The Community Development Podcast (@CommDevtPodcast)

Ep.54 - How the Left lost the working class with Joan C Williams (Modern Cockney Festival)

The 2026 Modern Cockney Festival kicked off with this compelling discussion with Prof Joan C Williams, from the University of California and author of the books 'White Working Class' and 'Outclassed: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America'. With kind permission of Andy Green, co-founder of Modern Cockney Festival, the talk has been made available to the podcast. The rest of the Festival's programme this March is here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/moderncockneyfestival/2060702 Follow the Modern Cockney Festival at: instagram.com/moderncockneyfestival/ www.moderncockneyfestival.co.uk _________________________ Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social Support the podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru) My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e

Ep.53 - Socio-spatial analysis with Ritva Vilppola

This episode's guest is Ritva Vilppola. Originally from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Ritva now lives in The Netherlands, via Australia, and they discuss the intersection of architecture, design, and communities in different contexts: urban design, parks, resilience planning. To learn more about their practice you can email Ritva or contact them via LinkedIn: ritva.m.vilppola@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/ritvamaria-vilppola You can also hear more about Ritva's current work on the cross-section of community development and labour organising at the upcoming IACD 2026 Conference in Glasgow! Ritva and Russell discuss a range of intellectual influences, documents and texts related to socio-spatial scales: Jason Hickel, David Harvey, Samuel Stein, Jane Jacobs https://architecture-lobby.org/event/visit-organizing-the-lobby-at-the-2025-venice-biennale/ Community Work at Maleny Neighbourhood Centre o Disaster resilience: https://getreadymaleny.com.au/ and my fellowship project: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities/Maleny_Maps o Housing: https://issuu.com/hinterlandtimes/docs/ht_paper_oct_2022_emag/8 and https://gcnews.com.au/housing-stress-test/ o Community Forums: https://gcnews.com.au/strength-in-forums/ and https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6955728676592246786/ o Active Transport: https://www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2022/09/23/maleny-e-bikes/ Urban Design for Health and Wellbeing o https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6825988344275722240/ ________________________________ Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social Support the podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru) My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e

Ep.52 - Putting Freire Into Practice: The Gorgie-Dalry Adult Learning Project

Stan Reeves joins the podcast in this episode to look back at the Adult Learning project that ran for a number of years from 1979 in Gorgie-Dalry in west Edinburgh. It very explicitly drew on the teachings and ideas of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997). In 1989 a book was written about the ALP and subsequently re-published several times. It can be accessed here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6091-552-9 Music credit: Robert Fish Band - '2/4 Marches (Gay Gordons)': https://youtu.be/A7OgOnDJeqI?si=MnfZRVDasn7Sg5ZC ________________________________ Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social Support the podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru) My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e

Ep.51 - COMING SOON: The CAER Heritage Podcast

Later this week the National Centre for Co-ordinating Public Engagement (NCCPE) will release the first episodes in a brand new podcast series that Russell has produced all about the CAER Heritage project in Ely and Caerau in Cardiff, Wales. This is a short excerpt from episode 5 in which Dr Dave Wyatt, one of CAER's founders, gives a flavour of what the series covers. ________________________________ Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social Support the podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru) My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e

Ep.50 - "Being the change you want you to see": Youth-led action with the Grange Youth Forum

For episode 50 Russell heads to Cardiff's Grangetown district in the south of the city to chat with two of the founders of Grange Pavilion's Youth Forum (GPYF) - Nirushan Sudarsan and Shoruk Nekeb. They tell the story of GPYF's origins as a project within the wider Community Gateway project in Grangetown, a long-term community-university civic mission project. They also give a flavour of some of its activities and how GPYF acts as a crucible for discussions about global citizenship, resistance and organising for young people. We also hear from other members of GPYF: Eleeza, Mahima and Amira. You can find out more Grange Pavilion Youth Forum: instagram.com/gpyouthforum/ https://grangepavilion.wales/youth-forum-page/ To learn more about the Community Gateway project: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/community/our-local-community-projects/community-gateway ________________________________ Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social Support the podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru) My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e