Community Engagement

This presentation first addresses the role of new communication and information technologies (C and ITs) in building sustainable and inclusive rural communities; factors in community adoption and use of C and IT initiatives; the role of participatory planning and evaluation in making C and IT initiatives more sustainable and succes ....

Maggie Matear is the Director of Operations for the Northeastern Ontario Communications Network (NEOnet), a northern Ontario community-based network. She co-ordinates a non-profit strategic planning "gateway organization" for community capacity building in the information, communication, and technology (ICT) sectors. As advocates, facil ....

Richard Florida's theory of the 'creative class', new regionalism's emphasis on regional networks for innovation, and the business literature on the so-called 'new' or 'networked' economy, all point to the important link between creative thinking and economic success for regions. Out of this intellectual climate have come the curre ....

Many view tourism as a tool for community development. Especially in the rural areas experiencing economic hardships, tourism often is considered an instrument for revitalization of a local economy helping to improve quality of life and protect natural and cultural resources. However, many researchers have raised concerns about an over ....

Circle sentencing was first developed in Canada in 1992 for the sentencing of Indigenous offenders in a community setting, with aims including empowering and healing communities, providing more meaningful sentencing options, supporting offender rehabilitation, and supporting victims. In response to the overrepresentation of Indigenous p ....

Neil Bradford argues that innovation – applying the best ideas in a timely fashion to emergent problems – is an urgent priority in the private, public, and voluntary sectors. At the same time, he notes that, attention is increasingly being paid to those cities which demonstrate an institutional capacity to engage in collaborative learning pro ....

This thesis is an investigation of the value of social learning as a process that facilitates collaborative ecosystem approaches to planning with the intent of reducing risk to human health. More specifically, it examines the value of social learning in a planning process designed to protect quality of drinking water sources. A case stu ....

This book examines the resurgence in Australia of locality-based social policy (concerned with the spatial dimensions of disadvantage), after the political failures of the market oriented approach to regional reform. The book proposes that these trends are leading to a new 'post-competition' policy regime in Australia that mirrors global policy t ....

This research project study centered on the examination of community capitals that exist within a thriving rural community located in the upper Great Plains region. Grounded theory helped in the analysis of the data to understand how community capitals contributed to the socioeconomic growth and well-being of a thriving rural community. ....

Many Australians are living under pressure of social change and its consequences. People in rural and regional areas often live with additional stresses particular to rural communities. This paper discusses community cohesion and its relationship to resilience and the development of health and wellbeing. To emphasise the transition ....

This study was conducted for the Australian Centre of Excellence (ACELG) and builds upon previous research activity commissioned by ACELG on local government community engagement in Australia in 2011. Community engagement was amongst the ten priority areas that ACELG's 2010 Capacity Building Strategy for Rural-remote and Indigenous Local Governme ....

Three communities, the small rural shire of Nebo Shire in Central Queensland, the remote area council of Lockhart River in Cape York and the large, urban Ipswich City Council in South East Queensland, used various strategies to engage councillors, council staff and the community. These case studies highlight the challenges of desig ....

Leadership is the driving force behind development and the channel through which the characteristics to improve community capacity flow. Community agents are the mechanisms through which community actions are performed and through which development subsequently occurs. This paper discusses the role of community agents and their imp ....

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. P ....