ABSTRACT
Community development occurs when social relationships change such that fewer people are systematically excluded from the benefits that their societies deliver to others, and these reductions in exclusion—and enhancements in self-fulfilment—become more durable (Bebbington 2002). Only with this strategic goal in mind do efforts to foster participation, establish social enterprises, and promote community-driven development make sense. An effective community development agenda aims to change aggregate structures of social capital such that the distribution of power in society begins to favour the excluded. The term social exclusion is defined in the literature as the process that deprives people of the resources necessary to participate in society and limits their life choices systematically (e.g. Hills et al. 2002; Pierson 2002; Silver 2007). Social exclusion is a serious global issue at both the individual and societal levels.
