Gilchrist, A. (2009). The well-connected community: a networking approach to community development, 2nd ed. Bristol, Policy Press.
The 'well-connected community' demonstrates how informal and formal networks strengthen communities and improve partnership working. The research methods for this book include interviews, reflective practice, practitioners' workshops and numerous informal conversations. The book explores the relationship between networks and community development, particularly in the UK context but also drawing on some international examples, arguing that networking is about community, exchange, risk management and solidarity, and showing how networking benefits communities and those who work with them. The author also explores the idea of complexity theory in relation to the well-connected community, arguing that 'the well-connected community is a way of thinking about community as emergent of complex and dynamic systems', a 'way of managing chaos, building resilience and devising innovative collective solutions to intractable problems' (p.x). The book addresses some of the challenges of a networking approach to community development, such as accountability, role boundaries and 'burnout', and concludes by examining some of the implications of the model for policy and practice in community development.