Centre for Sustainable Communities

2019 Seeds of Change conference

Professor Barbara Pamphilon (centre) with delegates, presenters and organisers of the 2019 Seeds of Change Conference at the entrance to the Ann Harding Centre, University of Canberra.

Photo: ACIAR

The Centre for Sustainable Communities (CSC) aims to contribute to sustainable social, cultural and economic development by providing research and professional development services to communities, government and the private sector.

Our strengths, developed over more than ten years, are those of collaborative and participatory research in regional and community development in both local and international contexts. Through our partnerships with regional and community agencies we aim—

To build sustainable environmental, social, cultural and economic capacity through partnership in research and development;
To identify needs and capacities in local contexts using processes which respect action learning and collaboration;
To develop strategies for change in response to changing environmental, social, cultural and economic contexts;
To build leadership and professional networks that support sustainable and cooperative endeavours in communities.

The Centre's research highlights learning and development beyond formal education, in community and organisational settings and contexts where informal learning is significant. We are interested in how this perspective can contribute to the adaptation of formal institutions to the contemporary challenges of social and cultural change. For more details of our work, please see: