Policy press 2008 'Making Spaces for Community Development" provides a brief historical context of community development over a forty year period using insights and reflections of experienced practitioners within the field to highlight lessons which inform professional practice, both currently and for the future. Throughout the period indicated, the book analyses the changes to the policy context which have created tensions, challenges and opportunities for community development, with particular reference to the shift towards a partnership model. The current emphasis, being driven by the government within the model of Community Planning, is towards a more "technical vehicle of capacity building," which attempts to depoliticise community development by delivering short term interventions and by engaging communities around service delivery. This is described by the authors as the "professionalisation of the profession." The book argues that the historic focus of community development work on social change will become weakened and lost if practitioners do not critically analyse both the policy context and their role, and ensure that the values which underpin community development (such as social justice, equality and empowerment) continue to inform practice. The book is not prescriptive, but encourages further discussion by raising key questions about current practice for debate.
Dealing directly and exclusively with the issue of older workers, this book brings together up-to-the-minute research findings by many of the leading researchers and writers in the field, exploring key issues that will influence public policy in the UK and beyond.
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