Searching for community : : Representation, power and action on an urban estate / / Jeremy Brent.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Bristol University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-1995
• VerfasserIn: Brent, Jeremy,
• MitwirkendeR: Brent, Colin,; Dorney, Patrick,; Johnson, Richard,; Mayo, Marjorie,; Nicholls, Doug,; Pierce, Mike,; Teddy, Pauline,; Trevor,,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol : : Policy Press, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (312 p.)

At a time when politicians place increasing importance on the role of 'community' in overcoming social problems, 'Searching for community' asks the vital question 'what is community, anyway?'. Is it an answer to social problems or an illusion to be dismissed? This insightful book is written from the perspective of the late Jeremy Brent's thirty year involvement as a youth worker in Southmead, a housing estate in Bristol and a place where discourses of community run strong. Searching for community presents a variety of perspectives to challenge the ways in which areas of poverty and disrepute are represented. It examines ways to understand and engage with the troublesome concept of 'community', vividly describing the collective actions of young people and adults to show the way community is enacted as a combination of dreams, actions and materiality. Providing a unique mix of practical knowledge and a sophisticated analysis of popular, professional and theoretical ideas of community, Searching for community makes uneasy reading for those looking for simplistic solutions to issues including youth crime, social marginalisation and community empowerment. This accessible book is a must-read for students and practitioners in the fields of community development, sociology and youth work who wish to get beyond the rhetoric and engage with the complexities of discourses of community.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Notes on the author -- Introduction -- Four settings: contexts and questions -- Researching Southmead: problems of representation and participation -- The intelligent outsider? Official and media representations of Southmead -- Knowledge from within: community art and local representations -- The outsider within: crossing worlds -- Young people and community: trouble and tribes -- Four examples of community action in Southmead -- What is community anyway? -- Engaging with community -- Communicating what youth work achieves: the smile and the arch -- Author’s acknowledgements -- Southmead eight years on -- Why Jeremy Brent’s work is more relevant than ever -- Bibliography -- Index