The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from Across the Globe

by Patricia Wilson

Drawing on first-hand accounts of action research in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, The Heart of Community Engagement illustrates the transformative learning journeys of exemplary catalysts for community-based change. Practitioners’ stories of community engagement for social justice in the Global South elucidate the moments of insight and transformation that deepened their how to deal with uncertainty, recognize their own blind spots, become aware of what is emergent and possible in the moment, and weave an inclusive bond of love, respect, and purpose. Each successive narrative adds a deeper level of understanding of the inner practice of community engagement. The stories illuminate the reflective, or inner, practice of the outside change agent, whether a planner, designer, participatory action researcher, or community development practitioner. From a shantytown in South Africa, to a rural community in India, or an informal settlement in peri-urban Mexico, the stories focus attention on the greatest leverage point for change that we, as engaged practitioners, our own self-awareness. By the end of the book, the practitioners are not only aware of their own conditioned beliefs and assumptions, but have opened their minds and hearts to the complex and dynamic patterns of emergent change that is possible. This book serves as a much-needed reader of practice stories to help instructors and students find the words, concepts, and examples to talk about their own subjective experience of community engagement practice. The book applies some of the leading-edge concepts from organizational development and leadership studies to the fields of planning, design, and community engagement practice. Key concepts include the deep dive of sensing the social field, seeing the whole, and presencing the emergent future. The book also provides a creative bridge between participatory action research and design user-based design, rapid prototyping, and learning from doing.

246 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2019

About the author

Patricia Wilson (1929 – 2010) was a best-selling writer of 53 romance novels for the Mills & Boon publisher from 1986 to 2004. She placed her novels primarily in England, Spain or France.

Reviews

[Paméla Overeynder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from Across the Globe is a gem of a story book by Dr. Patricia Wilson with lovely drawings by Patricia Michael which add charm and depth to the stories. Though I’m not a practitioner and am not a professional in the field of community development, I am very interested in building community and there are lessons here to be learned which apply more broadly. I read it as a learning journey for myself as well as for the author. Bravo for her willingness to be honest and vulnerable about her own path and the process of unlearning the academic model, which gives the ‘practitioner’ or ‘expert’ all the power in a social system, to embrace a process celebrating the intelligence of the whole social field, one that doesn’t advantage the expert over the group but values the essentiality of all the participants equally.

This whole-systems approach to working in community weaves wholeness from separation and builds community from the inside out. Isn’t that the point? “Draw the circle larger until the parts become an interconnected whole.” As Wilson points out, what makes this kind of transformation possible is the inner work or work on the level of consciousness which begins with the practitioner and continues in the process of community building through collective reflection. Clearly, this is not an easy process and may require patience and dedication over decades as the case studies show.

I was genuinely intrigued and excited about her discussions of the social field and the cultivation of a deepened awareness of the whole field—whatever it may be. I think a lot about the ‘field’ and what it means from a spiritual point of view as the ground of being, but hadn’t connected it with community development or community work in a more general sense. My understanding of the dimensions of a ‘field’ expanded as I read, chapter by chapter. I began to see more clearly that we exist a sequence of fields simultaneously. From a small neighborhood association to a political party, all our interactions exist in a field and help shape the field.

As Wilson points out we are all responsible for the field and it is our own inner work that enables us to take responsibility for it and to create a healthy field in which the whole community can thrive. Sensing is like a muscle that has to be developed—from sensing the group emotional state and what is needed right now to sensing on a larger scale what it is that is wanting to emerge as Wilson puts it, while remaining open to letting it emerge from the collective intelligence.

The book is so much more than what I have described in these few words. It is a story book, a collection of field experiences in which Wilson is either the protagonist or is working with the protagonist to learn how to become a better practitioner. It is about being open to and creating space for the future that is wanting to emerge. There are many gems in this book but you will have to read it to get them all.

We humans still have a lot to learn about how to care for and support each other. Toward the end of this important book, Wilson spells out her Mindful Action Rules, rules of professional engagement which are immensely helpful for us all as we make our best efforts live harmoniously and to come together to solve the humanity’s greatest threats. This book is, as the title says, about the heart and it is, page for page, heart-felt and heart-opening. As the result, I can see myself more clearly and strive to become a better human being, one who knows how to build healthy communities. This is our greatest challenge: we urgently need to think, feel and act collectively for the survival of the planet.