Week 11: Article on Community Development

This week, we were to find journal articles relevant to our project. I found an article that aligns quite well with the goals of our service learning approach. In the article titled "Community development in South Africa:Its use as an intervention strategy" in the journal of International Social Work, Travis and colleagues examined whether if community development would be appropriate in the communities of Cato Crest, Bhambayi and Ndwedwe within the province of KwaZulu Natal, which is the largest and poorest province in South Africa.
To assess this, three of the largest role players in community development were interviewed, namely community development committees, community development field workers, and community development and social work academics. In summary, the community development committees, which consisted of committees already existing in the communities, stressed the importance of developing electricity, road, and water infrastructure. The community development field workers, who had working relationships with the communities, expressed the importance of social and economic development, which encompasses not only building infrastructure but also building the people in terms of life skills and asserting themselves. And finally the academics echoed the field works in stressing how vital human development is in addition to infrastructure development.
Travis and colleagues expand upon the importance of combating the so called "culture of entitlement" where community members expect NGOs, the government, or other agencies to build their community for them. Thus it is important to maintain a "facilitator role" so that we aren't the only source for an idea or technology. Community development is ideal in the sense that the people empower themselves to create the community they want to live in. Because there is disagreement between the three role players, the importance of dialogue between them is important before large scale projects should be attempted.