What did practitioners used to do? How did they work and what approaches did they adopt? We have described the changing context for community development practice since the 1970s and discussed different perspectives on roles, values and approaches to community development. In this chapter we will be looking at the way practitioners worked by drawing on the examples provided by interviewees. These are intended to flesh out earlier discussions. The chapter will look in turn at community development inspired by conflict approaches, followed by the more recent shift towards a community planning model based on dialogue and partnership working.

Community development as a vehicle for community Demands

As described in earlier chapters, the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed a variety of approaches to community development. It appears that some models of community development were considerably more challenging of the state than community development practice today. Practitioners who took this more challenging approach understood that one of their key roles was to support local communities to challenge and make demands on the local state based on their needs and wants. Challenges and conflicts were seen to be inevitable aspects of good community development:

Community development was seen as a process for uniting communities around common grievances such as the condition of housing or the lack of local services. The process of change that defines community development would be achieved through making demands on the local state and challenging authority. It is not that individuals and communities never complained without the presence of community workers, but with the input of paid workers, those demands became more coordinated and directed. Individual complaints did not pose a threat to the policies and practices of a local authority but a campaign for better housing involving hundreds of residents took on a different meaning and complexion for decision makers and elected representatives. Working in this way, practitioners were often closely aligned with the communities in which they worked. Many were seen as ‘trouble makers’ by the authorities and agencies that employed them.