Community development interventions can generate collective identities, foster community activism and build more accountable relations between marginalized groups and duty-bearers 1. Yet, our previous research shows meaningful inclusion of the most disadvantaged groups is not sustainable unless the intersecting inequalities at the root of poverty and marginalization are understood and addressed. This article draws on participatory action research (PAR) processes conducted between 2016 and 2017 in Egypt, Ghana, India, South Africa and Uganda, which worked through local partners to engage directly with groups affected by deep inequalities and unaccountable dynamics. Collaboratively, we explored how intersecting inequalities play out in people’s everyday lives to drive poverty and marginalization and the elements necessary for participatory processes to catalyze community activism and build pathways towards accountability. In this article, we operationalize the concept of intersecting inequalities, in order to understand the complexity of ‘community’ in different contexts and the contribution of this approach to inclusive community development. Finally, we draw lessons about how to navigate the intrinsic tensions between recognizing difference and building community activism for accountability.

This Special Issue of the Community Development Journal explores how the concepts of intersectionality and intersecting inequalities can contribute to inclusive community development research and practice, particularly in contexts of acute marginalization. The motivation for our focus follows insight from the Participate research initiative, which showed that marginalization is perpetuated when development interventions do not address the consequences of intersecting inequalities (Howard et al. 2017). The Sustainable Development Goals' call to 'leave no one behind' is unlikely to be realized unless researchers, practitioners, community-based organizations and social movements develop conceptual and methodological approaches for surfacing the diverse perspectives and needs of the most stigmatized, vulnerable and excluded groups, and then incorporate this complex knowledge into appropriate action. This issue includes articles based in our recent collaborations with Participate partners in five countries, which explore how an intersectional lens was applied both to understand how inequalities are differentially experienced and perpetuated and to evolve inclusive methodologies for supporting grassroots groups, in extremely inequitable contexts, to take collective action and seek accountability. This compilation was enriched by an open call, which brought in additional perspectives on applying intersectionality to community development in the Global North and South.

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This article explores the changing narratives of volunteering in development and the interplay of volunteering with global and local theories of how change happens. Firstly, we analyse the links between the evolution of mainstream development trends and changes in volunteering approaches and programmes. Secondly, we look at how changing conceptions of volunteering have repositioned international volunteering in relation to national and local contexts. Thirdly, we present the implications of shifts in understandings of knowledge creation, which happens from the ground up, on volunteering research and programming. This discussion is situated within pressure for 'results' within contemporary development discourse and practice. The article concludes that the volunteering sector is at a crossroads; organisations working in meaningful partnerships with volunteers from local to global levels must remain at the forefront -questioning mainstream trends and advocating people-centred development. This article draws on a literature review undertaken to inform the Valuing Volunteering project.

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