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The national immigrant rights campaign of 2006 stands as one of the largest mobilizations by people of color in US history, yet less scholarly attention has been given to systematically comparing these mobilizations at the local level. To develop an understanding of what led to sustained mobilization, a comparative case study analysis of seven cities in California's San Joaquin Valley is employed. The empirical evidence is based on interviews with key organizers and participants, newspaper documentation of protest events, census data, and other secondary sources. I find that the presence and size of policy threats explained the initial protest during the spring of 2006 in all localities, but cities with elaborate resource infrastructures (preexisting organizations, histories of community organizing, and coalitions) had more enduring levels of collective action.

The purpose of this paper is to explore urban mobilisation patterns in two post-Soviet cities: Vilnius and Moscow. Both cities were subject to similar housing and urban policy during Soviet times, and they have implemented urban development using neoliberal market principles, provoking grassroots opposition from citizens to privatisation and marketisation of their housing environment and local public space. However, the differing conditions of democratic Lithuanian and authoritarian Russian public governance offer different opportunities and set different constraints for neighbourhood mobilisation. The purpose is to contrast local community mobilisations under the two regimes and highlight the differences between and similarities in the activists’ repertoires of actions in two distinct political and economic urban settings.

The paper employs qualitative methodology using data from semi-structured interviews conducted with community activists and state officials, presented using a comparative case study design.

Although, citizens’ mobilisations in the two cities are reactions to the neoliberalisation of housing and local public space, they take different forms. In Vilnius they are institutionalised and receive formal support from national and local authorities. Moreover, support from the EU encourages organisational development and provides material and cognitive resources for grassroots urban mobilisations. In contrast, residents’ mobilisations in Moscow are informal and face fierce opposition from local authorities. However, even in an authoritarian setting, grassroots mobilisations evolve using creative strategies to circumvent institutional constraints.

Little attention has been paid to grassroots urban mobilisations in post-Soviet cities. There is also a lack of comparative attempts to show variation in post-Soviet urban activism related to housing and local public space.

Climate variability, accompanied by rapid urbanization and rising population disproportionality, impacts urban poor settlements. This paper aims to analyse the climate resilience for the urban poor in Ahmedabad through the lens of WASH development strategies. To assess the adaptive capacities of urban poor communities, a framework in the form of a vulnerability matrix has been used consisting of four key parameters – tenure, basic services, mobilization and partnership and disaster management capacities. The matrix implicitly recommends area-specific interventions to boost adaptive capacities and improve resilience based on WASH services.

This paper was designed to assess the climate resilience of WASH services in the urban poor settlements of Ahmedabad city. In all, seven slums were selected using a stratified sampling approach considering topography, access to WASH services and urban heat island effect. These slums were then assessed using a theoretical framework having four key parameters – tenure, basic service, mobilization and partnership and disaster management capacities. The data for the analysis was collected from both secondary and primary sources. For the latter, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, observational field visits and focused group discussions with the communities were done.

A ladder form of assessment matrix was derived from a thorough literature review and various pre-existing theories. This matrix consists of four key parameters – tenure, basic service, mobilization and partnership and disaster management capacities. The slums were evaluated by applying this framework, and direct and indirect relationships were established between the said parameters.

This paper was adapted in the light of various obstacles put forward by the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the interviews with the bureaucrats and external researchers were conducted online, while the engagement with the slum dwellers was in-person, considering appropriate social and/or physical distancing norms. Implications of the Covid-19 second wave restricted the involvement of researchers with the communities at an ethnographic level.

The ladder form of vulnerability assessment framework has been developed and contextualized using the insights from literature review, field visits and multi-stakeholder consultations. It was helpful in identifying aspects that require suitable interventions for improving and imparting resilience among the urban poor settlements. The learnings from this paper are significant for planners and decision-makers in identifying and prioritizing context-specific future projects for a city.

Ireland’s economic development not only provided many benefits but also caused difficulties locally and nationally. The economic crash and bailout, which occurred from 2008, have mired the country with huge debts. In addition, development created many environmental challenges in rural, suburban and urban areas. This chapter will examine community responses to those environmental challenges, discussing the mobilisation of the environmental campaigns that shaped the emergence of the Irish environmental movement.

In 1989 the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation began a $24.6 million program community-based alcohol and drug abuse elimination project, called “Fighting Back.” Along with the U.S. Dept HHS, Community Substance Abuse Program (CSAP), the Fighting Back projects were alternative approaches to the Police War on Drugs. The 15 RWJ communities were given up to $200,000 for two-year planning grants to develop community-based organizations that would focus on better coordinating existing resources and attracting new resources to address high-density alcohol sales, drug trafficking, and drug abuse in low-income middle size communities. In the first year implementation phase, each project was given up to $700,000. None were to provide direct services; each organization was a catalyst for social change.The initial theories used to begin this project were community empowerment and resource mobilization. Based upon site visits and in-depth interviews, this chapter reviews the lessons learned from organizing such projects based upon these theories. We review the strategies used to successfully address their central challenges and these theory's utility. The RWJ and CSAP projects suggested a variation of community empowerment where consensus among keys players in and outside of each community was a precondition to community mobilization. Also community empowerment and resource mobilization were not sufficient. Through trial and error, each project learned important new lessons and strategies that were already available in other theories — collaboration, exchange, and general theory of race relations. It is suggested that use of additional theories based on prior experiences in successfully mobilizing the community could have further improved the successes of the RWJ and CSAP projects.

The purpose of this paper is to identify “key processes” during the owner-driven reconstruction (ODR) process by implementing agencies, to enhance the long-term disaster-resilience of housing and community.

A mixed methods methodology and “case-study” approach is adopted to compare good practice reconstruction projects in India in the past 15 years. This paper discusses findings from investigations conducted in two settlements of Bihar – Orlaha and Puraini, after major flooding in 2008. The sites were visited during 2012 and 2014.

One of the key processes that lead to the success of the ODR process in terms of its effect on the long-term disaster-resilience in Bihar is community mobilisation it functions primarily as an information and communication device promoting the success (or otherwise) of the reconstruction project.

The findings are based on empirical evidence gathered during in-field investigations and interviews to post-disaster reconstructed villages. While these findings represent a snapshot of diverse and complex disaster experiences in the Indian context, the comparison offers insight on how to turn the rhetoric surrounding “owner-driven” or “built back better” into positive long-term community outcomes.

This chapter will examine the response of a rural community in Ireland to the imposition of a gas pipeline on their farms, in the western coastal county of Mayo. This analysis will include a discussion of the concept of ‘rural community sentiment’ (Leonard, 2006, 2008a, 2008b) as a factor in the mobilisation of community campaigns against infrastructural projects which are perceived as a threat to existing ways of life in regional areas. The chapter will also explore key theoretical concepts for this community-based responses to environmental degradation in rural areas, including critical criminology and rural criminology, resource curse theory and ask whether the campaign was ecopopulist, with issues of social and environmental justice at its core. This will be achieved through a case study approach. In so doing, the chapter will highlight the basis for rural community’s campaigns of opposition to development projects imposed by corporate or state bodies in the Irish case.

This beginning chapter offers a comprehensive overview of community development, tracing its historical roots and societal implications. It underscores community development’s role in fostering social cohesion and positive change. Beginning with its foundational principles of collective action, participation, and empowerment, the chapter delves into its evolution in response to industrialization and urbanization. It explores diverse scales, contexts, tools, and strategies used in community development and its broader societal impact. The chapter advocates for inclusivity and active engagement of community members, emphasizing tailored solutions that address unique challenges. It acknowledges complexities like ethical dilemmas, power imbalances, and cultural sensitivities, underscoring the importance of integrity and local context understanding in community development.

This chapter examines the translation of generic global goals into local action. It first discusses the translation of global goals into national agendas and the challenges of localizing the goals. Localizing the goals is essential for ensuring that the SDGs reflect local needs, norms, and values, thus ensuring that local actors find them relevant and meaningful. The chapter argues that cocreation is a key vehicle for the localization of the SDGs and identifies the key benefits that arise from using cocreation as a localization strategy. Cocreation can foster the will and capacity for local governments and communities to advance the cause of sustainability. Cocreation can help communities integrate the sustainable development goals, identify hidden resources, build support networks, create social accountability, etc.

This research aims to examine the introduction of participatory budgeting (PB) in local governments in two Francophone countries, namely, Benin and Niger, and how local contextual factors influence its practices.

The research employs a multiple case study design with a comparative approach to analyze the introduction and practices of participatory budgeting across selected municipalities in Benin and Niger. Hopper (2017) and Lassou et al.’s (2018) notion of “pragmatism” within neopatrimonialism is mobilized to analyze the data from sources including interviews and documents. The analysis is conducted at both the country and local government levels.

Participatory budgeting took roots in a number of municipalities. Its introduction and adoption has promoted participatory governance especially from traditionally marginalized segments of society (e.g. women); albeit to varying degrees, in the face of the prevailing national neopatrimonial context. Furthermore, despite donor's push for a standardized model of PB implementation, actual practices took varying shapes, a consequence of differing local conditions and circumstances.

In terms of limitation, it was not possible to access a number of research participants sought, particularly in Niger. But access to key documents from government, donors and civil society organizations help mitigate this to a large extent.

A major practical implication is the importance of adaptation to local socio-economic contexts and circumstances. As shown in the study, a blanket introduction and implementation of PB across societies based on a standardized model is unlikely to succeed and be sustained in the long run. A great deal of flexibility is required to accommodate indigenous realities on the grounds.

The study contributes to shed light on public sector budgeting regarding participatory budgeting practices in an under-researched setting: Francophone Africa.