A text which explores the organizational advances that have taken place within community practice over the last decade and how ideas of community and "community practice" have found a place within public and social policies since the 1980s. The book is arranged to enable the reader to use it as a reference work as much as a text. It explains the key terms in the field and examines why "community" has become such a feature of various public policies in recent years. The contributors critically examine six policy areas, review the present status and future possibilities from three perspectives (environmentalism, equality and democratic-citizenship) and finally summarise their findings.