Field of work
Community work is a planned process to mobilise communities to use their own resources and social structures to achieve their own objectives. Participation is key in community work. Principles from community work are also used to ensure citizen and user participation in product and service development.
Rita Agdal explores conditions for co-creation and participation in development and innovation processes. Her current research is focused on strength-based approaches like Asset Based Community Development in health promotion and in production of services and programs.
With a background in medical anthropology, she works with the relationship between language, perception, and subjective experiences of health, as a condition for local knowledge and health behavior. The theoretical focus on embodiment and local knowledge is reflected in her work on conditions for change and development work with groups to promote well-being and health.
Agdal holds a PhD from the Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark and a Cand.polit.in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen.
Asset-Based Community Development - how to get started