Practitioner Perspectives on Achieving Change in Poor Communities

Abstract

There is considerable confusion surrounding the social change goal of community development practice. Academics tend to be doubtful of the social change content of current practice while institutional evaluators struggle to find the conceptual basis to measure the social gains from revitalization initiatives in poor communities. The critics and the experts may be looking at the wrong data. The findings of interviews with the directors of community development corporations (CDCs) provide the basis for a coherent explanation of community-based social change that corresponds well with related civic research and new social movement theory. The author finds that the social change insight of practitioners has important implications for curriculum design, knowledge development, and the measurement of success in community development practice.

Keywords:

• community change
• community development
• community development corporations (CDCs)
• community empowerment