40 Critical Thinkers in Community Development

Peter Westoby, David Palmer, Athena Lathouras,

• Publisher: Practical Action Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781788530644
  9781788531221
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788531245
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Development Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Who are the great activists, thinkers and writers who can inspire us in our community development work? Environmentalists, poets, philosophers, civil rights activists, trade unionists – all can help us question the assumptions that underlie our international development practice. This book invites students and professionals of community development and citizen activists to reflect on the roots of their practice and discover the wisdom of writers they may not have heard of before. The book highlights 40 personal and rigorous reflections, distilling several wisdoms and 40 'gems' of ideas for community development, from thought-leaders including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ela Bhatt, Jacques Derrida, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, John Keats, Rosa Luxemburg, Wangari Maathai, Manfred Max-Neef, Arundhati Roy, E.F. Schumacher, Vandana Shiva, Rabindranath Tagore and Greta Thunberg. The book's introduction will support readers in creating a personal practice framework, and a Coda/Map of Practice offers a vibrant visual representation of practice wisdoms in watercolour. 40 Critical Thinkers in Community Development is an important resource for daily or weekly readings and reflections, study groups, working or project teams, and as a resource for teachers of community development.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Author biographies
• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Towards a reflective community development practice: Integrating the gems and wisdoms of critical thinkers
• 2. Jane Addams: Practise mutual accompaniment
• 3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
• 4. Hannah Arendt: Time to think
• 5. James Baldwin: We have to go the way our blood beats
• 6. Homi Bhabha: The value of colonial ambivalence
• 7. Ela Bhatt: Start with women; may our action be one of nurturance
• 8. Augusto Boal: Rehearsing the possible
• 9. Behrouz Boochani: Bearing witness in the face of cruelty
• 10. Martin Buber: Practice as an encounter
• 11. Judi Chamberlin: Nothing About Us, Without Us
• 12. Angela Davis: Unlock the gates of poverties and prisons
• 13. Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction, a community development‘yet-to-come’ and ‘the hauntology of justice’
• 14. Gustavo Esteva: The work of deprofessionalizing ourselves
• 15. Frantz Fanon: A ‘revolution in listening’
• 16. Paulo Freire: Start with the people, but don’t stay with the people
• 17. Mary Graham: ‘Place method’ and custodians of land
• 18. Epeli Hau’ofa: Staying close to the ground
• 19. James Hillman: ‘Ensouling the world’ and notitia
• 20. bell hooks: We come to theory because of our pain
• 21. Myles Horton: Educators first, Organizers second
• 22. John Keats: Negative capability and coming into community
• 23. George Lakoff: Don’t think of an elephant!
• 24. Rosa Luxemburg: Are you willing to go to prison?
• 25. Wangari Maathai: Plant trees and protect genuine democracy
• 26. Joanna Macy: Life comes from reconnecting
• 27. Manfred Max-Neef: Poverties, not poverty
• 28. Chandra Talpade Mohanty: Pay attention to silence and erasure
• 29. Fran Peavey: Questions are the art of gentle revolution
• 30. Arundhati Roy: Do not fragment solidarity
• 31. Deborah Bird Rose: Community as the ’shimmer of life’
• 32. Bertrand Russell: Community and the value of idleness
• 33. E.F. Schumacher: Small is Beautiful
• 34. Richard Sennett: Respect
• 35. Vandana Shiva: Be a Seed Saver
• 36. Georg Simmel: The importance of the triad and the stranger in making ‘community’
• 37. Linda Tuhiwai Smith: Listening to old knowledge
• 38. Rabindranath Tagore: Discovering the invitation
• 39. Thich Nhat Hanh: Being, not doing
• 40. Greta Thunberg: Work where there’s desire and political motivation
• 41. Trinh T. Minh-ha: Recognizing difference in community
• 42. Conclusion
• Coda – map of practice
• Coda Map of Practice Diagram
• Photo credits