Originally published in 1983, The Making of Community Work is the outcome of a two-year study of community work in the United Kingdom. The main purpose of the study was to review the development of community work, and to suggest some of the issues in practice and training that might be important in the 1980s. Much of the first part of the book is taken up with the emergence of community work as an occupation; David Thomas tries to clarify its contribution to a number of political and social processes, and to define community work in a way which distinguishes it from other kinds of interventions. The second part of the book deals with training, research, literature and employment in community work; it includes a review of college and field-based training opportunities, and a critical discussion of the state of theory and ideology in the occupation. It was hoped it would be an important source of ideas and inspiration for the years ahead. It was the first major review of community work since its re-discovery in the 1960s; it will still be of interest to all those involved in community work, or wishing to understand its influence on other professions. The book was intended for fieldworkers, administrators, policy-makers, trainers and students in community work and in related occupations and disciplines. Thomas presents his ideas clearly, and his ability to look critically at some of the basic assumptions in community work makes for stimulating and enjoyable reading.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book highlights the way in which contemporary forms of governance, policy and politics have been reframed by women 'working the spaces of power'. It shows how they took activist commitments into their working lives, in the process negotiating the terrain of neoliberal governance. Their work generated new political movements, community initiatives, public policies, organizational logics and forms of 'knowledge work'. Newman draws on over 50 interviews with women from four generations to interrogate, develop and challenge existing approaches to understanding social and political change. In a postscript she traces ways in which the analysis might 'speak to the present' and offer resources for contemporary politics and practice.