Introduction

Summary

This book is intended for community workers – professionals working in many different disciplines; working, for example, in practice linked to adult learning, youth work and community development, in the disciplines of health, social work, planning, environment and education. It is intended for people at all stages of practice, be they students, more experienced colleagues or leaders in their field. We do, however, assume a practice context, as each chapter contains not just theory but also principles for practice and challenge questions about the reader's own practice.

We have chosen to produce a wide-ranging text to introduce theory across a broad scope and field of practice. Our purpose is to stimulate interest across the profession in using theory and linking it to practice. Individual chapters may seem more relevant to the reader, but we hope you will read the whole book, as the chapters are highly interrelated. This attention to a field of practice has resulted in a choice of theorists to include in this book, which is somewhat idiosyncratic. We have selected largely ideas to discuss rather than theorists to present and have tried to choose authors who we consider to be or who are becoming significant to the field. This was a difficult task and we are aware of many seminal thinkers who have not appeared in this text. We have chapters on youth work and adult learning, for example, and cannot hope to include all the important thinkers, as even one aspect of these practice areas could fill a whole book. Instead, we have chosen to focus on current discussions and arguments in practice and, as practitioners ourselves, have taken a particular standpoint.

Each chapter is ascribed to an author(s), but it is true that the book is written by all of us. We have tried to preserve some individuality at the same time as acknowledging that this has been a process of collaboration by practitioners writing a book, in the spirit of community work. Not all of us agree with all the content, but the content is a product of discussion and, in some cases, compromise. The named author(s) for each chapter have ownership of the content and took the lead writing role. This is important to us, as we believe ideas are not owned by anyone and are improved though collaboration.