Community Development Free Essays

Community Development (CD) is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities. Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities. These skills are often created through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. We will write a custom essay sample on Community Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now Community developers must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities’ positions within the context of larger social institutions. There are a myriad of job titles for CD workers and their employers include public authorities and voluntary or non-governmental organisations, funded by the state and by independent grant making bodies. Since the nineteen seventies the prefix word ‘community’ has also been adopted by several other occupations from the police and health workers to planners and architects, who work with more disadvantaged groups and communities and have been influenced by CD approaches. CD practitioners have over many years developed a range of skills and approaches for working within local communities and in particular with disadvantaged people. These include less formal educational methods, community organising and group work skills. Since the nineteen sixties and seventies through the various anti poverty programmes in both developed and developing countries, CD practitioners have been influenced by structural analyses as to the causes of disadvantage and poverty i.e. inequalities in the distribution of wealth, income, land etc and especially political power and the need to mobilise people power to affect social change. Thus the influence of such educators as Paulo Friere and his focus upon this work also being about politicising the poor. Other key people who have influenced this field are Saul Alinsky (Rules for Radicals) and EF Schumacher (Small is Beautiful). The UK currently hosts the main international body representing community development, the International Association for Community Development. IACD  was started in the USA in 1953, moved to Belgium in the seventies and to the UK (Scotland) in 1998. Community development as a term has taken off widely in anglophone countries i.e. the USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand and other countries in the Commonwealth. It is also used in some countries in eastern Europe with active CD associations in Hungary and Romania. The International Community Development Journal, published by Oxford University Press, and set up in 1967 has been the major forum for research and dissemination of international CD theory and practice. Community development approaches are recognised internationally. These methods and approaches have been acknowledged as significant for local social, economic, cultural, environmental and political development by such organisations as the UN, WHO, OECD, World Bank, Council of Europe and EU. How to cite Community Development, Papers Community Development Free Essays Community Development Planning Lecture 1: Understanding the key concepts of Community, Community Development Economic Development Course Learning Outcomes †¢ Explain the key concepts of social infrastructure in spatial planning †¢ Analyze social infrastructure issues in spatial planning †¢ Identify the various challenges of social infrastructure in spatial planning practices Community †¢ Various definitions: ? People who live within a geographically defined area and who have social and psychological ties with each other and with the place where they live (Mattessich and Monsey, 2004) ? A grouping of people who live close to one another and are united by common interests and mutual aids (National Research Council 1975) †¢ These definitions refer to people and the ties that bind them, then only to geographic locations †¢ It means, without people and the connections/ties, community will be only a collections of buildings and streets. †¢ However community does not necessarily means â€Å"living physically close to one another†. It also refers to social connections at other than living place such as workplace, sports centre, clubs or groups, or political affiliations. We will write a custom essay sample on Community Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now †¢ Community can also be created through special interest or conditions such as disability, gender, belief †¢ In this era of social media (such as FB, Twitter) madness, communities can be created on virtual platform. Community Development (CD) †¢ Community Development is defined and described as.. – the process of developing stronger communities of people and the social and psychological ties they share. The educational process to enable citizens to address problems by group decision-making – Involvement in a process to achieve improvement in some aspect of community life – All these processes will result in an outcome which is the improvement of community capital. Community Capital Human Capital †¢ Labour supply, skills, experience, capabilities Physical Capital †¢ Buildings, streets, infrastructure Financial Capital †¢ Community financial institutions, micro loan funds, community development banks Environmental Capital †¢ Natural resources, weather, recreational opportunities Social Capital Social Capital †¢ Social Capital refers to the ability of residents to organize and mobilize their resources for the accomplishment of consensual defined goals †¢ It refers to the extent to which members of a community can work together effectively to develop and sustain strong relationships, solve problems and make group decisions, and collaborate effectively to achieve common goals Social Capital †¢ Some scholars make distinction between bonding capital and bridging capital †¢ Bonding capital refers to ties within homogenous groups (e. g. races, gender, people with the same economic background) †¢ Bridging capital refers to ties among different groups Community development chains Capacity building process Developing the ability to act Social capital Ability to act Community development outcome Taking action Community improvement Development ready community Economic development †¢ Community development and economic development is highly sinergistic. †¢ Community development – a planned effort to produce assets that increase the capacity of residents to improve their quality of life. The assets include: physical, human, social, financial, environmental †¢ Economic development – the process of creating wealth through the mobilization of human, financial, capital, physical and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services. The definitions are clearly parallel : community development is to produce and improve assets, economic development is to mobilize these assets which will bring greater benefits for the community ie. more goods, services, jobs etc. †¢ Both types of development are highly dependable on each other as most businesses will look for development-ready communities that are equipped with strong and established communities, good infrastructure, abundant supply of labour, safety, tel ecommunication etc. Community and economic development chains Community development outcome Taking action Community improvement Development ready community Economic development outcome Job creation Increased income and wealth Increased standard of living Capacity building process Developing the ability to act Social capital Ability to act Economic development process Creating and maintaining ED programs Mobilizing resources The end How to cite Community Development, Essay examples