Introduction

In the previous two chapters I analysed five community development discourses in America and Britain during the politically salient moment of 1968 to 1975. I demonstrated how, during that moment, the majority of these discourses reproduced unequal and hierarchical relational identities between community development professionals or radical activists and local people. Only one discourse, the Democracy discourse as constituted by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, constructed equalised subject positions between community organisers and local people, however, this particular discourse was successfully marginalised by the other dominant American discourses. My analysis of the micropolitics of that moment suggests that the majority of community development discourses may be unable to effectively construct respectful, democratic and socially just identities within their repertoires. Furthermore, those discourses that attempt to do so appear to be consigned to marginal positions within community development. As I turn to explore a different moment in time, I shall evidence how the discursive patterns I analysed in Chapters Two and Three continue into and are entrenched during the 1980s.

This chapter focuses on the micropolitics of the competing discourses and identities of community development during the rise of the New Right in the United States from 1979 to 1985. I have identified three discourses for analysis. The ‘Populist’ discourse is constituted by the texts, language and practices of the Alinskyist ‘non-ideological’ nationwide neighbourhood movement seeking to curb the perceived power of political, social and economic elites through the decentralisation of decision-making and the building of independent grassroots-based organisations. The ‘Partnership’ discourse is constituted by the texts, language and practices of technocrats and reformed 1960s radicals seeking to reshape community-based organisations into public–private enterprises whereby ‘community development corporations’ (CDCs) deliver public services and initiate urban regeneration efforts. Finally, the ‘Empowerment’ discourse is constituted by the texts, language and practices of second-wave feminist academics and community organisers seeking to construct a new feminist praxis and place gender equality at the heart of community development theory and practice. As I shall demonstrate, these discourses emerge in response to the rise of the New Right and the growing public scepticism about the social and cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s.