The Impact of Infrastructure Development on Rural Communities: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article surveys and reviews previous works that are related to the impact of infrastructural development on rural communities in Malaysia. The survey is carried out in view of the relationship between social wellbeing and provision of complete infrastructure facilities. At the moment, it is not clear how lack of basic infrastructure impacts the lives of members of rural communities. Failure to incorporate changes, specifically infrastructural development, into communities is believed to affect the community’s state of wellbeing. The catalytic role played by social workers in developing a community together with the development planning authorities needs to be scrutinised. The important role played the social workers that complements the roles played by the development planning authorities warrants it to be discussed further. Taking this into account, it is pertinent to understand the concept of development and the meaning of infrastructure itself clearly to enable the planning authorities to be actively involved in providing sufficient basic facilities that could improve the rural communities’ state of wellbeing. This concept paper seeks to discuss the impact of infrastructural development on rural communities. At the same time, the role played by the social workers will also be discussed. It is also important to understand the needs and wants of the rural communities from the communities’ perspective. It is hoped that this paper could contribute ideas on issues related to the impact of infrastructural development on Malaysian rural communities.