Community resilience building in disadvantaged neighbourhoods (DN): action learning and political work

Abstract

ABSTRACT Old, often neglected downtown neighborhoods are usually the salt of the city, the center of its original culture, and the area of an authentic community anchored in traditional values as: an ethos of work, loyalty, multi-generational family, independence. In the process of city regeneration, instead of making urban space more attractive, such neighborhoods are treated as an obstacle and therefore subjected to various forms of oppression (spatial, political, discursive). On the basis of those negative diagnoses, a project of participatory action and learning has been constructed, the goal of which is individual and structural empowerment of disadvantaged neighborhoods (communities) as well as action learning opportunities for social work/social pedagogy students. The locality development makes communities more effective in resisting the oppression of large municipal investments. The plan assumed a joint action (academics, practitioners, students, city officers, inhabitants) of rebuilding the historical and social pride of the communities and then including them as active and important elements of the city also in terms of the labor market and political power. Other important goals were a participatory model of social work education (field-based research learning) and an increase in social recognition of disadvantaged neighborhoods (political result).