Left to their own devices?: Community self-help between alternative development and neo-liberalism

Erhard Berner; Benedict Phillips

doi:10.1093/cdj/bsi003

Left to their own devices? Community self-help between alternative development and neo-liberalism

Erhard Berner^*
, Benedict Phillips

^*Corresponding author for this work

International Institute of Social Studies

Oxfam

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic

76 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is now widely agreed that the poor are not passive in the development process. Participation, once radical and controversial, is now mainstream management theory. Harnessing self-help potential is the order of the day. Properly ‘empowered’ or at least ‘enabled’, the poor are assumed to be able to overcome deficits of infrastructure and services and exhaust their tremendous entrepreneurial potential. Without altogether denying the validity of the self-help approach, the paper scrutinizes both its practical assumptions and ideological underpinnings. Does it work for all urban poor communities, and critically, for all people in such communities? And is it its efficiency, or rather the implicit justification of cutting subsidies and transfers, which make it so popular with governments and international financial institutions?

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	17-29
Number of pages	13
Journal	Community Development Journal
Volume	40
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsi003
Publication status	Published - Jan 2005

Bibliographical note

Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the ISS 50th Anniversary Conference ‘Globalization, Conflict and Poverty, The Hague, 7–9 October 2002, and the N-AERUS Annual Conference ‘Beyond the Neoliberal Consensus on Urban Development’, Paris, 15–17 May 2003

© Oxford University Press and Community

Research programs

EUR-ISS-SGIII

Access to Document

10.1093/cdj/bsi003

http://hdl.handle.net/1765/18436

76 Citations
2 Conference contribution

Left to their own Devices? Community Self-help between Alternative Development and Neoliberalism: Paper presented at the Conference organized by N-AERUS on 'Beyond the neoliberal consensus on urban development: Other voices from Europe and the South', Paris, 15-17 May 2003
Berner, E. & Phillips, B., 2003, p. 12.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference contribution › Academic
Left to Their Own Devices: Chances and Shortcomings of Self-help Approaches to Tackling Housing Poverty (Paper presented at the ISS 50th Anniversary Conference on 'Globalization, Conflict and Poverty', The Hague, 7-9 October 2002)
Berner, E., 2002, p. 10.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference contribution › Academic

Cite this

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title = "Left to their own devices?: Community self-help between alternative development and neo-liberalism",

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Left to their own devices? Community self-help between alternative development and neo-liberalism

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Research programs

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Research output

Left to their own Devices? Community Self-help between Alternative Development and Neoliberalism: Paper presented at the Conference organized by N-AERUS on 'Beyond the neoliberal consensus on urban development: Other voices from Europe and the South', Paris, 15-17 May 2003

Left to Their Own Devices: Chances and Shortcomings of Self-help Approaches to Tackling Housing Poverty (Paper presented at the ISS 50th Anniversary Conference on 'Globalization, Conflict and Poverty', The Hague, 7-9 October 2002)

Cite this