Mayo Marjorie

Social development work takes place in the grey area between government and the voluntary and community sectors. This book, written by three well-known educators and researchers in the social policy and development field, explores the ways in which front-line professionals working with communities identify and address the dilemmas inherent in the current policy context. Drawing upon original material, the authors examine how 'community engagement' workers negotiate the ethical and emotional challenges they face; how they work through problems of community representation at interpersonal and team levels; how they manage the conflicting roles of local activist and paid worker and what role colleagues, management and others play when responding to such challenges. The dilemmas of development work reconnects to, and updates, an important tradition in social policy which explores the dilemmas of 'street-level' work. It draws on contemporary political theory and current debates concerning the modernisation of governance and psycho-social perspectives on identity, values and agency. Combining theory and practice, it will appeal to practitioners, policy makers and undergraduates in social and public policy.

The dawn of the twenty-first century has been accompanied by an upsurge of anti-capitalist campaigning, challenging the very basis of the New World Economic order. Dramatic events such as the protests from Seattle to Genoa, have captured media headlines. But media headlines leave key questions unanswered, questions about the ultimate significance of the challenges posed by global social movements and the development of civil society, both South and North. This book sets out to explore the lessons from these experiences of social mobilisation. How can non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations and the labour and trade union movement develop effective campaigning alliances – without becoming institutionalised and incorporated themselves? How can they maintain an effective balance between winning immediate gains without losing sight of longer-term strategies for transformation? How can they work with celebrities to gain media attention -- without losing control of the message? And how can social movements develop organisational forms that are genuinely representative and democratically accountable, globally? These questions are explored through case studies of particular networks, movements and campaigns, to tackle the causes of social inequality and social injustice. It concludes by exploring lessons for building global challenges to neo-liberal agendas and developing more transformatory approaches.