Asset-based and citizen-led development: Using a diffracted power lens to analyze the possibilities and challenges

Abstract

asset-based community development or asset-based and citizen-led development (aBCD) is being used in a range of development contexts. Some researchers have been quick to dismiss aBCD as part of the neoliberal project and an approach that perpetuates unequal power relations. This article uses a diffracted power analysis to explore the possibilities associated with aBCD as well as the challenges. It focuses on the application of aBCD in the Philippines, ethiopia and South africa, and finds that aBCD can reverse internalized powerlessness, strengthen opportunities for collective endeavours and help to build local capacity for action.

Identities, interests, and preferences matter: Fostering sustainable community development by building assets and agency in western Kenya

“…The ABCD approach has been taken up by partners in various contexts and countries on all continents for the past 15 years (Peters, Mathie, & Legesse, ). Although initially developed by the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA based on lessons drawn from observing marginalized groups that organically overcame poverty in the absence of external assistance (Kretzmann & McKnight, , ), the Coady Institute has successfully adapted ABCD to a context of externally supported but nonetheless community‐based development work (Coady International Institute, ; Mathie, Cameron, & Gibson, ; Mathie & Peters, ). ABCD is not new as such, but its innovation lies in providing a framework for appreciating that communities have been driving their own development in the absence of usually well‐meaning external actors since time immemorial.…”

Combining Bio-Cultural and Asset Based Approach Towards Sustainable Utilization of Catchment Resources

“…The approach helps to recognize and identify the resources, skills and experience communities have, and how to use these resources for their own development [37]. The approach moves interactions with communities from a deficiency, needs, and problembased orientation to an asset-based approach, built on a foundation that communities can drive the development process by identifying and mobilizing existing assets [27]. ABCD's approach is in line with the principles and practice of participatory approach to development, where active participation and empowerment are the basis of practice.…”

“…The ABCD enables a shift in the understanding of interactions within communities from a deficiency, needs, and problem-based orientation, to an asset-based approach built on a foundation that communities can drive their development process by identifying and mobilizing existing assets [27]. The bio-cultural approach on the other hand provides a clear understanding of how people in different cultures around the world interact with hydrological systems and responds to hydrological dynamics resulting from their actions [28,15,29,12].…”

“…Therefore, the combined bio-cultural and asset based approaches will help to understand links and dynamics existing between social and water systems for sustainable water resource and catchment management in a changing, uncertain and unpredictable environment [18,7]. This is within the context of the principles and practice of participatory approach to development, where active community participation and empowerment are the basis of sustainable and economic development [27].…”

Open Praxis, volume 10 issue 2

“…Assets based approaches have been implemented in 'Community Integration Initiatives' (CII) in Scottish and Danish locations to help build local capacity for action and collective action (Deuchar & Bone, 2015). The capacity of ABCD; how it operates in practice; and the types of outcomes that result from its use, indicate that, when implemented within different communities in the Philippines, Ethiopia and South Africa, ABCD harnessed: (1) 'power within' through reversing internalised powerlessness; (2) 'power with' by strengthening opportunities for collective action; and (3) 'power to' by emphasising and building local capacity for action successfully (Mathie, Cameron & Gibson, 2017). However, with assets based approaches roots in bottom up activism and alongside increasingly top down policy initiatives, community workers can find themselves in the middle with little support.…”