Special issue editorial : creating inclusive communities

Abstract

This special issue will attempt to cross-fertilise themes and contexts (historical and physical). It is innovative in as much as it hybridises theoretical paradigms and creates new conceptual platforms that will surely read to the varied interests of the readers,researchers, students, academics, social operators, community planners and developers activists and the general public (Ganapati 2008). The richness of this special issue lies in its capacity to bring speckled components into one organic whole and develop the notion of communalism from the local to the global and anywhere in between (Schmidt 2006). It will draw on the problematising of a very important mindset, that is to say;citizenship will not just happen but requires a commitment towards capacity-building,that is to say; effective membership, friendship, relationships, supports in the pledge towards inclusivity (Craig 2007). However, the fundamental opportunities to accumulate social capital (Graddy and Wang 2009), participation, well-being and reciprocity are considerable and their existing contributions are often undervalued (Barber 2009). Furthermore, as the concept permeates into sociological and political discourse, its potential to generate further structural inequalities needs to be acknowledged.