The Rise and Fall of Community Development in Developing Countries, 1950-65 : A Critical Analysis and an Annotated Bibliography. MSU Rural Development Paper No. 2, 1978 / Lane E. Holdcroft.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the rise and fall of community development and to draw lessons for developing countries and donors interested in helping the rural poor. Community development is defined as a process, method, program, institution, and/or movement involving communities in the solution of problems, teaching democratic processes, and activating and/or facilitating transfer of technology to a community for more effective solution of its problems. The community development approach of the 1950's had its early roots in experiments by the British Colonial Service, the U.S. and European voluntary agency activities abroad, and the U.S. and British domestic programs in education, community development services, and social welfare. Assumed to have universal appeal, community development programs were prolific in the 1950's, but by 1965, they had begun to decline due to disillusionment on the part of many political leaders in developing countries with the performance of their programs vis-a-vis stated goals and the sharp reduction in support from the U.S. and other donors. The emphasis today is on a more comprehensive or "integrated rural development" (IRD), but IRD problems are similar to those of the community development era (i.e., generalists versus specialists, the need for an income producing component, village participation, change agent paternalism, pilot project expansion, etc.). A selected literature review on principles of community development, training, country studies, and evaluation is supplemented by an annotated bibliography for those interested in further research. (JC)

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