Community development: Freire and Grameen in the Barrowfield Project, Glasgow, Scotland
Community development: Freire and Grameen in the Barrowfield Project, Glasgow, Scotland
This article is an attempt to examine one of the better-known failures in UK community development – the Barrowfield Project in Glasgow (1986–1996) – and to compare and contrast it with other attempts at community development, especially some associated with the work of Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, and the legacy of Paulo Freire. We conclude that both Freire and Yunus make assumptions about the pre-existence of community which limit the potential impact of their ideas in an area such as Barrowfield, where anomie and apathy were rife. We further find that just as actions intended to be liberating may reinforce the dominant hegemony, the converse may on occasion also be true. In recent years the Barrowfield Project has risen from the ashes of its previous demise, and so the present work needs to be seen in that context.
social sector, gender and social diversity, aid, methods, western europe
30-39
Matheson, Catherine
609d16bf-fe81-4fcd-8f6c-91431c55a9fc
Matheson, David
9b9928f0-3779-439c-9a22-a71d8795c77c
February 2008
Matheson, Catherine
609d16bf-fe81-4fcd-8f6c-91431c55a9fc
Matheson, David
9b9928f0-3779-439c-9a22-a71d8795c77c
Matheson, Catherine and Matheson, David
(2008)
Community development: Freire and Grameen in the Barrowfield Project, Glasgow, Scotland.
Development in Practice, 18 (1), .
(doi:10.1080/09614520701778330).
Abstract
This article is an attempt to examine one of the better-known failures in UK community development – the Barrowfield Project in Glasgow (1986–1996) – and to compare and contrast it with other attempts at community development, especially some associated with the work of Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, and the legacy of Paulo Freire. We conclude that both Freire and Yunus make assumptions about the pre-existence of community which limit the potential impact of their ideas in an area such as Barrowfield, where anomie and apathy were rife. We further find that just as actions intended to be liberating may reinforce the dominant hegemony, the converse may on occasion also be true. In recent years the Barrowfield Project has risen from the ashes of its previous demise, and so the present work needs to be seen in that context.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 21 January 2008
Published date: February 2008
Keywords:
social sector, gender and social diversity, aid, methods, western europe
Organisations:
Faculty of Health Sciences
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Local EPrints ID: 384179
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/384179
ISSN: 0961-4524
PURE UUID: 6bafd1dd-6599-4dd4-baf4-873e1fda3a66
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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2015 09:48
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 21:55
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David Matheson
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