DOI
10.5406/jappastud.22.1.0113

Summary
This study is concerned with an undergraduate course on the politics of community development in Appalachia. The purpose of the course is to teach students the benefit community development can play in the region. Hatcher introduces the background of the course and follows with a description of the structure of the course. It is broken down into five sections:




Discuss region culture, history and demographic changes.
Present students with an overview of community development and practice.
Discuss the formation political structures.
Examine the case study through the lens of the asset model of community development.
Explore the tools for community improvement.




One of the learning exercises deployed to develop student knowledge is the requirement to select a municipality of Appalachia and perform an asset mapping exercise. Here the students will accomplish two things:




The students report on the community is social economic and political assets based on the assets model discussed in class and in the readings.
The students discuss the various areas of assets including bult capital, political capital, social capital, natural capital (resources, environmental, and outdoor amenities), culture capital and human capital.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This study is relevant to the community development topic. It offers insights into the benefits of community development in Appalachia. The paper presents itself as a useful tool for the teaching of community development. The course addresses the economic, social, political and environmental factors associated with community development. This paper could be utilised in the classroom as a roadmap for community development teaching or could be used as a structure for an assignment. For this reason it is well aligned with the COSY objectives. However, it does not offer any particularly useful information regarding complex systems but yet addresses some of these issues through the learning outcomes deigned into the course.

Point of Strength
The outlined steps to this course on community development could be utilised as valuable teaching resource will also call the possibility to be realigned with a similar program.

The asset mapping exercise could utilised in the classroom for a similar assessment also.