Community Development in Action

Margaret is Emeritus Professor of Community Development and Social Justice at the University of Cumbria. She is also on the coordinating group of the international Collaborative Action Research Network. Experience as a primary teacher and adult literacy tutor in Birmingham followed by many years in grassroots practice with communities led to a lifelong commitment to social justice. Margaret is the author of the award-winning book Community Development: A critical approach (Policy Press, 2011).

"Ledwith has again produced a powerful text for community development practitioners. This time she successfully links the activity with the crises of social injustice and ecological unsustainability in a highly recommendable and significant book." Professor Keith Popple, Visiting Professor at London South Bank University, Bournemouth University and Newman University, Birmingham. "At a time when the challenges posed by a neoliberal world, a shrinking state and an increasingly polarized society have never been greater, this book gives both the conceptual and practical tools which are so needed by practitioners who are working for a more just world." Dave Beck, The University of Glasgow

• Introduction;Principles of community development;Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy;Kickstarting Freire in everyday practice;Power: disempowerment and empowerment;Paulo Freire and anti-racist feminism;Poverty: ‘a crime against humanity’;Power and political times;Emancipatory action research as a critical living praxis;Staying critical: organising collectively.