Empowering communities through active learning: challenges and contradictions

This article critically examines a regional programme of community development learning in the context of current UK government policies to develop and engage ‘active communities’ in neighbourhood and civil renewal. It outlines the positive outcomes of offering focussed community development learning at local level in developing individual confidence and skills and enhancing community networks. It also highlights the limitations of working to individual training/qualifications targets, prescribed outputs and pre-defined curricula in terms of achieving ‘active communities’ that are either fit for community governance or for more radical collective action for social change