ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses change, continuity, and challenge in that community and begins with analyzing the evolution of the local political economy up to 1961. It analyses reinterprets literature on Hammam Sousse and emphasizes factors underlying the community's history of strong collective actions and sentiments. the chapter examines four indexes of local development—population, economy, public services, and construction—to show how they changed historically between 1956 and 1971, how they were expected to change from 1971 to 1986, and how they were observed to have changed between 1971 and 1979. It explores the utility of the remarks for development policies, anthropology, and the people of Hammam Sousse. A factor common to Hammam Sousse and other Sahel villages was the "dual polity" that emerged during the French Protectorate. The people of Hammam Sousse thus provide one local example of how popular participation in development has been and may again be achieved.
