Developing sustainable management of community assets
The Theme
Welcome to the 'Sustainable Management of Community Assets' area of our web site. The Carnegie Commission for Rural Community Development has recognised that the old deficit models of rural development have failed: That forcing rural communities to denigrate their area in order to win essential funding is perverse. We believe that there is an alternative approach that builds upon the things that a community has - an asset based approach to rural community development. We do not, of course, deny that there is an urgent need for public investment in some rural areas - just that rural communities are well placed to understand how that resource or expertise can be allied with local assets to build economic and social success. Here we interpret assets to mean both the tangible (e.g. land, buildings) but the intangible (e.g. culture, history and people skills).
We asked International Association for Community Development to review asset based community development approaches in other parts of the world (where they are commonly used) and Forum for the Future to examine their use within the UK and Ireland. These reports can be found in the publications area of this site. We are encouraged by the response to this research - rural communities seem to find that there is much common sense in the asset approach. However we need to know more. On these pages you will read about interesting case studies and further research programmes to inform our understanding of asset based rural community development.
Have your say
Please use the forum to post any comments, questions or suggestions for essential reading for this theme.