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2013 | Buch

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Practice of Sustainable Community Development

A Participatory Framework for Change

verfasst von: R. Warren Flint

Verlag: Springer New York

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This chapter will shape an initial understanding of sustainable development that will equip the reader to fully absorb the way the remainder of the book builds the framework of an effective, comprehensive practice in sustainable community development.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 2. Basics of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Communities face enormous challenges as their social, economic, and environmental resources are damaged or depleted. Because these resources are interconnected, there are no simple solutions to the problems society causes. But be it disease, child abuse, crime, injustice, weakened economies, energy shortages, lack of good jobs, extinction of species, poverty, destruction of forests, pollution, breakdown of families, armed conflict, or nuclear accidents, integrated solutions can resolve these seemingly diverse problems. However, acting on the interdependencies of the economic, environmental, and social justice elements of our world requires new ways of thinking about things and taking action—systemic instead of symptomatic—that will create a future where human society and nature can coexist with mutual benefit and where the suffering caused by poverty and natural resource abuse is eliminated (Gibson 2006).

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 3. Operationalizing Sustainability in Community Development

Abstract

Sustainable development is a global phenomenon that has arisen out of global politics. Everyone is now talking about sustainability. But despite its popularity, as I have shown in prior chapters, the term is used with a plethora of intended meanings. Thus, efforts to operationalize the concept often are met with confusion and debate around what the idea actually includes. This challenge stands in the way of understanding how the practice of sustainable development, especially in contrast to traditional linear solutions, could be helpful in enacting public policy choices or business decisions. The question is how we move beyond the rhetoric of sustainability?

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 4. System’s Thinking in Community Development

Abstract

At smaller scales, sustainable community development (SCD) practitioners will constantly find themselves in a “push and pull” situation with the community members they are working with. On one hand, community members always find it easiest to push or promote their specific issues of concern in isolation from one another (“The streets are always littered; we need more businesses downtown; there is too much fast moving traffic on the streets; the drinking water does not taste good”). On the other hand, the practitioner accomplished in system’s thinking should be able to pull the isolated opinions and concerns of community members toward a more systemic, integrated viewpoint of the real issues and how they are interconnected.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 5. Evaluating Community Knowledge Assets and Resources

Abstract

To help everyone in “getting on the same page” the first four chapters of this book provided a broad, all-inclusive, and integrated primer of the process of sustainable development. I hoped to equip the student, the practitioner, and anyone from a community with the understanding and the tools they will need in developing a second nature in the practice of sustainable development. A significant change in mindset is necessary so that the actual operation and practice of sustainable development will become part of the subconscious, always present when thinking and acting in the context of community development. The concepts, theories, and practices presented in preceding chapters provide the foundation upon which everything else in this book is talked about—the pedestal upon which community development is supported and the glue which cements the different pieces communities need in order to provide solid, long-lasting solutions to problems they want to eliminate in their improvement efforts.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 6. Understanding the Community Context

Abstract

Economic globalization has tended to strip out local cultural differences and nuances as if hierarchical uniformity were an end in itself. The practitioner must therefore contend with certain despair in many communities that have given in to lockstep dependency on “the system.” Restoring a sense of identity to the community may be an unexpected but necessary adjunct to a sustainable community development (SCD) project. A community’s identity may have been lost over some time as knowledge of, kinship with, and pride in its particular assets have atrophied. So perceived problems need to be looked at seriously, in the context of who the community is, to truly assess which problems the community should really spend its time on.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 7. Promoting Stakeholder Interest and Involvement

Abstract

As a sustainable community development (SCD) practitioner, one of the most humbling and frustrating experiences you can have is to call a meeting of community members for a town of 55,000–60,000 population and 30–40 people show up for the meeting. We have learned through the years that in order to influence real change in a community there needs to be engagement by a critical mass of the community’s residents and 30–40 people does not come close to a critical mass. A good turnout of community would be closer to 60% of the population. Lack of participation may be a matter of community member apathy or the feeling by individual community members that one person is not going to be able to make a difference. But a necessity for success is getting a large number of the population from the target community to engage and participate in the community improvement planning and action implementation. What is the best way to accomplish that?

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 8. Building Capacity for Community Change

Abstract

Community development practitioners often find themselves engaged in relatively short-term work, focused on particular issues such as improving housing conditions, advancing road safety at school crossings, or protecting aspects of the environment such as campaigns around river, air pollution, or greenhouse gas inventories. Community groups that form around these kinds of issues may be quite ephemeral and fade away again after a campaign has been successful. These constitute communities of interest or issue-based communities, which are usually focused upon a particular issue and look for a particular kind of expert practitioner to resolve the issue of concern.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 9. Creating a Community Vision

Abstract

A specialist was hired to develop and present a series of half-day training seminars on empowerment and teamwork for the managers of a large international oil company. Fifteen minutes into the first presentation, he took a headlong plunge into the trap of assumption. With great intent, he laid the groundwork for what he considered the heart of empowerment—team-building, family, and community. He praised the need for energy, commitment, and passion for production. At what he thought was the appropriate time, he asked the group of 40 managers the simple question on which he was to ground his entire talk: “What is the vision of your company?”

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 10. Analyzing Community Problems and Defining Objectives

Abstract

Before developing a Strategic Sustainability Plan for action it is critical to establish the vision, goals, and objectives, so that you can be sure you’re pursuing the right strategies. Otherwise, you risk being derailed by a community member’s opinion for a good strategy or by unspoken assumptions about the community’s condition that turn out to be inaccurate. In the last chapter I described how to assist the target community in articulating a vision and establishing goals for sustainable community development (SCD). As an SCD practitioner you are now ready to help the community build on their shared vision and goals with the development of objectives, the foundation for guiding strategic actions.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 11. Developing a Strategic Sustainability Plan

Abstract

The question to consider for this chapter is how do you as the SCD practitioner successfully facilitate a group of diverse community representatives starting with an agreed vision to reach consensus that will turn ideas into results through an intensive strategic planning process? Once community stakeholders have created a set of objectives aligning with their vision and goals for community improvement and some defined level of sustainability, the community must set about designing a revised organization and structure to move forward with the development of a strategic plan that will minimize chaos and unintended consequences.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 12. Evaluating Community Improvement

Abstract

Around the world, many programs and interventions have been developed to improve conditions in local communities. Communities come together to reduce levels of violence, to work for safe, affordable housing, or to help improve the water quality in their local ecosystems, to give just a few examples. But how do we know whether these programs are working? If they are not effective, and even if they are, how can we make them better? And finally, how can community leaders make intelligent choices about which promising programs are working best in their community over the long-term?

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 13. Sustainability and Governance

Abstract

In recent years, through the advancement of sustainable community development (SCD) programs around the globe, new approaches and techniques have been defined, tested, and proved successful in making constructive use of local and regional government rules, policies, and services. The codification of sustainability principles indicates that citizens and government officials can work together to find new approaches and ways of doing business that mitigate unnecessary bureaucratic resistance to achieving community sustainability goals. In today’s environment of increased public participation in community governance and politics, evidence shows that governance improves with cooperation between citizens and officials. And cooperation works as well in the private sector as the public sector.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 14. Key Community Issues for Change

Abstract

Successful sustainable community development (SCD) incorporates multiple characteristics that are contained within the comprehensive functional framework of the community. These features offer the opportunity to achieve the maximum social, economic, and environmental benefit in the community. That is unless there is something that is undesirable regarding the character of these features such as their degraded nature or loss of capital. If so then any of these features that need fixing can be identified by the community and if the will is there something can be done.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 15. Case Study Examples of SCD

Abstract

We have seen how disregarding the integrative effects of environmental, social, and economic issues has a significantly damaging consequence on communities. The arguments for sustainable development are clear and becoming universally accepted. Thus, for a community to improve and develop in the long term, it must answer the following questions about its environment in the socioeconomic context of the community:

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 16. Financial Sources for Sustainability Actions

Abstract

Ever since the concept of sustainable development was articulated and received worldwide endorsement, the gap between perceived need for action (demand) and its financing (supply) has been growing ever wider. If a community is at the action point in carrying out an integrated, systemic approach to planning for a sustainable future—then the most intricate, challenging, but important issue left is financing project actions. The hope is that community leaders encouraged by the SCD practitioner will have been researching the types and availability of specific funding for planned actions of the project’s implementation long before execution is planned to begin (Nagy 2009). Well before this point research and the beginning of dialogue should have commenced regarding State, Federal, and private funding programs available to assist the community in implementing its sustainability roadmap.

R. Warren Flint

Chapter 17. Final Thoughts

Abstract

We are a species (us humans) that have adapted to the Earth over several hundred thousand years. Out of that came cities, empires, technologies, languages, systems of governance, and philosophical outlooks. And as a species we have been very successful in coming to dominate the planet. But from another point of view we have not done so well.

R. Warren Flint

Backmatter

Titel: Practice of Sustainable Community Development
verfasst von: R. Warren Flint
Verlag: Springer New York
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4614-5100-6
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5099-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5100-6