Implementability: a taxonomy of community development approaches

The selection of a community development approach often occurs in an information vacuum, rather than through an evidence-driven alignment with local needs. This study seeks to provide a guide to communities and community development practitioners choosing an approach that is relevant and implementable. The guidance results from a conceptual review of sources describing thirty-three distinct approaches to community development, drawing on an exhaustive scholarly and grey literature search. Five common components (factors relevant when choosing or implementing a community development approach) were identified in the thirty-three community development approaches. From these, three components are especially relevant to communities and community development practitioners: principles that underpin the work; conditions to be met to proceed or succeed; and processes that describe ‘how to’ do the work. The analysis reveals that one approach, Systems Practice, combines all three components, and suggests that more research is required into the relative merit of each component, and to see whether communities are, in practice, combining and hybridizing approaches. The results are presented as a taxonomy to offer broad guidance to community development practitioners, scholars, and policy writers seeking to distinguish between the multiplicity of approaches.