Editorial

We are excited to present this special issue of Community Development to our readers. In this issue, you will find traditional articles, commentaries, a book review, and an editorial call-to-action – that focus on the topic of the possible and actual dark side(s) of community development. We are grateful to the authors for their willingness to tackle such an important and (sometimes) controversial topic, and to do so with scholarly objectivity while also making strong arguments for the improvement of our field, our research, and our practice.

For years, scholars have written and discussed the role that community development plays in community and individual well-being, with educators, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds striving to improve community health. While the words “development” and “well-being” tend to have positive connotations, unfortunately the outcomes of work to improve development and well-being are not always themselves positive. Not unique to community development, worthwhile activities can result in negative or damaging outcomes when scholars and practitioners engage in “dark side” methods. Sometimes due to good intentions and motivations that go askew or, less often, decisively unethical or immoral behavior, damage can occur because of community development efforts. All too often, these dark side practices are the outcomes of unjust power dynamics at play in communities.

In this special issue, the authors have written articles from different academic disciplines and approaches (e.g. psychology, community outreach, entrepreneurship) to address “dark” community development practices and consequences, as well as suggest policy and practice changes to avoid the damage that often results from such practices. Theorists, researchers, and practitioners have argued for clarity on what community development is but also for more attention on what community is not and should not be (see the editorial call-to-action in this issue, Talmage & Gassert, 2020).

We decided to focus on the “dark sides” of community in this special issue because of its importance to the field, but also because of its interest to students, scholars, and practitioners (Talmage & Gassert, 2020). Researchers and theorists who are hoping to disrupt and restructure how we educate others about ethics have called for approaches that are both practice-based and theory-informed (Berglund et al., 2020). In addition to refining the definition and foundational theories and approaches of community development, awareness of dark side processes and outcomes will help scholars and practitioners explore issues such as: (1) who are and who should be those working in the field of community development and well-being? and (2) how should we define success and well-being in the field (Ashdown et al., 2021)? Recognizing the impact of “dark side” approaches and consequences also requires a recognition that that there is not sole correct answer to these issues, but clarify that taking into account “dark side” approaches and impacts – even when those approaches and impacts are unintentional – will expand the awareness and methods to avoid them (Berglund et al., 2020; Talmage & Gassert, 2020).

This special issue showcases diverse and important work on many specific concepts and topics that touch on “dark side” processes, outcomes, and consequences. Brown et al. discuss the ways that international aid often damages cultural capital and indigenous beliefs and practices by focusing on the issue in Namibia. Tchida and Stout provide a critique of current community development practices through a lens of empowerment versus disempowerment approaches. Gibbons and Fattah both provide criticisms of the approaches and consequences of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in community development; Gibbons does so with publicly available data and personal experiences in Guatemala, while Fattah uses ethnographic fieldwork to explore the political contexts of NGOs, community-based organizations, and local leaders.

Hains and Hains provide philosophical suggestions and advise on how universities should engage with local communities in order to avoid “dark side” approaches and negative consequences, while Cafer and Rosenthal use a social justice approach to critique the way that academic communities and organizations do and should engage in community development work and include a call-to-action for faculty to engage in social change. The editorial team at Community Development (Talmage & Gassert, 2020) also issue a call-to-action on behalf of the journal, requesting more scholarly work that pushes against “dark side” practices. Utilizing the community capitals framework, and particularly arguments related to cultural capital, Ashdown provides a review of Baughan’s (2021) Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire about the history of the international NGO Save the Children. McConnell and Lachepelle call upon their decades of experience in the field of community development to list and define what they label the “seven deadly sins of community development,” such as anti-expertism and self-effacement, and provide suggestions on how to avoid these pitfalls. A letter to the editor regarding their article is also included. Finally, McConnell’s reflection on power related to Community Development Society and the International Association for Community Development challenges the readers to honor the past but be mindful as community development evolves.

As editors of the special issue, we hope that these articles will inspire a stronger focus on future work related to describing, defining, and avoiding “dark side” practices and approaches in community development. By focusing not only on what community development is and does well, this focus on where community development falls short will help guide the field in the shared goal of increased community health and well-being.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).