Community development and the contested politics of the late modern agora: Of, alongside or against neoliberalism?

Abstract

In this article we argue that community development is an expression of the political and politicised assembly of an active citizenry in civil society, and may therefore be characterised as a late modern agora-the ancient Greek concept describing the interface between the public and private spheres of social life. Drawing on Bauman (in Globalization: the Human Consequences, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998), we argue that the enemy of political association-of the agora - in late modernity is neoliberalism. The meaning of community development as the late modern agora is then explored, and we note the subsequent contestation over its status, as revealed in variant ideological perspectives on the role of civil society. In particular, we identify three dominant understandings and practices of community development: a neoliberal version where civil society is subservient to the needs of economic development; a corporatist version that advocates a partnership between the state, market and civil society; and an activist version, where community development is envisaged as local, nodal and global resistance to neoliberalism. In essence, we are posing the question: 'community development: of, alongside or against neoliberalism?' © Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2008 All rights reserved.