Active Citizenship and Community Learning
- Carol Packham - Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Focusing on recent initiatives to strengthen citizen and community engagement, it provides guidance, frameworks and activities to help in work with community members, either as different types of volunteers or as part of self-help groups. Setting community work as an educational process, the book also highlights dilemmas arising from possible interventions and gives strategies for reflective, effective practice.
"An inspiring and brilliant read and by far the best resource we have on community work today." - General Secretary, Community and Youth Workers Union.
I have used the book for planning sessions for the past year with students studying a Community Involvement module at level 5. I have requested copies for the university library as an essential text and think that students will find the clear chapter headings easy to navigate and the mix of case studies and activities beneficial.
This book is able to give a very good notion about active citizenship as well as community learning, being able to explore those concepts with a clear perspective, which is complemented through the various proposed exercises. The several case studies provided are also extremely useful.
This book is an essential reading for students, practitioners and academics, among many others, interested in active participation and engagement with issues of renewed citizenship and community-building and maintaining.
An excellent book which is key to those studying youth and community work programmes
key concepts defined and evidenced with case studies.
I have used some of the ideas included in the book with a sample student group students who were undertaking a module on 'social economy and citizenship'. Both students and myself reviewed the content and find it very useful in explaining key concepts.
I'm not sure that this adds much to an existing body of work. This is a rather crowded area of the market and although this is accessible and contains useful material it's difficult to recommend as more than supplementary reading.