(Rural) Community Development

The Basic Issue

Rural Development or Rural Community Development is not a discipline in the formal sense of he word. Rather, it is a profession which has underlying it a number of formal academic disciplines each with their own traditions, methods and orientations.

This has implications for people coming into this area of formal study at a graduate level, as it presupposes a wide familiarity with each of these feeder disciplines in order to understand the literature. Writers in the field of Rural Development are schooled in any one of a number of disciplines, so a thorough understanding of their observations and insights requires a general grasp of the larger field from which s/he speaks.

Nobody has a thorough background in every possible discipline. Regardless of what discipline one does his/her undergrad degree in, there will be other disciplines which remain quite foreign, which require a quick (or more determined) upgrade as to their perspectives.

There are many overlapping aspects of rural commuity development with Ministry, particularly at the Strategic level, which are harder to discern at the tactical level.

The following pages are designed to facilitate a rapid introduction to the underlying disciplines which might be found to be a home discipline of a Community Development writer. I hope that over the years, the field of Community development will be enriched by contributions from a wider range of disciplines. Perhaps this section will encourage others to both see and appreciate the vital contribution such diversity can bring to this area of interest.

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The Most Common Underlying Disciplines of R.D. Writers

The Moderately Common Underlying Disciplines of R.D. Writers

Infrequently Encountered Underlying Disciplines of R.D. Writers