Asset Building & Community Development

by Gary Paul Green, Anna L. (Lyn) Haines

Employing a broad definition of community development, this book shows how asset building can help increase the capacity of residents to improve their quality of life. It provides students and practitioners with theoretical and practical guidance on how to mobilize community capital (physical, human, social, financial, environmental, political, and cultural) to effect positive change. Authors Gary Paul Green and Anna Haines show that development controlled by community-based organizations provides a better match between these assets and the needs of the communities.

Genres: Urban Planning, Textbooks

360 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2001

Reviews

[CTEP]

The whole point of AmeriCorps is to build community and to build community assets. This book takes a fairly systemic, though more organizational focused view of community development. Basically, it puts a lot of the various factors in context, from building financial capital in neighborhoods, to culture, environment, organizations, and politics. One thing about AmeriCorps is that we can get stuck in our niche and sometimes it is really useful to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Realizing that there are more players on the field whose actions may affect our work can make our projects more effective.

Why should other corps members read or not read this book?

If a member is interested in some of the more theoretical and historical practices of community development, then yes, they should read this book. It is an academic text, however, so it can get rather dry. But if you want to know more about what academia has to say about community development and assets, then it is a good place to start.

[Löki Gale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the history and components of community development and asset building. Green & Haines identify the several forms of community assets, including cultural, political, capital, and others. I found this book easy to read, albeit a little too wordy at times. The highlighted sections and case studies help to clarify points, but can often run on for a few pages making it difficult to find an appropriate place to break in the text to focus on the additional points.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an assigned book for my Intro to Community Development graduate class and it really was my intro to CD. I found it very informative with a lot of useful resources (links, other texts, organizations, case studies) and imagine I will be returning to this book a lot as I continue to learn about community development.