Throughout Europe there is a revival of community development, not only in those countries that have a long tradition in the field but also in countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. The political climate is favourable because governments, and increasing numbers of local authorities, are promoting interactive management in which citizens are involved in the early stages of decision making. A key question facing European, national, regional and local community development organisations, given the favourable climate, turns on the definition and meaning of community development being used: is there a common understanding of community development in the European context? The question is of crucial importance if community development is to make a serious contribution, at the level of policy as well as practice, to social inclusion programmes.

The following analysis is based partly on literature and partly on the report of a survey carried out among the 10 members of CEBSD (Hautekeur, 2004). While there is no one uniform definition of community development among CEBSD's membership, the following key concepts are highlighted in the definitions of at least two or more of the members. Community development:

• • delivers professional and independent support to groups of people;

• • identifies, together with local people, community problems;

• • increases the empowerment of local people so that they can organise themselves in order to solve problems;

• • turns its attention primarily to people struggling with social deprivation and exclusion;

• • contributes to a sustainable community based on mutual respect and social justice;

• • challenges power structures that hinder people's participation;

• • contributes to the sociocultural development of the neighbourhood by local people.

Similarities and differences

The diversity of community development across Europe reflects, in the first instance, the different organisational contexts of individual countries and regions. In 2000, the national Social Cultural Office in the Netherlands made a comparison of a number of European countries. It found that the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries are characterised by a high level of organisation in civil society. At the other end of the spectrum, we find that France and other Southern European countries have a low level of organisation. The remaining countries of Western Europe are somewhere in the middle.