This book is based on a research project in the UK that explored how the values and experiences of development workers influence their community work. The book's structure contains two sections with Part 1 containing an ideological approach to understanding the context for development work in the public sphere. Part I also includes the research findings which focus on worker values and ethical dilemmas. Part II explores development work within the context of modernisation and provides the filter for the discussion of the challenges that development workers will face in the future. It is difficult, for a book of this size, to give thorough consideration to all of the chapters and thus this review will focus primarily on those chapters which contain the findings from the research project.

The introductory chapter explores themes such as: (1) working for and against the state, (2) development work in the Modernisation era characterised by contracting, inter-professionalism and consumerism and (3) worker values and experience and their impact on adapting to the development role. Critical to understanding this book is the attention the authors pay to definition of their terms. They solidly ground their working definition of ‘development work’ and ‘development professional’ by arguing that community development needs to expand to incorporate multidisciplinary perspectives. The authors provide short explanations about their community work perspectives, but state clearly at the beginning of the book that they are not speaking with one voice.

Chapter 2 examines the complexity of the public sphere by presenting a brief ideological and historical overview of the relationship between the state and civil society. They believe that this relationship is inevitably conflictual and propose that contestability in the public sphere is necessary for democratic politics. It is then in this contested public space where development workers constantly face ethical dilemmas.

Chapter 3 identifies the practice realities of development work where workers learn about marginalisation and disadvantage and must act on that knowledge by organising collective action for social change. This then brings them into conflict with their employing agency and requires that they critically explore the nature of their own role and their commitment to social justice.

Chapters 4 through 7 present the findings from the research study and it will be no surprise to experienced community workers that there is a great deal of stress in the role. From coping with being on the margins of the organisation to being the recipient of criticism from funders, employing agencies and community participants, the work is full of tension and compromise. The great strength of this book is that in Chapter 4, the authors have categorised coping in sections defined as: (1) Tricks of the Trade, (2) Managing the Person in the role, (3) Containing your own and others feelings, (4) Combining passionate attachment with professional detachment and (5) Implications for training and support.

Chapter 5 identifies a strong commitment by development workers to social justice and community. These values were inculcated either in childhood or adulthood through the influence of others such as family, teachers and/or through direct action experiences. These values now act as a ‘beacon’ for decision making when faced with ethical dilemmas in community.

Chapter 6 furthers the discourse on the importance of values in development work by arguing that professionals have pre-existing values and emotional capacities before they embark on development work. These pre-existing values and capacities then provide a compass for decision making when engaging in dilemmatic space. Rarely do community practice books acknowledge the influence of individual values, emotional capacities or worker attributes on the development of practise in communities. This book is a welcome addition as a textbook for beginning development workers who struggle to understand the role and the complex challenges it brings.

In Chapter 7, the authors explore authority in development work by identifying that the boundaries of authority need to be negotiated and re-negotiated in a transparent process in order to prevent misuse of authority. Both misuse of authority in the self and misuse of authority by others are problematic in development work. Thus negotiation, not misuse of authority, should be the goal of all transactions where authority is required or challenging

Part II, the second section of the book contains Chapters 8 through 10, which provide further contextualisation of the research findings. The authors discuss the impact of the Modernisation agenda and how managerialism is shaping the future of development work. Chapter 8 critiques government policy agendas which are top–down, short-term initiatives that give little recognition to the need for long-term relationship development and sustainability in local communities. There is concern in this book about the centrally controlled strategies and accountability mechanisms that focus on outcomes management, consumerism and a shifting of social provision to the market. This concern is repeated in Chapter 9 as neighbourhood regeneration in the guise of public sector reform appears to be less concerned with local bottom–up development and more and more with centralised strategies that reflect the modernisation agenda. This critique, although focused on the UK is important to other western democracies whose social provision increasingly mirrors neo-liberal policies that support decentralisation without resources, control of targets and outputs, de-professionalism and private market development of human services.

Finally, in Chapter 10, the authors present a vision that suggests development work will be carried out in a ‘more contested, ambiguous’ and rapidly changing environment in the future. Development work then will be confronted with more marketisation, increasing diversity and consumer voice. For these authors, a new professionalism that brings human qualities, reflection and a shift from state funded worker to political advocate is necessary to meet the challenges of development work in the future.

The book provides a critique of the current state of community work in the UK and makes suggestions for moving toward a practical yet hopeful ‘development practice’ for the future. It is comprehensive and well written, but there are things that I would change. Although the authors did identify that they were not speaking with one voice, the book seemed a little disjointed. As a community practitioner, researcher and educator, I found that I wanted this to be two books: one based on the research findings and the other based on the analysis and description of the context for development work. From an educational standpoint, there is so little written about the emotional and relational aspect of community work that I found myself wishing I could deliver the stories and the coping strategies to beginning social work students. The second book might address development work within a policy context, utilising the themes of marketisation, decentralisation and managerialism that are outlined by the authors. That said, many practitioners, researchers and educators will resonate with the realities of the contested space, complexity and ethical challenges that face development workers in the twenty-first century. The authors present a realistic portrayal of development work by illuminating the challenges of development practice through the push–pull of state versus community and top–down versus bottom–up approaches.