This book focuses upon the contributions that research can make towards strengthening community development and working for social justice agendas in Britain. Drawing upon original research, as part of the Third Sector Research Capacity Building Cluster, the volume explores different ways in which research can contribute to capacity building and 'research mindedness' in the Third Sector. This includes the contributions that community-university research partnerships can make, enabling organisations and social movements to undertake research for themselves. Examples include research with refugee and asylum seeker organisations and groups, research with faith-based organisations and research exploring the relevance of community arts, media and sports. Whilst the book covers a number of related themes, they share an overall focus upon community development to promote active citizenship and social justice.

Cultures, Communities, Identities explores a wide range of cultural strategies to promote participation and empowerment in both First and Third World settings. This book starts by analyzing contemporary debates on cultures, communities, and identities, in the context of globalization. This sets the framework for the discussion of cultural strategies to combat social exclusion and to promote community participation in transformative agendas for local economic and social development. The final chapter focuses on the use of cultural strategies and new technologies across national boundaries, at the global level.

Cultures, Communities, Identities explores a wide range of cultural strategies to promote participation and empowerment in both First and Third World settings. The book starts by analysing contemporary debates on cultures, communities and identities, in the context of globalization. This sets the framework for the discussion of cultural strategies to combat social exclusion and to promote community participation in transformative agendas for local economic and social development. The final chapter focuses upon the use of cultural strategies and new technologies across national boundaries, at the global level.

This book explores the contributions that research, with refugees and with faith-based organizations for example, makes to strengthen community development and consequently promote active citizenship and social justice.

One of the few books of its kind, Acting Up and Getting Down brings together seven African American literary voices that all have a connection to the Lone Star state. Covering Texas themes and universal ones, this collection showcases often-overlooked literary talents to bring to life inspiring facets of black theatre history. Capturing the intensity of racial violence in Texas, from the Battle of San Jacinto to a World War I-era riot at a Houston training ground, Celeste Bedford Walker's Camp Logan and Ted Shine's Ancestors provide fascinating narratives through the lens of history. Thomas Meloncon's Johnny B. Goode and George Hawkins's Br'er Rabbit explore the cultural legacies of blues music and folktales. Three unflinching dramas (Sterling Houston's Driving Wheel, Eugene Lee's Killingsworth, and Elizabeth Brown-Guillory's When the Ancestors Call) examine homosexuality, a death in the family, and child abuse, bringing to light the private tensions of intersections between the individual and the community. Supplemented by a chronology of black literary milestones as well as a playwrights' canon, Acting Up and Getting Down puts the spotlight on creative achievements that have for too long been excluded from Texas letters. The resulting anthology not only provides new insight into a regional experience but also completes the American story as told onstage.

"War Memorials as Political Landscape" critiques the social meaning of war memorials and their role in political and historical landscapes. Mayo argues that war memorials not only reflect the political history of a nation, but also that these memorials are mechanisms to symbolize and justify history. He posits that the presence or absence of commemoration for America's wars is largely explained by the war's importance in establishing the nation's symbolic identity as a political state and by the number of those who died in that war.