Bottom-up community development: reality or rhetoric? the example of the Kingsmead Kabin in East London

This paper summarizes the results of a case study, emerging from the author's ten years as community development worker at the Kabin, a project on the Kingsmead Estate in Hackney, East London. Using a reflective practitioner approach, informed by the author's own experience and referring to focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the research identifies the significance of relationship in nurturing a bottom-up approach to community development. Research findings support the need for community development processes to reconnect with community-defined purposes, engaging with how power is utilized to nurture participation and radical social change. The case study is grounded in practitioner knowledge, promoting a more nuanced understanding of how a vital but not easily assimilated area of research can lead to change in the community, while confronting pressures to change and conform.