Advertise on podcast: Pete's podcast on community development

This 34 minute conversation between Rachael Donovan and Peter Westoby explores the opening frames of the 2009/2014 books on dialogical community development (Tafina Press; Routledge). In the conversation we consider some of the core ideas such as community as dialogue, community as hospitality and community as an ethical space - all in the light of depth and solidarity. The conversation considers why Peter and Gerard Dowling (the co-author) wrote the books in the first place, what motivated them, and how they reflected on their ACTUAL practice. The books are available: Dialogical Community Development (1st edition) A Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development (2nd edition) Transformative Community Development (just released)

This is a gentle meandering 24 minute conversation between Dr David Palmer and Dr Peter Westoby about the role of 'the invitation' within community development. It explores why waiting for invitations are important for our practice not imposing ourselves... albeit sometimes we can 'linger within intent', hoping to be invited.

This is a 30 minute public lecture Peter gave at Murdoch University, Perth on Thursday 16th April, 2026. It explores: - who Derrida was, - why his deconstructive episteme can be helpful for community development; - some big ideas, such as the haunting of justice; - along with 5 key impasses - that of 'community', 'development', 'community development' itself, the 'cultural turn' and the 'empire of trauma/colonisation of therapeutics'.

This podcast, a 21 minute conversation between Peter Westoby (the host) and Rachael Donovan focuses on The Community Builders Journal, a new resource to support citizens to build community and do 'development' in their streets, neighbourhoods, workplaces or schools. It's a 1 year (or less) guide for people - stories, ideas, questions for reflections and invitations for experiments + recipes to cook up and celebrate. Check it out on: https://practicalactionpublishing.com/book/3116/the-community-builders-journal Or head to Amazon or other publishers for a Kindle version (the cheapest option), or write to [email protected] for us to send you a copy (with postage). If you're local (South-East QLD) check out local book launches: 1. Baringa (Caloundra) 6th February  5.30-7pm https://www.facebook.com/share/1ChWZ2nR7F/ 2. Deception Bay 11th February  5.30-7pm https://www.facebook.com/share/1GaTTe6f8q/

This episode considers some ideas from a new book Peter is working on, which includes a contemplative practice to complement critical community development. Peter and Rachael mention some of their other work (see the Community Builders Journal below), but focus on the framework that Peter calls: 3Ps + 1 L framework - Pause, Presence, Pivot and Linger (acknowledging Richard Rudd's work). We discuss what these 4 practices enable in such a contemplative practice. As mentioned in the Intro, here's links to The Community Builders Journal: https://practicalactionpublishing.com/book/3116/the-community-builders-journal

This 34 minutes episode is a remembrance of the late John McKnight - who died at 92yo, 2.11.24, at home. Cormac Russell introduces the listener to John, and honours his significant work in community development, civil rights and public health. This is a story of what Cormac calls 'a sensational life'. There's so much wisdom in this episode and as curator of this podcast, I hope people dip into this wisdom tradition and pause to remember John's life. Also, here is Cormac's more personal eulogy to John: https://vimeo.com/1040452609/759698ca86?share=copy Here is a link to John’s writings: https://resources.depaul.edu/abcd-institute/publications/publications-and-learnings/Pages/default.aspx#_mcknightbib

Tune into this delightful 40 minute conversation with Jamie, on Arrernte Country (in Alice Springs) about community development and environmental justice. We riff off a few topics, but the core of this conversation is a story of Jamie accompanying and learning from a community in Ireland as it struggles against fracking. It's a rich conversation, and in my reflections really foregrounds the importance of community development practitioners acquiring political literacies. For those interested, Jamie refers to: 1. The Commons Social Change Library article: https://commonslibrary.org/how-to-beat-the-fracking-frenzy/#5_key_rooting_strategies 2. A community development journal article on his work: https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article-abstract/57/1/17/6481916?login=false PS apologies at the 22 minutes mark for the overhead plane noise (flying into Alice Springs)

This is a 7 minute keynote at the 2023 Community Development Queensland Conference on the future of community development, by Peter Westoby. It was part of a panel of four people. This was recorded by a friend in the audience, so not perfect audio. Many people have enjoyed this short talk, particularly the 3rd point, so enjoy it as a podcast.

In this 3rd yarn we explore the 'work' needed, or the practice, of preparing to be welcomed onto country. Check these out on ethics and Listening Buchanan, J., Collard, L. & Palmer, D. (2018). Ngapartji ngapartji ninti and koorliny karnya quoppa katitjin (Respectful and ethical research in central Australia and the south west). Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts [Special Issue: Ethical relationships, ethical research in Aboriginal contexts: Perspectives from central Australia], 23, 32-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18793/LCJ2018.23.04 Buchanan, J., Collard, L., Palmer, D. (2019) Koorliny birniny, ni, quoppa katatjin: respect and ethics in working with Indigenous Australian communities. In Westoby, P. and Banks, S. (eds). Ethics in Community Development. Routledge: London. https://www.cdqld.org/uploads/7/0/8/6/70862165/buchanan_collard___palmer_2019_ethics_equity_and_cd.pdf

This second conversation explored arriving on 'country', being growled at, and listening practices. (And this time, apologies for Dave's big sneezes). The yarn moves from listening as a practice to a set of practices. A 9-fold framework of listening is explored among others. Listening as a set of practices: Goddard,C. 1996. Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English Dictionary [Revised 2nd edition]. Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development. 306pp. Ellis, Elizabeth Marrkilyi ; Green, Jennifer ; Kral, Inge (2019): In the Time of Their Lives. Wangka kutjupa-kutjuparringu: How talk has changed in the Western Desert. The Australian National University Data Commons.dataset. 10.25911/5dcb4ddd89c0f

A first conversation with Dave and Jen (both from Western Australia, teaching/writing about community development at Murdoch University) about their journey into working with indigenous Australians (And sorry about the phone beeping in the middle :)) The yarn focuses on 'becoming family', language and other practices. Some ideas referenced in the yarn can be further explored here: Noongarpedia site https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Keny_mia Buchanan Jennie, Collard Len, Cumming Ingrid, Palmer David, Scott Kim and Hartley John. "Kaya wandjoo ngala Noongarpedia – Welcome to our Noongarpedia" Cultural Science Journal 9, no.1 (2016): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.89

In this 3rd conversation between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner, we explore the meta-level work of taking innovative and effective social enterprise work to scale. Scaling-up is contrasted with scaling-across and horizontal learning approaches. Richard shares stories of Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op's experiments in going to scale - including the Community Enterprise Initiative in partnership with Community Praxis Co-op, and the work of Queensland Social Enterprise Council (celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year).

In this 2nd conversation between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner, Richard explains why the cooperative model was chosen for their social enterprise. We then discuss some key lessons from the 25 year journey of the Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op - such as: maintaining the practice of listening/the centrality of people's voices; balancing participation and productivity; becoming financially literate (building capacity through the enterprise system - and Richard makes a confession); and working from an organisational framework.

In this first of three conversations between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner we scaffold the conversation acknowledging that the two cooperatives we work for - Community Praxis Co-op and Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op - are celebrating their 25th year anniversaries. We link the celebration with the 50th anniversary of E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (1973) - 'economics as if people matter'. Richard then shares the story of the co-op, moving from: - the micro-level of stories/listening to people's lived experience, - to the mezzo-level of a small group of people living with cognitive and intellectual disabilities experimenting informally with work, - through to the macro-level of structuring and registering a formal cooperative - and being a catalyst for social procurement with Brisbane City Council. From small, to nearly a $2 million annual turnover and 50+ people employed (35 with cognitive and intellectual disabilities), the co-op is an inspirational story of social enterprise developed 'by the people'. For further details check out: https://www.communitypraxis.org/ (and particularly the Community Enterprise Initiative link) and also www.ncec.com.au/.

In this 5th and final episode on Three Rivers Flowing, Dr Lynda Shevellar officially launches the book through a delightful conversation with Peter Westoby. Taking some slightly new angles Lynda explores 'Why Now?' with Peter (why did you write this book) and what it can offer community development practitioners. There's a fresh exploration of what the phenomenological step means, how we practice 'sitting on the rim' (both inside a social process, yet trying to observe it), and we see 'whole systems' shaping our practice.