CED 375Community, Local Knowledge, and Democracy

3 credits · Community Environment and Development · Penn State

Understanding community decision-making, citizen-expert interactions and methods for resolving seemingly intractable conflicts associated with public issues. CED 375H Community, Local Knowledge, and Democracy (3) Decisions made in our communities have far reaching effects on individuals, families, neighborhoods, the local economy, the environment, the health and welfare of all citizens, and the community as a whole. These decisions or choices are the result of the collective action of community leaders and citizens, either through governmental, non-governmental, or community organizations. This course will familiarize students with principles, concepts and skills essential to understanding processes of community decision making and community development. These processes involve countless human interactions, which ultimately lead to choices that affect the future economic, environmental, political, and social viability of citizens, their families, and the sustainability of their communities. These interactions are central to community decision making and community development, and to the functioning of local democracy. The nature of these interactions and the way in which they take place determine if desired community outcomes occur or not. This course seeks to reveal important, sometimes neglected or underdeveloped, factors in community decision making, specifically issue framing, tensions between local and expert knowledge, methods for resolving seemingly intractable conflicts associated with public issues, and the nature and role of participatory processes in debate, deliberation, and doing public work. This course will enable students to use these factors for analyzing community decision making situations and as community development tools in professional practice. In addition, students will be challenged to examine ethical issues in community decision making and community development professional practice.