Community unionism: looking backwards, looking forwards

The importance of building alliances based upon shared community and trade union interests is a theme with resonances from the history of community development, both in Britain and beyond. This chapter starts by summarising the lessons from previous approaches to building such alliances. The issues arising have even more relevance for community development workers in the contemporary context, the chapter argues, drawing on the findings from the authors’ work by way of illustration. The chapter then moves on to explore the experiences of the two largest trade unions in Britain: UNITE and UNISON. Both have their successes to share. Both have also faced challenges, however, illustrating some of the tensions inherent in building alliances between organisations and movements with differing histories and cultures. The chapter concludes by summarising the implications for building solidarity and developing alliances based upon mutual trust and understanding, rooted in shared values for social justice.

Community development in the UK: whatever happened to class? A historical analysis

Prior to the 1950s, differing strands of what might be seen as community development can be perceived in work by extension officers in colonial settings, as an extension of trades union activism, or ‘community-building’ with a social focus, usually in social housing areas. Yet, despite a common emphasis on poverty and disadvantage, attempts to locate community development within a class-based understanding of, for example, the unequal distribution of income, wealth and power within most societies have been limited. This chapter will trace ways in which the issue of class has or has not been addressed within community development theory and practice, drawing on key texts and experiences from across the world. It will seek to identify the extent to which the mainstream practice of community development, as it has developed, has been able to locate itself solidly within and build alliances with more explicitly class-based forms of political struggle.

Competing concepts of class: implications and applications for community development

This chapter reviews some of the trends associated with the new phase of capitalism called ‘neoliberalism’, particularly widening inequality and its correlates in the growing political influence of the wealthiest strata. The consequences for community development include tax cuts, cuts in public spending, and mounting private and public debt. Finally, the authors consider the prospects for effective resistance within the context of community development theory and practice.

Class, inequality and community development: editorial introduction

In contexts across the world, community development is being rediscovered as a cost-effective intervention for dealing with the social consequences of global economic restructuring that has taken place over the last half century. This chapter introduces the term ‘community development’ and its plurality of meanings, as well as introducing the ways in which community development can be used to address inequality. The authors pose that class should be central to an analysis of inequality and the ways in which it is framed by community development strategies. The chapter then goes on to give a more detailed explanation of the terms ‘class’ ‘inequality’ and ‘community development’ and how they interplay with one another. The chapter concludes by giving a description of the layout of the remainder of the book.

Community organising for social change: the scope for class politics

Launched in England in 2010, the government-funded Community Organisers Programme was one of a number of initiatives claiming to put power back in the hands of people. However, it was introduced at the same time as the government was introducing a range of austerity policies, and the divide between the rich and the poor was growing ever greater. This chapter explores the Community Organisers Programme’s approach and the extent to which issues of class have featured in its approach and practice.

Community development: (un) fulfilled hopes for social equality in Poland

This chapter argues that community development policies may contribute to perpetuating social inequalities in spite of the very concept of community development being ideologically underpinned by the fundamental human values, such as equality, social equity, citizenship, participation in communal life and sustainable development. The authors’ argument is grounded in Poland’s post-socialist experiences in building communities, fostering participatory citizenship and advancing community development. Drawing on historical and empirical analyses, the authors seek to establish why, despite changes in the political configurations, profound systemic changes, and social and economic transformations, community development in Poland still persists in the fragmentary and discontinuous stage.

Rural–urban alliances for community development through land reform from below

This chapter describes the alliances for land rights between urban and rural workers in the area of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. The authors focus on the community development experience of the Mario Lago land reform settlement or asentamento. The fact that Mario Lago is literally located at the edge of the city, brings into play a wide range of urban organizations together in alliances with the rural Landless Workers Movement (MST), for campaigns and actions on a variety of issues, such as distribution of healthy food, transportation, housing and environmental concerns. Although the Mario Lago community is under constant pressure from the agribusiness complex and from developers, the residents continuously engage in a struggle to create and recreate community life by producing healthy food and protecting the environment. They are an example of how alliances between urban and rural people can help achieve community development based on agrarian reform from below.

The impact of gender, race and class on women’s political participation in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for community development

The inclusion of women, and women’s participation in politics has been identified as key prerequisites for the development of an inclusive democracy and the promotion of good governance in post-apartheid South Africa. Yet women still face a series of barriers to their active participation in development policy-making and political processes, barriers that have been compounded by structural inequalities of race and social class. This chapter draws upon a recent study, implemented by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), to investigate institutional and structural barriers to women’s full political participation and representation, impacting both on experiences of women in political parties, and on ordinary women’s shaping of development priorities and decision-making at the local level.

Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy)

The first part of this chapter offers a critical review of environmental sociology and political ecology, highlighting the contribution they have made to a redefinition of class, and social inequalities in general. The authors then elaborate on their definition of ‘Working-Class Community Ecology.’ The second part of this chapter applies this concept to the case of a working-class community in the city of Taranto, southern Italy, where the 2012 confiscation of a giant steelmaking complex, the ILVA plant – due to serious violations of environmental regulations – is jeopardizing thousands of jobs, thus forming a threat to the local community’s subsistence and identity. The authors investigate the surreptitious way through which both governmental and business actors have actively prevented the making of a class-based environmental consciousness in Taranto.

Community development and class in the context of an East Asian productivist welfare regime

This chapter argues that class analyses have been underdeveloped in community development studies in Hong Kong. Consequently, this has impacted on the ways in which community development services have developed. This paucity of class analysis is revealed through the findings of a study that the author conducted, exploring community development service organisations’ approaches to service planning and delivery. The scarcity of class analysis, under a context of worsening social inequality and declining welfare for the disadvantaged communities, reinforces the popularity of the consensus approach, and its implications in terms of the promotion of competitive tendering to provide services and the promotion of community mutual help initiatives. Even though the curricula in most of the community development training institutions in Hong Kong has included attention to class perspectives, the paucity of class analysis apparent in community development theory and practice deserves continual attention and further research.