Pete's podcast on community development

This is a gentle meandering 24 minute conversation between Dr David Palmer and Dr Peter Westoby about the role of 'the invitation' within community development. It explores why waiting for invitations are important for our practice not imposing ourselves... albeit sometimes we can 'linger within intent', hoping to be invited.

This is a 30 minute public lecture Peter gave at Murdoch University, Perth on Thursday 16th April, 2026. It explores: - who Derrida was, - why his deconstructive episteme can be helpful for community development; - some big ideas, such as the haunting of justice; - along with 5 key impasses - that of 'community', 'development', 'community development' itself, the 'cultu...

This podcast, a 21 minute conversation between Peter Westoby (the host) and Rachael Donovan focuses on The Community Builders Journal , a new resource to support citizens to build community and do 'development' in their streets, neighbourhoods, workplaces or schools. It's a 1 year (or less) guide for people - stories, ideas, questions for reflections and invitations for experiments + r...

This episode considers some ideas from a new book Peter is working on, which includes a contemplative practice to complement critical community development. Peter and Rachael mention some of their other work (see the Community Builders Journal below), but focus on the framework that Peter calls: 3Ps + 1 L framework - Pause, Presence, Pivot and Linger (acknowledging Richard Rudd's work). We dis...

This 34 minutes episode is a remembrance of the late John McKnight - who died at 92yo, 2.11.24, at home. Cormac Russell introduces the listener to John, and honours his significant work in community development, civil rights and public health. This is a story of what Cormac calls 'a sensational life'. There's so much wisdom in this episode and as curator of this podcast, I hope people dip into thi...

Tune into this delightful 40 minute conversation with Jamie, on Arrernte Country (in Alice Springs) about community development and environmental justice . We riff off a few topics, but the core of this conversation is a story of Jamie accompanying and learning from a community in Ireland as it struggles against fracking. It's a rich conversation, and in my reflections really foregrounds the i...

This is a 7 minute keynote at the 2023 Community Development Queensland Conference on the future of community development, by Peter Westoby. It was part of a panel of four people. This was recorded by a friend in the audience, so not perfect audio. Many people have enjoyed this short talk, particularly the 3rd point, so enjoy it as a podcast.

In this 3rd yarn we explore the 'work' needed, or the practice, of preparing to be welcomed onto country. Check these out on ethics and Listening Buchanan, J., Collard, L. & Palmer, D. (2018). N gapartji ngapartji ninti and koorliny karnya quoppa katitjin (Respectful and ethical research in central Australia and the south west). Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning i...

This second conversation explored arriving on 'country', being growled at, and listening practices. (And this time, apologies for Dave's big sneezes). The yarn moves from listening as a practice to a set of practices. A 9-fold framework of listening is explored among others. Listening as a set of practices: Goddard,C. 1996. Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English Dictionary [Revised...

A first conversation with Dave and Jen (both from Western Australia, teaching/writing about community development at Murdoch University) about their journey into working with indigenous Australians (And sorry about the phone beeping in the middle :)) The yarn focuses on 'becoming family', language and other practices. Some ideas referenced in the yarn can be further explored here: Noongarp...

In this 3rd conversation between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner, we explore the meta-level work of taking innovative and effective social enterprise work to scale. Scaling-up is contrasted with scaling-across and horizontal learning approaches. Richard shares stories of Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op 's experiments in going to scale - including the Community Enterprise Initiative in partn...

In this 2nd conversation between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner, Richard explains why the cooperative model was chosen for their social enterprise. We then discuss some key lessons from the 25 year journey of the Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op - such as: maintaining the practice of listening/the centrality of people's voices; balancing participation and productivity; becoming financially...

In this first of three conversations between Peter Westoby and Richard Warner we scaffold the conversation acknowledging that the two cooperatives we work for - Community Praxis Co-op and Nundah Community Enterprise Co-op - are celebrating their 25th year anniversaries. We link the celebration with the 50th anniversary of E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (1973) - 'economics as if peop...

In this 5th and final episode on Three Rivers Flowing, Dr Lynda Shevellar officially launches the book through a delightful conversation with Peter Westoby. Taking some slightly new angles Lynda explores 'Why Now?' with Peter (why did you write this book) and what it can offer community development practitioners. There's a fresh exploration of what the phenomenological step means, how...

In this 4th episode on the book Three Rivers Flowing Rachael and Peter explore the fourth and final elemental - expanding consciousness. In this episode Peter explains how expanding consciousness requires: 1. Historical work - seeing how the past haunts and makes sense of much of the present; 2. Humble work - to see with others is a necessity (alone is very limiting); 3. Holistic seeing - moving f...

In this 3rd episode exploring my new book Three Rivers Flowing , we talk about the practice of aliveness and what it means in the social field. Being both in the moment and in movement, as well as setting/holding a clear intention are crucial. Sitting on the rim between plans and being responsive and receptive indicate a quality of alive social practice. The conversation then explores what it mean...

In this 2nd episode on Three Rivers Flowing, Peter discusses Elemental One on observation and developing the faculty of seeing and sensing and their importance in the social and ecological fields. The book can be purchased from all major book retailers: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Phenomenological-Reflective-Practice-Ecological/dp/0367631288

In this first of 4 conversations, Peter shares what the three rivers are of Three Rivers Flowing - dialogue, soul and reflective practice. Rachael asks about the meaning of phenomenology and what it can mean in the social field. The history of the book, linked to The Proteus Initiative and Allan Kaplan's Artists of the Invisible are explained. The book is being launched in Brisbane on April 18th s...

In this second twenty minute conversation, Cormac explains the three-fold compass of the book: Discover, Connect, Mobilise; and the seven key functions of a community (you'll have to read it folks). Interwoven wth stories and ideas, this conversation has got me off to my local library insisting that the book is available there for local residents and citizens to read. 

In this 21 minute episode, Cormac introduced us to his 'writing practice' (an unplanned conversation) and then the key intentions of this new book. Albeit, Peter sees it as a comprehensive 'resource' for mobilising citizen action in neighbourhoods. Cormac is the founder of Nurture Development, and he works locally and globally. More information about this new book is available here: https://thecon...

This 23 minute episode, a conversation between Peter and Jacques really goes to the heart of some contemporary challenges. The 'social' world of community sits 'between' the individual and institutions. Yet the social is being eroded. Linking the phenomenon of social media to the decreasing capacities for attention and presence, we explore how to restore respectful relationships in a caring econom...

In this 23 minute conversation Jacques and Peter respond to the question posed in the 1st episode - what is a new story for our economy? As such we explore the 'story' of a caring economy - and riffing off the new book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity b y David Graeber and David Wengrow, Jacques provides an historical overview and invites us to think about a different kind of rela...

What a delightful conversation - on why community economics is a crucial part of CD history, and why it's more important than ever now. In this 23 minute yarn an almost 80 year old Jacques (from Borderlands Cooperative, recovering academic and editor of Australia's Community Journal) and Peter discuss issues such as the meaning of economy/ecology, examples of community economics and how we must ex...

In this 20 minute conversation Peter and Sue continue to explore the importance of strengthening civil society as a response to right wing populism. With relief we riff off the Australian election labour party win (with women/independents/green resurgences), foregrounding local strategies such as kitchen table conversations - places where people can really listen and discuss - not debate with a vi...

In this 2nd episode on our series on right ring populism and community development, Sue Kenny discusses the significance of strengthening civil society. Then, drawing on the story of Putin's rise to power in Russia, Sue explains some of her personal story of seeing civil society gradually closed down there - a classic way that right wing populists draw from their own 'playbook'. We finally conside...