This book explores the dynamics of community development thinking, processes, and approaches in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on how local actions are critical in reducing poverty, enhancing local innovations and sustainability, diversifying livelihoods, and strengthening the architecture for transformative futures.
Community Development in Sub-Saharan Africa explores the dynamics of community development thinking, processes, and approaches in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. This edited collection prioritises how localised community processes foster transformation in resource-poor communities. The book emphasises examples of community resilience and recovery using locally informed approaches that respect local cultures and ways of being. The book further highlights the formative, yet understudied role of community development practice in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on how local actions are critical in reducing poverty, enhancing local innovations and sustainability, diversifying livelihoods, and strengthening the architecture for transformative futures. The primary audience is scholars and students with interests in community development, history of development, international development, African Studies, and development theorising, as well as community development policymakers and practitioners.
Introduction: Community Development in the Global South: Perspectives
from Sub-Saharan Africa Section One: Histories, Contexts and Conceptual
Perspectives of Community Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
1. (Re)telling
the History of Community Development in South Africa
2. History and emergence
of community development in Nigeria: a descriptive perspective
3. Evolving
pathways Historical Evolution of Community Development Approaches in Africa
Section Two: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives of Community
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Ontology and Epistemology of Endogenous
Development Implications on Indigenous Cosmovision for Community
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
5. Critical Realism: A Critical Evaluation
in the Context of Community Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
6.
Decolonisation and Decoloniality of the 21st Century An Antidote for
Elusive (Community) Development?
7. Theorising Community Development in
Africa Insights and Approaches Section Three: Community Development Praxis
in Sub-Saharan Africa
8. Higher Education Community Engagement and its
Contribution to Community Development in South Africa A Case Study of
Rhodes University Community Engagement
9. Enhancing Water Access to Empower
Women and Foster Community Development Insights from the Phaloni Solar
Water Project in Phalombe, Malawi
10. Community Development as a Process and
Method Insights from Northwestern Botswana
11. Transitioning From a Rural
to Urban Centre a Case of Domboshava in Pre-Colonial and Post-Colonial Eras
in Zimbabwe
12. The Role of Community-Based Praxis in Community Development
Lessons from Grassroots Initiatives on the Eastern Coast of Tanzania
13.
Informal Waste Picking as a Sustainable Livelihood Initiative and Potential
for Human and Community Development: A Case of Metal Waste Pickers in OR
Tambo District Municipality, Eastern Cape South Africa
Grey Magaiza is a Senior Lecturer in Community Development and is currently Deputy Director for the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) on the QwaQwa Campus. His research interests are in social theoretical integration and applied social research in rural development, border studies, and community development-particularly social entrepreneurship, rural innovation, and youth studies.
Savathrie Margie Maistry is currently a Research Associate at Rhodes University. She was a member of the national task team established by the Department of Social Development, Community Development Directorate in South Africa, for the professionalisation of community development. She is the chief editor of the online, open-access African Journal of Higher Education Community Engagement.
