Course aims:

• Learn the basics of social intervention and of social project development for communities
• Understand the community development process
• Learn to use available data for social applications and projects
• Learn how to initiate social and community projects
• Develop team-working abilities

Course Entry Requirements:

N/A

Course contents:

1. Theory and concepts of community development 2. Systemic approach to community; functions of the community system 3. Community development and public participation 4. Historical perspectives on community development 5. Development strategies for rural communities 6. Social actors in rural community development 7. Village typologies in rural Romania 8. The Green Charter - methodological aspects of rural space diagnosis 9. Poverty in Romanian villages - territorial distribution 10. The social capital - a key concept in community development 11. Traditional mutual-support practices in Romanian rural 12. Forms of cooperation in Transylvania's minority communities

Teaching methods:

Lecture; conversation; exemplification

Learning outcomes:

• Use of social diagnosis in the specific context of the community's social and cultural norms • Explain the emergence of vulnerable groups' social problems using specific procedures and methodologies • Implement policies and socials programs using specific procedures and methodologies

Learning outcomes verification and assessment criteria:

Written exam = 60% • Knowledge - (40%) • Scientific rigour and language - (10%) • Content organisation - (5%) • Originality - (5%) Practical project = 40% • Community profile development (20%) • Community profile presentation (20%)

Recommended reading:

Phillips, Rhonda, Pittman, Robert, An Introduction to Community Development, Routledge, NY&London, London, 2015, 14-45.
Asociatia Habilitas, Ghid de implicare comunitară, disponibil la http://www.asociatia-maia.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ghid_de_implicare_comunitara.pdf, -, 2015, 44-60.
ARDC, Studiul de caz în dezvoltarea comunitară, -, 2013, 34-54.