Abstract This article, drawn from a keynote panel discussion at the 2026 International Association of Community Development (IACD) Glasgow Conference marking 60 years of the Community Development Journal, explores the foundations, frontiers and futures of community development practice. It pursues two interwoven arguments. The first traces the critical-radical foundations of the field—from its colonial origins through the Freirean revolution and subsequent traditions of feminist, decolonial and indigenous thinking. It then names three key frontiers: the broader context of civilizational rupture; fragmentation within the community development field itself; the persistent problem of anti-intellectualism and a lack of disciplined, theoretically conscious practice. The second argument proposes that the critical-radical tradition, while foundational and essential, is no longer sufficient to guide community development in an age of rupture. In response, the article makes a case for a renewed tri-fold praxis that brings together the critical-radical, the phenomenological, and the contemplative. It argues that phenomenological sensibilities enable practitioners to see afresh and respond ethically to the other, while contemplative practices resist the atrophying effects of machine culture and manic hyper-productivity and achievement. Together, these three orientations constitute renewed community development praxis relevant to the profound uncertainties and possibilities of the present moment.
Abstract This article examines the informal tea spaces created by Khartoum’s settat shay (tea ladies) as everyday sites of social and economic sustainability and explores how these practices can inform community engagement elsewhere. Drawing on staged, performative tea gatherings in the American Midwest, the study analyzes how interaction unfolds and how relationships develop over time. Although scholarship on third places highlights their capacity to support informal social interaction, the findings indicate that their mere existence does not guarantee meaningful engagement. Instead, interaction quality depends on relational conditions such as familiarity, repetition, attentiveness, and group size, which are mediated through shared practices – especially preparing and offering tea. These practices structure interaction through pacing, mutual participation, and low-threshold entry points. By positioning informal tea spaces as a form of relational infrastructure, the article extends third place and food-based engagement literatures through a practice-based lens. It contributes to community engagement by shifting the focus from designing spaces for engagement to shaping the conditions that sustain interaction over time, while demonstrating how practices rooted in Sudanese contexts can inform approaches to community engagement elsewhere.
