Uncovering ‘community’: Challenging an elusive concept in development and disaster related work
This paper aims to analyse the way the concept of ‘community’ has come into fashion, and to critically reflect on the problems that come with it. This paper raises significant doubts about the usefulness of ‘community’ in development- and disaster-related work.
The approach is to first consider how ‘community’ has become popular in research and with humanitarian agencies and other organisations based on what can be considered a ‘moral licence’ that supposedly guarantees that the actions being taken are genuinely people-centred and ethically justified. The paper then explores several theoretical approaches to ‘community’, highlight the vast scope of different (and contested) views on what ‘community’ entails, and explain how ‘community’ is framing practical attempts to mitigate vulnerability and inequity.
This paper demonstrates how these attempts are usually futile, and sometimes harmful, due to the blurriness of ‘community’ concepts and their inherent failure to address the root causes of vulnerability. From two antagonistic positions, this paper finally advocates more meaningful ways to acknowledge vulnerable people’s views and needs appropriately.