Shifting Focus: alternative pathways for communities and economies

This resource kit on asset-based community and economic development by Jenny Cameron and Katherine Gibson has been used by communities in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and elsewhere.

It builds on the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, especially as documented by Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight in Building Communities from the Inside Out. Shifting Focus incorporates more about the diverse economic practices that are already present in communities and that can be further strengthened. Click here to download Shifting Focus.

Jenny and Katherine have more resources on asset-based community and economic development, including:

• Asset-based and citizen-led development (with Alison Mathie)
   
• ABCD meets DEF
   
• Alternative pathways to community and economic development
   
• Collaborating with communities
   
• Community partnering for local development (a full website of resources).

They also have materials related to the action research process that was used in the Shifting Focus project, including:

• Participatory Action Research in a Poststructuralist Vein
• Action Research for Diverse Economies.

Other community and diverse economies materials that draw on Shifting Focus, include:

• Asset-based community development in diverse cultural contexts: learning from Mindanao, the Philippines
• Community economies
• Imagining and enacting non-capitalist futures.