Having encountered quite the trouble with finding comprehensive information on where to take a masters on community development in Europe I want to make the information I collected available here. If you have any comments on any of these programs or would like to add a program in another country (especially non-UK) you are more than welcome to email me about it.
United Kingdom:
1. University of Edinburgh - MSc in Community Education - link
2. London School of Economics - MSc in Health, Community and Development - link
3. University of Westminster - Masters in Community Development - link
4. University of Cambridge - Master of Studies in Social Enterprise and Community Development - link
5. London Metropolitan University - MSc in Organisation and Community Development - link
6. Oxford Brookes University - MA in Humanitarian and Development Practice - link
7. Durham University - MA in Community and Youth Work - link
8. Queen Mary College (University of London) - MAs in Cities and Cultures (might not seem directly connected to community development but you can probably focus your thesis on community development in an urban context) - link
9. De Monfort University of Leicester - B.A. Honours in Youth and Community Development and various MAs in Community Development - link 1
link 2
10. University of Glamorgan - MSc Community Regeneration - link
The Netherlands:
8. University of Amsterdam - MSc in Social Policy and Urban studies - link
9. Institute for Social Studies in the Hague - various MAs - link
Germany:
10. University of Applied Sciences Munich - MA in Community Development - link
11. Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin - various MAs - link
12. Koblenz University of Applied Sciences - MA in International Social Work and Community Development Studies - link
Sweden:
13. Lund University - Master in International Development and Management - link
14. Baltic University - Masters course in Sustainable Community Development and Urban Planning - link
France:
15. American University in Paris - Master of Arts in International Affairs, Conflict Management and Civil Society Development - link
Community Development is unfortunately a fairly new academic category in Europe even though all the elements it consists of have been practiced here for ages. However, cultural and academic arrogance might have contributed to making Europeans think they had no need to specifically develop their communities. Tellingly the closest thing to community development one could have studied was "International Development" - the rest of the world might need to develop its communities; Europe had no such necessity. North America on the other hand with its large number of newly founded communities was much more open about combining all the disciplines involved in developing communities into one, thereby reinventing "Community Development".
During the 90's European countries have been waking up to the fact that they were not culturally homogenous, that they were increasingly immigrant societies and countries. Problems of cultural, political, and social integration associated with that development have made the need for an embrace of community development painfully clear. Educational institutions have been reacting slowly to the increase in demand. The UK is probably quite far ahead in terms of the number of established programs, also having the advantage of an already established Bachelor/Masters system. Other countries have been busy introducing that system and on top of that combining several old areas of study to create new "sexy" disciplines. Thus, one encounters the problem of naming - community development will rarely be the title of a program in Germany or the Netherlands. Social work, social policy, social management but also urban studies or rural studies are some of the more likely titles of the programs.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Deep Community
Morgan Scott Peck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck), while known mostly for his "Road less travelled" self-help book, also wrote about community development. According to him there were three stages in the maturing of a community: pseudocommunity, chaos and emptiness.
The first stage, pseudocommunity, is marked by shallow friendliness, an avoidance of dissonance and lack of trust and knowledge of each other. The second stage, chaos, exhibits fights, discussions, arguments and diverging opinions and prejudices about each other being brought out into the open.
Finally, emptiness, is the stage in which the waves calm down again and community members, now knowing each other at a deep level, truly trust each other. The term emptiness refers to the fact that in order to belong to a "deep community" one needs to empty oneself of parts of one's individuality and egotism. One needs to give up part of oneself and become part of the bigger community.
Interesting enough, this concept is currently employed mostly in the context of corporate team-building for small groups of people. Peck however, believed that achieving the level of deep community was the only chance of survival for humankind. Would it really be possible or even desirable to practise it at a larger, societal level?
Of course the currently much publicized as much as feared "clash of civilizations" between "Islamic" culture and the "West" shows the dangers of persisting in a stage of global pseudocommunity. Practicing superficial tolerance without true acceptance of each other's divergent values and opinions can possibly lead to severe conflict, especially when coupled with economic and political inequality. However, a very real personal limit to how many people one can deeply relate to makes deep community on a global level simply unfeasible. The difficulty of changing the behavior of mass societies has always prompted reliance on automatic incentive mechanisms (like Adam Smith's invisible hand) rather than the encouragement of individual moral decision making for the common good. Going through Peck's stages of community development however, requires a lot of individual goodwill and determination to make this community thing work. Corporate team-workers might have that motivation even if only to get advancement credits within their company. The crucial question however is to find what it needs to make the dock-worker from Alexandria, Egypt and the CITY insurance broker gather the motivation to take that road less travelled.
The first stage, pseudocommunity, is marked by shallow friendliness, an avoidance of dissonance and lack of trust and knowledge of each other. The second stage, chaos, exhibits fights, discussions, arguments and diverging opinions and prejudices about each other being brought out into the open.
Finally, emptiness, is the stage in which the waves calm down again and community members, now knowing each other at a deep level, truly trust each other. The term emptiness refers to the fact that in order to belong to a "deep community" one needs to empty oneself of parts of one's individuality and egotism. One needs to give up part of oneself and become part of the bigger community.
Interesting enough, this concept is currently employed mostly in the context of corporate team-building for small groups of people. Peck however, believed that achieving the level of deep community was the only chance of survival for humankind. Would it really be possible or even desirable to practise it at a larger, societal level?
Of course the currently much publicized as much as feared "clash of civilizations" between "Islamic" culture and the "West" shows the dangers of persisting in a stage of global pseudocommunity. Practicing superficial tolerance without true acceptance of each other's divergent values and opinions can possibly lead to severe conflict, especially when coupled with economic and political inequality. However, a very real personal limit to how many people one can deeply relate to makes deep community on a global level simply unfeasible. The difficulty of changing the behavior of mass societies has always prompted reliance on automatic incentive mechanisms (like Adam Smith's invisible hand) rather than the encouragement of individual moral decision making for the common good. Going through Peck's stages of community development however, requires a lot of individual goodwill and determination to make this community thing work. Corporate team-workers might have that motivation even if only to get advancement credits within their company. The crucial question however is to find what it needs to make the dock-worker from Alexandria, Egypt and the CITY insurance broker gather the motivation to take that road less travelled.
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