Structure of the Book

Summary

Chapter 1 begins with an examination of what we mean by the term ‘community’ and considers various models developed to understand different experiences. The section on social capital has been considerably expanded to include a consideration of collective efficacy, community cohesion and integration. Chapter 2 explores how networks contribute to community life, individual wellbeing and collective survival strategies. It considers how ‘community’ has been treated as a dimension of policy in the UK and illustrates this with some examples from recent programmes.

Chapter 3 provides some definitions of community development and offers a historical account of different models of community development, mainly as they have emerged in the UK but with reference to more global perspectives. Chapter 4 sets out the strands that comprise community development interventions and reviews two major programmes currently being implemented.

Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with the structure, features and functions of networks in society and in organisations. They examine how interpersonal linkages affect the flow of power and influence in decision making, how community cohesion is enhanced through cross-community ‘bridge building’ and how emotions and shared understandings underpin strategies for collective action and political alliances.

In Chapters 7 and 8 I present the findings from research on the role and practice of community workers, intermediaries, activists and leaders. Community workers use and support networks to promote collective empowerment and to help different agencies to work better together. Specific skills and strategies are identified as well as a number of valuable traits and attitudes. I argue that ‘networking the networks’ and actively nurturing the more difficult connections in communities is our distinctive contribution. I therefore introduce the term ‘metanetworking’ as a way of making visible this important community development role.

Chapter 9 considers how and why networking benefits communities and those that work with them. The concept of the ‘well-connected community’ is presented as a way of thinking about ‘community’ as the emergent property of complex and dynamic social systems. It is a means of conjuring order out of chaos, building resilience and devising innovative solutions to intractable problems. Recent applications from the social sciences using complexity theory have been added, as have developments in social media and information technology.