Editorial notes

Dear Community Development Readers,

In this issue’s editorial notes, I begin with an introduction to our new associate editors for the journal. First, we have Drs. Bryan and Kristina Hains, associate professors from the University of Kentucky. They both come to us fresh off a collaborative research grant that investigated the many expressions of community development education across the United States. In addition to their many areas of expertise, they will ensure that what is published in the journal is translatable into the teaching of community development. I encourage Community Development readers to check out their recent article in our journal (Hains et al., 2021) and their ongoing efforts: https://www.communitydevelopmenteducation.org. This website has many resources for community development education, and I invite readers to share resources on this forum as well.

Second, we have Dr. Brien K. Ashdown, a colleague of mine, at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. Dr. Ashdown is an associate professor in the Psychological Science department and Latin American Studies program. Dr. Ashdown brings expertise in developmental, community, and cultural psychology, and he will also bring critical perspectives to our journal, which are much needed. For more on his work, I invite authors to check out three articles published in Community Development (Smith, Ashdown, Dixe, & Guarnaccia, 2020), our sister journal Local Development & Society (Miller & Ashdown, 2020), and the International Journal of Community Well-Being (Ashdown, Dixe, & Talmage, 2020). His interdisciplinary approaches in communities will greatly enhance our journal.

Continued thanks go out to Sofia Kotsiri at Santa Clara University for her managing editorship of our journal. She has navigated us through the many facets of the publishing process, and continues to serve our authors and reviewers with care. I also offer a thanks to our previous editorial board members, associate editors, book series editors, case editors, book review editors, and our many reviewers. We would not be where we are as journal without you all.

During this interim time, I will be contacting individuals to see if they would like to stay involved with our journal. We will say warm goodbyes to some folks, and I plan to invite new folks to get involved. Furthermore, readers will see calls for submissions to special and thematic issues in the coming months. For up-to-date information, I invite readers to renew their memberships with (or join!) the Community Development Society (https://comm-dev.org). Our Taylor & Francis website will be updated with these calls and updated contact information too.

Now, I direct you to 52–1. Readers will find seven exciting articles that push our field of research and practice forward. Two of articles draw on a seminal framework found in our journal: Community Capitals. One article leverages ripple effects mapping to assess an extension volunteer program, while another leverages another mapping approach to explore the empowerment of women in Ethiopia. These articles are inspired by Mary Emery and Cornelia Flora’s classic article, “Spiraling Up,” published in 2006 in our journal. Dr. Eric Trevan and I had the opportunity to sit down with the authors and discuss the impetus for the community capitals framework and how the original article’s (Emery & Flora, 2006) impact has evolved. To listen to the interview visit: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/vmt0j7ZJMRlGrH64-ZScRKaxS7ghwYGBNuys6XCsUSTBhcrvXZOPZCMBqzAhoq0.zRVt8R0j6nnh6hFH.

In this issue, readers will find an important qualitative study on faith-based organizations and their role in community development. The authors provide a robust review of the literature and position the field well for further rigorous exploration of faith-based community development. It is this editor’s opinion that the notion of faith is underrepresented in community development scholarship. To learn more, I recommend an article from our friends at the Community Development Journal, published by Oxford University Press (Hustedde & King, 2002). Personally, I am grateful to Professor Hustedde for his continued contributions to our journal and our field. He has been a mentor and guide to me through our interactions and his scholarly work.

Readers will find another insightful article on community attachment. The author specifically focuses on the importance of community context. Specifically, they explore findings in urban areas and use a unique analytical approach. Our journal is no stranger to the world of community attachment (e.g., Theodori, 2018; Theodori & Theodori, 2015), but we could use many more articles exploring this pertinent subject to better inform community development practice.

Our other articles hit on very important issues affecting communities today. One of our articles leverages complexity theory to show how social participation is nuanced, diverse, non-linear, and varies in its expressions. These findings are essential when linking social participation to community health and community well-being. Another article focuses on digital parity and digital inclusion. The digital divide still persists across the U.S. (and world), while devices and connectivity move toward ubiquity in our daily lives. Community development practitioners will always need more research-based insights on the intersections of community development and technology. Finally, this issue holds an excellent article on biosecurity regulations in Auckland, New Zealand. This article provides insights regarding biosecurity policy and climate change. Our journal will benefit from many more articles showcasing the intersections of climate change and community development scholarship, education, and practice.

I am grateful to all of these authors for choosing our journal. Each article showcases pieces of the Community Development Society (CDS) Principles of Good Practice (https://www.comm-dev.org/about/principles-of-good-practice). Each article has insights to offer research, policy, and practice. I look forward to ripple effect of each of these pieces that will be found in our journal and others, so we can uplift the merits of community development across the world.