Aims

Central Community Development Journal (CCDJ) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to advancing rigorous scholarship on community development processes, institutions, and outcomes. The journal provides a platform for analytically grounded research that examines how communities organise, govern, and sustain development initiatives within diverse social, economic, and institutional environments.

The journal is concerned not merely with documenting community activities, but with understanding the structural, institutional, and relational conditions under which community-based interventions generate durable social and economic change. CCDJ welcomes research that investigates how local actors, civil society organisations, public institutions, and private stakeholders interact in shaping development trajectories at the community level.

CCDJ encourages interdisciplinary contributions that integrate perspectives from community development studies, development economics, public administration, sociology, social policy, organisational studies, education, health promotion, environmental governance, and related fields where the analytical focus remains anchored in community processes and local institutional dynamics.

The journal publishes conceptual analyses, empirical investigations, comparative studies, and implementation-oriented research, provided that submissions demonstrate theoretical coherence, methodological transparency, and a clear contribution to the understanding or improvement of community development practice or policy. Descriptive accounts lacking analytical framing or evidence of outcomes are not considered.

By fostering dialogue between empirical inquiry and wider development debates, CCDJ contributes to international scholarship in community development and brings greater attention to research grounded in diverse institutional settings.

CCDJ is published quarterly by Acadlore and follows a structured peer-review process designed to ensure consistency, transparency, and scholarly integrity.

Key features of CCDJ include:

Focus on institutional, organisational, and participatory dimensions of community development rather than isolated project descriptions
Emphasis on accountability, governance arrangements, and sustainability of community interventions
Integration of empirical evidence with conceptual or policy implications
Inclusion of action and implementation research where analytical depth and transferable insight are clearly demonstrated
Encouragement of comparative and cross-context analysis
Commitment to methodological rigour, ethical research engagement, and robustness of conclusions

Scope

CCDJ welcomes original research articles, theoretical contributions, systematic reviews, comparative analyses, and high-quality empirical studies in areas including, but not limited to, the following:

Community Processes, Participation, and Collective Action

Community engagement and participatory governance
Collective action, leadership, and local organising
Social capital, trust, and institutional cohesion
Multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership arrangements
Accountability and transparency mechanisms at the community level

Community-Based Local Economic Development and Livelihood Systems

Community-embedded MSME development and local enterprise ecosystems
Livelihood diversification, income stability, and household welfare
Cooperative models, social enterprises, and collective economic institutions
Digital capability-building and community market participation
Inclusive local growth and distributional outcomes within communities
Institutional frameworks supporting community entrepreneurship

Public Policy Implementation and Local Institutional Capacity

Implementation of community development policies and programmes
Decentralisation, local governance, and administrative performance
Community-based service delivery and institutional strengthening
Civil society organisations, cooperatives, and grassroots institutions
Financial inclusion and community-level economic governance

Social Inclusion, Human Development, and Well-being

Gender empowerment, youth participation, and marginalised groups
Community health, nutrition, and prevention initiatives
Education models and local capacity development
Social protection mechanisms and welfare provision
Measurement and evaluation of multi-dimensional community well-being

Disaster Recovery, Resilience, and Risk Governance

Post-disaster livelihood restoration and reconstruction
Community resilience planning and adaptive capacity
Crisis response and recovery in social and economic systems
Risk governance and long-term sustainability
Evaluation of recovery and resilience programmes

Tourism, Culture, and Place-Based Development

Community-based tourism governance
Cultural heritage and identity in local development
Distributional and socio-economic effects of tourism
Tourism recovery, investment, and sustainability
Socio-environmental implications of place-based development

Digital Transformation and Community Capacity

Digital inclusion and technology adoption in community settings
Community-level digital governance and service delivery
Platform-mediated livelihoods and local economic participation
Skills development and organisational learning in digital contexts
Evaluation of digital community programmes

Environmental Sustainability and Community Resource Governance

Community-based natural resource management
Sustainable agriculture and rural development practices
Climate adaptation and local environmental governance
Behavioural change and environmental participation
Integrated socio-environmental development strategies

Comparative and International Perspectives

Cross-national analyses of community development models
Institutional diversity and contextual variation in community interventions
Development practice in emerging and developing economies
International policy learning and programme transferability
Comparative performance and outcomes of local development initiatives

Methods, Evidence, and Evaluation

Action research and community-based participatory research
Programme evaluation and impact assessment
Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches
Comparative case analysis and process tracing
Measurement frameworks for community capacity and sustainability

Ethics, Power, and Accountability

Ethical dimensions of community research and engagement
Power relations and representation in participatory processes
Accountability and governance in development interventions
Management of unintended consequences and distributional effects
Institutionalisation and responsible scaling of community initiatives