The town of Hespeler in southwestern Ontario is an old
industrial community that lost its core manufacturing businesses,
its municipal status, and its civic pride in the time since the end
of the Korean War. In the early 1990s, Banks and Mangan implemented
a community-development, action-research project designed to
rebuild and revitalize the town. This book illustrates the success
of local citizens in the revival of their community and the
discovery of a nascent network of mutual support among
neighbours.
The authors demonstrate how inquiry, education, and
action-research can combine to form an effective model for engaged
ethnographic analysis. Their application of narrative inquiry to
community-based research is new, and their conclusion that
externally generated, imposed structure impedes community autonomy
and responsibility is well supported. The book significantly
expands the established theoretical framework of action-research
and offers an exciting alternative to existing models of community
development.
The Company of Neighbours demonstrates a valuable approach for
researchers, social workers, educators, and geographers in
facilitating the collective efforts of people in local communities
to shape the conditions of their own lives. With a new farmer's
market, a museum in the renovated train station, youth programs,
and an invigorated Business Improvement Association, Hespeler is
well on its way to a new identity.
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