The soul of community development: reimagining our future by exploring the relationship between people, place and power
We would like to invite community-engaged practitioners, students, activists and academics to join us for three days of discussion that will enable individual and collective reflection on the future shape of progressive global community development practices.
As organisers, we have chosen to structure the conference around a series of key questions that ask us, individually and collectively, to re-examine our working practices, reflect on our motivations and re-imagine the future for community development.
We would be delighted if you could join us and share your experiences and knowledge as community members, practitioners, creatives, researchers and policy makers for a collective exploration of the changing relationship between people, place and power in the context of rights-based community development practice.
Conference Themes and Reflective Questions
What are the innovative practices in community development that enable positive social change? Is digital technology changing the nature, context and practices of community development? Who should community development be working with? How does community development practice release the innate creativity of people? How can creativity enable community development to respond to diversity? What currently limits the potential positive impact of community development practice? In what ways is community development creating new spaces for disruption? How can we work across traditional boundaries to create new opportunities for positive social change? Whose future are we imagining?
Where are we working to effect positive social change? What is ‘place’ in modern community development? How does forced migration affect our understanding of place? How have digital technologies influenced the way people think about and experience ‘place’? How have digital technologies affected community development practices and what are the innovative ways in which community development has utilised these for positive social change? How do community development practitioners influence the built environment? How can community development contribute to a more sustainable human civilisation?
How is community development influencing social change? How is power understood and does this enable practitioners to negotiate the complexities of modern community development practice? What are the theories informing our practice and are these enabling us to respond to social injustices? What are the innovations in community education that ensure students are able to understand and challenge social injustices? What are the innovative ways in which community development practitioners work with people to harness their power and challenge for positive social change? Does community development practice maintain or address inequality? How do we ensure that community decision making does not disadvantage vulnerable minorities?