Having trained as a Primary Teacher, Dave worked in Play, Homelessness, Community Development, Community-based Adult Education and managed a large non-vocational programme in a Further Education College in Nottingham.

In the mid-nineties he returned to Glasgow and launched a community project which trained people who were far removed from the jobs market to become community workers, incorporating a qualification from the University of Glasgow.

Since joining the University in 1999, he has developed undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in Community Development, greatly increasing the University's profile in this area. His research outputs include books exploring Popular Education and Community Organising and a range of articles covering issues such as community-based addictions, social capital and university/community partnerships.

Dave has been a board member of the International Association for Community Development and The Federation for Community Development Learning and is a member of the Community Learning and Development Standards Council. He is also joint editor of the Radical Community Work Journal.

He is currently working on a book rethinking the purpose and methods of Community Development for the 21st Century.

Research interests

My research interests lie in the field of Community Development. 

My current focus is on Radical theories and forms of practice and how they shape the way that practitioners think and operate within a Neoliberal context.

I am also interested in Community Organising theories and models and how they harness people power for sustainable social change.

I am also interested in how the theories of Freire and Gramsci can act as an explanatory framework for the context of Community Development practice and provide insights into empowering practice for social change. Finally I am interested in how the concept of Social Capital is understood and used by policy makers, Community Developement practitioners and local people and how this concept can be used to ensure the development of strongly bonded communities which are able to analyse and transform their social situations. 

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My teaching expertise is focussed on Community Development, in particular Freirean and radical approaches to learning and social change and participative approaches to research, planning and action to develop individual and collective empowerment.

I manage the Post Graduate Community Development programmes in the School of Education:

The MEd Community Learning and Development

This is a professional qualification for people who want to work in a community context to support people to effect social change across a range of contexts and issues

The MSc Advanced Community Development

This is an online, internationally focussed programme responds to the increasing use of a Community Development approach to dealing with a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues worldwide and the resultant requirement for high level education for experienced practitioners in these fields.

I have worked extensively with practitioners and service users to develop user involvement and a Community Development approach to employment. This has been primarily through Glasgow’s Equal Access Project. Examples of this work are: developing a practitioners forum in the South West of Glasgow, working with groups of service users with mental health problems to raise awareness of their issues with policy makers and working with groups of workers and service users from the statutory and voluntary sector to explore ways of increasing user participation and power in the delivery of local services.

I have been actively involved in a range of national and internation networks including, the International Association for Community Development, the Federation for Community Development Learning and the Community Learning and Development Standards Council for Scotland

I recently established and am chairperson of a community organisation in my local area which is working on environmental and social issues within the community

Racical Community Work Journal

I am the Co-Editor of the Radical Community Work Journal which provides a global platform for dialogue around developments in Community Work Practice and encourages collaborations around research and practice in the area of social change.