Drawing on recent research with NGO-driven projects in rural Cajamarca, Peru, we examine the paradoxes of relying on wind, solar and micro-hydro generation of electricity for rural community development. In spite of cost, vagaries of these energy resources and limited material benefits, especially with wind and solar systems, villagers are eagerly…

Over the last decade, rural leadership policies and programmes have attracted substantial support from all tiers of government. These policies are promulgated as a support mechanism for enhancing the internal capacity of rural communities to adjust to changes in the social and political-economic landscape. Leadership training programmes have been…

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. Participation in…

The Alberton Project was a three-year community capacity building project that ran from 1999 until 2002. It aimed to revitalise the local community surrounding the small Victorian town of Yarram. Evaluation of the project involved participant observation, monitoring of media reports, surveys and interviews. Outcomes are reported with reference to…

This paper reports some of the main lessons learnt from a collaborative project titled "Generating jobs in regional Tasmania: a social capital approach" investigating how two small rural Tasmanian communities could better match local training needs with training provision. The project was conducted within the context of the wider social,…