Theoretical Framework For Community Development

The Basic Issue

The main problem in the rural community development field in general and he Masters of Rural Development program in particular is that it has no undergraduate "discipline" as such as a foundational base for people to advance their studies upon.

This problem is clearly seen by contrasting a Masters program in a single discipline like History or Chemistry, with that of rural development. Students arriving at the Masters level have had four years in a discipline and have to have reached a fairly advanced level of work to be considered for graduate work in one of the standard disciplines. Graduate students in rural development , however, have achieved the same level of excellence in undergraduate work, but may come into the program from a wide variety of disciplines. Those who do masters work in a single discipline with matching undergraduate work, simply move forward to more advanced working their field. They know the terminology, have read many of the standard works, know the major players and have an overall grasp of the field. If a student shifts disciplines at the time of entering graduate studies, s/he simply upgrades the base of operation with extensive reading and perhaps an entrance exam.

However, when a person enters Rural Development studies at a graduate level, there is no way they can possibly build a base of understanding in all of the feeder disciplines: economics, sociology, political science, History, Business Administration, and so on. The result is that s/he may indeed have sufficient background for one of the courses, but in the others it will be a scramble to grasp the undergraduate material after class in order to hopefully get up to masters level output by the end of term in that area. For this reason, the level of behind-the-scenes work in such a Masters program is considerable.

This illustrates the dilemma in the field of Rural Studies or Rural Development in general. The community itself is made up of the whole of humanity, in all its diversity. For this reason, all dimensions of the community find expression in an activity such as community development. In that diversity lies the strength of a rural Development Masters as well. The interchange of perspectives between students and staff, the exposure to a wide variety of literature and multiple disciplines, the opportunity to work on projects which involve the entire tapestry of community life can be an exhilarating experience.

The literature below deals with some of the these tensions, frustrations and blessings in Rural Community Development work.

Off-Line Resources

• Klein, Julie Thompson. "An Interdisciplinary Lexicon" Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory and Practice . Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.
  This chapter of a book deals with the dynamics of border crossing which is met in full force on the field in Community development work. Her context is that of the large University, with its fiefdoms and turf wars, and the complications that scientists face when they need to co-operate with scientists from other disciplines. The dynamics she describes (using her jargon of multi-trans-inter-disciplinary work) is essentially that of cross-cultural dynamics, with its phenomenon of culture shock and re-entry shock.

  The one added twist is that she is dealing with a group of people who are predominately from one "gift" (using the gifts model of ideal types) and whose institution is locused around the teacher-researcher's set of imperatives. That means that they are finding it hard to find unity in that context. Perhaps their trouble is that they are a homogeneous lot of people, and interactive life is found in the "body" (to borrow Paul's Biblical image) not in a cardboard box of writhing left feet.

• Craig, Gary. "Community Development in a Global Context" Community Development Journal, Vol.33,No.1, 1998. (p2-17).Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  In his article, Craig expresses his concern about every organization under the sun co-opting the term "community development" and using it in ways that do not fit with his particular outlook. He is a very "bottom -up" oriented process person, and views community development as a bottom up process par-excellence.

  In this age of globalization and the rise of the power of multi-nationals, he is very concerned about the splash of global effects on local situations and their marginalization of those without the all-important "money-vote", and the actions of such institutions being carried out in the name of advancement of the global community. It is a nice antidote to the rah-rah inevitability of globalization material that fills much of the modern press, though hardly balanced in itself.

• Ferrazzi, Gabe. "What Theory Is Relevant To Rural Community Development?" . Rural Community Development Introductory Modules,(WebCT class notes). Brandon University, Fall, 2001.Module # 2-a .
  This document is Gabe's take on the problems outlined above, and some suggestions from his perspective as to the key supporting literature one might wish to become exposed to particularly in the areas of the core social sciences. A scan of the net under the keywords for the discipline or their sub-areas also brings a rich harvest of leads, course syllabi, lecture notes, and further links to information. He outlines the following:
  • Socilological authors: Marx, Durkheim, Tonnies, Dahl
  • Economic authors: Marx, Weber, Olson, Putnam
  • General Development authors: Rothman
  • Planning and Regional Science Authors: Rostow, assorted tool developers, Friedman

On-line Resources