3: Power

g: culture, confidence and pride

Models of community development must have at their foundation a respect for local values, beliefs and needs, expressed in terms of those things, materially.

The development of cultural resources must be based upon 'empowerment' of the local community by culturally appropriate means. This is especially so when the community is differentiated from the national mean by isolation, exclusion or interest.

Another useful definition of culture is how people see themselves in terms of the broader dominant structures of society. Do they wish to keep their local or group cultures distinct and alive? Do they actively practice this? An example was given of an indigenous people who decided to promote their own distinct heritage cuisine with a cook training programme, cook books, and up-scale marketing of catering and restaurant services. Here food, a symbol of their culture and cultural identity, which was devalued as their overall cultural identities had become devalued, was re-invested with value and offered to a wider public as special, unique, healthful and flavourful. Ultimately, the assertion of value is associated as much with the values of the culture in general as with the specific cultural products which are the subject of the project. Although others will appropriate such projects, they still create value because they help instil pride in the local culture. Robustness in the face of this appropriation is a sign of a strong local culture.

This leads to the question of 'who owns local culture?', which is one of the key questions regarding community development. Ownership can be shared with the outside world - as long as the local communities themselves can still engage in enterprise in the cultural product, then its appropriation by, say, large food enterprises, will enhance the added cultural value. Sometimes specific aspects of local culture, such as stories or songs in oral tradition, will be 'owned' by families or persons. Within the local culture then, intellectual property rights, as it were, are already established.

The above does raise the question of the relationship between individual benefit and collective benefit. It seems that collective benefit can only accrue when a critical mass of individuals benefit, but development processes must avoid stopping at the level of a few individuals. In order to pass the tests of democracy, human rights and equal opportunities, community development must continue until the benefits accrue to the whole community.