Contesting community development: Grounding definitions in practice contexts
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Development in Practice
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
32543
Abstract
Community development has many meanings. The strength of this conceptual openness is that it creates space for communities and their knowledges, values and interests. Its weakness is that, without general agreement on the nature of community development, the concept is applied inconsistently and becomes a “buzzword” which is high on application, yet low on meaning. This paper presents an analysis of community development as an essentially contested concept, highlighting descriptive and normative aspects of meanings and the role of context. It concludes with a range of actions that may assist in working through tensions between general definitions and conceptual openness.
DOI
10.1080/09614524.2020.1837078
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Carlon, C. (2021). Contesting community development: Grounding definitions in practice contexts. Development in Practice, 31(3), 323-333. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2020.1837078