Outline and Explain the Principles of Community Development. Which One Is More Important?

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Community development practice has arisen from a variety of sources and settings. Its roots can be traced to the social reform movement in Britain and North America in the latter half of the 18thcentury. Community development principles were formulated and applied in third world development efforts following decolonization. In the 50's and 60's community development, as it came to be called, was used in deprived or underdeveloped urban and rural settings in North America (Smith, 1979: 52). Community development was a response to the perceived disintegration of society due to rapid technological change, economic dislocations, disruption in traditional family and community structures and the extension of government and commercial services into personal and family life, with negative impacts on personal effectiveness and community ties (Carey, 1979:20). Community development is a process available to people of whatever political persuasion, working, and for whatever causes. It can be used alike by people of liberal, conservative or radical ideology. Indeed, community development is even more than a process; it is a movement, a philosophy, a value system, and an orientation. Many people hold the conviction that those at the most fundamental level of social life, the community, are best able to judge what they want and need and that they ought to be considered and included in making the relevant decisions about their lives and properties (Ravitz, 1982). Adding to this definition, Hayes (1981) viewed community development as a process of dynamic change, involving conflict and concerned primarily with changing power relationships. Sanders (1958) presents community development in four different typologies: (1) process; (2) method; (3) program; and (4) movement. Community development as a process moves by stages from one condition or state to the next. It involves a

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