The main aim of the thesis Community based approaches to development of municipalities is to evaluate the extent and quality of the use of community and participatory approaches to planning of development in the current decision-making at the local level. The first part focuses on the introduction of the theoretical concepts whose real application is shown on practical examples of Czech and foreign experience. Community methods do not have a long tradition in the Czech Republic and the transfer of the experience from the western world allows a further development in this area. The second part of the thesis is focused on participatory approaches in more detail, known and most commonly used methods of public involvement in planning and decision making, describes a participatory process, its troubles and problematical points. There is a case study included in the thesis focused on evaluation of the approach of the Prague 10 municipality to engage the population, its impact and consequences.

Rural areas across Europe have suffered severe socio- economic consequences of the financial crisis. Community-led development is a promising way of organizing for social innovation in these areas, in collaboration and independently of public actors. In order to further the understanding of Community-led development organizations, this research studied the sensemaking process and motivations of individuals who decided to engage with Community-led organizations on the community-, municipal-, and European-level. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with ten individuals related to the case of a community-led organization in a village in the south of Sweden, we were able to conduct a narrative analysis. By investigating the narratives of these actors through the lens of the sensemaking properties, we were able to understand the motivations. Sensemaking theory and motivation were chosen in order to thoroughly understand the reasoning behind individuals' engagement. The main findings of this study include the cruciality and interconnectedness of the sensemaking properties ‘identity construction’ and ‘driven by plausibility rather than accuracy’. Furthermore, also the investigation of the motivations showed a strong reference to personal identities and perceptions thereof, based on strong ideological and value motivations among community members and instrumental motivations among representatives of the public sector.