
Rekindling Democracy
Finally, a book that offers a practical yet well researched guide for practitioners seeking to hone the way they show up in citizen space. Rekindling Democracy, A Professional’s Guide To Working In Citizen Space, convincingly argues that industrialized countries are suffering through a democratic inversion; where the doctor is assumed to be the primary producer of health; the teacher of education; the police officer of safety, and the politician of democracy.
Through just the right blend of storytelling, research and original ideas Russell asserts instead that in a functioning democracy, the role of the professionals ought to be defined as that which happens after the important work of citizens is done. The primary role of the 21st century practitioner therefore is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of more active citizenship and community building. And then he goes about showing us how to do so effectively.
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About the Author
Cormac is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at Northwestern University, Chicago.
Over the last 20 years, Cormac has worked in over 30 countries around the world. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other strengths-based approaches in Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia.
He is passionate about the proliferation of community-driven change and citizen-centred democracy and has supported hundreds of communities to make ABCD visible through what he calls ABCD Neighbourhood Learning Sites.
His motto, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin, is: ‘When it comes to Community Building, well done is better than well said’.

Afterword
By Julia Unwin, DBE, FAcSS
Former chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust Chair of Civil Society Futures
“Rekindling Democracy is a book that needed to be written. At a time when the words “community,” “neighborhood,” and increasingly “place” are thrown around with casual abandon, a book that brings focus and a rigorous conceptual framework to these words is hugely welcome. But this book is more than simply a necessary corrective to loose and careless thinking. It is a manifesto for a different sort of society and a more relational, more human way of doing business …”
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