Learning to sustain social action

Abstract

There is a growing interest in social networks and the potential that exploring them brings to understanding development and change in communities. Equally, there has been, until recently, a substantial investment in community capacity building; developing the skills and knowledge of community activists to ‘grow’ their organisations and ‘scale up’ to take on public and other services. Yet, little is known about how those active in small, below the radar, community groups gain the skills, knowledge and resources they need to meet their goals and objectives, whether political or service driven. This chapter questions the assumption which has underpinned ‘capacity building’ initiatives: that skills are best developed through formal training and education and highlights the importance of networks and informality as key aspects of peer learning for community action.