Overview

This book critiques the traditional practice of community organization, change and development, and concludes that the present practice of Community Development (CD) and Social Policy and Planning (SP&P) is no longer capable of meeting the current challenges at the local or national level. The aim of this book is to identify the underlying motivations for the individual aggressive and collective antisocial behaviour that we witness in democratic society today and offer changes to the orientation of the current community change practice in order to build a system that can better address the present needs of society. This work identifies the factors that are moving society toward extremism and authoritarianism focusing particularly on the community level. Given the turmoil in communities that is degrading democracy and leading to authoritarianism today, the issues of Community Solidarity and Pluralism (CS&P) must be attended to before the traditional political, economic, and material issues that are regularly addressed by CD and SP&P practice can become the focus for change and development once again. This book will have widespread appeal to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students throughout the social sciences including sociology, social work, political science, economics, philosophy, environmental studies, and international and community development studies. It is also intended for the general reader who is interested in understanding the authoritarian forces that are attempting to infiltrate the democratic process.