Cardenas, dela Cruz, Manzo, Ronquillo

Group 1

Development Theory and Community Practice

James Midgley and Michelle Livermore
A Narrative Summary of our Report

For an effective community practice to be achieved, an equal and balanced use of professional
skills, knowledge and values is needed. A community should not be fully dependent on
professional skills only for it will not be based on the communitys potentials to address their
issues. At the same time, relying to only knowledge and values cannot provide a strong
foundation of community practice through its basis on theory. When the two components are
used properly, the people will experience a thorough community practice which can help in
identifying community goals and the best ways to attain them.
The context of conception of the nation-state and its international linkages that relate to political
economy have mainly served as the basis of the formulation of development theories. Normative
prescription for promoting social and economic well-being at the macro level has been common
denominator among most of the theories of development due to aforementioned statement above,
but application of it at community level, theories would supply interventions that are beneficial
to enhance the economic and social well-being of local communities, This process is called
community development.
The framework shows the various development theories and the connectedness of them. Such
theories are essential in helping us define what would be our meaning of development and what
are the factors needed to attain it. These development theories also serve as guides in what
processes we would do for achieving development. These reflect how rich our thinking is
towards the peoples need to improve and have a better life. Also, it shows that no one theory is
better than the other and that they are all equal theories that aims for development. There is no
order that one should follow because it depends on the person which theory he would use that he
thinks would help in every aspect of his life.
We can see that social investment is the core in this framework. And there are three types and
factors that contributed in achieving it - human capital, social capital, facilitation of employment.

In modern times, Community development focus more on programs that develop human capital
by improving skills, promoting literacy, and providing job experience. Through investing in
human capital, we also promote community welfare which is essential in development. Another
type of social investment is the social capital which simply refers to social network; it is the trust,
norms, values, and culture that exists within the community. Social capital is necessary to unite
and bring solidarity amongst the people. The last type of social investment that is essential to
economic growth is the facilitation of productive employment and self-employment. Small-scale
businesses are effective tool in strengthening local economies. Those three types of social
investment do not only focus on contributing to economic growth but also improve the lives of
the people by letting them enhance their skills, build/strengthen their unity and participate
individually or collectively e.g. micro-scale business.