Innovation and Transformation in Community Practice: Lessons from Ten Years of Regional and Rural Community Research

Stehlik D¹*, Chenoweth L²*

1. Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia
2. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The concept of community development is constantly under review. Over the past decade community developers in Australia and in North America are continually reflecting on alternative models that incorporate differences within communities, rather than seeking to homogenise them. Queensland, along with most of rural and regional Australia, has experienced difficult times in the past decade, with environmental and economic factors creating social stressors. In addition, policy makers are demanding alternative models which build and develop community strengths; focus on diversity and which seek to identify and capture the capacities of rural communities to survive in adversity. In Australia, this is highlighted by these policy makers as a demand for ‘evidence-based policy’ within community capacity building frameworks.

This paper suggests that such demands are framed within larger theoretical debates about social capital building, community resiliency and in Australia, working towards a ‘triple bottom line’ approach – that is, incorporating social, economic and environmental factors. This paper outlines perspectives derived from over ten years of research conducted by the authors in Queensland, one of Australia’s largest and most decentralised states, where the challenge of distance and lack of community services poses a major challenge to practice. Our research (which has guided our praxis (theory + practice)) has enabled a re-conceptualisation of community building, one which draws on social capital and community resiliency models, encourages difference and works to reject oppression, but one which at that same time identifies a further important action, that is, the active role of the practitioner within the process. We have termed this process transformative and innovative community building (TICB). This paper not only analyses the theoretical perspectives underpinning TICB, but also describes how such a process can be seen in action, by drawing on very recent research conducted in Queensland, with practitioners working alongside their rural and remote communities. This recent research – a formative evaluation – was undertaken in a participative approach, and thus the evidences gathered, from community member, stakeholders and practitioners have provided the TICB model a richness and depth to add to current community development debates.

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