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Struggling toward sustainability: considering grassroots development
Author(s) -
Stevens Kris,
Morris John
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
sustainable development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.115
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1099-1719
pISSN - 0968-0802
DOI - 10.1002/sd.165
Subject(s) - grassroots , extant taxon , dichotomy , articulation (sociology) , sustainability , sustainable development , action (physics) , sociology , environmental ethics , political science , epistemology , law , biology , ecology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , politics
Grassroots development (GRD) has long been seen as a way of involving the uninvolved stakeholders, a problem identified in other types of development. In examining traditional GRD this paper demonstrates that many of the neo‐liberal leanings that have been identified as problematic in macro‐scale development are also found in traditional GRD. These are shown to be detrimental to project outcomes. This paper's main contribution is to embed communitarian assumptions into GRD, an action that leads to the articulation of a communitarian grassroots development (CGRD). Extant case studies and conceptual graphic interpretations are used to illustrate the dimensions of CGRD. Central is the need for personal growth and its consequent contribution to community. It is argued that CGRD leads to sustainable development, a goal unattained under neo‐liberal assumptions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment