2025-2026 Academic Catalog

Jun 27, 2025

2025-2026 Academic Catalog

SSJ 344 - Going Local: Community Development and Planning

Going Local is designed to bring students into the field and practice of sustainable, equitable, and just community development. This course provides a foundation for the CDP curriculum. With a foundation in legacies of community development, this semester, we use three frameworks to ground our exploration of what it takes to build toward communities that foster the thriving of the social and ecological world: 1) Determinants of Health (social, political, commercial, ecological, etc.); 2) Community Cultural Wealth; and 3) antiracist practice.

We delve into ‘who does’ community development (the actors), including the for-profit and non-profit sectors, community coalitions, mutual aid societies, and grassroots organizations, and the levers for change that they each tend to employ. With this understanding of actors and levers for change, we apply an intersectional lens to understand the inequitable impacts of community development. We explore the dispositions, practices, and skills equity-producing practitioners tend to possess.

Community-based dilemmas of practice provide a lens for us to engage with the course’s readings and learning materials. Cases that involve a range of actors and exemplify change levers, organizing strategies, power dynamics and impact on community health are utilized throughout the course.

Formerly IDCE 344. Course may be repeated once. Students who have already passed IDCE 344 once can receive credit for SSJ 344 once.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall