The document discusses issues with the overuse of the term "community" in development contexts. It argues that the term is used more as a moral claim or virtue signaling rather than accurately reflecting social realities. In many places, power relations within so-called communities actually involve significant gender oppression and economic exploitation. Exceptions are indigenous peoples and pastoralist societies where relationships are based on maintaining culture rather than exploitation. However, the terminology of "community" and "community-based" has become dominant in development organizations partly because projects need to frame activities in that language to get funding. The term also ignores instances of conflict within communities.

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2. The word community is used by NGOs, international organizations, academics, research
institutes, and students (in essays, where it has replaced the word people or locality…)
Moral claim – akin to two social science concepts:
Virtue signalling: the conspicuous expression of moral values done primarily with the
intent of enhancing standing within a social group (Wikipedia);
Halo effect: If the observer likes one aspect of something, they will have a positive
predisposition toward everything about it (adapted from Wikipedia). Using the term
‘community’ in conjunction with ‘participatory’ and ‘empowering’ provides a broader
positive acceptance of what is being done, putting it above criticism.
a significant share of people vulnerability is created within the so‐called community,
because of power relations. The most significant relationships within ‘C’ in most of the
world are gender oppression, and economic exploitation. So we need gender and class
analysis instead of vague ideas like C.
Exceptions: Indigenous peoples; pastoralists – in these societies the relationship to
ownership of assets is fundamentally different and does not involve exploitative
relationships. Relationships between people are based on maintenance of culture, which
is itself part of thriving and survival. Mongolia!
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3. The terminology of C and C‐B has become the default language of NGOs, UN
organizations, WB, donors.. And many students are using it withouth thinking because
WE use it…
Here we have a clue as to why it has been so successful in capturing development: you
have to frame projects and programmes in the language of C, Part to get funding.
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5. Seems to ignore many recent conflicts where people
have killed each other within ‘communities’: Yugoslavia,
Rwanda, India, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Myanmar,
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6. Why is the word Community instead of simply saying People? Egypt has a highly unequal
distribution of land, and poverty is a consequence of the associated exploitation within
so‐called communities…
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20. WEB Du Bois had explained that “white laborers were convinced that the degradation of
Negro labor was more fundamental than the uplift of white labor”. Although white
labourers remained poor, Du Bois wrote, they were “compensated in part by a sort of
public and psychological wage”, the wage of racial superiority.
Sarah Churchwell, ‘Death of a dream’
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/21/end‐of‐the‐american‐dream‐the‐
dark‐history‐of‐america‐first
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