Community Leadership as Learning

Abstract

Inspiring Communities has been working to support and enable locally-led change through creating conditions for leadership and learning, since 2008. Inspiring Communities was born when 30 people in Aotearoa New Zealand debated how to support the leadership of people working together 'in place' i.e. local neighbourhoods and communities, to unleash potential and address problems. By 2011, 300 people gathered in a national community-led development learning conference connecting people from all sectors working collectively to create tangible impact. By 2013, 6000 people were talking about their neighbourhood initiatives across NZ with Jim Diers from Seattle. Knowledge and action are being co-constructed with the understanding that how we work to enable active citizen leadership is as important as what activity, project or outcome may be our particular focus. This session shares emerging understanding about enabling active citizen leadership. The learning comes from innovative PhD research through collaborative inquiry with Inspiring Communities. Leadership strategies will be illustrated with Inspiring Communities stories, based around four inter-related layers: personal, relational, structural and cultural. Taken-for-granted assumptions about leadership will be challenged. Leadership as an interactive learning dynamic will be explored, to support ways of thinking and acting that cultivate and harness “the common-wealth” of community leadership.