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Community asset mapping (CAM) is an evidence-based activity commonly used in local socioeconomic development initiatives. Residents and other stakeholders collaboratively identify the resources that they deem most important to the vitality of their community. Results are depicted qualitatively using maps. While maps are a useful means to convey information, alternate approaches to summarize data drawn from CAM activities may yield additional inferences that better inform community development initiatives.

This study conducted a retrospective analysis of secondary, de-identified data collected from the 2015–2016 Gonzaga University Logan Neighborhood Asset Mapping Project. Hierarchical and nonhierarchical cluster analyses were used to establish interrelationships between the perceived importance of various community assets.

The hierarchical cluster analysis revealed a very intuitive hierarchical clustering of community assets, with various health care services tightly clustered together. Similarly, farmers’ markets, community gardens and meeting spaces were clustered closely together. Third, community education and care services for all age groups were clustered together. The nonhierarchical cluster analysis revealed intuitive clustering of respondent groups who valued particular sets of assets.

By identifying these clusters and characterizing the linkages between them, it is possible to fund multiple development initiatives that are mutually reinforcing. For example, if the neighborhood obtains funds to invest, then they could be used to facilitate both community gardens and farmers’ markets, two closely related activities. Additional physical locations might also be developed to support (possibly outdoor) meeting space.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2020-0206.

Currently held views and policies commonly suggest that community participation in the development of physical infrastructure is primarily exercised to encourage local ownership and generate local livelihoods. This article draws on the experience of recent primary education building programmes in India using cost-effective construction technologies to observe that the involvement of users in the delivery, maintenance and management of community assets is above all a pre-condition for the fulfilment of the globally agreed development targets. This conceptual distinction provides an experienced reason for any provider to seek an active partnership with the user community and appreciate their grass-roots realities, assets and resources. The article then provides observations from recent fieldwork in India to argue that a realistic mapping of community resources will help to redefine widely accepted development targets for community assets as well as identifying capacity building measures to streamline the delivery and management of community infrastructure.

Making a classroom a space that can become a place of lively discussion and interaction is a goal of many instructors, but it can be challenging to assess the extent to which classroom engagement is resulting in meaningful participation. The use of an assessment tool called classroom mapping provides a way to trace and analyze students’ interaction, performance, and involvement in a class. It maps discussions and shows feedback on what is going on; including who is talking, for how long, what subjects and instructional strategies engage which students, and what kinds of connections are being made with the students and the instructors. This chapter considers the broader implications of using technology to elevate classroom mapping from formative assessment to potential learning analytic, with particular attention to the practical, pedagogical and ethical implications of recording and mapping how students engage in their classes.

International attention is increasingly turning to the challenge of creating age-friendly environments. This study aims to examine the application of asset-based approaches in undertaking community development projects with older people. The paper intends to share the learning that may be useful when designing community development projects for older people in the future.

This study followed a multiple project case study design, with a focus on project delivery practices. It was undertaken as a co-production exercise involving university researchers and trained older volunteer community researchers (CRs). Over 18–24 months of qualitative research was conducted in relation to six area-based urban projects between 2018 and 2020.

There were five leading themes as follows: mapping and building on assets in highly localised settings; creating governance and direction through steering groups; developing activities with diverse groups of older people; reaching isolated and lonely older people; building local capacity to embed sustainability.

The effectiveness of assets-based approaches in promoting age-friendly agendas appears to be contingent on the values, skills, capacity and resourcing of delivery agencies, alongside wider public sector investment in communities. Diversity and inequalities amongst older people need to be taken into account and community development that specifically focuses on older people needs to be balanced with the whole population and intergenerational practice.

This paper provides an empirical account of the practical application of assets practices specifically in the context of the age-friendly community agenda. The co-production method brings together insights from academic and volunteer older CRs.

In its simplest form, community engagement is a process whereby an organization works with the groups and individuals it serves to transform a shared vision into actions that ultimately benefit them. This chapter presents a framework to assist library managers and administrators in reimagining their outreach efforts from a community engagement perspective where users actively shape their shared experiences with the library. Although there are resources that discuss how libraries can structure these initiatives through the ACRL Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, the Public Library Association, and publications such as Marketing Libraries Journal, some of the literature surrounding community-based work is not as directly tied to outreach. By reading this chapter, libraries will find information related to defining their role within their communities, outlining strategies for collaboration, conducting needs assessment, gap analysis, asset mapping, and identifying a variety of outreach activities and their accompanying assessment strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and methodology of the REC-CONNECT project and to determine whether a co-produced approach to research in this area between those with lived experience, those delivering recovery support, and those investigating recovery evidence, generated greater project impact.

A co-productive approach was taken during project planning, training delivery, data collection and community connecting activity. Workshop evaluations were collected at each training session that provided data on worker/peer volunteer wellbeing, workshop efficacy and organisational factors. Community connectors used REC-CAP for evaluating improvements in clients’ community engagement.

Whilst co-production as a research approach broke down barriers between theory and practice and delivered a wider community asset map, a number of hurdles emerged: buy-in of all participants; culture/competing agendas; overcoming sense of disenfranchisement of people in recovery; and resources, tools and timescales of research requirements.

This is a small study in Sheffield. As such, data are limited. However, the implications spread to other vulnerable groups in other areas are evidenced, and the principles offer sustainability and partnership that go beyond time-limited projects.

Co-production as an approach to research in the substance misuse field has a meaningful impact on the “end-user” of people in recovery through empowerment, better connected recovery pathways and evidence-to-practice-based support models.

The project advanced the emerging principle of reciprocal asset-based community development and designed a co-produced model to create a team of professional, volunteer and peer community connectors to engage and connect new individuals to recovery with existing community assets, and who themselves emerged as a community asset through the project.

To produce effective urban district branding strategies, the factors impacting its unique characteristics and identity must be examined first. The purpose of this paper is to present a bottom-up participatory process for uncovering the identity of an urban district to ensure that its community goals and future branding are consistent and genuine.

This paper examines a recently completed grassroots effort that was used to uncover key physical, economic and cultural resources of the Southwest Raleigh district. Interdisciplinary methods, including surveys, interviews, mapping and economic analysis, were used to reveal how residents and businesses perceived the district’s identity.

The study revealed strong connections between a growing economy and factors related to liveability and identity, such as walkability, proximity, connectivity and availability of amenities. It provided a framework for communities to understand the forces of change that may influence the urban identity and potential branding strategies that would align with growing creative district goals.

Analyzing and evaluating the factors involved in the district’s identity, including diversified economies, demographics and urban qualities, is essential to the creation of an authentic brand that aligns with community perceptions.

A research strategy is necessary to uncover the identity of a growing city. This requires a thorough assessment of its unique, localized characteristics, including the perceptions of its residents and businesses.

This paper and its outcomes can inform future in-depth investigations using similar comprehensive and bottom-up approaches for uncovering perceptions and urban identity in support of growing creative economies.

An integral metamap creates a common language to dynamically track values‐based urban change at multiple levels of scale: individual, organization, neighbourhood, city, bio‐region and nation.

In a pilot project, using an ethnographic codebook, analysis of data collected from urban residents via telephone interviews, discloses diverse lenses, indicators and values at different levels of complexity. A four quadrant metamap of the data reveals the relationship between four sets of values: (subjective, intersubjective, objective and interobjective) at eight levels of complexity.

A review of taxonomies of indicators shows how multiple existing data bases can be translated into a common integral map. The pilot project demonstrates how the four quadrant‐based analysis and feedback methodology creates vital signs monitors for what we value, want to change (stop or improve), and how we can develop processes to influence change.

The scope of application is global, and embedded in a paradigm shift to an integral worldview, implying users share that worldview. However, the methodology can be applied anywhere, on all scales.

Conclusions show how metamapping research data, planning and management, contributes to improving choices, monitoring and influencing change and the quality of urban life.

This paper proposes a new integral common language to frame and track urban change.

Service learning is a pedagogical approach that primarily focuses upon achieving student learning outcomes through meaningful community engagement. While service-learning pedagogies provide “service” to community, the view of community partners from a deficit-oriented perspective can render service learning ineffective and, at worst, potentially harmful to the community served. This chapter presents a course that uses food as a civic lens through which to engage community, instructors, and students in CRITICAL-SERVICE-LEARNING where systemic inequities that contribute to community needs are focused upon, community partners are co-creators of course design, outcomes to student learning and community benefits are equitably considered, and collective knowledge and experience of stakeholders is valued.