Two - Community development in an unequal world: challenging neo-liberal values

Summary

This is a very weird time in the world; we’ve sort of lost faith in our political system, we’ve lost faith in our leaders, we’re not quite sure of our values, and I just hope that my winning the Nobel Prize contributes something that engenders goodwill and peace. It reminds us of how international the world is, and we have to contribute things from our different corners of the world.

(The British author Kazuo Ishiguro on hearing he was the winner of the 2017 Nobel in Literature, quoted in Ellis-Peterson and Flood, 2017: 1)

We’re in the middle of a global struggle between liberal democracy and authoritarianism.

(Hillary Clinton, former US Democratic presidential candidate, speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, England, October 2017, quoted in Wintour, 2017: 4)

Introduction

This chapter offers an overview of the rapidly changing social, economic and political context for community development practice globally and locally, highlighting the growing challenge to neo-liberalism as a credible economic and political strategy that offers stability and growth. I will consider the indicators of rising income and wealth inequality internationally and the resultant polarisation of societies, which are creating considerable risks to sound and secure global activity. The chapter discusses the drift of power away from the state and into the hands of unelected corporations, which presently receive vast sums of taxpayers’ money for delivering what previously was public sector managed provision. The fast-changing milieu has created a situation where, particularly in the global North, people feel left behind and not listened to. I will look at the resultant rise in nationalism, and the demands for regional self-determination, all of which are reactions to circumstances with which people feel unable to identify.

The chapter refers to the core values of community development, and discusses the role the activity can play in challenging the risks of this new world through collective action in contexts that are local, national and international. I consider community development values in an environmental sustainability scenario and see how a communityled project has made connections between what is happening in local streets with the power and influence of a multinational corporation funded with public money.