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Sustainability is a permanent concern of humankind. It requires attention to environmental issues such as reducing pollution, limiting resource use, and protecting biodiversity. It requires concern for future generations and is the responsibility of every person on earth. Its requirements for multi‐dimensional cooperation, shared values and goals, participation and empowerment, and learning, represent a greater challenge for communitarianism than most other social issues. To span geography, political systems, cultures, and many generations of time, it is argued that supra‐communitarianism is needed. This article contains several recommendations to foster the evolution of supracommunitarianism to support sustainability.

This chapter provides a Foucauldian genealogical analysis of the concept of “community” in three curriculum documents signposting major changes in the conceptualization of kindergarten education in Hungary. Our approach is to closely examine the discourses of the core curriculum documents and their sociopolitical contexts in order to explore the shifts in the ideas of “community” and “communitarianism” contained within the texts, focusing particularly on the period of “transition” in Hungary. This chapter interrogates the shifting ideas of “community” and finds that the meaning of “transition” in the context of post-World War II (WWII) Hungary needs to be radically reassessed. Furthermore, the study suggests that the “transition” in Hungary has been in fact a drawn out process, one beginning well before the early 1990s and involving major reforms throughout the post-WWII period. By outlining the shifts in the conceptualizations of “community” embedded in kindergarten curriculum, the chapter explores what political problems were attempted to be solved through the changing conception of this early education. Furthermore, the study examines whether these reconceptualizations can be considered to be directly linked to the transition of particular political ideologies – from socialism to neoliberal capitalism – or rather, do they represent much smoother transitions to a new era after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Community policing, which appears to have captured the interest of many criminal justice professionals and scholars, places strong emphasis on police/community relations. To date, however, little attention has focused on the underlying theoretical foundation of this evolving policing strategy. This paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing discourse by examining the parallels between communitarianism and community policing, and by doing so, assist in refining the current definitional ambiguity surrounding the concept of community. In the end, the author works toward a moderating resolution to the inherent tensions of the rights‐based and community‐seeking presuppositions.

Undertakes a historico‐theoretical study to outline the constitutional and developmental predicament of the Native Indian people in Canada against the hegemonic models instituted by the Federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Analyses a factual survey done by Statistics Canada to highlight the various kinds of socio‐economic problems being faced by Native Indians and to point out the prospects before them. Recommends an ecological alternative in the light of the new land rights being signed between the Federal Government and the Native Indians in Canada. Introduces a concept of social wellbeing and formalizes this as a criterion for evaluating the economic, social and political factors in an interactive and consensual way to generate better futures with conflict resolution.

Some communities in the USA are remarkably better at responding to civic challenges than others. These communities are more competent at marshaling their resources – material and human – in service of their own needs. The authors’ purpose in this paper is to enhance their collective understanding of ideas related to community-driven change and to describe the development of a civic capacity index (CCI), a measure of a community's capacity to respond to civic challenges and disruptions like COVID-19.

The authors used a concept mapping process (akin to grounded theory) to develop the CCI. Using this process, a panel of 34 scholars and practitioners of civic leadership and civic engagement worked together to create measurable descriptors of civic capacity.

The CCI measures dynamic processes related to collective leadership, inclusion of diverse voices, how institutions and coalitions address shared challenges and collaboration among community members. Sample data from several states show the CCI's scales to have high internal reliabilities and to correlate strongly with validation scales such as collective efficacy, social justice and community connectedness. Confirmatory factor analyses support a bifactor model of a general CCI factor and six CCI scales.

With the help of the CCI, civic actors can take advantage of existing civic capacity, understand where it is lacking and build resilience for the future.

To date, most scholars have used qualitative research to determine the elements of civic capacity. The authors wanted to know what civic capacity looks like in sufficient detail to assess the extent to which it is present or not in a community. Other efforts to quantify or assess civic capacity or related ideas are less comprehensive or lack the specificity to provide guidance for building and mobilizing it in communities. This work enhances our understanding of leadership in the civic arena, a little understood aspect of leadership studies.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which concepts of regeneration, sustainability and the Third Sector (TS) are understood and expressed in the policy priorities of the Labour Government in the UK. The paper locates this discussion in the context of a small community action group in Nottingham and seeks to explore the ways in which the experience of activists and practitioners see their “world” as being congruent with that of the “world” represented in the policy literature.

The paper combines an analysis of the policy literature and a discussion on the theoretical and conceptual ideas implicit in the programmes with data collected through observation and interview of key activists involved in the group.

The paper suggests that while small‐scale TS organisations can play an important part in the regeneration/sustainability agenda as a result of their size, values and flexibility it is these values which are at risk given the underlying ideological approach of the reform agenda.

The paper provides a snap shot of experience and situates that practice in the theoretical/conceptual literature and so raises some important questions for practitioners as well as researchers.

The paper has direct relevance for TS agencies and researchers.

The paper points to the conflict and tension between local/community‐based organisations in which ideas of trust and ethical decision making are negotiated differently compared to public sector agencies.

The study of (post)socialism has always had a complicated relationship with comparative education. Tracing the changing emphases of research on (post)socialism during and after the Cold War, this chapter highlights how (post)socialist studies moved from being highly politicized during the Cold War, to becoming subsumed by convergence and modernization theories after the collapse of the socialist bloc, to reemerging as a part of broader “post” philosophies reflecting the uncertainties and contradictions of social life. This chapter proposes to treat post-socialism not only as a geographic area, but also as a conceptual category that allows us to engage in theorizing divergence, difference, and uncertainty in the context of globalization. It is a space from which we can further complicate (not clarify) our understanding of ongoing reconfigurations of educational spaces in a global context, and ultimately challenge the evolutionary scheme of thought and established concepts of Western modernity. For comparative education and social theory more broadly, post-socialism can thus become a challenge (or an agenda) for future debates – whether theoretical or methodological – about global processes and their multiple effects on education and societies today, in the past, and in the future.

This research investigates the presence of communitarian philosophy within contemporary Scottish public library strategy, exploring links between philosophy, politics and practice.

The paper follows a qualitative research approach, combining content analysis and discourse analysis methodologies for the analysis of a corpus of Scottish public library trust documentation according to a thematic framework of communitarian values.

The analysis revealed strong links between trust strategy and communitarian values but also highlighted contradictions within this form of communitarianism which belied a deeper neoliberal philosophical foundation. The research therefore identified a communitarian strategic service shift which introduced benefits of social inclusion, community autonomy and common good but also brought concerns of an inherently weakened communal foundation and the survival of a neoliberal status quo.

The analysis is focused on strategy in Scotland only and thus can only claim to be representative of that country. However, the growth in communitarian strategies in the public sector is informed from the analysis undertaken.

The paper provides a novel analysis of public library strategy and thus contributes to the understanding of public library practice in the modern era.

The impacts of communitarian philosophy in the public sphere are under-researched and how these changes impact the mission of libraries needs to be better understood.

This is the first analysis to consider public library strategy from a communitarian point of view. As such, it provides novel insights into a growing area of public service development.

Purpose – The paper attempts to locate the debate on corporate governance in a social and cultural context.

Methodology – It draws on the traditional African philosophy of ubuntu and articulates how this might affect corporate governance frameworks. The paper utilises multiple methods that include interviews, a review of documents, and case studies. It analyses incidents from across Southern Africa that demonstrate how notions of ubuntu influence corporate practices.

Findings – The incidents in selected organisations reveal how multinational corporations are involved in the delivery of social welfare programmes to their employees and local communities. Such practices underscore the differences in perceptions about corporate social responsibility in the West and Southern Africa.

Practical implications – It highlights the implications of these practices for multinational corporations and auditors who do business in Southern Africa.

Originality – The paper argues that ubuntu informs corporate practices and influences perceptions on what constitutes ‘good’ corporate governance and ethics in Southern Africa. Finally, it proposes an alternative corporate governance framework informed by ubuntu, communitarianism, and stakeholder theories. Arguably, such a corporate governance framework will take into account the social and historical context of Southern Africa.

Research limitations – The proposed corporate governance framework might suit only those communities who subscribe to ubuntu values and communitarianism.

Disputes the view of the communitarians, a recently emerged group of political theorists that individualism, especially the theory of natural individual rights, stands as an obstacle to desirable community life for human beings. Argues that the only objection of individualism to communitarianism rests on the communitarian endorsement of coercion and violation of individual rights; in point of fact, individualism, with a proper understanding of human nature, supports community life that is voluntarily chosen; such communities have greater solidarity than those established by coercion. Uses the topic of environmentalism, which might offer strong support for coercive communitarianism, to illustrate how an individualist analysis gives strong support to the values of community life; indeed, stronger support than communitarianism because individual rights are very powerful legal trumps on such environmentally destructive acts as dumping, rationing, and otherwise merely blunting the injuries of pollution.