Community Development and Community

Community development has been described as a conscious technique or process to solve social change problems; a process that enables communities to “collectively confront and act on their common values and problems” (Lotz, 1977, p.16).  Hamilton (1992) defined community development as

a planned and organized effort to assist individuals to acquire the attitudes, skills, and concepts required for their democratic participation in the effective solution of as wide a range of community improvement problems as possible in the order of priority determined by their increasing levels of competence. (p. 29)

 

Moreland and Lovett (1997) see community development as a learning process that involves people in experiences from which they will learn ways of enhancing their capacity for self-directed activity and destiny.  From a social interventionist or animation sociale view, community development can be described as “the process of animation that gives rise to a process of self-education, the essence of which is a heightening of the capacity for self-determination.@ (Draper, 1971, p. 160).

Lotz (1977) identified two types of community -- the vertical or geographical one (street, neighbourhood, or reserve), and the horizontal or non-geographical one (teachers, farmers, and social classes). The central concept of community implies territoriality or constituency, which usually leads to the establishment of boundaries and the monitoring of who crosses them.  It is necessary for a community to acknowledge its problems, and need for assistance, before an external agency attempts to ‘come in’ and start a community development process; otherwise, the development worker could be perceived as an “unwarranted intruder” (p. 9).  Lotz also provided a definition of development, as A...an unfolding, a growth from within, an organic process that involves a fuller and richer working out of what has already been started...@(p. 9).

The community development process engages in politics, leadership, power attainment, group dynamics, learning, and social change; thus, it is “multidisciplinary and draws from political science, sociology, social psychology, social work, and adult education” (Hamilton, 1992, p. 33).  Some of the characteristics of the community development process are as follows: community member involvement in problem-solving and decision-making; a learning process that is geared towards a change in behaviour and requires learning by doing; participants who increase their competence and capacity to manage their own affairs; and a grass-roots approach to social action (Draper, 1971).  The success of the community development process can be judged in terms of the community=s capacity building, group development and empowerment, and the achievement of social, economic, cultural and environmental targets and objects (Lovett, 1997).

 

References:

 

Draper, J. (Ed.) (1971).  Citizen Participation.  Toronto:  New Press.

 

Hamilton, E. (1992).  Adult Education for Community Development.  New York: Greenwood  Press.

 

Lotz, J. (1977).  Understanding Canada.  Toronto:  New Canada Publications

 

Lovett, T. (1997).  Community education and community development: the Northern  Ireland experience. 

    Studies in the Education of Adults, 29 (1), 39-50.

 

Lovett, T., & Gillespie, N. (1997).  Community Development: Democracy and Citizenship in Northern Ireland. 

    Convergence, 30(1), 9-13.

 

Moreland, R., & Lovett, T. (1997).  Lifelong learning and community development.  International Journal of Lifelong

     Education, 16(3), 201-216.