A small town with big ideas: stories from GraniteNet

Edited book (chapter)

Arden, Catherine H. and McLachlan, Kathryn. 2014. "A small town with big ideas: stories from GraniteNet." Postle, Glen David, Burton, Lorelle Jane and Danaher, Patrick Alan (ed.) Community capacity building: lessons from adult learning in Australia. Leicester, United Kingdom. NIACE. pp. 160-176
Chapter Title

A small town with big ideas: stories from GraniteNet

Book Chapter CategoryEdited book (chapter)
ERA Publisher ID2778
Book TitleCommunity capacity building: lessons from adult learning in Australia
AuthorsArden, Catherine H. (Author) and McLachlan, Kathryn (Author)
EditorsPostle, Glen David, Burton, Lorelle Jane and Danaher, Patrick Alan
Page Range160-176
Chapter Number10
Number of Pages17
Year2014
PublisherNIACE
Place of PublicationLeicester, United Kingdom
ISBN9781862017221
9781862017252
Web Address (URL)http://www.niace.org.uk
Abstract

Emerging from the ashes of the original, disused community website, GraniteNet 'Phoenix' was reinvented in 2006 through a research and development partnership between the University of Southern Queens­land and members of the Stanthorpe community who were passionate about harnessing the possibilities presented by emerging information and communications technology for enhanced social connectivity, community networking and lifelong learning. The vision of this new GraniteNet was for a sustainable community-owned, -designed and -managed web portal that would support Stanthorpe's development as a 'learning community'.
Today GraniteNet (www.granitenet.com.au) still operates as a com­munity website and community-based digital inclusion social enterprise (GraniteNet,Inc). This chapter tells the story of GraniteNet as a com­munity capacity building project from the perspectives of two of the project's initiators and longer term protagonists: the local community development worker and learning community 'champion' on the one hand, and the university researcher (or 'broker') on the other. Through telling their respective GraniteNet stories, the authors revisit notions of learning, partnership and community and explore their understandings and experiences of community capacity building in order to share these with readers who, like the authors, seek greater insight into their educa­tional and social nature and impact.

Keywordscapacity building; community-university relations; Stanthorpe; university engagement; community website; lifelong learning
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020441003. Rural sociology
390301. Continuing and community education
460905. Information systems development methodologies and practice
Public Notes

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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education
Community Development Services, Australia
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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