Our Writings
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Much of the writing published here comes from our time spent at the Community Development Resource Association. The CDRA supported its staff to devote significant time and resources to collaborative learning to support writing and research, as a key element of our development as thinking practitioners.
We have also participated in the writing of several of the Barefoot Guides to Social Change which can be accessed here |
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Looking where the light is better: exploring the ironies of organisational culture change
by Doug Reeler This is a reflective account of my accompaniment of an international NGO struggling to turn its unworkable culture around, caught between the results-driven, impact-obsessed imperative of the aid industry and the burning humanitarian impulses of its staff responding to the complexities of disaster, and the impact on them of dire suffering. What exactly is organisational culture? Some mysterious cloud or mood or something else more dynamic and identifiable? Who is responsible for it and how is it reproduced in the interpersonal workings of diverse teams? And all of this in the wake of sensational disclosures of abuse and bullying, the rise of #MeToo, decolonisation, Black Lives Matters and LBGTQI, triggering marginalised staff to start to claim their voices while others are left struggling to come to terms with their own power and privilege. Everything appears to be in the air with no anchors around which to weather the storm. All of these are explored, including some thoughts on the opportunities for finding a collective way forward as the whole humanitarian sector is realising the need for transformation, from top-down aid delivery to a practice supporting community-led responsiveness. Download Leadership in Times of Covid-19:
Essential Qualities, Skills and Practices By Doug Reeler and Desiree Paulsen Leading in this time is different in so many ways, so we set out to write something readable and practical for you as leaders, with some essential features of this crisis to note, as well as some of the essential qualities, capacities and skills needed. Download The Truth of the Work: Theories of Change in a changing world
By Doug Reeler and Rubert Van Blerk Following a series of learning sessions with practitioners from various organisations in Cape Town we wrote this reflection on the use and practice of "Theory of Change" being demanded by donors, and the problems and possibilities practitioners are experiencing. Download Emptying and doubt
by Rubert Van Blerk "Doubt and uncertainty are as much an aspect of the client's experience as they are the practitioner's. In today's world the tendency is to seek an antidote for doubt, even settling for denial in the quest for certainty. Therefore the client demands certainty and the practitioner offers it. Doubt can begin to become a quality when the act of not knowing can be as deeply valued, if not more so, than the act of knowing." Download Horizontal Learning - Engaging Freedom's Possibilities
by Doug Reeler Exploring transformative practices of horizontal learning and community exchanges at the creative margins of the development sector. Download Facilitating Social Change: Seven Questions that Keep Us Awake
By Doug Reeler Social change does not begin with the ability to find right answers but to continually develop more powerful questions, out of experience, and from there to move forward. Often there are no answers, only continual questioning into the future. This writing shares seven questions and lines of inquiry that guide our work:
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An investigation into the training of Community Development Workers within South Africa
By Dr Peter Westoby and Rubert Van Blerk In his classic book Training for Community Development: A Critical Study of Method (1962:69), T. R. Batten argues that, ‘training is the key activity of any community development programme.’ Following Batten, and building on more recent literature, this article documents a research project that explored the training taking place within the South African National Community Development Worker Programme (CDWP). Download A Three-fold Theory of Social Change - and Implications for Practice, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
by Doug Reeler "Most significantly, and ironically, the very Project approaches that donors insist be used for planning, monitoring and evaluating practice and impact, like Logical Framework Analysis and its cousins, have tacitly introduced a misleading and self-defeating theory of social change." This paper puts forward a nuanced theory of social change that goes beyond implicit conventional theories, providing a different framework for seeing and working with the complexities of change. Download Download version in Russian If you meet the White Rabbit on the road, steal his watch!
by Doug Reeler ...or what began as an attempt to write a donor report became a stream of consciousness on time, development-land, activism and practice. Download "A Good Death" - In Search of Developmental Endings
by Doug Reeler In a world filled with so much unnecessary death it may be difficult for us to appreciate the Japanese notion of a "good death". But we know that everything in this world that has life - people, relationships, organisations - must face the prospect of its own death and that the way in which we do that can have a significant bearing on how we face life. Download Jazzing up the ancient art of conversation
by Desiree Paulsen In my work as organisation development practitioner I have been hearing the terms ‘dialogue’ and ‘conversation’ being used more and more in various places both in written form and when bringing people together. Download Story-telling - getting to the heart of things
by Doug Reeler Exploring story-telling as a key element of transformative social change practice. Download |
