Community Development (SOAN*4500)

Code and section: SOAN*4500*01

Term: Winter 2025

Instructor: Erin Nelson

Details

Course Description:

Community development refers to processes by which local people play a leading role visioning and enacting changes to enhance their wellbeing. Over the last decades, this grassroots approach has emerged as an important alternative to top-down development planning. Community-led approaches generally center principles such as inclusivity, equity, diversity, and justice, and they have become embedded in the practices of many international and domestic development agencies and community-based organizations.

 

The objective of the course is to critically examine theory, methods and case studies associated with community development, as well as more recent critiques of and debates regarding community-based participatory approaches to change. We will interrogate questions related to what community means in different contexts, and how notions of wellbeing and development can be contested at various scales. The course will be conducted in the form of a weekly seminar. Students will be expected to complete a set of readings each week and be fully prepared to actively participate in weekly discussion. They will also work in small groups to lead a seminar and in larger teams to develop a funding proposal for a community development project.

 

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to do the following:

1. Identify and critically discuss key concepts integral to community development;
2. Critically analyze community development case studies from local and global contexts;
3. Critique various participatory approaches to community development using empirical material from case studies;
4. Consolidate and interpret practical knowledge, attitudes and skills to facilitate community development; and
5. Critically reflect on their own positionality and potential role(s) in community development efforts.

 

Readings:

All readings will be available through ARES and/or CourseLink.

 

Tentative Assessments (subject to change before class begins in January 2025):

Participation (20%)

Reading Reflection Papers (15%)

Group Seminar Presentation (25%)

Community Development Project Presentation (15%)

Community Development Funding Proposal (25%)

Syllabus