Books published by Common Ground Publishing

Museums and communities - what are the connections? Who leads and who follows?This book draws on the experiences of the author as the director of the Cobb+Co Museum in Toowoomba, Australia since its opening in 1987. It charts the changing dynamics between the museum and its community that have provided enormous benefits to both the institution and the community itself.The engagement process and subsequent outcomes between museums and their stakeholder communities are often neglected by both practitioners and academics. Much has been written and spoken about the need for museums to engage with and be responsive to their communities, but many museums, in practice, still remain indifferent to their key stakeholders.Museums can play substantial leadership roles within communities. This occurs when the relationship between the museum and its community becomes entrenched with shared values. These values can facilitate social, cultural, and economic benefits for both museums and their communities. This book explores these values and their expression within a regional museum context.

Thankfully, another publication from the creative Queensland Community Development 'crowd'... Indeed, what would we do without them in a rather sedate and seemingly stagnant Australian publishing landscape in so far as Community Development is concerned...? What I most particularly appreciate is the editors' and contributors' ongoing attempts at creating 'living theory' informed by their ongoing practice and their holding on to the spiritual, democratic, relational and dialogical principles for which their work has become known. The book therewith documents its authors' continuing attempts at developing good practical and reflective support for their ongoing social change efforts, something our local community development scene could very well do with..."Jacques Boulet, editor New Community Quarterly.