as the distinctive feature of the New Deal for Communities. But little was known about what this meant in practice for the people affected.
Source: Adam Dinham, 'Empowered or over-powered? The real experiences of local participation in the UK's New Deal for Communities', Community Development Journal, Volume 40 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jul
An article said that the ways in which the term 'community' was used by the Labour government neglected the complex nature of the concept, and risked adversely affecting the most deprived sections of society.
Source: Isabelle Fremeaux, 'New Labour's appropriation of the concept of community: a critique', Community Development Journal, Volume 40 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jul
A study reviewed research evidence and policy experience from the United States and the United Kingdom on the impact of establishing mixed communities in existing neighbourhoods.
Source: Alan Berube, Mixed communities in England: A US perspective on evidence and policy prospects, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Brookings Institution (web publication only)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 0295
Date: 2005-May
A committee of MPs published an interim report on ways of dealing with the effects of Northern Ireland's history of inter-community violence.
Source: Ways of Dealing with Northern Ireland's Past: Interim report - Victims and survivors, Tenth Report (Session 2004-05), HC 303, House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Apr
The Northern Ireland Executive published a strategy for improving community relations. It aimed for the elimination of sectarianism, racism, and all forms of prejudice, so as to enable people to live without fear of intimidation or harassment; the reduction of tension at interface areas; and the development of a shared community where people wished to live, work, play and learn together.
Source: A Shared Future: Improving relations in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 2658) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 21 March 2005, columns 42-43WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Strategy (pdf) | Hansard | NIE press release | CRC press release
Date: 2005-Mar
A report used data from the 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey to explore levels of trust and community participation in England. There was no statistically significant relationship between social diversity (by socio-economic or ethnic groups) and trust in the courts, in Parliament, in the local council, in the police, or in employers. However, the more ethnically diverse an area was, the less likely people were to trust others within that area.
Source: Rachel Pennant, Diversity, Trust and Community Participation in England, Research Findings 253, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Findings (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jan