Deconstructing Neoliberal Community Development Approaches and a Case for the Solidarity Economy

The solidarity economy movement is a burgeoning global justice movement that focuses on economic justice, sustainability, and democratic processes. Social workers care about alleviating poverty, but they generally adhere to neoliberal strategies and ignore transformative approaches to economic justice such as solidarity economics. Recent neoliberal community-development efforts center on approaches such as asset development, human capital building, and social capital enhancement. Solidarity economy seeks to boost economic and social development that promotes shared ownership, sustainable production/consumption, and fair distribution. In this article, we launch a critique of current approaches to community development and argue for a solidarity economy approach.