Definitions of Development

The Basic Issue

One of the key aspects of the definition of "development" is the issue of "development for whom?" Is development for those who have already been born into great riches or power and want more, or is it to even out a historic imbalance in the distribution of resources so as to include the marginalized of society.

In the area of community development, issues of the definition of development sometimes center around meanings such as "top-down" or "bottom-up" as a locus of control and definition in direction and tempo. This term in other words is loaded with power issues. How these power issues are resolved is often already latent in the sub-meanings of the term itself. The lie unspoken, but "understood" by various members of the community. Some reflections on such issues are in the resources which follow.

Off-Line Resources

• Crayley,David. "Community and Its Counterfeits: Interviews with John McKnight". Toronto: CBC Ideas Reprint Jan 3,10,17, 1994.
  This is an article I received from Chief Ennis Fiddler of Sandy Lake First Nation who was facilitating the amalgamation of hospitals in Sioux Lookout at the time. It is a transcript of three CBC "Ideas" programs on the degradation which accompanies professionalization of Social Services and the resulting destruction of community fabric.

  John McKnight is a long-time community organizer and university professor who believes that "citizen space" is created in communities when "giving " is restored. Every person has a gift to give (whatever other shortcomings s/he might have) but social services interfere with this process. He believes that Culture puts people in a place, but institutions put people in a system.

  The focus of the three articles is as follows:

  1. the meaning of community, the effect of social services on community and his background - how he came to hold his views.
  2. how He arrived at noting lavishly equipped professionals throwing up their hands in despair. How to restore communities is introduced as is a person doing just that: Jackie Reed from Chicago East Side.
  3. This section is about efforts to restore hospitality and friendliness destroyed by professionals who he claims measure emptiness vs. fullness and exclude people from the community on that basis. We are introduced to Bob Harkness and his work with retarded people using a "community service" philosophy, and Sandra Nahornoff with her "Project Friendship" in which "citizen or associational space" is increased.

     This set of transcripts is an excellent resource, and very thought provoking.

• Freshwater, David. "Delusions of Grandeur: The Search for a Vibrant Rural America". TVA Rural Studies Staff paper, April 2001, (p1-7) Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This and other papers are available on the TVA rural Studies Web site

  This study looks at the impediments to Rural Development in today's rural scene:

  • Rural Development is not defined and therefore not clear in what is intended
  • the larger economy has changed as an economic context
  • Globalization of the political process has marginalized many communities
  • Many success stories are really splash from urban sprawl.

  It is interesting that he notes that rural areas are parallel to urban neighborhoods in their regional settings. He urges communities to get with it in terms of development in a re-defined context.

• Frouws, Jaap. "The Contested Redefinition of the Countryside. An analysis of Rural Discourses in the Netherlands". Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This Dutch study comes out of a country where great population pressures on the rural countryside are generating a wide variety of suggestions for land use by a variety of parties. This author does a discourse analysis of three items in order to tease out the underlying vested interests and definitions of rural so as to model what needs to be done in this convoluted debate.

• Fuller, Tony. "Rural Institutions in the Arena Society" Chapter 3 of Changing Rural Institutions. Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This is for me a totally impenetrable article, not because of the content, but rather because of its obscure (personal) image of an "arena". Set as it is as his unifying theme, he destroys his contribution to the definition of society at this stage in development by his obscurity. It is such a major piece in his work that it serves to obscure everything else.

  The author comes from a geography background and somehow his obsession with "space and time" is connected to this image of his. He is trying to gather together under one image the overlapping realities of short distance society, industrial society and open society (to use his terms). One interesting observation is that these eras in social development on the prairies are cumulative rather than discrete, and therefore the current interweaving of the leftovers makes for a confusing scene if one is not familiar with the layers which precede the present reality.

  The piece is not helped by it being a written account of a conference speech which was giv3n to collogues who were aware with his imagery. There are better presentations of his content available elsewhere I believe, maybe even from the author.

• Ferrazzi, Gabe. Dissecting Rural Development . Rural Community Development Introductory Modules,(WebCT class notes). Brandon University, Fall, 2001.Module # 1 .
  The key question is development for whom?

On-line Resources