5: Random Thoughts

Building of community spirit is missing from much work on community development. There is a need to acknowledge the importance and value of ritual, symbolic enactment, etc.

By honouring capitalism/entrepreneurialism, codified knowledge & profit, we risk dishonouring the spirit, social strengths and local knowledge of communities.

It is important to distinguish between Features, Advantages and Benefits when speaking of community development. People subscribe to things that bring them benefit - not necessarily features or advantages. The design of policy is the design of a set of features that it is hoped will produce the desired future outcomes. It is important to remember that the features exist because they deliver advantages over the features of other systems, and what these advantages deliver is what people want. I.e. benefits they feel in their own lives.

To be effective, development policies need to support "Power From Within".

Geographic contexts cannot be ignored.

Individualism = hoarding - of knowledge, of enterprise, of networks, and is ultimately anti-community. The power of communities' lies in their diversity and size - many small interventions can effect a large change without any individual needing to exhaust themselves. This is why sharing knowledge is so important.

Universities use an "urban" paradigm in accrediting professionals, including those who will live and work in rural areas and with rural peoples. A change in academic culture is needed to acknowledge that professionals who work in rural spaces are specialists, not 'jacks of all trade'. This respects the different contexts within which rural people live and work. It also clashes with the culture of academic 'professionalism' itself - which originally was based upon the cultures of an urban elite. Having had to do so much to become 'professionals', it can be difficult for university practitioners to let go of their professional cultural values and expectations.