This article argues that to be effective, community development ethics need to be embedded in community development practice. In the professional experience of the authors, ethics are often said by community development practitioners to be important in theory but may seem abstract or have little impact on day-to-day work. We therefore argue that to bridge that gap between theory and practice the establishment of an ethical contract between community workers and the groups that they work with should be seen as an indispensable element of good practice. We suggest that for an ethical contract to be effective it should be established by workers and community groups working in inclusive and participative ways. This will increase the degree to which ethical practice is understood and owned by all participants and opens up opportunities for practice to be accountable to everyone involved in the community development process and not just professional workers. Drawing on human rights literature and insights from popular education, the article highlights the ways in which using a static ethics framework (such as a statement of ethical principles or code of ethics) may reinforce existing power imbalances and inadvertently disempower communities. It explores how establishing a dynamic ethical contract between practitioners and the groups they work with offers greater potential for embedding ethical practice in community development work.

Evaluation has to be an integrated part of community development. Without evaluation (and periodic monitoring) it is impossible to know how well the project/group/campaign is proceeding, or to take stock of what works and what is being learned. In this chapter we discuss a basic evaluation and monitoring framework: Monitoring and evaluation are an essential part of community development A useful approach to creating a framework for monitoring and evaluation is through using a logical framework A community development-focused logical framework should make reference to (appropriate) community development principles and these should be built into the framework Producing and managing a logical framework, and the final evaluation that is derived from it, should be a participative activity Local people can, and should, undertake their own evaluations. The community development worker's role is to facilitate this process and access expert support when necessary Logical frameworks need to be applied flexibly and should be changed as circumstances change All community development activity should have evaluation and monitoring as an inherent component.

In this chapter we explore two complementary methods that contribute to understanding the community. The main points we discuss cover how: It is important that the worker understands the complex and diverse nature of the community within which they practice It is also important to facilitate local people to critically reflect on their lives and where they live Psychogeography can lead to a greater understanding and re-seeing the community PhotoVoice is another and complementary approach to re-seeing the community Community development workers need to apply a range of creative approaches to help people explore and analyse their daily life experiences as a basis for further action.

We suggest that it is through building anti-oppressive practice into our everyday work that community development is able to effectively promote human rights and move towards social change. Specifically: Anti-oppressive practice operationalises the worker's commitment to the value of social justice It both celebrates diversity and challenges behaviour and structural injustice Prejudice and discrimination consciously and unconsciously oppress people Anti-oppressive practice operates at the personal, cultural and structural levels Anti-oppressive practice therefore, is also a further framework for the analysis of community development.

In this chapter we discuss the current models of community development practice in the UK. This discussion is contextualised by reference to alternative practice models from the USA and Africa. Specifically, we explore: The current dominant model of community development practice in the UK That the dominant model is based on producing ameliorative outcomes for small-scale community groups operating within a local neighbourhood focus That community development has been largely incorporated into a local state-led social planning framework, based on a local partnership model A snapshot of global practice models built around an authoritarian/libertarian – closed system/open system analytical framework That more creative and people-driven models of community development are most likely to be found in open system/liberal societies That more closed system/authoritarian societies are more likely to use community development-like activities as means of delivering top-down government policies It is important that community development workers understand the nature of their practice, and the alternative models of practice, in order to identify the most effective way forward.

One of the problems inherent in community development is that activity is usually focused on relatively small groups of people. As such it is easy to miss the wider perspectives. Community development often deals with problems that are manifestations of a broader, sometimes global economic, social or environmental nature. Therefore, this chapter aims to set a global context within which community development takes place. Specifically: We live in a diverse globalised world. Nevertheless, diverse global forces act on local communities The UN Sustainable Development Goals set the key global development agenda In the developed world the 2008 crash is leading to major changes in the role of the state with implications for communities We can all learn from each other’s experiences no matter where we live Issues facing urban communities have commonalities across countries These perspectives provide a further framework for analysing community development practice.

This chapter explores how community development can assist people to develop skills, knowledge and confidence through Community Capacity and Human Capability programmes. Community capacity building can be very useful in developing skills and knowledge for a range of developmental tasks Many community capacity programmes are heavily compromised by the top-down and banked approach adopted by agencies The human capability approach can be applied through creating practical and achievable objectives in development programmes Capability programmes can bring real benefits in terms of human growth and empowerment Human capabilities are twofold; it is about personal growth, and the social change required to create the freedom for personal development to take place Community development workers need to make choices about their approach to assisting individual and group development in communities.

Community development is a social product, and as such it evolves as society, culture and the economy changes. Over the following hundred years or so, community development slowly developed an unequal symbiotic relationship with public policy. Sometimes government has promoted community development, and other times it has ignored it. In a time of austerity budgets, community development activity has been seriously defunded. Ideologically, many people are fixed on community development being closely connected to the state and state funding. Sometimes, this is because it is what people know, for others it is that the state should provide, and community development is really an arm of the state to do this. For community development to have a viable future it needs to reinvent how it organizes itself. Community development needs to do the following: community development workers/organizations need to: Whether community development can rise to these challenges remains to be seen.

This chapter explores the values that both underpin and inform the practice of community development. These are the areas covered: Community Development is a value-based practice Its ultimate purpose is personal and social transformation Values clarify our roles and help us define how we work with people Common values offer us the basis to work across professional boundaries Clashes of values can cause tension and bring us into conflict This chapter therefore, sets the context for the book. The following theoretical and practice discussions should be read in the context of this value base.