CCB Research - CSU Community of Scholars 2004

CCB is an interdisciplinary research group, drawing upon research from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (Centre for Rural Social Research), the School of Agriculture and the Australian Graduate School of Policing. The group has five core members and has recently been recognised as a CSU Community of Scholars.

About Community Capacity Building

Community capacity indicates the extent to which communities possess the resources necessary to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability. Community capacity building has been a recurring theme in Australian social policy. For example, the Australian Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (DFCS) in its strategic plan states that:

Stronger Communities is one of the three strategic outcomes for FaCS. Building on the capabilities of communities, the department will:

• encourage the development of community capacity to self-help;

• help ameliorate the effects of pressures on and within communities;

• facilitate partnerships between business, community groups and governments to achieve well-targeted and tailored solutions.

The Stronger Communities Outcome encompasses rural and regional issues, housing and homelessness assistance and related support, the particular needs of Indigenous communities and people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and issues around pressures within communities and their capacity to respond positively to changing circumstances and emergency situations. It also recognises the importance of ensuring that, as far as possible, service delivery arrangements do not disadvantage people, by virtue of their location, in their access to government programs and services.

State governments also emphasise the importance of community capacity, as in the New South Wales' Community builders program. Such programs can encompass many kinds of policy which aim at social and environmental development and change. As the 'Community builders' website says, community capacity is of interest to ‘everyone involved in community level social, economic and environmental renewal including community leaders, community and government workers, volunteers, program managers, academics, policy makers, youth and seniors.’ Community capacity has become an objective of many government policies in its own right, and with the development of public-private partnerships at the local level, it is becoming important to business as well. In the rural context, perhaps the most visible manifestation of the significance of community capacity is in the Landcare movement, but other areas such as Neighbourhood Watch in policing and many social welfare programs have attempted to develop and harness community capacity for a long time.

Community capacity building is an essential and powerful approach that can be effectively employed to mobilise communities from social, cultural, ecological, economic and political perspectives to achieve self-reliance and sustainability. The need to research community capacity building in a focused manner and to regenerate communities, both locally and internationally, has been felt due to the fact and popular perception that communities are becoming increasingly weak, dependent and vulnerable, particularly in the context of globalisation and current development patterns. The call for community capacity to be enhanced has also come from 'above', in terms of governments seeking to distribute responsibility to lower levels of government and voluntary organisation, and from 'below' as community members and organisations have sought greater resources and autonomy.

The research group will address the following broad and core research questions:

1. Which communities are weakening and why?

2. What are the factors that are affecting communities' capacity to meet their needs and to resolve their issues?

3. How can strong communities be built?

4. How can community capacity help to generate new forms of democratic governance?

These questions can be applied to both rural and urban situations. The group offers particular expertise in rural studies related to community capacity. The work of the PhD students is set in rural contexts. But the principles can be applied universally. One of the objectives of this group is to apply ideas developed in rural contexts more broadly, and vice versa. At present, the University's focus on rural issues has made it difficult to take advantage of such opportunities. The group of scholars will help to integrate urban and rural-based elements of our research capacity.

The group will specifically focus on the following research areas.                        

Community capacity building for:

• Care and welfare of vulnerable groups

• Ethnic groups and community-police relations

• Environmental sustainability

• Agriculture and extension work

For updates on CCB related research activities visit News and Current Projects.

Website developed and maintained by Faye Miller                                     

Last updated: 4 November 2004