Community development and the politics of community

In a context in which ‘community empowerment’ is virtually government policy, it is hardly surprising that there is almost no area of social policy that is immune from the community treatment. Of course, this is not new, despite the zeal with which each new initiative is ‘rolled out’. In fact, sometimes it seems that policy development needs to reinvent the wheel of community every decade or so. The question, therefore, is what this ideological recycling of community tells us: first, about the meaning of the term itself; second, about its contemporary significance within the wider politics of the state. This article argues that we need to draw on those historical and theoretical resources which help us to think our way through to the contemporary context. Only an active and engaged recognition of the politics of community will enable us to get to the root of the problematic yet promising nature of community development.