Selected Community Development Frames There are many approaches called community development!

Not all community development is the same!

Community Development? What is community? Who is involved? What is the extent of their participation? What is developing or being transformed? How is the process carried out? Why is the process being carried out – underlying values?

Community- Oriented Community- Driven People participate in all aspects of decision making and have control over the process Those people generally excluded are involved in an equitable manner Initiatives are owned by the participants Capacity building of those directly involved is considered a priority Community seen as beneficiaries or recipients May be consultation, but most decisions made outside community Priorities set by those who no better for “benefit” of community

Exogenous Endogenous Focus is on reforming economic systems CED as a means of economic growth Community defined in terms of administrative boundaries Resource privitization Financial system reform Industry attraction Focus is on the economic capacities of individuals CED as a means of enhancing the capacity of the poor to become more self reliant Community tends to have a demographic dimension – focus on those economically marginalized Extension services Microfinance institutions Entrepreneurship development Focus is on the economic capacities of groups CED as a means to foster individual and collective empowerment and control of resources Community self-defined: a group that shares a “common bond Community-based resource management Village banks, credit unions, cooperatives Community enterprises from Mathie & Cunningham, 2002

Community-Driven Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: People organize for change, so they can effectively manage own livelihoods People participate in decisions affecting their lives Strengthening the collective power of the disadvantaged and drawing on larger community. Common good served by opportunities for all to live well. Adult education helps to address social and economic issues and mobilize assets Links local to national and global Leads to a restructuring of economic, social and political systems WHAT THE MODEL DOESN’T SEE: Blind to structural factors and appears to blame people for their own conditions Often assumes community homogeneous and misses diversity and inequalities within communities Can assume a level playing field and that equal opportunity will result in equal results for all Blind to inequities in access and control of resources and global structures Community can be co-opted by national and global agendas Can impose a restructuring that is unwanted

Ladder of Participation Citizen Control Delegated power Partnership Placation Consultation Inform Therapy from Sherry Arnstein, 1969 Manipulation

Community-driven Development (Coady Definition) Drawing on the principles of the Antigonish Movement, the Coady Institute works towards social and economic justice by strengthening the collective power of the disadvantaged and by drawing on the strengths of the larger community of which they are a part. Community-driven development is grounded in the belief that the common good is best served by opportunities for all to live well and responsibly, within the bounds of environmental sustainability. Fundamental to a community-driven approach is people organizing for change in their own communities and societies. For the Coady Institute, a program of action for community-driven development is therefore one that: Employs community-based adult education to address the economic and social conditions of people’s lives and enables them to mobilize their assets; Initiates and strengthens the various institutional forms of people organizing for change, so that people who have been marginalized can effectively control and manage their own livelihoods, and participate in the decisions that affect their lives; Links local initiatives to regional, national and global institutions and networks that further those interests; and Leads to a restructuring of economic, social and political systems that prejudice those interests at local, national and global levels.

1. Liberation Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Struggle between oppressor and oppressed. Consciousness raising and action leading to liberation needed. Oppressed to take power to improve their lives and situations. Oppressor often considered internalized. Oppressor embedded in unjust structures and situations. WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Blind to basic human relations issues Blind to the need for personal healing and growth Sees enemies and conflicts, but can miss allies and opportunities Often ignores spiritual and cultural dimension Often fails to see biases within its own model and methods which come from the dominant culture from Bopp & Bopp, 2001

2. Therapeutic Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Personal and community dysfunction is from accumulated hurt, grief and learned responses to trauma. Requires healing to release people from non-productive ways of thinking feeling and acting. WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Personalizes the entire problem of development. Individual healing seen as the solution to everything. Blind to structural inequities embedded in the system. Fails to address political and economic dimensions. Ignores complex social level problems such as environmental crisis, ethnic conflict, etc.

3. Issue Organizing Model WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Once issue fades away people often retreat back into families. Blind to building human relationships that make up a living community. Focus on meetings and getting things done without an integrated vision. Often dominated by strong personalities. Unable to grasp full meaning of participation, but simply see it as a means to an end. WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Identifies issues people can organize around for change. Organizations and coalitions formed. Projects or programs carried out. Citizen participation as key driving force. Building assets important. Sometimes single issue focus (eg. environment, poverty, human rights) Sometimes a number of issues woven together in coalition.

4. Community Organization Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Need for people to cooperate. Provide improved services for themselves. Act as organized block to ensure government policy and outside influences managed to benefit community. Eg. community associations and neighbourhood groups. WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Glosses over or ignores difficult issues whether interpersonal or structural. Focus only common concerns easiest to resolve. Faith in the system, with some lobbying to get what you want. Not usually concerned with social change or with rectifying basic development problems.

5. Economic Development / Trickle Down Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Material prosperity as the foundation of human and community well-being. Economic development solves most issues. Enterprises which bring prosperity to any part of community will cause wealth to trickle down to the poorest. WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Blind to social concerns. Health promotion, education, youth development, social problems all considered subset of the economic development challenge. Focused on making money. Blind to social determinants of prosperity and well-being. Believes wealth producers are the rightful controllers of society’s resources. Blind to social and economic inequalities that influence people’s capacity to participate in and benefit from the economic activities.

6. Cultural – Spiritual Model WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Beliefs, values, attitudes and dominant thinking patterns are the key to well-being/prosperity. Traditional culture and religion may provide the principles to guide action. Issues and problems are a loss of core values. Solutions in reconnecting people’s minds and hearts to core values. Builds on peoples’ traditional ways of knowing. Guided by the principles and wisdom of people’s own culture. WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Blind to political and economic dimensions. Unable to see how to bring strengths of the past forward for a sustainable future. People can insist their way of expressing universal truths is the only way. Sometimes blind to multicultural nature of development. Can be blind to differences that exist within developing communities (young/old, women/men, traditional/modern)

7. Ecological Systems Model WHAT THE MODEL DOES NOT SEE: Can seem too preoccupied with the big picture. Leaves people wondering how they fit in. Draws heavily on the knowledge base of many other models. Can make the solving of problems complex and overwhelming. WHAT THE MODEL SEES: Integrated model that weaves together other ideas. Spirit and culture as primary driving forces for authentic development. Balances personal, political, economic, social and cultural factors. People’s participation and processes of empowerment fundamental. Healing and personal growth prerequisites for community development. Capacity building so people and organizations can carry out their own development. Humans and individuals as parts of ecological and environmental systems.

Holistic Development from Bopp & Bopp, 2001

Elements of the Great Turning: (adapted from Korten, 1993) People-centred transformation People empowered to work together Need to transform our institutions, technology, values and behavior Justice Sustainability Inclusiveness Mutual empowerment New vision Participatory Holistic Creativist! Material-centred growth Growth in economic output People’s new skills, knowledge and attitudes can promote economic growth Helping the rich helps everyone (trickle down) Supply basic needs Follow the past consumerist

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