This paper provides insights into the operational features of community-based financing mechanisms. These include CAF groups, which are self-financed communities where people save and lend money to each other. The implementation of such self-financed communities in the Netherlands is supported by Participatory Action Research (PAR). This paper discusses the first results of this research by exploring whether and how participation of group members can improve their well-being with regard to social networks, financial household management and entrepreneurial positioning based on the capability approach of Amartya Sen, a well-known economist. For this PAR, three groups were formed, guided, observed, analysed and compared. This paper demonstrates how solidarity economy processes at the grassroots level can contribute to the general well-being of vulnerable people in the Netherlands. For the particular context of overconsumption, inequality and overindebtedness, Sen’s notion of freedom will be reconsidered and adjusted.
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Older people today are more likely to age in their own private living environment. However, many face declining health and/or other issues that affect their ability to live independently and necessitate additional support. Such support can be provided by formal networks, but a considerable part can also be offered by informal networks of older people themselves. Going beyond these networks, older people can additionally and perhaps even more substantially benefit from vital communities. Nevertheless, even though this term is increasingly common in the literature, its meaning remains indistinct. A more thorough understanding of this concept might provide valuable knowledge that health care professionals, researchers and community workers can use to offer meaningful and effective support. The purpose of this paper is to draw on existing empirical research on vital communities to build knowledge of the different descriptions and dimensions of the concept. Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology was adopted. Our search, conducted on 23 March 2020 and updated on 06 January 2021, yielded 4433 articles, of which six articles were included in the scoping review. We deduced that the conceptualisation of a vital community is based on three dimensions: the aim of a vital community, the processes behind a vital community and the typical characteristics of a vital community. None of the selected studies have mapped all three dimensions. Nevertheless, we assume that understanding all three matters when vital communities aim to contribute to the quality of life of people ageing in place.
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This paper proposes a framework for designing human resource development interventions that facilitate change in professional organizations through promoting learning at the individual and group level. The framework proposed is based on a theory of organizational learning developed by Etienne Wenger (Wenger, 1998) that proposes learning takes place in the context of communities of practice. Communities of practices (CoPs) are groups of professionals that come together in order to build knowledge and practice in their specific field (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002). At first glance CoPs might appear to be like other, more traditional groups found in organizations, but this is misleading (Bood & Coenders, 2004; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). The major differences between traditional groups and CoPs are that the latter are self-organizing and self-governing (Dekkers et al., 2005; Saint-Onge & Wallace, 2003). In the private sector, CoPs are recognized as an exceptional human resource development (HRD) method for organizations wishing to stimulate learning, promote innovation and facilitate change processes among its employees (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). In this paper I lay the theoretical groundwork for developing CoPs generally, using the case of higher educational organizations as an example where they could be initiated. In order to design these interventions, I propose a model that employs a multi-disciplinary, theoretical approach that bridges the context of the public and private sectors. Furthermore, I report on some preliminary observations of two communities of practice; one that formed during a HRD project specifically centered on communities of practice, and one that was formed as a result of an organization-wide initiative to stimulate employee empowerment during a merger.
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