Debates about participation tend to focus either on users’ involvement or on citizen participation and participatory democracy. Warren's concern with social participation across a range of ‘social units’ accordingly provides a useful counter-balance. It can also help us to unravel the meaning of participation in the context of community development. In a talk given at a conference of the Hungarian Association for Community Development (HACD), Vilnos Csányi pointed out that the social participation emphasised by Warren is a community function that facilitates the development of social organisations in which members of the community can become involved in establishing and shaping their community through community action. When this comes about, a loyalty towards the community emerges and this means that sometimes an individual will be ready to subordinate her or his interest to that of the community (Csányi, 2006).

This chapter begins with a discussion of the relationship between community development and social participation and the overall significance of participation. It also introduces the individual, community and political levels of participation. These levels can involve different types of participation that will be defined in relation to social and civil participation taken from social capital surveys. These forms of involvement can be used to highlight problems that involve change and renewal. We shall see that in central and eastern Europe, social participation is still much stronger than civil participation. Finally, we explore the issue of social inclusion in order to demonstrate how community development can contribute to the growth of participation and, therefore, to the strengthening of civil society.