Practice Insights is an International Association for Community Development’s (IACD) bi-annual community development publication – written by practitioners, for practitioners from across the global regions. Its purpose is to promote the sharing of practice approaches to the issues, challenges and opportunities that we, as Community Development practitioners, experience in our work. We welcome contributions that focus on and promote community development practice.
The next issue of IACD’s Practice Insights Magazine will focus on the central place of culture in community development processes and practice. The culturally-determined values, structure, roles, experience and dynamics of community life have significant influence on how communities organize to improve their wellbeing and livelihoods. Culture equally has a bearing of how community development practitioners’ interface with the community. Indeed community development practitioners ought to at all times to take communities’ culture into account in their practice, even as they in turn embrace a culture of responsible community development practice amongst themselves in the course of their work. It is this nexus between culture in its broadest sense and the discipline and practice of community development that will be the focus of this issue of Practice Insights Magazine.
We are inviting you – community development practitioners, researchers and academicians – to submit an abstract or a contribution for publication in this issue. If you are not familiar with writing for publications, an abstract is a short summary that outlines what your article will cover. All abstracts and articles submitted will be reviewed by the Editors (who are community development practitioners), and you will be offered supportive feedback and suggestions on both the abstract and article to ensure fit with the theme and contribution to community development learning and practice. This quality assurance process will ensure a high quality educative magazine.
Read on for further details!
The next issue of the IACD magazine Practice Insights (see back issues https://www.iacdglobal.org/practice-insights- magazine/) will focus on the connections between culture and community development. To the extent that culture is at the core of defining community spirit and essence, community development discipline and practice should be anchored in the culture of the communities. As social change takes place, so does culture change and this has implications for community development discipline and practice. This issue will seek to promote a reflection on how these two concepts– culture and community development – hold communities together to promote connectedness in a dynamic, ever-changing world. IACD sees community development as a necessary and important process for positively strengthening of communities by ensuring that individuals, singly and collectively – find meaning, have their needs and rights met, and at the same time being culturally rooted. IACD’s definition of the purpose of Community Development can be viewed here: https://www.iacdglobal.org/international-standards-accreditation/standards/
Suggested topics include the role of culture in:-
- Defining community contexts, vision and mission that underpin community development
- Inculcating values, attitudes, beliefs and goals core to community development
- Outlining practices that enhance the wellbeing of a community
- Defining boundaries of behaviour and interaction for community development practitioners
- Custodian of community wisdom, resources, resilience and sustainability
Other areas of focus could include:
- Culture and community development with special groups (youth, children, minorities, people living with disability, the elderly and migrants, among others)
- Embedding cultural sensitivities in community development theory and practice
- Evolution of cultures and challenges of aligning community development with changing community contexts
- Values and ethics of community development practice and their influence in working with communities
We are asking IACD members and other interested contributors to respond to this “Call for Abstracts” describing their articles in 500 words or less by 15th March, 2023. Guest Editors Daniel Muia and Judi Aubel will coordinate this Issue. Editors will respond to all proposed Abstracts by March 30th 2023. Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be given more detailed Author Guidelines to help them as they develop their detailed articles. The authors will have until May 15th 2023 to submit their 1500 word article (and photos and illustrations). The articles will undergo a quality assurance review process and authors will then have three (3) weeks to address any suggested edits.
Please help us market our Call by sharing with your networks. We look forward to receiving your Abstracts!
Please direct your questions and submission of Abstracts/contributions by 15th March 2023 to:
Daniel Muia at: daniel@iacdglobal.org
