A number of commentators have pointed to the mistake of assuming that community development is a recent arrival on the professional, social movement and social policy scenes, whether this was following the election in 1997 of the first Blair government or the new horizons that opened up for community development at the end of the 1960s.

The starting point of the history of community development is a matter of debate; it certainly goes back more than 100 years. In the following overview we have chosen to go back as far as 1968. This is because our purpose is simply to provide a backcloth or ‘map’ for the changing practice of community development, which is the focus of the publication. The intention is to refer to the main signposts in community development, not to weigh up or discuss all the twists and turns that have been experienced. This overview is not designed to be comprehensive. Nor does it expand on the different social policy and political contexts. By keeping a focus on community development we hope to give the reader the essential background required for the book as a whole.

The danger of providing a narrative account is that the significance of underlying themes and developments will be missed. The interviewees referred to many of these. Three themes that have been particularly important are as follows.