CD 111- INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

CD 111- INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 1

What is a community?
Learning Outcomes:

Describe and discuss what is a community

Define what is community development
Explain the evolution of community development

Time Frame: 1 week

Introduction

Before you begin this unit, let’s check through your graphic organizer. It shows
the topics that will be covering, the skills you need to acquire and the activities
you’ll do to help you acquire these skills.

Topic Learning Outcomes Activities/Readings

What is a Describe and discuss what is Activity 1.1
community community
What is Community Define what is community Activity 1.2/Reading
Development development 1.1
Evolution of Explain the evolution of Reading 1.2
Community community development
Development

Activity
Let’s begin by testing your prior knowledge of the meaning of community? How
do you define community? Write your definition in the space below.
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Analysis

 How do you identify communities?

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Abstraction

There are many different ways of identifying communities. The following

definitions and examples will give you an idea about the various ways we use the
term community.

A community can refer to a location (communities of place) or a collection of

individuals with a common interest or tie whether in close proximity or widely
separated (communities of interest). A review of the related literature conducted
by Mattessich and Monsey (2004) found many definitions of community such as:
1. 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 2004:56)
2. A grouping of people who live close to one another and are
united by common interests and mutual aid. (National Research
Council 1975, cited in Mattesich and Monsey 2004:56
3. A combination of social units and systems which perform the
major social functions...the organization of social activities.
(Warren 1963, cited in Mattesich and Monsey 2004:57)

These definitions refer first to people and the ties that bind them and second
to geographic locations. They remind us that without people and the connections
among them, a community is just a collection of buildings and streets.

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Application
Activity 1.1

Geographical Community Observation

In the space provided, conduct a mapping exercise of your

community. All you need to do is to go for a walk around your
community at different times of the day and observe. Follow the
checklist provided on the next page.

1. Example: Trees and Hills

2. Example: Parks, community centers

Checklist

1. What are the natural features of the area such as tree, hills, river, etc?
2. Are there any key landmarks or points of reference such as a
community center, parks, places of worship, historic buildings?
3. What is the population density? Are there a lot of people in a small space?
4. What groups of people live there? Note their religion, language, ages
and other diversities that you notice?
5. What level of activity do you notice on the street? Do people sit out on
front steps, public benches, sit under trees? Where do children play?
6. Where do people gather? Bus stops, places of worship, grocery shops, etc.
7. Are there schools, post office, grocers, banks, medical/health facilities
and parks?
8. What transportation options are available? Are there adequate roads, bus
and jeepney connection? How do residents get around?

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9. Do residents have access to adequate food and shelter? What kind of

housing do people have?
10. What does the community look like? Is it clean or dirty? Old or new?
Well - maintained or does it need repair?

Given the various definitions of community, the term community

development takes on the context of developing stronger “communities” of
people and the social and psychological ties that they share. Indeed this is
how community development is defined in much of the literature.

Abstraction

Reading 1.1 Community Development: What is it?

Mattessich and Monsey found many such definitions in their literature review:

Community development is an educational process designed to help

adults in an community solve their problmems by group decision making and
group action. (Long 1975, cited in Mattesich and Monsey 2004:58)

Community development is the “active voluntary involvement in a

process to improve some identifiable aspect of community life; normally
such action leads to the strengthening of the community’s pattern of
human and institutional relationships.” (Plach 1976, cited in Mattesich and
Monsey 2004:59)

These definitions imply that community development is the process

of teaching people how to work together to solve common problems.
Other authors define community development more in terms of an
action, result or outcome:

Local decision making and the development of programs designed

to make the community a better place to live and work. (Huie 1976, cited in
Mattessich and Monsey 2004: 58)

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A group of people in a locality initiating a social action process to

change their economic, social, cultural and/or environmental situation.
(Christenson and Robinson 1989, cited in Mattessich and Monsey 2004:57)

A series of community improvements which take place over time as

a result of the common efforts of various groups of people. (Dunbar 1972,
cited in Mattessich and Monsey 2004:59)

All of these definitions are valid in that community development should be

considered both a process and an outcome. However, as mentioned previously,
the person on the street would probably think of community development in terms
of a physical result (improved infrastructure, better health care, etc.) Therefore, a
definition of community development in simple but broad terms is:

A process: developing the ability to act collectively, and

An outcome: (1) taking collective action and (2) the result of that
action for improvement in a community in any or all realms:
physical, environmental, cultural, social, political, economic, etc.

Having arrived at a comprehensive definition of community development, the focus

can now be on what facilitates or leads to community development. The community
development literature generally refers to this as social capital or social capacity:

The abilities of residents to organize and mobilize their resources

for the accomplishment of consensual defined goals. (Christenson
and Robinson 1989, cited in Mattessich and Monsey 2004:61)

The resources embedded in social relationships among persons

and organizations that facilitate cooperation and collaboration in
communities. ( Committee for Economic Development 1995, cited in
Mattesich and Monsey 2004:62)

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Simply put, social capital or capacity is 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 plan, set goals, and get things done. There is a broad literature on
social capital, with some scholars making the distinction between bonding capital
and bridging capital (Agnitsch et al, 2006). Bonding capital refers to ties within
homogenous groups (e.g. races, ethnicities, social action committees, or people
of similar socio-economic status) while bridging capital refers to ties among
different groups.

There are four other forms of “community capital” often mentioned in the
community development literature (Green and Haines 2002:viii):

Human capital: labor supply, skills, capabilities and experience, etc;

Physical capital: buildings, streets, infrastructure, etc.;
Financial capital: community financial institutions, microloan funds,
community development banks, etc;
Environmental capital: natural resources, weather, recreational
opportunities,etc.

All five types of community capital are important. However, it is difficult to

imagine a community making much progress without some degree of social
capital or capacity. The more social capital a community has, the more likely it
can adapt to and work around deficiencies in the other types of community
capital. When conducting community assessments (see Chapter 11), it is
useful to think in terms of these five types of community capital.

So far, working definitions of community, community development, and

social capital have been provided. To complete the community development
equation, it is necessary to identify how to create or increase social capital or

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capacity. This process is generally referred to as social capital building or

capacity building. Here is one definition from the literature:

An on-going comprehensive effort that strengthens the norms, and

supports the problem solving resources of the community.
(Committee for Economic Development 1995, cited in Mattessich
and Monsey 2004:60)

Notice that this sounds exactly like the definitions of the process of community
development given above. We have come full circle. The process of community
development is social capital/capacity building which leads to social
capital/capacity building which leads to social capital which in turn leads to the
outcome of community development.

Figure 1.1 depicts the community development chain. The solid lines show the
primary flow of causality. However, there is a feedback loop shown by the dotted
lines. Progress in the outcome of community development (taking positive action
resulting in physical and social improvements in the community) contributes to
capacity building (the process of community development) and social capital. For
example, better infrastructure (e.g. public transportation, internet access, etc.)
facilitates public interaction, communications and group meetings. Individuals who
are materially, socially, and psychologically better off are likely to have more time to
spend on community issues because they have more time to spend on community
issues because they have devote less time to meeting basic human and family
needs. Success begets success in community development. When local citizens see
positive results (outcome), they generally get more enthused and plow more energy
into the process because they see the payoff. Research has shown there are certain
characteristics of communities that influence their ability to do capacity building and
create social capital (Mattessich and Monsey 2004).
Now that the components of community development and their
relationships have been identified, we can return to the random individuals on the
street and ask them what the difference is between growth and development.
From the definitions above, it would seem that development is more
encompassing term than growth. Green and Haines (2002:5) define growth as:
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Increased quantities of specific phenomena such as jobs, population and

income, whereas development involves structural change in a community
including: 1) how resources are used; and 2) the functioning of institutions.

By these definitions, a community can have growth without development and vice
versa. The important point to note, however, is that development not only facilitates
growth but also influences the kind and amount of growth a community
experiences. Successful communities control their own destiny through the
successful practice of community development. Community development
empowers communities to change.
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I ı ı
ı I ı
l

Capacity building Social capital Community

Community development development
The ability to act
process outcome
Developing the ability to act
Taking action

Community
improvement

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Readings 1.2 History of Community Development

Community development as a profession has deep roots, tracing its origins

to social movements (it is, after all, about collective action) of earlier times
throughout the globe. Activism such as the Sanitary Reform movement in the
1840s and housing reforms a bit later helped push forward positive changes at
community levels. Beyond North America, community development may be
called “civil society”, or “community regeneration” and activities are conducted by
both government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). There may or may
not be regulation of organizations, depending on different countries’ policy
frameworks (for a review of community development, see Hautekeur 2005). The
Progressive movement of the 1890s through the first decades of the twentieth
century was all about community development (von Hoffman 2012), although the
term itself did not arise until mid-century.

During the 1950s and 1960s, social change and collective action again
garnered much attention due to the need to rectify dismal conditions within
poverty-stricken rural and areas of urban decline. The civil rights and anti -poverty
movements led to recognition of community development as a practice and
emerging profession, taking form as a means to elicit change in social, economic,
political and environmental aspects of communities. During the 1960s, literally
thousands of community development corporations (CDCs) were formed,
including many focusing on housing needs as prompted by U.S. Federal
legislation providing funding for nonprofit community organizations. This
reclaiming of citizen-based governing was also prompted in response to urban
renewal approaches by government beginning with the U.S Housing Act of 1949.
The richness of the CDC experience is chronicled in the Community Development
Corporation Oral History Project by the Pratt Center for Community Development.
This includes one of the first CDCs in the US, the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration
Corporation in New York City.

Today, there are about 4,000 CDCs in the US, with most focusing on
housing development as well as other related activities for improving community
quality of life. However, many also include a full range of community development

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activities, with about 25% providing a comprehensive array of housing development,

home ownership programs, commercial and business development, community
facilities, open space/environmental workforce, and youth programs, and planning
and organizing activities (Walker 2002). Throughout the world, many organizations
practice community development, including the public sector as well as the private,
for-profit and other non-profit groups. Community development continues to be built
on social activism and housing to encompass a broad spectrum of processes and
activities dealing with multiple dimensions of community including physical,
environmental, social and economic factors.

Application

Activity 1.2

1. Now that you have done your reading, look again at the definition of
community above, and compare them with your own idea of
community. What kind of community is your community?
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2. The word “development” involves structural change and improvements

within community system. What is your idea of development especially
within a community?
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3. Differentiate community development as a process and an outcome?
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4. Define social capital or social capacity?

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5. What are the four other forms of “community capital”? Define each form.
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In this lesson, you learnt about communities and their various definitions. It
examined how communities are different including your community. There were
various features of community that existed in the past but are no longer there.
These changes are a result of development within the community. Many things
continue to need to be developed and changed to cope with the changed needs of
life now.

REFERENCES:

Phillips, Rhonda and Robert H. Pittman. 2015. An Introduction to Community

Development Second Edition. Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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