On Community Development Research and Practice: Towards a Reflexive Approach

The lack of an established policy framework by government in Northern Ireland for community development, within the contested objectives of an enforced coalition, mirrors theoretical perspectives that see community development as a contested concept. In contrast, a research programme working with community development organisations in Catholic and Protestant disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Belfast identified that community development practitioners did have a clear understanding of what constituted community development. Successful community development practice in Belfast involved both conflict and collaboration with government. Effective leadership that interpreted meanings between sometimes consensual, sometimes conflictual interpretations of the nature of inequality stood out as a factor in the success of the researched community development organisations. The research findings indicate that ethnographic research in situations of poverty cannot avoid examining the positionality of the researcher and the impact of a reflexive methodology. A framework for planning and evaluation that is rooted in the common values exhibited by community development practitioners is proposed as a method to deliver support to successful community development organisations as independent influencers of government policy. In essence, those values see the primacy of the experience of the individual as a starting point for collective endeavour; of recognising the difference individuals can make for themselves and the greater difference for themselves if they work together. They are values of collaboration through participative democratic means whilst recognising the integrity of the individual.