The Elastic Community

Development organisations use the word community to signal participation and proximity to people. But the word can become so flexible that almost any project can claim it.

A programme can consult people without giving them decision-making power. It can work in a village without being community-led. It can collect feedback without changing a single decision.

The useful question is not which adjective comes before community. It is what power people actually have. Who sets priorities? Who controls resources? Who decides what success looks like? Those answers tell us much more than the label.