Theories of

Community
Development
 Seven Theories for
Community Development
 Why Theories
• Theories are explanation that can provide help in
understanding peoples behavior and framework form which
community developers develop communities by increasing
solidarity and agency.
• Seven theories are offered as a theoretical core for those who
approach community development from at least seven
contextual perspectives:
1. Relationship
2. Structure
3. Power
4. Shared meaning
5. Communication for change
6. Motivation for decision making and
7. Integration of the paradoxes that pervade the field.
Concern & Related Theories
1. Concerns about Relationships: Social
Capital Theory

• Social relationships are essential for solidarity building

and successful community initiatives.

• Social capital is that set of resources intrinsic to social relations

and includes trust, norms, and networks (Life can be richer if there
is trust among neighbors and others in the public and private
sectors. It is much broader than the concept of “I’ll scratch your
back if you’ll scratch mine.”)
How Social Capital Theory serve as a
Guide for CD Practice
• Community Developers will have to create
opportunities for people to get to know each
other and build new levels of trust through
shared interests
• In other words, communities may have strong
bonding social capital but really need “bridging
social capital” if they are going to prosper and
increase their quality of life.
 2. Concerns about
Structure: Functionalism

• The theoretical concept concerned with structure

is known as structural functionalism. It is also
called systems theory, equilibrium theory, or
simply functionalism.
“According to this theoretical framework,
societies contain certain interdependent
structures, each of which performs certain
functions for societal maintenance.”
How Structural Functionalism Guide CD
Practice

• A functionalist-oriented practitioner is more likely to notice

dysfunctions in organizations. If existing organizations are not
meeting local needs in this area, the functionalist would build
community capacity by transforming an existing organization to
meet the same concerns.

• A functionalist would also want to build links with broader social

systems, such as external organizations, that could help the
community’s micro-entrepreneurs to flourish. In essence, a
functionalist would see structures as important components of
capacity building.
3. Concerns about Power: Conflict Theory

Conflict theory suggests that:

1. Conflict is an integral part of social life.

2. There are conflicts between economic classes, ethnic
groups, young and old, male and female, or among
races.
3. There are conflicts among developed “core” countries
and regions and those that are less developed.
4. It is argued that these conflicts result because power,
wealth, and prestige are not available to everyone.
How can conflict theory serve as a guide
for CD practice?

• Community developers need conflict

theory because it helps them gain
insight into why specific differences
and competition have developed
among groups and organizations in a
community.
• Conflict theory can help communities
understand the kind and extent of
competing interests among groups.
4. Concerns about Shared Meaning: Symbolic
Interactionism

• Herbert Blumer (1969) named the theory “symbolic

interactionism” because it emphasizes the symbolic
nature of human interaction rather than a mechanical
pattern of stimulus and interaction. For symbolic
interactionists, the meaning of a situation is not fixed but
is constructed by participants as they anticipate the
responses of others.
How can Symbolic Interactionism
serve as a tool for CD practice?

• Symbolic interactionism is essential for community development

because it provides insight into the ways people develop a sense of
shared meaning, an essential ingredient for solidarity.

• A symbolic interactionist would be keen on bringing people together

to develop a shared understanding.

• Symbolic interactionists probe into the factors that help people

understand what they say and do by looking at the origins of
symbolic meanings and how meanings persist. Symbolic
interactionists are interested in the circumstances in which people
question, challenge, criticize, or reconstruct meanings.
 5. Communication for Change: Communicative
Action Theory
• “Communicative action” describes the seam where monetary and
bureaucratic structures (rational systems) meet the lifeworld.

• Habermas (in presenting this approach) is concerned about the

domination and rationalization of the life-world, in which science and
technology are the modi operandi to address complex public issues.

• Habermas’s communicative action theory is guided by the intersection

of technical and corporate knowledge with local and practical
knowledge. Combined, they can lead to a new kind of “emancipatory
knowledge” that offers fresh ideas and action.
 How can Communicative Action Theory
guide CD practice?

• There are many ways for community developers to carry

out Habermas’s communicative action theory.

One of the best practiced example is the National Issues

Forums
National Issues Forums are conscious acts of deliberation that make it easier
for the system and the life-world to interact.
6. Motivation for Decision Making: Rational Choice
Theory

When applied to community development, rational choice theory is

concerned with finding appropriate rewards and minimizing risks to
individuals who become involved in community initiatives.
• There are four structural factors relate to individual participation in a
collective activities.
1.Prior contact with a group member
2. Prior membership in organization
3. History of prior activism
4. Biographically availability
7. Integration of disparate concerns and paradigms:
Giddens’s Structuration theory

• All the previously mentioned theories are essential

concepts for building community capacity.
• However there is obvious tensions inherent in these
theories due to the dualism macro versus micro
perspective.
• In his structuration theory, Anthony Giddens (1984,1989)
offers a perspective that is more fluid and offer a third
dimension, or an “in-between” level of analysis, which is
neither macro nor micro.
How can Giddens’s structuration theory
guide CD practice?

Structuration theory provides many theoretical insights for

those engaged in community development because
1. It links disparate macro-theories about structure and conflict with
micro-theories about individual and group behavior such as social
capital, rational choice, and symbols or symbolic interactionism.
2. Giddens’s concept of modalities is essential for community
development Practice.
 Basis of Community
Development

Needs-Based Asset-Based
Community Community
Development Development
 Basis of Community
Development

Needs-Based The conventional or

Community traditional
Development approach which is to
identify the issues,
problems,
and needs of a
community .
 Basis of Community
Development

Contrary to need based Asset-Based

approach, asset based Community
approach focuses on a Development
community’s strengths
and assets.
Process of Asset-Based Community
Development

• Community organizing
• Visioning
• Planning
– Data collection and analysis
– Asset mapping
– Community survey
• Public participation
• Implementation and evaluation
Framework for Community Development

ASSUMPTIONS VALUES PRINCIPLES

PRACTICE
 Community Development Assumptions

People are capable of rational behavior.

Significant behavior is learned behavior.

Significant behavior is learned through interaction

ASSUMPTIONS over time.

People can give purposeful direction to their

behavior.

People can impact their environment toward a

desired future.
Community Development Values
All people have basic dignity.
People have the right to help make decisions on issues that impact
their well-being.
Participatory democracy is the best way to conduct a community’s
civic business
People have the right to strive to create the environment they want.
VALUES People have the right to reject an externally imposed environment.
The more purposeful interaction and dialogue within a community,
the more potential for learning and development.
Implied within a process of purposeful interaction is an ever-
widening concept of community.
Every discipline and profession is a potential contributor to a
community development process
Motivation is created through interaction with the environment.
 Community Development Principles
Self-help and self-responsibility are required for successful
development.
Participation in public decision-making should be free and open to
all citizens.
Broad representation and increased breadth of perspective and
understanding are conditions conducive to effective community
development.
PRINCIPLES
Methods that produce accurate information about the community are
vital to the process.
Understanding and general agreement are the basis for community
change.
All individuals have the right to be heard in open discussion, and the
responsibility to respect opposing viewpoints.
Trust is essential for effective working relationships.
 The Process of Community
Development
1. Establish an organizing group
2. Create a vision statement
3. Identify community
PROCESS
stakeholders
The CD process provides 4. Collect and analyze
the basic framework
within which the information
community should work,
altering details based 5. Develop an effective
upon its issues and
resources. communications process
6. Expand the community
organization
 The Process of Community
Development
•Create a comprehensive strategic
plan
•Identify the leadership and
PROCESS establish a plan
•Implement the plan
The CD process provides
the basic framework •Review and evaluate the planning
within which the
community should work, outcomes
altering details based
upon its issues and
•Celebrate the successes
resources.
•Create new goals and objectives
as needed
 Challenges of the Community
Development Process

• Difficult

• Time Consuming

• Costly