A Review of “DIY Community Action: Neighbourhood Problems and Community Self-Help, Liz Richardson, Bristol, Policy Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84742-0-848”
A Review of “DIY Community Action: Neighbourhood Problems and Community Self-Help, Liz Richardson, Bristol, Policy Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84742-0-848”
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“DIY 社区行动：邻里问题和社区自助”综述，Liz Richardson，布里斯托尔，政策出版社，2008 年，ISBN 978-1-84742-0-848”
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
John Flint
中科院分区：
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作者：
John Flint
Liz Richardson通过对英国100多个社区团体的研究，探讨了社区自助在邻里重建中的作用。它对当代关于志愿和社区部门在公民复兴和促进积极的公民意识、机构和责任以应对社会问题方面的作用的辩论特别有意义。该书报告了评估盖茨比培训和小额赠款项目影响的实证研究结果，该项目在1997年至2001年期间向社区志愿人员提供住宿培训和资金分配，并从与居民的访谈、实地访问和对培训课程的观察中获得证据。理查德森的书做出了一些重大贡献。最重要的是，它说明了社区团体对贫困社区生活的“不可估量的价值”（第219页），并提供了明确的证据，证明这些志愿人员对“服务的共同生产”（第115页）和英国一些最贫困社区的生活质量产生了积极影响。通过关注非常小规模的组织及其在庄园日常生活中必然有限但至关重要的活动，它还解决了文献和政策评估中的差距，这些评估通常关注社区重建计划中更大、更正式的参与机制。让读者印象深刻的是社区团体所从事的活动的范围，从园艺和钓鱼俱乐部到旨在支持当地社区最弱势成员的更雄心勃勃的倡议。理查森提供了一个全面和细致入微的帐户的动机，挑战和成功的这些志愿者和他们的团体内工作，有效地使用居民活动家自己的话来说明关键点。这本书的一个中心目标是为那些积极参与社区发展的人提供一个实用的资源，其易于理解的风格，清晰的格式和明确的成功因素识别（特别是在第六章），加上其现实和诚实的识别限制和障碍，应该确保它符合这一目标。理查森也肯定是正确的，在她的论点，对问责制的关注，
This important and timely study by Liz Richardson explores, through research with over 100 community groups in Britain, the role of community self-help in neighbourhood renewal. It is of particular relevance to contemporary debates about the function of the voluntary and community sector in civic renewal and the promotion of active citizenship, agency and responsibility as a response to societal problems. The book reports findings of empirical research evaluating the impacts of the Gatsby Training and Small Grant Project, which provided residential training and funding allocations to community volunteers between 1997 and 2001, drawing on evidence from interviews with residents, site visits and observations of training sessions. Richardson’s book makes a number of significant contributions. Most importantly, it provides an account of the ‘incalculable value’ (p. 219) of community groups to the life of deprived neighbourhoods and presents clear evidence of the positive impacts of these volunteers to the ‘co-production of services’ (p. 115) and quality of life in some of Britain’s most disadvantaged communities. Through its focus upon very small-scale organisations and their necessarily limited but crucial activities within the daily lives of their estates, it also addresses a gap in literature and policy evaluations, which often focus upon larger and more formal mechanisms of participation within neighbourhood regeneration programmes. What strikes the reader is the range of activities that community groups are engaged in, from gardening and fishing clubs to more ambitious initiatives aimed at supporting the most vulnerable members of local communities. Richardson offers a comprehensive and nuanced account of the motivations, challenges and successes of these volunteers and the groups they work within, effectively using resident activists’ own words throughout to illustrate key points. A central aim of the book is to provide a practical resource to those actively engaged in community development, and its accessible style, clear format and explicit identification of success factors (particularly in chapter six), coupled with its realistic and honest identification of limitations and barriers, should ensure that it meets this aim. Richardson is also surely right in her argument that concerns over the accountability or