Community Development Journal - Advance Access

Culture, tradition and sustainable rural livelihoods: exploring the culture-development interface in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Daskon, C., Binns, T. — 2009-05-03

Considerable attention has been directed recently towards the role of culture in sustainable community development. Individuals and communities have their own values, meanings, customs and knowledge systems that affirm identity and diversity and play a key role in sustaining livelihoods. However, such features have been frequently ignored in development planning. This paper explores the importance of cultural values in attaining rural livelihood sustainability and draws upon field-based research in two villages close to the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. The research demonstrates that the sustainable livelihoods approach, whilst useful, does not adequately address traditional cultural values, and frequently perceives culture as a constraint in understanding livelihood opportunities and planning future development trajectories. The research demonstrates the significance of understanding the interface between culture, livelihood sustainability and community development.

Art spaces, public space, and the link to community development

Grodach, C. — 2009-04-29

Recent literature credits community art spaces with both enhancing social interaction and engagement and generating economic revitalization. This article argues that the ability of art spaces to realize these outcomes is linked to their role as public spaces and that their community development potential can be expanded with greater attention to this role. An analysis of the public space characteristics is useful because it encourages consideration of sometimes overlooked issues, particularly the effect of the physical environment on outcomes related to community development. I examine the relationship between public space and community development at various types of art spaces including artist cooperatives, ethnic-specific art spaces, and city-sponsored art centers in central city and suburban locations. This study shows that through their programming and other activities, art spaces serve various public space roles related to community development. However, the ability of many to perform as public spaces is hindered by facility design issues and poor physical connections in their surrounding area. This article concludes with proposals for enhancing the community development role of the art spaces through their function as public spaces.

Making meaning in muddy waters: representing complexity through community based storytelling

Little, R. M., Froggett, L. — 2009-04-23

Internationally, storytelling has been used with many diverse communities. This paper compares the use of storytelling as a participatory art form within a community development project and a community and healthy living centre in the United Kingdom. Both the project and the centre regard storytelling activities as ‘inclusionary’ forms of intervention. However, the discourse of social inclusion rarely acknowledges the subtle psychosocial processes that are involved in participatory storytelling. This paper discusses such processes and examines some methodological implications of researching storytelling. It asks what contribution storytelling can make towards authentic representation of individual and community voices.

We call ourselves by many names: storytelling and inter-minority coalition-building

Su, C. — 2009-04-15

Scholars debate whether new immigrants will join minority native-born groups, especially African-Americans, in battling racial disparities, income inequalities, and discrimination in the United States. Although scholars have investigated inter-minority coalition-building in the context of electoral politics, a substantial share of newer immigrant social and political action has not been formalized. Social change organizations play an integral role in less formalized politics. The article draws upon ethnographic data on two case study organizations to investigate how they built coalitions between immigrants and non-immigrants. It pinpoints the ways in which they engaged in storytelling to emphasize multiple identity – namely, how any single individual might concurrently have many identifiers based on race, class, gender, and other factors – and elicit complex life narratives that help groups to find overlapping interests and form cross-cutting alliances. The strengths and weaknesses of these organizations' efforts have implications for coalition-building efforts in other multi-racial settings as well, especially those with large immigrant populations.

Organizing women for policy advocacy in Hong Kong: identities and perspectives of women organizers

Suet-lin, S. H., Kwok-kin, F. — 2009-04-15

This exploratory study of three women organizers in Hong Kong reveals their clear positions in the web of identities comprising social workers, community workers, workers working with women, and feminist organizers. There is no common identity among them and they may or may not see the relevance of a feminist analysis to their work. The resistance to a feminist identity is explained in the perceived style of feminists, the focus of the women's movement and also the essentialist nature of the concept of ‘women’. The resistance to the social work identity is explained in their perceived characteristics of social work practiced in the local context. Community organizing for structural change is increasingly being viewed as in conflict with social work. While diversity is definitely appreciated, that social work, community practice, and feminist perspectives are intriguingly connected to a mission that address various forms of oppression has to be recognized.

Barriers to citizen participation: the missing voices of people living with low income

Ravensbergen, F., VanderPlaat, M. — 2009-04-07

This article reflects the involvement of people living with low income in the discourse and decision-making on issues related to poverty. It reports on the process and outcomes of a 1-year project, developed by KAIROS¹ aimed at identifying tools, strategies, and policies to increase the participation and engagement of people living in poverty in order to help reduce and eliminate poverty in Canada. It presents the reflections, analysis, and recommendations of 55 project participants from Charlottetown, Montreal, and Victoria – a large, a medium-sized, and a small city, respectively, in Canada. It highlights the use of learning circles as one approach to enhance citizen participation in policy development albeit with limitations of time, funding, and broad impact. It concludes by calling for: (i) an increase in local learning and action opportunities for people living in poverty; (ii) more supportive front-line interactions between governmental and non-governmental agencies and people living on low incomes; (iii) government policy initiatives to reduce poverty; and (iv) action to increase public understanding of poverty to reduce the stigmatization of, and discrimination against, people living in poverty.

Communities of citizens and 'indicators' of sustainability

Scerri, A., James, P. — 2009-04-07

Indicator-based projects have become central to community development initiatives. The quantitative basis of such projects means that achieving ‘sustainability’ can be reduced to a technical task – that of gathering data and ticking boxes. The size, scope, and sheer number of indicators mean that indicator sets are often unwieldy and resist effective implementation. This techno-scientific emphasis can mask possibilities for taking into account the structures of power and cultural–political assumptions that frame the use of indicators. Too often, locally available resources and conditions that might support sustainable practices or challenge the existing unsustainable practices are subsumed by ‘hard facts’. The necessity of citizen participation and active involvement do not necessarily figure in projects driven by quantitatively determined indicators. We elaborate an alternative, two-level process of community engagement that is explored in one case study example. At the first level, it involves community members as active participants. At the second level, it builds upon this process to more deeply involve people in learning about and negotiating over what constitutes knowledge about how best to practice sustainable community development.

'Doing research' with Gypsy-Travellers in England: reflections on experience and practice

Brown, P., Scullion, L. — 2009-03-17

In order to bring the lives of Gypsy–Travellers in line with the sustainable communities' agenda, there is now a duty for local planning authorities in England to assess the accommodation and related needs of Gypsy–Travellers. As such, there has been an increase in research, which aims to ‘find out’ more about these communities. This article explores some of the issues that researchers should consider when carrying out research with Gypsy–Travellers. It focuses specifically on issues around identifying and engaging with members of the Gypsy and Traveller communities, offering some strategies and solutions based on the experiences of the authors and other researchers.

Caught in the vortex: can local government community development workers succeed in South Africa?

Gray, M., Mubangizi, B. — 2009-03-17

In 2003, following a Parliamentary announcement by President Thabo Mbeki, a new cadre of public servants – community development workers (CDWs) – was introduced in South Africa to serve as agents of change within local government municipalities charged with the responsibility for social and economic development. This paper examines the context of this initiative, the role of CDW, the progress of the Community Development Workers Programme (CDWP), and the challenges faced by this emerging occupational group. It begins with a discussion of community development theory and highlights the difficulties for CDWs as state employees whose goal is to foster support for and participation in government-initiated programmes. It argues that community development practice can be a far cry from its sometimes hortatory theory. Given the institutional confusion within which they operate and the harsh practice realities in South Africa, success seems most unlikely.

Juxtaposing doers and helpers in development

Mintzberg, H., Srinivas, N. — 2009-03-04

A classic part of the community development process is people facing an acute economic or social problem connecting with others specializing in conceptual solutions. For example, South Asian villagers confronting chronic poverty may work with non-governmental organizations offering micro-credit schemes. These are two sides of the development relationship, the doers and the helpers. While the doers face problems that are unique to themselves, the helpers offer solutions that tend to be generic, applicable to a variety of contexts. In this paper we seek to bring some conceptual clarity to the relationships between doers and helpers in development, with a focus on the social sector that operates between business and government. We present a typology of the organizational forms involved in development, and then look at the gaps between helpers and doers and the approaches used to bridge them.

Mining and community development: problems and possibilities of local-level practice

Kemp, D. — 2009-02-24

This article examines local-level community development (CD) facilitated by the mining industry. It moves beyond polarized debates that pit CD in mining as either a front for public relations or a genuine attempt to facilitate development in order to build understanding and critical awareness of problems and possibilities of local-level CD practice. Publicly available information and prior work and research with community practitioners in mining provide a basis for the analysis. The article makes a contribution to literature about the role of business in development and the mining industry's capacity to contribute to poverty reduction and human development.

The sociality and geometry of community development practice

Westoby, P., Owen, J. — 2009-02-12

This article presents a conceptual framework of practice that considers both the ‘sociality’, or disciplined practice, of particular kinds of communication and action that build community for the purposes of developmental work and the corresponding ‘geometry’, or technical dimensions, of that social practice. The framework is presented in four stages, moving from a quintessentially micro-stage of dialogue through to a more structural and geometric model for engaging systems and power relations within a community context. These stages include the sociality of nurturing inter-subjectivity and geometry of dialogue, the sociality of hospitality and geometry of moving from dyads to triads, the sociality of networking and geometry of web weaving and, finally, the sociality of structuring community action and geometry of engaging the horizontal and vertical dimensions.

Introducing a community work perspective in local policy-making: a pilot community intervention in the Municipality of Aigeiros, Thrace, Greece

Karagkounis, V. — 2009-02-12

The decentralization process that has been introduced during the last decades in Greece, along with initiatives co-funded by the EU, forms a different context for the Greek society. This provides the ground for an academic and political dialog concerning the ability of local societies to participate in planning and implementing social and local development policies. Focusing on a case study of a small, multicultural municipality in Thrace, Greece, the aim of this paper was to participate in this dialog by presenting it as an example of using techniques and methods of community work, ‘real conditions’ planning, empowering and encouraging community participation in a multicultural region, finding pathways to build on social capital and support local development and thus making the most of EU co-funded projects against social exclusion. The case study was an action research that took place in the context of a PhD thesis² from October 2005 to December 2006. The paper discusses the role of community work in an effort to identify and confront the problems that were faced by the community. The aim was to set a multicultural and more responsive to the local needs and particularities perspective in the procedure of the local authority policymaking.

Community development with survivors of torture and trauma: an evaluation framework

2009-02-12

Despite an increase in community development initiatives in refugee contexts, there is a lack of evaluation frameworks to assess the effectiveness of interventions in the recovery of refugee communities. In response to this gap, the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma has developed an evaluation framework in consultation with refugee client groups and agencies' staff members. This paper contextualizes the goals, principles and strategies of services implementing community development initiatives with torture and trauma survivors and describes the process of developing the framework within a participatory action approach. Both outcome evaluation and process evaluation are discussed, and examples of the framework are presented. Community development agencies and professionals working with survivors of torture and trauma can play a significant role by fostering community empowerment through evaluation.

Transformation through training: application of emancipatory methods in a housing education programme for rural women in South Africa

van der Merwe, M., Albertyn, R. M. — 2009-02-12

The role of education in the development of communities has been receiving increasing attention from the South African Government. The purpose of this study was to determine how community developers could contribute to transformative learning in community groups. Using an emancipatory teaching approach, a housing education programme was presented to a group of women who had recently been allocated subsidized housing in a rural Northern Cape town in South Africa. During the implementation of the housing intervention, the emancipatory method encouraged participants to question and alter their distorted assumptions. Guidelines are provided for community developers for applying the emancipatory teaching method to facilitate transformative learning.

Social capital as a mechanism for building a sustainable society in Northern Ireland

Campbell, A., Hughes, J., Hewstone, M., Cairns, E. — 2008-10-28

In recent years, there has been a general trend in democratic societies to develop and exploit social capital. Reflecting this trend, a recent policy programme for Northern Ireland, A Shared Future, emphasized the importance of relationship building, both within and across communities, and between communities and statutory organizations. The research presented in this paper explores the potential of social capital as a policy concept and the value of the concept for interpreting community dynamics, devising strategies to enhance community relations and development and ultimately building a more sustainable society post-conflict.

Broad-based organizing in the UK: reasserting the centrality of political activity in community development

Bunyan, P. — 2008-10-24

This article examines the emergence of broad-based organizing in the UK and the importance given to political activity within community development. Popularly associated with Saul Alinsky and the work of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the translation from the USA has been problematic. With the emergence and sustained growth of ‘London Citizens’, now one of the largest citizen-based organizations in the country, a firmer foothold has been established. The article examines the central concepts underpinning the political and philosophical basis of broad-based organizing and explores some of the challenges involved in developing and sustaining an approach that is overtly political and utilizes conflict and direct action to engage and negotiate with established power. At a time when the neo-liberal agenda has had a depoliticizing effect upon community development, this provides a model that challenges current orthodoxy associated with ‘partnership’ and ‘empowerment’ and reasserts the centrality of power and politics in promoting change and social reform.

Utilization and management of maternal and child health funds in rural Nepal

2008-08-21

Maternal and neonatal mortality rates are highest in the poorest countries, and financial barriers impede access to health care. Community loan funds can increase access to cash in rural areas, thereby reducing delays in care seeking. As part of a participatory intervention in rural Nepal, community women's groups initiated and managed local funds. We explore the factors affecting utilization and management of these funds and the role of the funds in the success of the women's group intervention. We conducted a qualitative study using focus group discussions, group interviews and unstructured observations. Funds may increase access to care for members of trusted ‘insider’ families adjudged as able to repay loans. Sustainability and sufficiency of funds was a concern but funds increased women's independence and enabled timely care seeking. Conversely, the perceived necessity to contribute may have deterred poorer women. While funds were integral to group success and increased women's autonomy, they may not be the most effective way of supporting the poorest, as the risk pool is too small to allow for repayment default.

Social capital: a necessary and sufficient condition for sustainable community development?

Dale, A., Newman, L. — 2008-08-11

Research in Canada and Australia has shown that social capital is a necessary condition for sustainable community development as it enhances linking ties that increase access to resources outside the community. Social capital in and of itself, however, is not always sufficient to sustain and develop local community initiatives, as infusions of economic and human capital are often necessary; the larger ‘social safety net’ can play a critical role in local community development initiatives. More importantly, government policy alignment may be critical to establish a stable environment within which organizations can sustain and increase the scale of their operations. Governments have a critical leadership role to play by re-aligning policies and incentives to complement the existing social capital network formation by strategically targeting their interventions at pivotal points in the evolution of local organizations to optimize their access to outside economic and human resources. The role of government is explored in a case study outlining the actions of a local community initiative in a marginalized neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada.

Community development and the contested politics of the late modern agora: of, alongside or against neoliberalism?

Geoghegan, M., Powell, F. — 2008-07-14

In this article we argue that community development is an expression of the political and politicised assembly of an active citizenry in civil society, and may therefore be characterised as a late modern agora – the ancient Greek concept describing the interface between the public and private spheres of social life. Drawing on Bauman (in Globalization: the Human Consequences, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998), we argue that the enemy of political association – of the agora – in late modernity is neoliberalism. The meaning of community development as the late modern agora is then explored, and we note the subsequent contestation over its status, as revealed in variant ideological perspectives on the role of civil society. In particular, we identify three dominant understandings and practices of community development: a neoliberal version where civil society is subservient to the needs of economic development; a corporatist version that advocates a partnership between the state, market and civil society; and an activist version, where community development is envisaged as local, nodal and global resistance to neoliberalism. In essence, we are posing the question: ‘community development: of, alongside or against neoliberalism?’

Education, social mediation and community development: an ethnographic research in a rural area

Ferreira, F. I. — 2008-07-10

The ethnographic research presented in this article was focused on a local solidarity institution, called OUSAM, founded in the 1980s in the ambit of a community development project promoted by a multidisciplinary team from the local Health Centre in a small rural municipality, Paredes de Coura, situated in the North of Portugal. This institution has been carrying out activities involving children, families and communities in the most isolated parishes of the municipality, by a system of bussing whereby children are picked up from their homes and driven to five small pre-school centres and later returned. This research reveals, however, that this project should not be seen as a restricted school activity or as an outdated solution to existing problems, but as a broader process of education in a community development perspective.

Staging Maralinga and desiring community: (Or why there is no such thing as a 'natural' community)

Arvanitakis, J. — 2008-07-10

Though the concept of community crosses all political divides – from the reactionary, progressive and radical – it is a notion that is rarely problematized. Rather, ‘community’ is seen as something natural that emerges organically, reflecting all the elements of oxygen: it is unseen, cannot be felt unless it disappears and said to be vital for our survival. This paper raises concerns about such an approach, arguing it can lead to exclusion and divisiveness. Building on the arguments of Brent (in The desire for community: illusion, confusion and paradox, Community Development Journal, 39, (3), 213–223, 2004), I argue that community can only be created through ‘reciprocated’ desire. Using a community development project as a case study – the stage production of ‘Maralinga’, a story of nuclear veterans exposed to fallout – I highlight how community building can fail and how desire for community can emerge from unexpected places.

Post-Socialist Community Action in Lithuania

Walsh, A. M. — 2008-05-22

Local economic development initiatives from the bottom-up: the role of community development corporations

Squazzoni, F. — 2008-05-13

This paper deals with the pivotal role played by community development corporations (CDCs) in local economic initiatives from the bottom-up. These non-profit organizations are challenging the top-down approach of political decision making, mobilizing community assets, connecting inside and outside resources, synthesizing visions, expertise and methods from private, public and community sectors. In doing so, they are demonstrating the relevance of non-profit organizations and institutions in fostering social capital and promoting collective action across different sectors and actors. To illustrate these arguments, this paper has reported two case studies of local economic development initiatives in North America that are centered on two CDCs. The positive effects and critical points of CDCs have been addressed.

Framing development: community and NGO perspectives in Mali

Ward, C., Solomon, Y., Ballif-Spanvill, B., Furhriman, A. — 2008-05-13

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper analyzes how development is articulated by three distinct groups of actors, donors/development sponsors, facilitators/program staff, and the beneficiaries/local village residents, within a specific development situation in the Ouelessebougou region of Mali, West Africa. The findings indicate some overlap among these groups regarding what the development process is intended to produce, i.e. self-reliance. However, there are important disparities in the specific meanings attached to development by each group of actors. Similarly, there was little consensus regarding stakeholder views of the role that they played in the development process. This case study suggests that persistent failures with development can be attributed, in part, to this incongruence of approaches and worldviews and concludes with several recommendations for a more nuanced and responsive approach.

Repaying favours: unravelling the nature of community exchange in an English locality

Williams, C. C. — 2008-02-11

A recurring assumption in community development has been that when material support is provided on a one-to-one basis to the extended family or social and neighbourhood networks, such favours are repaid by offering help in return rather than money. Reporting a study of the community exchanges of 120 households in an English locality, however, the finding is that well over one-third of these were repaid using money. The outcome is a call for the community development literature to recognise and respond to the existence of this sphere of ‘paid favours’ which demonstrates how monetary transactions can be neither market-like nor profit-motivated.