Community

Development Theories
 Topics
Theories on
Community
Development
Basis of Community
Development

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 2

 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.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 3

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 4
CONCERN AND RELATED THEORIES
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 5
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.”)

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 6

Social capital is defined as “features of social organization, such
as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate coordination and
cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam 1996).” An important
variable to social capital is the amount of trust between
members in a social network.

In general, trust is the glue that holds together the normative

environment of groups with social capital. It is the assurance that
your cooperative behavior will be reciprocated by others and not
taken advantage of by free riders.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 7

•Social capital theory is founded on the premise that individuals
are “embedded” in a network of social relations that influence
decisions and action which can be traced to Karl Polanyi and
later Granovetter (Coleman 2000; Granovetter 1985; Polanyi
1957).

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 8

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 9
Structural-functional theory, also called functionalism, sees
society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the
biological and social needs of the individuals in that society.
Functionalism grew out of the writings of English philosopher and
biologist, Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), who saw similarities
between society and the human body.
Émile Durkheim, another early sociologist, Durkheim believed that
society is a complex system of interrelated and interdependent parts
that work together to maintain stability (Durkheim 1893), and that
society is held together by shared values, languages, and symbols.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 10

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 11
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 12
 conflict theorists, scholars as notable as Karl
Marx (1818–1883), Max Weber (1864–
1920),
Conflict theory in sociology posits that society is characterized
by various inequalities and conflicts that arise due to differences
in power, resources, and social status. It emphasizes the
competition between groups, often framing issues in terms of
dominance and subordination. This theory challenges the status
quo and highlights social change driven by these conflicts.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 13

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 14
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 15
•Symbolic interactionism is a social theoretical framework
associated with George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) and
Max Weber (1864-1920).

•It is a perspective that sees society as the product of

shared symbols, such as language. The social world is,
therefore, constructed by the meanings that individuals
attach to events and social interactions, and these symbols
are transmitted across the generations through language.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 16

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 17
 Communication Theory
Communication Theory examines any person that behaves in
response to information about himself and his environment.
When people exchange information, they influence each
other. This theory can be applied to community
development by the fact that the developer has to
communicate with the people within the community to gain
an understanding of what the people need or want to be
developed.
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 18
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 19
 7. Empowerment Theory
It refers to the experience of personal growth and an improvement in
self definition that occurs as a result of the development of capabilities
and proficiencies (Staples 1990). Another definition suggests that the
empowerment is a combination of personal strengths, initiative, and
natural helping systems to bring about change (Perkins & Zimmerman,
1995). This theory can be applied to community development by
empowering the people within the community to develop their own
community.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 20

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 21
PRINCIPLES IN
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 22

 Promote Community Leadership and
Ownership
The most important principle is, through the community development process, to
actively working with the community to increase leadership capacity, skills,
confidence, and aspirations.. Our work is to help community members understand the
economic, social, political, environmental, and psychological impact of alternative
solutions to the problem (Michigan State University). The community has the
primary responsibility for decision-making (Parada et al., 2012). This decision-
making includes issue identification, planning, implementation, and resource
mobilization to solve agreed-upon problems by emphasizing shared leadership and
active citizen participation. Therefore, the community members are primarily
responsible for initiating community change work and should own it.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 23

 Secure Human Rights
The community initiative should focus on human rights principles. “Everyone has the
right to life, liberty, and security of person,” and “Everyone is entitled to all the rights
and freedoms without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status “. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights must shape our collective work
with the community because this instrument allows community and Community
Development workers to identify their challenges and barriers. This instrument
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights) also provides community and Community
Development workers provided legitimate/lawful grounds for addressing community
issues, human development, and fighting against poverty, discrimination, and
oppression.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 24

Enhance Quality of Living
The community development should focus on the well-being
and quality of living. The initiative may focus on economic,
physical, and/or social development. A multi-year initiative
may focus on all these components. However, the community
initiative is most successful when the community takes one
step at a time.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 25

 Promote Social Justice
As transformative community workers, our work must be guided by
social justice principles, especially equity and inclusion.
Correcting current injustices until the inequities no longer exist;
redistributing wealth, power and status for individual,
community and societal good; governments responsibility to
ensure a basic quality of life for citizens .

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 26

 Community Participation and
Engagement
Community workers continue to put their efforts into ensuring the active
participation of community members in the community change process. Community
group members who experience poverty, marginalization, violence, conflicts, or
environmental disasters know their needs and what needs to be done. Community
workers should engage community members in problem diagnosis so that those
affected may adequately understand the causes of their situation (Michigan State
University).

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 27

 Community Assets / Capital and
Resource Mobilization

Community development initiatives should build upon and focus on

community assets / capital. Both terms ‘assets’ and ‘capital’ are used
interchangeably, and mean the same thing, which are the strengths of
the community. Each community relies on different forms of capital
to maintain itself and grow stronger (Parada et al., 2012).

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 28

Capital includes environmental, physical, economic, human,
information, political, and social resources in the community.
• Social capital is most important in community development. We
create social capital when we become involved with one another in
routine, often organized ways (Parada et al., 2012). High levels of
social capital in a community promote coordination,
communication, participation, cooperation, and engagement; thus,
positive change is possible (Parada et al., 2012). Rather than seeing
communities as “needy” and problem-based, communities should
be seen in terms of assets, skills, and capacities (Parada et al.,
2012).

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 29

Partnership and Collaboration
Community issues and problems are complex.
These issues may arise due to individual, cultural
and systemic oppression, colonialism, neoliberal
policies, patriarchal system, and climate change. A
community may not have all the necessary
resources and capital to address its issues and
problem. Therefore, community work highly
depends on partnership and collaboration. A
partnership may involve institutions, external
philanthropists, and/or community advocates that
can support the host community with technical,
financial, and resources.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 30

 Sustainability
• Community development initiatives must consider results for the
present time and future. Sustainable development meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs (International Institute for Sustainable
Development).
• Community work must not compromise any environmental and socio-
economic degradation; instead, it works with the community with a
holistic plan and actions for the community members’ well–being.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 31

 Resilience and empowerment
Finally, the ultimate goal of community work is to make the community resilient and
empowered so that community people should be able to control and use their assets and
means to influence. The community development practice should promote self-
determination so that people and communities have the right to make their own choices
and decisions (Scottish Community Development Center[SCDC], para#3). Community
development initiatives should promote active citizen participation so that community
members can meaningfully influence decisions that affect their situation (Michigan State
University). In other words, the community development should strengthen people’s voices
and allow them to take collective actions for their socio-economic, cultural, and
environmental development and well-being.

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 32

 “There is immense power when
a group of people with similar
interests gets together to work
toward the same goals.”

― Idowu Koyenikan

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 33

Summary

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 34

 Thank you
Prof. Nepomuceno

SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 35