Abstract In 2012, California recognized clean water as a human right. Yet, despite significant policy advances, the state fails to provide access to clean water in agricultural communities throughout the Central Valley. These communities, where immigrant and often Indigenous farmworkers live, are largely governed by private mutual water companies. They frequently access water contaminated with high levels of 1,2,3-trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP), arsenic, and other cancer-causing carcinogens produced by the same industries that employ them. This paper examines the structural limitations of California’s fragmented water system to reflect on how its mutual water governance systems place the burden on underserved communities to realize their right to clean water. Focusing on years of resident-led activism in Fuller Acres, we illustrate how racist and exclusionary governance legacies continue to undermine state-led water consolidation interventions. Through field notes, observations, and community testimony, we describe the culturally rooted grassroots strategies residents use to confront systemic barriers in securing clean water. We conclude that without direct community engagement and political accountability, even in small water systems, top-down solutions risk perpetuating the inequities the state aims to address.

Abstract Entrepreneurship studies have yet to explore vulnerable young people and their relationship to place in social entrepreneurship projects. Drawing on a large-scale social entrepreneurship education programme for at-risk Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) students and NEET young people in coastal regions, this article explores how the concept of community was interpreted and applied by ten project partner organizations working directly with young people over three years in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Semi-structured focus groups with project youth workers revealed multiple meanings of community, observed through young people’s behaviours, preferences, and challenges, as well as varied applications of these meanings in school and community hubs. Enablers and barriers influencing young people’s engagement with social entrepreneurship were also identified. Recommendations are made for strategies to embed flexible, youth-informed notions of community within social entrepreneurship education programmes for vulnerable young people.

Abstract This study explores the role of community partnerships and media collaborations in advancing inclusivity in paraclimbing within the Confucianism-influenced context in China. Drawing on qualitative case studies of two climbing gyms, the research analyzes how media visibility and celebrity involvement function both as catalysts for inclusion and as forms of symbolic capital, sometimes serving organizational or state interests as much as community empowerment. The findings highlight how media collaborations amplify visibility, challenge societal biases, and normalize disability in sports, whilst community-driven initiatives address systemic barriers and foster inclusive grassroots sports culture. Situated within the broader frameworks of social inclusion and community development, this study offers actionable strategies for scaling adaptive climbing initiatives in China. By integrating participatory approaches with cultural sensitivity, the research highlights the transformative potential of collaborative efforts to empower marginalized groups, promote equity, and reshape societal perceptions of disability. This work contributes to ongoing discussions on the interplay between media, community action, and sustainable inclusivity in sports.

Abstract This article argues against the conventional understanding that the ‘development projects’ equally impact all marginal groups in a given region. Through an ‘intersectional’ analysis of forced land-acquisition and the resulting lives of marginal communities in the interior region of Odisha in India, we show that Adivasis, Dalits, and other forest-dwelling communities experience differing levels of impact. This article examines one of India’s most economically backward regions that experienced over a decade of protests against the ‘development project,’ with ongoing discontent. The Adivasi communities here possess a deep-rooted history connected to ancient civilization. Though non-Adivasis had faced livelihoods loss in the early years of the project, over the period, they started reaping some benefits from the project. In contrast, Adivasis have been disproportionately harmed and left out in a more vulnerable state. Importantly, the gradual loss and erosion of commons, such as forests, common lands, and the sacred Malis (Hills), which the Adivasis revere as both spiritual and ecological mountain (s), has led both livelihoods disruption and the decline of their cultural-spiritual ties with nature. By showing narratives coupled with insights from the field, this paper advocates for an ‘intersectional’ framework to address the unequal effects of development projects.

Abstract This article reflects on the generative potential of visual methods to collectively construct and re-construct intergenerational urban memories related to five social and physical spaces that have been shaping, and are shaped by, the Chilean community in Vienna, Austria. The article draws from the research project ‘Alltagsgeschichten (ver)orten / Mapas Parlantes’ (Locating everyday stories/Talking maps), which aimed at documenting place-based historical narratives of Chileans who arrived as refugees in the 1970s and 1980s fleeing Pinochet’s dictatorship. The five spaces were investigated by the Collective Viena Chilena through participatory mapping walks followed by focus group workshops with sixteen members of the Chilean community. They were designed, implemented, documented, and communicated using visual methods such as drawing, photography, video-making, and zines production. To explore the generative potential, the article reflects on three types of ‘bridges’ that were built through the visual process and its outputs, which were maps, zines, two short videos, and a public exhibition: (1) scalar bridges between personal micro-histories of the protagonists and the collective histories of a place, as well as between solidarity practices of the Chileans in Austria and in Chile; (2) temporal bridges between different generations of Chileans; (3) methodological bridges, as the process articulated interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives of the Chilean community and the Collective Viena Chilena. Together, these bridges contribute to a visual critical pedagogy, constructing and re-constructing living memories of how everyday urban spaces reflect and archive experiences of exile, migration, and transnational solidarity.

Abstract Digital literacy is increasingly recognized as being key to advancing the digital inclusion of adults across societies. While recent scholarship has illuminated the needs of adult learners seeking to acquire digital skills, less attention has been paid to the role played by people in the community who support adults’ digital learning. This study investigates the practice of ‘digital mentoring’ as a key enabler of adult digital literacy in community contexts in Australia. A co-design methodology, informed by a Community of Practice sociocultural approach, was applied to investigate how practising digital mentors work with members of the public to help them develop relevant digital skills. Through workshops, telephone interviews, and mind-mapping activities, the researchers and participants co-designed a Digital Mentor’s Handbook. This article extends this work by situating the applied research in national and international digital inclusion, adult learning, and community development scholarship and practice. Specifically, in the absence of existing explicit research on digital mentoring, this article builds on the scholarship of ‘mentoring’ more generally to propose both a definition of digital mentoring and eight principles of effective digital mentoring. The article’s contributions lie in providing one of the first scholarly accounts of digital mentoring as essential to advancing digital inclusion. It also presents eight principles of digital mentoring, packaged in a handbook, to help meet the changing, nuanced, and underserved needs of digital mentors in their communities.

Abstract This paper introduces the Strengths, Gender, and Place (SGP) framework, a novel evaluative tool designed to assess community engagement in development programmes. Developed in response to calls for decolonized and locally-led development in the Pacific and beyond, the SGP framework comprises fifteen indicators across three dimensions. These dimensions evaluate the extent to which programmes leverage local strengths, address gender inequities, and implement place-based approaches that respect local knowledge and practices. The framework was applied to thirty project reports from four major development organisations in Papua New Guinea's Western Province. The study also incorporated insights from twenty semi-structured interviews with key informants, which further enriched the findings. The results revealed significant shortcomings in current community engagement practices in the region, with a heavy reliance on external resources and expertise, failure to achieve gender equity targets, and a lack of meaningful co-design with communities. The SGP framework offers a practical tool for donor agencies and practitioners, providing a robust measure to evaluate and improve community engagement in line with contemporary demands for strengths-based, gender-sensitive, and place-based approaches to development.