An economy in the service of society

The government is not turning to community development or the community sector as a whole for support. By Ann Irwin.

People are often confused, and understandably so, about community development, often assuming that community development refers to everything that happens at local level – in communities or neighbourhoods. The reason for the confusion is that community development ‘the approach’ has become decoupled from community development ‘the objective’.

The objective of community development is to address poverty, social exclusion and disadvantage. Having lived through an unprecedented period of economic growth, some might believe that this no longer exists in Ireland but we are still a country with relatively high levels of poverty, social exclusion and inequality.

(Picture: Pat Carey, Minister for Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs)

The most up-to-date information available (2008) shows that approximately 186,000 people or 4.2% of the population live in consistent poverty, and that 637,000 people or 14.4% of the population are at risk of poverty.

According to the ESRI, Ireland is seen to compare unfavourably not only with its prosperous neighbours but also with a number of New Member States. Inequality and social exclusion are a little more difficult to quantify but a number of facts might serve to illustrate. A recent publication by Father Micheal McGréáil, for example, highlighted the ongoing high levels of inequality experienced by the Traveller community, calling it an "informal apartheid".  Women continue to have a higher risk of poverty and according to the National Women’s Council of Ireland all public decision-making institutions continue to be male dominated.

Community development as an approach is shorthand for a collection of principles that inform a very particular method of working with communities. These principles (collective action, the participation of the most disadvantaged people and communities, addressing root causes of problems, empowerment, etc) attempt to address the issues of poverty, social exclusion and inequalities in a way that ensures that those affected have a say in how the issues are addressed.

Community development has proven its worth over the years, particularly in times of recession.

The current situation that the country is facing is not without precedent. The downturn of the 1980s produced a similar crisis in the public finances, accompanied by depressed economic activity and huge unemployment levels. This had a particularly devastating effect on vulnerable groups in society, with widespread poverty and intergenerational social deprivation becoming embedded in families and communities.

This required the State to seek the partnership and assistance of those experiencing poverty and their representatives to assist in finding creative solutions to these grave problems. The important role of community development in defining the needs of the disadvantaged, both urban and rural, and in developing effective responses to these needs, was clearly illustrated and increasingly recognised by the state.

Ireland now finds itself facing a similar crisis to the one faced in the 1980s and early ‘90s, with the added difficulties of climate change and peak oil. Instead of turning to community development and to the community sector as a whole for support in identifying sustainable ways of address the difficulties being faced, the Government is doing two things.

Firstly, it is drastically reducing the resources available to the community sector and to community development. Social researcher Brain Harvey, who estimates the cuts will result in at least 4,500 job losses, believes the Government is targeting the community and voluntary sector more than others with cuts of up to 10% contrasting with 1.8% nationally. However, though the current recession is not of the making of those that community work focuses on, those working in the area are pragmatic and recognise that budgetary cuts are inevitable.

The second action which the Government is undertaking will have significantly more far-reaching consequences for community development work in Ireland. To date, a key feature of community development organisations has been the participation of the most disadvantaged people and communities at all levels of those organisations, particularly at management level. However the Department of Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs has decided to merge these organisations with the much larger Local Development Partnerships and effectively make those who have spent years managing and directing organisations on a voluntary basis redundant, though the option of transforming into an advisory committee has been offered.

Opinion on this move ranges from those who believe that the changes will be cosmetic to those that believe that, as one member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee put it, this is an example of the State co-opting the work of civil society. No matter what your opinion, the fact remains that this key element of local democracy that engages those most distant from the democratic process will no longer be available – local people with local knowledge of what does and does not work will no longer be making the decisions for their communities.

In our not-so-representative system of representative democracy, this was at least one way of ensuring that those most distant from the democratic process like, for example, Travellers, disadvantaged women, residents of marginalised communities, had a say in the activities designed to make real and lasting changes to their lives.

2010 is the EU Year to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. The year was deliberately chosen as it is also the year that the EU was due to adopt a new strategy – Europe 2020. For the first time, as part of the strategy, the EU has established a target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty by 2020. This will be a challenge to the EU and its member states, including Ireland.

We live in a very unequal society, where the decisions for the many are made by the elite few. This inequality serves our capitalist economic system well - Michael McDowell was unfortunately correct when he said that inequality provides incentives and is thus good for the economy.

However what is good for the economy is not always good for society and we now also have irrefutable evidence (as seen in the work of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett entitled The Spirit Level) that unequal societies do less well than more equal societies on a range of factors affecting not only those who are disadvantaged but the whole of society.

Inequality is bad for everyone; men and women, children and old people, gay and straight, rich and poor.

There is now a growing realisation that we need an alternative model of development, one that puts people and society first, one that places the economy in the service of society, one that is sustainable, one that is built on the principles of social justice, social inclusion and, most crucially, equality.

Informed and directed by an ideology of equality, community development is one of the main counterbalances to the capitalist system. It is the main conduit to actively engage disadvantaged and marginalised communities and support their critical participation in Irish society. It has a key role to play in the identification of ways out of this current recession and offers a vital and efficient tool to support the realisation of a better society.

Ann Irwin is the National Co-ordinator of the Community Workers’ Co-operative.