ABSTRACT
This chapter offers the practitioner a theoretical basis for intervention. It provides an insight into the necessary steps and ingredients of thorough development practice within the context of relative social stability, despite the turmoil which faces the victims of social and structural dislocation. Community development can draw on many discourses but, like most of the classical pioneers of the process, it is concerned with the adjustment of power relations within society in the immediate or short term. The worker must consider how a tactical shift of intervention procedure might influence the behaviour of any already captive customer/constituent group. The worker's role is to support the leadership, to promote the group's direction and cohesion, and to attempt to propel the group into decisions which will continue the process of collective activity. Work will be done intensively with individuals, as the necessary structures and networks may not yet be in place for focused work with a group.
