There is a famous quote by American Anthropologist Margaret Mead which says that we should never underestimate the ability of a small yet committed group of individuals to change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
This simple idea, that it is people who change the world, neatly sums up my belief that sustainable development is community development. Working with Oxfam Cymru, we are currently developing a project that aims to build sustainable communities by improving people’s livelihoods. This work includes supporting communities to make the most of their existing strengths and skills, and social and human capital in order to improve their lives and tackle individual disadvantage.
However, whilst it is important that communities manufacture resilience by building intra and extra community links and exploiting their non-monetary assets, it is equally important to move beyond temporary amelioration to true sustainable development that includes the creation of jobs and economic regeneration.
It is important to deliver real change in communities by developing projects which unite policy and practice, which combine implementation with ideology. Through practical concrete action we must promote philosophical concepts that need to be counter-hegemonic and provide an alternative to the individualism, consumerism and neo-liberalism that is leaving society culturally and intellectually bankrupt.
The central component to this alternative ideology is the idea of good work and the provision of good jobs. In this context, and in the context of sustainable communities, good work is work that pays well, offers training opportunities, is safe, includes pension contributions and a chance to progress. In my opinion, the real alternative to market-driven profit economies is good work delivered through common ownership, not via nationalisation per se (although this has a part to play) but through the growth of the social economy and social enterprises such as cooperatives, charities, industrial and provident societies, and companies limited by guarantee.
In practical terms, the community development I have been involved in is actually community organising - bringing people together and supporting them to tackle problems that matter to them. And it is directly out of this organising that organisations such as social enterprises grow. I am involved in two such organisations in the valley where I live, one as employee and another as volunteer Chairman, and between them they not only provide services, such as a crèche, cafe, market garden and community transport, but they also create almost 60 good jobs in an area where 60 jobs make up a substantial part of the local labour market. In addition, they act as unions of the community, a community where not everyone works and those that do, work in a multitude of different places, industries and sectors.
This approach, and the work we do with Oxfam, has a duel purpose whereby the creation of employment and a micro economic model with local trading patterns not only buffers against global economic shifts but also fosters an alternative hegemony which promotes values of collective human well-being, community and reciprocity.
If we are serious about building sustainable communities, if we are serious about sustainable development, then we must be serious about supporting this nascent form of economic development which sees the growth of community led, community based, and community owned social enterprises that create jobs, provide services and offer people an alternative worldview. In this respect, community development is, indeed, sustainable development.
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