Theorizing Community Development

Abstract

This paper attempts a parsimonious definition of community development. It proposes that the purpose of community development is the pursuit of solidarity and agency by adhering to the principles of self-help, felt needs and participation. The erosion of solidarity and agency has been a historic process, connected particularly to the rise of industrial capitalism, the nation-state, and instrumental reason. Examples of community development practice as a positive response to the erosion are given from the fields of public health, violence, micro-economic development, and food. It also argues that "place" as a proxy for community has become conceptually as well as practically inadequate, and that effective community development calls for micro-macro coordination.