50 Years of Community Development Vol I

A History of its Evolution and Application in North America

Norman Walzer, Rhonda Phillips, Robert Blair, Norman Walzer, Rhonda Phillips, Robert Blair

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000208641
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping
• Index: Social Sciences

This 50th anniversary publication provides a comprehensive history of community development. Beginning in 1970 with the advent of the Community Development Society and its journal shortly thereafter, Community Development, the editors have placed the chapters in major themed areas or issues pertinent to both research and practice of community development.

The evolution of community development as an area of scholarship and application, and the subsequent founding of the discipline, is vital to capture. At the 50-year mark, it is particularly relevant to revisit issues that reoccur throughout the last five decades and look at approaches to addressing them. These include issues and themes around equity and inclusion, collective impact, leadership and policy development, as well as resilience and sustainability. Community change over time has much to teach us, and this set will provide a foundation for fostering understanding of the history of community development and its focus on community change.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Community Development.

Section 1
Community History and Theory Introduction

Community development, as a discipline, started as a need to help areas strategize and plan to improve economic and social conditions as well as economic potential. Federal programs in the 1960s and 1970s emphasized the importance for local areas to plan effectively, and, in some instances, it provided federal funds to improve local conditions in distressed areas (Appalachian Redevelopment Act).

More sophisticated state and local planning initiatives focused attention on the importance of capacity-building within a community, namely, strengthening leadership and active engagement by a broad spectrum of residents in efforts to improve housing and living conditions in many local areas. These initiatives also spawned interest in ways to plan more effectively and a greater recognition of the importance of engaging residents in the overall planning and decision-making processes. Interest and study of processes involved and ways to enhance development grew as educational institutions engaged in more instruction and research on these topics.

Hoiberg (1970) describes trends that led to a recognition of the importance of community development principles including an understanding of effective community development as a basis for economic development. Community development agencies were on the increase with a shift in focus from things to people. More attention to inner city problems and urbanization at the national level plus growing interest in professionalization of community development agencies and practices increased interest in building a discipline with theoretical underpinnings.

Many articles (not all included in this volume) contribute to an understanding of how community development issues evolved through time. Cary (1979) described the first decade of the Community Development Society (CDS) and the journal. He provides an excellent discussion of issues raised and their importance for those engaged in community development issues. Blair and Hembd (1994), not included in this volume, compiled a special issue of the journal that capsulized a history of CDS at 25 years plus important issues that had been discussed.

Walzer (2010), not included in this volume, summarized issues facing the CDS at age 40 with a discussion of the evolution of topics as well as expectations regarding future issues and how practitioners building on research reported in the journal can address pending issues. These publications summarize trends and discuss CDS as an organization, rather than focusing on how core issues in community development evolved.

In the 1970s, there was growing recognition that community growth and development often resulted from employment changes decided by groups external to the local area. Long (1972) compared three localities where external groups controlled local investment decisions on projects. The research highlighted the importance of local development groups actively working with, and providing support for, external investors. Essentially, it made the case that these groups can affect their futures by actively participating in development decisions.

Long documented the importance of internal forces and built underlying support for local community development practices, rather than relying external investment decisions. Recognizing this potential helped lay the groundwork for community development as an important contributor to overall local prosperity plus the need to better understand underlying development processes.

As community development components grew in importance, the literature paid more attention to key players and agencies involved plus how they determined, or could affect, development decisions. Could these groups use a common set of principles and practices to guide their actions? How does community development align with economic development which was also undergoing a transition that recognized the growing importance of small businesses in retaining and creating employment? The discussions shifted to the importance of local decisions and engagement in the pursuit of development.

Of special interest was the need for a consistent theory of community development along with ways to measure contributing factors and agree on successful outcomes. An advantage, but also a difficulty, is that many academic disciplines are involved in overlapping social, political, and economic issues. The literatures in these disciplines were not often incorporated in a systematic and holistic framework.

Thus, for community development to provide a solid basis for policy and practice, it needed a sound theoretical and research base for practitioners to use in selecting development strategies and policies. While each major discipline has scholarly and professional outlets for research, community development practitioners and scholars often did not publish in outlets beyond their specific field, making it difficult to incorporate useful advancements in knowledge or understanding of processes.

Early on, the Journal of Community Development provided an opportunity to compile, present, and synthesize research from multiple disciplines addressing an integrated concern – community development. This research brought more attention to the need for a consistent development theory that examines community engagement, how power in the community is distributed, and ways to engage an entire community in local decisions. Much research was underway in separate disciplines regarding how the development processes could work and practices that showed signs of having an effect. Alinski, for example, published examples of initiatives used in various communities, in some cases based on conflict strategies. At the same time, he recognized the importance and understanding of advancing social well-being which is a desired outcome of development efforts (Reitzes & Reitzes, 1980).

The strong link between the journal and Society members gave applied research a direct audience of practitioners who, by applying the research to local projects, can provide laboratories with opportunities to evaluate the validity of the results. This direct linkage provides a current agenda for researchers as well as direct applications of their findings. These opportunities spurred applied research and provided an opportunity for scholars to publish in a respected peer-reviewed national or international outlet.

Several key articles that discuss the issues raised above are included in this section on community history and theory. The articles will help readers understand how community development issues and thinking evolved through time. The articles were selected for their relevance to the topic through surveys of key informants working in community development, downloads and citations, or other approaches.

The next section provides a brief introduction to the progression of thought on various issues described in Community and History section. Subsequent articles are limited to those published in Community Development. Thus, this list is presented as representative, rather than exhaustive in any way. However, citations in subsequent articles provide further guidance to other important contributions in other journals or published sources.

Hustedde and Ganowicz (2002) called for more theoretical concepts (solidarity and agency) to underlie community development discussions because theories help explain behaviors and better inform actions to build solidarity and agency that are vital to capacity-building. They used Gidden’s structuration model to illustrate how various groups and attitudes in a community can affect implementation of policies that promote and enhance the community. Understanding how these processes work in different settings provides better guidance for practitioners in selecting strategies for community development that will bring about effective and lasting results.

The need for a more rigorous definition of community development based on theoretical concepts, including solidarity and agency, was stressed further by Bhattacharyya (2004). Especially important is to accurately define community as a concept. Is it a locality, place of work, or something else? Without careful thought, developers and practitioners may be tempted to consider development of a locality rather than focusing on well-being of residents as also was emphasized by Wilkinson (1979). Defining community too narrowly can lead to less effective outcomes than if measured by quality of life or better living conditions.

Wilkinson also found that interaction of social fields with strong linkages is instrumental to improving the well-being of residents. The importance of agencies working in collaborative arrangements rather than using interventionist strategies was also documented. This line of research clearly documented the importance of community with strategies to help build it over the long-term. Interactions among players are important.

Bhattacharyya also distinguished carefully between processes and outcomes by distinguishing between goals, methods, and techniques reinforcing that community development is about creating a satisfying life for residents. By focusing on solidarity and agency, community developers can select and implement various methods consistent with the overall goals rather than immediate outcomes.

Power and authority permeate the evolution in community development discussions, both of which are crucial in designing effective development strategies. Power structures can be classified as elite or plural with elite structures being the most common. A group of residents depending on wealth, position, heritage, or – for another reason – control, or seriously affect, the decision-making structure. They may hold public office, may be large employers, may contribute financially to community agencies, or otherwise may shape the agenda and the resulting outcomes. As noted in the article by Long, sometimes those controlling the power do not even live in the community and have little vested interest.

Brennan and Israel (2008) recognized the absence of a theoretical framework for understanding how local power is generated at the micro level to foster community change, rather than assuming that macro factors create a decisi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: An Overview of 50 Years of Community Development: A History of Its Evolution and Application in North America
• SECTION 1 Community History and Theory Introduction
• SECTION 2 Planning and Policy Development Introduction
• Index