Community building

This article presents an integrated construct of servant leadership derived from a review of the literature. Subscale items were developed to measure 11 potential dimensions of servant leadership: calling, listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth, and community building. Data from 80 leaders and 388 raters were used to test the internal consistency, confirm factor structure, and assess convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Results produced five servant leadership factors—altruistic calling, emotional healing, persuasive mapping, wisdom, and organizational stewardship—with significant relations to transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, extra effort, satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness. Strong factor structures and good performance in all validity criteria indicate that the instrument offers value for future research.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of engaging grassroots communities in all aspects of community building and other initiatives to address concerns about declining community well-being. Within the domain of community development there is an emphasis on ...

Playback theatre is a community-building improvisational theatre in which a personal story told by a group member is transformed into a theatre piece on the spot by other group members. Playback theatre combines artistic expression and social connection based on story-telling and empathic listening, thus bringing together modes thought to promote healing. Here, we explore the potential of playback theatre to promote recovery in the field of mental health. We conducted two playback courses for a total of 19 adults in a university-based program for recovery, and collected qualitative reports pre–post self-report measures for self-esteem, personal growth and recovery. We also developed a self-report measure named the playback impact scale that includes items related to creativity, confidence in performing, social connectedness and seeing one's life as full of stories. We find significant enhancement in the playback impact scale following a 10 week playback course. The qualitative reports indicate recurring themes of enhanced self-esteem, self-knowledge, as well as fun and relaxation, and enhanced sense of connection and empathy for others. These preliminary results suggest that playback theatre can serve as an effective practice for enhancing recovery processes from serious mental illness.► Playback theatre workshops for people with severe mental illness were studied. ► In playback, personal stories are enacted on the spot with empathy by peers. ► Qualitative reports and a quantitative playback impact scale were used. ► Workshops enhanced self-esteem, self-knowledge, relaxation, connection with others, and empathy. ► We suggest that playback can be effective for enhancing recovery from serious mental illness.

Bericht zur Tagung "Integrale Quartierentwicklung in Wohngebieten mit Sanierungsbedarf. Rollen, Aufgaben und Strategien der Gemeinwesenarbeit (GWA) - 8. Fachtagung der Netzwerke Gemeinwesenarbeit Deutschschweiz" erschienen in: Berner Fachhochschule BFH (2015): Impuls. Magazin des Fachbereichs Soziale Arbeit, 1/2015, S. 18-21.

This hand-illustrated access-centred zine questions the absence of critical disability perspectives in the critique of neoliberal individualism. Building on academic literature as well as grassroots social justice organising, it argues that the very idea of individualism is an illusion. Specifically, an illusion made visible by foregrounding the lived experiences of disabled people, where interdependence is always already a foundational aspect of life. It maintains that the perspectives of disability-aligned writers and activists provide vital contributions to broader critiques of the neoliberal capitalist system. Comparing these perspectives to academic discourses, it demonstrates how interventions in both scholarship and wider movement building are necessary for imagining intersectional liberated futures beyond neoliberal individualism. By introducing discourses of disability justice, care webs, access intimacy and the complexities of debility, this zine provides an accessible starting point for exploring the potential of radical crip perspectives in bringing about sociopolitical and economic change.

This zine was originally produced for my undergraduate dissertation in BA International Relations at SOAS, University of London. It was created under the supervision of Dr Rahul Rao and was awarded a 90/100.

This paper was written in 2014 for the topic HIST3001: Destination Australia: Migration since 1900 at Flinders University.
The paper explores the history of the Greek Ikarian islander community of South Australia, and the formation of the Pan-Ikarian Brotherhood of SA as a result of Ikarian migration. The essay won the 2014 Wakefield Companion to SA History Undergraduate Essay Prize.

This thesis explores the efforts by a group within the hardcore punk scene in Bandung, Indonesia, to establish an autonomous community based on participatory 'Do It Yourself' cultural production. I examine the ways in which the DIY values of autonomy and community are expressed through their social organisation, musical performances, and DIY practices of production and exchange. The autonomous community of DIY hardcore is an attempt to realise a positive alternative to capitalist alienation, though it remains contained within a restricted sphere of cultural activity and may still generate some value for capital.

Attraverso il contributo di sedici esperti di Petrarca e della sua fortuna tra Quattro e Cinquecento, il volume si interroga sui modi in cui la ricezione delle sue opere nel contesto italiano ed europeo ha mediato, in forme varie e molteplici, la costruzione di comunità culturali nel Rinascimento. I capitoli si soffermano sui vari contesti in cui Petrarca veniva letto, interpretato e riscritto e si confrontano con diverse pratiche in cui il modello petrarchesco si riattiva e insieme si trasforma, dal gioco all’emblema. L’evoluzione dei paratesti, tanto verbali quanto visivi, riflette le attese di determinate comunità, dalle corti alle accademie, e al tempo stesso influenza le dinamiche di lettura e circolazione dei testi. Come la storia della lirica quattro-cinquecentesca è inseparabile dalla storia della ricezione di Petrarca, così, nel Rinascimento, la nascita e lo sviluppo del commento alla poesia dei contemporanei si intrecciano con le vicende della tradizione esegetica dedicata a Canzoniere e Trionfi.

Restorative practices (RP), an alternative discipline approach focused on repair rather than punishment, has attracted the attention of school districts throughout the United States. As mounting evidence demonstrates the long-standing system of punitive discipline to be not only ineffective in reducing behavioral incidents but to be detrimental to young people, particularly those of color, districts are increasingly turning to the research-supported practice of restorative justice.This brief highlights three schools located in the urban districts of New York City and Rochester, N.Y., each committed to restorative justice reform: Leadership and Public Service High School (LPS) in Manhattan, World of Inquiry School (WOIS) in Rochester, and East Lower and Upper Schools (East) in Rochester. Presented here are the experiences they shared with us at the Center for Urban Education Success (CUES) through a series of interviews that included administrators, a university professor, teachers, social workers, and a student. Interviews with several LPS staff, conducted by The New York Times Magazine, supplement these accounts . Together, these stories are intended to provide a more intimate, personal depiction of a movement whose successes and challenges have been well-documented in research.

Queer and Feminist Art Practices in Video Art : Post?-Identity Political Proposals

by RÉBECCA LAVOIE

While arguing for an appraisal of political art bound to the social spaces in which it emerges in communities of practice, the author examines some of the political thoughts at play in feminist art practice and the queering of identity claims. First providing contextual elements that allow us to situate the emergence of video as a singularly effective medium for feminist and queer politics, Lavoie ensues to present Montreal-based video performance artists, Lamathilde and Dayna McLeod, and how their thoughts and practices partake in building a community of affinities.
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Proposant une conception de l’art politique ancrée dans les espaces sociaux dans lesquels il émerge à travers des communautés de pratique, l’auteure examine certaines des notions à l’œuvre lorsqu’il est question d’identités, de pratiques artistiques féministes et de pensée politique queer. Elle offre d’abord des éléments de contexte permettant de situer l’émergence de la vidéo comme médium dont l’efficacité politique s’est révélée considérable pour les pensées féministes et queers, puis elle discute de deux artistes de vidéo performance montréalaises, Lamathilde et Dayna McLeod, et de la manière dont leurs pensées et leurs pratiques participent à la consolidation d’une communauté d’affinités.

The paper deals with Rabindranath Tagore's idea of Samaj (community) and his educational and cultural work at Santiniketan as  an experiment in community building. It also looks at how his own creative work and that of other artists working at Santiniketan contributed to the endeavor.

When professionals in Housing and Residence Life think about how community is built within their halls, many focus on the hall programs and interactions that come from the Resident Assistants they supervise. However, Hall Directors can play a direct role in making their residence hall feel like a home to the many students who live there.

A practice research conducted by six pastoral professionals working with people in situations of marginalization at different Urban Mission locations in the Netherlands. It offers answers to such questions as: How can we shape community building in the present society? How do existentially meaningful places arise in urban areas? Can professionals, voluntary collaborators and participants of a community center truly create space for each other? How is 'this game played'?

"Between 1944 and 1958, the western zones of Germany had to absorb over nine million refugees who had fled or been expelled from their homes east of the Oder-Neiße rivers or had left the Soviet zone. Owing to these large numbers and the catastrophic housing conditions, many had to spend varying periods of time in
camps. This article looks at refugee camps for German refugees in three West German Länder to examine the extent to which community-building can be seen to have taken place between 1945 and 1960.

The development of the refugee camp phenomenon is traced, from the initial policies to ensure a quick turnaround, to the transformation of many camps into Wohnlager , providing facilities for everyday living, social events and employment. Perceptions of outsiders are analysed and found to show that they were rarely able to recognize instances of community growth. This may be largely explained by political considerations and concern over the social effects of living in a refugee camp environment. Finally, the article turns to Camp Poxdorf/Hagenau in Mid-Franconia to demonstrate how a refugee settlement with a thriving social life was able to emerge from an unremarkable hut camp.

The conclusion places the refugee camps in the wider context of the postwar history of the FRG, arguing that fears surrounding ‘ asocials ’ in camps reflected wider fears about society, but, like the rest of the population, refugee camp residents were working towards achieving a state of normality. Camp communities can be seen to have aided integration by providing an environment where the residents could get used to their situation and look to the future."

After more than a hundred years of over-controlled master planning approaches dominance, urban specialists agreed that it failed. Even the most generous team can not predict all complexities and externalities of city developments. There are more and more theoretical and practical works, which insist that our cities should develop organically. Even though, the experience of the previous century should also be taking into account. That is why contemporary projects are trying to combine both top-down and bottom-up development.
This work focus on the development of urban expansion areas, which are traditionally totally influenced by the architect’s visions (the informal urban expansion is not taken into consideration in this thought). In the light of Organic Urbanism movements, these areas tend to give more opportunities and responsibilities to the future residents. With this in mind, the current study looks at residential Community Building as an essential parallel process with the actual spatial area development. Moreover, for many western countries these responsibilities deviations are new not only from the environment policy point of view but also for the society. Altogether, it determines the nature and focus of current study. The aim of the research is to explore the links between Organic Urban Expansion and Community Building as well as what is the influence of the Innovation Diffusion on it? The Almere Oosterwold is a case study for this research.
The study makes use of qualitative data. The main sources if information for this were interviews with future residents, municipality workers, architects; analysis of Facebook and Twitter posts, comments; secondary data as several interviews with project creators, information about Almere development history as well as project details. First, the analysis of this information leads to the identification aspects that influence on particular personal and community characteristics. Second, it showed the relationships of these characteristics with spatial characteristics of the different initiatives1. Finally, this analysis determinates several community and spatial projects typologies as well as result of their combinations.
At present, the actual development of Oosterwold consists of initiatives of different sizes (from a single detached house up to large developments with 60+ dwellings). Most of the initiators, who are building now or about to start it, are the pioneers of Oosterwold. Each of them had spent around two or even more ears on getting all necessary permits. This study detected what are the drivers and barriers which influence on the social composition among pioneers. It also shows that they form different types of communities depending on their attitudes and reasons of collaboration. It is important to realise that relationship inside those communities, their openness to the neighbours, decision-making power distribution and other aspects influence on the physical characteristics of their projects. For example, some of them have common space other do not; there are monotony projects and diverse.
Under those circumstances, it is important to understand to what kind of pioneers the strategy of Organic Urban Expansion correspond to achieve certain goals the urban professionals have.

The Muslim community in the post-indenture Caribbean witnessed several changes that affected the character of its practices. As a way of institutionalizing the faith, the community had established masajid (mosques), schools and other organisations. As these physical manifestations and legal entities were being inserted into the local space, foreign missionaries who visited imposed their brand of Islam on the local landscape. The tension which arose resulted in the splintering of the Muslim community. Each strain, Sunnism and Ahmaddiyaism, vied for supremacy – territoriality - by supporting missionary visits from India and later Pakistan, and embarking upon da’wah (invitation to...). As these streams of Islam collided or solidified, organisations, either at the community or national levels, were established.

As part of forging the ummah (community) Muslim leaders established links with South American Islamic bodies, principally those of British Guiana and Suriname. This development of Islamic consciousness and cooperation culminated with a regional conference in 1950 in Trinidad that involved Muslims from Trinidad, British Guiana, Suriname and Barbados. This conference was the highlight of Islamic consciousness in the Caribbean and preceded the departure of two eminent Islamic scholars, Maulana Abdul Aleem Siddiqui and Dr. Fazl-ur Rahaman Ansari.

This paper, therefore, takes a look at the above issues and rethinks them in the context of interconnected networks and sometimes, through the lens of the local-global nexus. It views it as a noble attempt by the Muslims to assert the ummah beyond national boundaries and a forerunner to other efforts in the later twentieth century.

Ce rapport pour le réseau Amadeus croise une analyse des dynamiques institutionnelles de participation (ou de non-­participation) avec l’analyse d’un panel d’expériences illustrant le pouvoir d’agir des habitants dans la politique de la ville. Les dynamiques institutionnelles sont appréhendées par une synthèse de la littérature et une enquête auprès des professionnels de la politique de la ville oeuvrant dans des grandes villes ou agglomérations. Principalement développées dans ces mêmes territoires, sept expériences donnent à voir le « pouvoir d’agir » des habitants.