Generating Community Change 337development efforts, which depend on existing local leaders as a basis for commu-
nity organizing, may systematically bias development efforts away from the prob-
lems of the least-advantaged citizens. That bias, in turn, can give rise to increased
inequalities and increasing poverty or to conflict-based community development
activities. In fact, interests within communities can conflict.
Participation and democratic decision making are essential to the self-help
model of development. The self-help approach assumes that it is indeed possible
to motivate a broad-based band of community members to participate in com-
munity affairs. However, if community residents are uninterested and unmoti-
vated and do not want to become involved, participation will not take place. Some
groups of local residents will not see the community as relevant to their welfare, as
happens, for example, with some farmers who feel their well-being depends almost
entirely on government programmes. Thus, these farmers may simply bypass the
community and be actively involved only in their commodity organizations, which
focus on the national and not on the community level. If in a particular commu-
nity no farmers are active participants in efforts to solve community problems,
broad-based community participation can be said not to exist, for one important
segment of the community is uninvolved.
The time commitment mandated by the self-help approach may cause many
to drop out, which threatens the processual aspects of this approach. Even if the
stated objectives of the community development effort are reached, the effort can-
not be said to have been successful if participation in the process was minimal. The
approach cannot be used to solve another community problem because no new
means of interaction and quality of interaction were enhanced. In a word, the
process was not institutionalized, and, from the self-help point of view, the effort
was not successful. One obstacle to effective use of the self-help approach in small
towns is the fact that people know each other in too many roles. Thus, the risk of
taking a public stance, which is sometimes necessary for effective discussion, may
result in public disagreement with a boss, a customer or a colleague. This risk is
seen as too great in many small towns.
Furthermore, different segments of the community have different levels of
participatory skills. Higher education and professional employment give a dispro-
portionate voice to the more privileged segment of any community, in part because
they have experience with participation. And middle-class youth are raised with
verbal and discussion skills, whereas obedience – until a situation involving con-
frontation arises – is part of working-class socialization patterns.
Finally, self-help models of development assume a significant degree of com-
munity autonomy. Yet as we have shown in earlier chapters, rural communities are
highly involved in regional, national and even international networks that have
enormous impacts on them. Being dependent on the global economy, however,
does not mean that it is useless for communities to undertake self-help activities.
But it does make it important that the global economic trends are understood. Part
of the process of the self-help model therefore includes community education on
the community’s place in the global economy and the current trends within it.