When Even Bad News is not so Bad: Local Control over outside Forces in Community Development

Abstract

Roland Warren states that the bad news of community development is that increasing dependence on state and federal programs results in “less and less of what goes on locally (being) subject to the collective decisions of local people.” Study of a small community undergoing development suggests that external resources do not necessarily deplete local decision making if the community has shared values, conflict resolution mechanisms, local issues, and healthy indigenous social networks. A strategy is suggested whereby community development specialists sensitive to these characteristics can strive to develop such characteristics which are latent in the community to strengthen local decision-making autonomy.