Community Development Journal - recent issues

Editorial

Miller, C. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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

Dale, A., Newman, L. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

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

Campbell, A., Hughes, J., Hewstone, M., Cairns, E. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

Juxtaposing doers and helpers in development

Mintzberg, H., Srinivas, N. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

The sociality and geometry of community development practice

Westoby, P., Owen, J. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

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

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

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

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

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

Bunyan, P. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

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.

Classic texts: no. 12

O'Donovan, O. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

Resolana: Emerging Chicano Dialogues on Community and Globalization

Giusti, C. H. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:23 PST

Community Development in Theory and Practice. An International Reader

Kenny, S. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:24 PST

Nonprofit Organisations: Principles and Practices

McCabe, A. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:24 PST

Smallville: Institutionalizing Community in Twenty-First-Century America

Hughes, M. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:57:24 PST

Editorial

Miller, C. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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

Geoghegan, M., Powell, F. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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?’

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

Arvanitakis, J. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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.

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

Ferreira, F. I. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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.

Framing development: community and NGO perspectives in Mali

Ward, C., Solomon, Y., Ballif-Spanvill, B., Furhriman, A. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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.

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

Squazzoni, F. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

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.

Post-socialist community action in Lithuania

Macken-Walsh, A. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

This paper highlights the main determinants of community action in the post-socialist setting, using case-study analysis conducted in the rural district of Ukmerge in Lithuania, where 19 community organisations were formed under the impetus of a Rural Partnership Programme (RPP). The paper summarises key features of the EU governance and rural development model and the circumstances of the initialisation of a Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) in 2000. The second section presents an empirical analysis of community action in the Ukmerge District, identifying primary influences and determinants on the operation of 19 newly formed community organisations. The third section presents emergent conclusions for understanding community action in the wider post-socialist context.

Civil Societies and Social Movements. Potentials and Problems

Lahusen, C. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

DIY Community Action: Neighbourhood Problems and Community Self-help

Crean, M. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

Labour, the State, Social Movements and the Challenges of Neo-liberal Globalisation

Mayo, M. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:43 PDT

Cultural Politics and Irish Education since the 1950s: Policy Paradigms and Power

Devine, D. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:44 PDT

Tradduccion al castellano de los resumenes del volumen 44: Resumenes en espanol de los articulos del volumen 44

Ramos, O. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:44 PDT

Revue de Developpement Communautaire: Resumes en francais des articles de volume 44

Carmichael, L. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:44 PDT

Foreword

Miller, C. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:54 PDT

Critical explorations of community organization in India

Andharia, J. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Democracy in India and the quest for equality

Alam, J. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

During the course of the last two decades, there has been a pronounced expansion of democracy, seen as the enfranchisement of dalits, the empowerment of oppressed castes, and the assertion of women. This process has also witnessed the deepening of popular commitments for ideas and potentialities of democracy. However, at the same time, various infirmities have also crept into it, such as the denial of rights of individual persons who disregard community injunctions, retaliatory politics in relation to those lower in ritual status, the humiliation of dalits, and of women who defy community norms. Instead of looking at the evolution of Indian democracy, the paper would reveal more the manner in which the democratic universals are getting transcribed in their engagement with the Indian particularities. This paper argues a need to engage in a sustained democratic struggle within communities. While respecting the identity of the oppressed communities, one must remain suspect of the congealing of these identities. Deepening of democracy, apart from substantive content, requires that dalits and women have to become bearers of entrenched rights.

Community organization in split societies

Jha, M. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Contemporary discussion on inter-community relations in India can never be comprehensive without taking certain landmarks, seen through momentous ruptures in the forms and nature of dialogue between communities. While there is ample historical evidence that the barbaric episodes of violence are not new, the communal divides visible in contemporary Indian society have been able to fan the emotions of a large section of the people in specific moments, and the implications of the same travel down to the everyday life of people. The premeditated demarcation of borders and boundaries between communities that was coincidental with the rise of the right-wing forces in Indian politics received fresh allies and social constituencies, and they have all gone in unison to produce insulting boundaries for others. In the wave of hate-mongering and spitting of venom, this article locates the challenge for community organization practices in enhancing the tapestry of plural living and tolerance in a democratic society.

Unionization as a strategy in community organization in the context of privatization: the case of conservancy workers in Mumbai

Vyas, M. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

With rapid privatization of solid waste management (SWM) across urban centers in India since the 1990s, the role of the state agencies is considerably diluted. The contract system in this sector is here to stay. This has implications for the large numbers of conservancy workers who are employees of the urban local bodies (ULBs) as well as those who perform the same functions as the ‘standard’ workers, but work on contractual basis. Through amendments in certain labour and environment related laws, SWM has been getting differently organized during the last seven to eight years in India. The labour question in the rapidly privatizing SWM sector in urban areas has several dimensions including that of job security, and conflicts between permanent and contractual workers and other groups who work with waste. All these categories of workers in urban India, whether within the formal or the informal sector, belong to socially and economically marginalized sections of society. Unionization of workers and struggles for their entitlements has been an important strategy. Several years of association with a trade union of conservancy workers in the city of Mumbai has enriched teaching of Community Organization (CO) through classroom-field interface with a focus on social action. This paper attempts to trace, through the lens of the interface between an academic institution (and its curriculum in CO) and a trade union, the struggles and success in assuring secure livelihood and entitlements for thousands of workers. Achievements of the union assume great significance as it gives others the confidence to continue with their own efforts at organizing the unorganized.

Subaltern strategies and autonomous community building: a critical analysis of the network organization of sustainable agriculture initiatives in Andhra Pradesh

Kumbamu, A. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

This paper examines and analyses the organization and functioning of subaltern peasant sanghams (grassroot associations of the poor) and their place-based as well as network-based strategies in building autonomous local communities that challenge the consequences of neoliberal globalization in general and the commodification of agriculture and food in particular. The major objective of the counter-hegemonic organizational strategies is to build self-protective and subsistence communities, to mend the metabolic rift between nature and society, and to re-reconstruct social fabric within communities. The question remains is whether place-based autonomous communities can sustain in an increasingly globalizing world. To better understand these political dynamics, I use Karl Polanyi's concept of ‘double movement’ and examine the making of a double movement in Indian agriculture and its socio-political and ecological implications for the Indian peasantry. I use the organizational strategies and activities of the Deccan Development Society, a prominent non-governmental organization that has been working in Medak district for more than two decades, as an illustrative case study.

Food security in perspective: the significance of social action

Jha, M. K. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

This article highlights the impact of food insecurity on the disadvantaged sections in India. While analysing the causes and consequences of food insecurity, this paper emphasizes distributional aspects and also examines the government schemes and provisions meant to secure food for the vulnerable sections of the society. Discussing the gross mismanagement and the serious loopholes in the implementation of these programmes, this paper highlights consequences which include growing number of malnourished children and recurring instances of hunger deaths. The government's initiatives of dealing with food insecurity reflect its failure to grasp the realities of exclusion faced by the marginalized communities. Paradoxically, while the food surplus statistics indicate an upward shift, so do starvation deaths in different parts of the country. The last section reiterates and illustrates the argument of this paper that the food security can be ensured through collective mobilization and sustained social action. The paper advocates the need to initiate public action through community mobilization. Some of the vibrant and robust civil society groups have taken the lead in enabling marginalized communities to assert their rights and entitlements in different parts of India. This has been substantiated through case illustration of grassroots mobilization and social action.

Shifting terrains of communities and community organization: reflections on organizing for housing rights in Mumbai

Bhide, A. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Mumbai has historically been a home to several struggles of urban underprivileged groups. The city assured spaces to slums in the past, albeit grudgingly. Cases of displacement were few and intensely contested. However, the last decade has witnessed a considerable expansion of the nature and scale of threats to the existence of slum-dwellers in the city. Attempts to organize slum communities began in the 1960s following a trajectory of locality development and then housing rights. The earlier vision of broad-based development and struggles of urban poor has given way to fragmented, issue-based and localized struggles. Intense politicization and competition for valuable resources and opportunities have fractured this potent constituency comprising about 60 percent of city dwellers. The paper traces the slippery and challenging terrain of organizing slum communities around their rights and raises questions about the location and nature of community practice.

Destroying the culture of secrecy: empowerment and dignity through right to information: a case study of MKSS in Rajasthan

Sihag, S., Sihag, S. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

The article traces out the origins and analyses the movement that led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005. It holds a mirror to the culture of secrecy pervading the bureaucratic machinery and demonstrates the utility of the Act to usher in an era of accountability with the aid of practical examples. The conceptual framework built by Kant and Shue has been borrowed to argue that right to information is a potent tool for the marginalized communities to secure invaluable democratic space and consequently, move up the social ladder.

A re-reading of Gandhi's Satyagraha in South Africa for contemporary community organizing

Goswami, P. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Mahatma Gandhi – one of the most prolific writers amongst the figures of world history – has left us details of his growth as a thinker and activist. ‘The Story of Satyagraha in South Africa’ documents the struggle of Gandhi, still in his twenties, who confronts racism in a foreign country and is able to negotiate substantial gains for his community through a long-drawn political struggle involving the new methods of Satyagraha. This book while speaking of the development of the various aspects of Satyagraha as a political as well as spiritual weapon, also documents the complex scenario in three countries – England, South Africa and India. The context defines the lives of the Indians in South Africa, their struggle and Gandhi's strategies as an organizer. The individual sacrifices, the efforts for fundraising, the intricacies of keeping together a community with members from different religions, the day-to-day concerns of Ashram life, the tough decisions at critical junctures of the movement – Gandhi offers a fascinating picture of the community organizer. The paper re-visits this tale and culls out the lessons that are important not only for the modern-day community organizer in India but are also perhaps timeless in their relevance and appeal.

Raising citizenship rights for women through microcredit programmes: an analysis of MASUM, Maharashtra, India

Chari-Wagh, A. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

The microcredit programme initiated in the 1980s is celebrated by the Indian state and international development institutions as an ‘ideal’ poverty alleviation programme for women. It is based on the principle of activating self-help among women and is considered as being empowering. The period 1980–1990 defined a minimalist neo-liberal role of the state that allowed for the free working of the market and a belief that it will solve problems of poverty. Many have argued that the microcredit programme was influenced by this philosophy (Joseph, 2007; Swaminathan, 2007). In addition, that microcredit does not always have a positive impact on poverty alleviation because the official programme does not have the capacity to displace patriarchal structures that bind women (Goetz and Sengupta, 1996). By focusing only on ‘economic’ issues it fails to address the way deprivation of nutrition and health, increasing violence and insecurity are affecting women as economic actors. Without addressing these questions it is not possible for women to get empowered. In this paper I examine the inter-linkages between citizenship, gender and development by evaluating the design of a microcredit programme for women presented by a feminist rural women's organization called Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) in Maharashtra.

The Dragon and the Elephant: Agricultural and Rural Reforms in China and India

Ramakumar, R. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

State, Markets and Inequalities - Human Development in Rural India

Natraj, V.K. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Breaking the Monolith: Essays, Articles and Columns on Islam, India, Terrorism and Other Things that Annoy Me

Sivaramakrishnan, A. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT

Politics and Policies - A Marxist Perspective

Athreya, V. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:52:55 PDT