Community Development and Co-production: Thinking Critically About Parameters and Power

Abstract

As the work of community development practitioners is to some degree influenced by social policy, it is important to think critically about the parameters a particular policy discourse may construct. In this paper I propose using Gaventa’s (2006) ‘power cube’ as a framework for analysing the possible parameters which co-production constructs for community development workers, specifically where it situates them in terms of the power they have access to. Firstly, I will explore where one might initially assume community development finds itself situated in the context of co-production and will highlight some of the opportunities this offers practitioners, specifically the potential for renewing democracy, using an asset-based approach and the opportunities to facilitate empowerment. I will then pose a more critical analysis of the parameters that co-production creates by exploring an alternative view of where co-production might situate community development and the dilemma this may pose – that of furthering the global reach of neoliberal ideology. I will conclude by suggesting the ways in which community development workers can continue to carry out meaningful, radical work – regardless of the parameters created for them by a particular policy discourse – by continuing to be critically reflective.