Sustainable Community Development

Background

World population growth combined with resource depletion leads to a decreased capacity for social and economic development. These trends are not limited to the impoverished nations and cultures often designated as the Third World. All around the globe, water and soil, the basic foundation for production of food and fiber, are being depleted and polluted at rates far beyond nature's capacity to replenish and purify these essential resources (Pimentel, Westra, & Noss, 2000). The Earth is undergoing accelerated climate change, primarily owing to the use of fossil fuels that have made possible the modern industrial model of development. Climate change can be expected to contribute to the spread and increased rate of infectious diseases as well as severe threats to agricultural production; in turn, these effects will severely threaten cultural sustainability (Hoff, 2002; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1996). The state of the natural environment is likely to be the primary economic and political factor influencing the development of peoples in the 21st century.

At the same time, through the human genome project, we are now aware more than ever that human beings are closely related to all living species on Earth. In the words of Swimme and Berry, “Every living being of earth is cousin to every other living being” (1994, p. 5). Scientific knowledge has opened our minds to more understanding of things we cannot see. It is, however, our willingness to accept [Page 170]responsibility for our role in environmental degradation and for changing the nature of development that allows us to have a salutary effect on the quality of survival for all Earth's species. Social work embraces the ethical principles that “social workers' primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems” and that “social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships” (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 1996, pp. 5–6). These ethical principles provide the grounds for social work practitioners in all fields—most especially for those in community practice—to become involved in local-to-global action in response to this unprecedented challenge to the quality of human life on Earth.

Concepts Underpinning Sustainable Development Practice

Concepts most often associated with sustainable development practice are social development, human development, and the term sustainable development itself. These concepts are widely used in the literature and have many overlapping, and sometimes contrasting, meanings.

Social development. This concept emerged after World War II, primarily to describe work to improve conditions in poor nations and societies newly liberated from colonial domination. In these societies, according to Midgley, social development was seen as “a process of planned social change designed to promote the well-being of the population as a whole in conjunction with a dynamic process of economic development” (1995, p. 25; see also Midgley & Livermore, this volume). In this approach, social services are intrinsically linked to economic development, and they are viewed more as investments than as a drain on the economy. Although social development as a concept and a process emerged primarily in poor nations, social workers in the United States have been among the leaders in applying its concepts, values, processes, and intervention strategies in the American context (Midgley & Livermore, 1997). Case studies, as well as theoretical debates and efforts to define social development, are regularly undertaken in many books, articles, and journals, including Social Development Issues. Some generally accepted principles and strategies include democratic procedures for decision making, intense intersectoral planning strategies (i.e., involvement of government, commerce, education, and civic groups), and broad participation by citizens in implementing programs.

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