Community-based planning A BETTER APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT? A potential source of individual, community, and nationaldevelopment, the methods and application of community-based planning are well worthexploring. by George Kent 11 EVELOPMENT IS commonly L) takento be the responsibility of national governments; it is the planning offices in the national governments, always located in the capital cities, which prepare and publish the formal national devel- opmentplans.Even where thereis extensive participation from "be- low"-from individuals, commu- nities, and possibly regionalplan- ning offices-the function of de- velopment planningis understood to belong to the national govern- ment. The others are helpers. But why? Why should local peo- ple be the beneficiaries, but not the producersof their own develop- ment? Planning by ordinarypeople can be a major instrument not only for their community's development, but alsofor their personal develop- ment and for the development of their nation. The potentials and the methodsof community-based development planning are worth exploring. In this context, community- Dr. Kent is Professor of Political Sci- ence and of Urban and Regional Plan- ning ot the University of Hawaii at Monoa, Hawaii, USA. 74 l/ot, /\ rUo. ,{ basedrefersto face-to-face groups within communities workingessen- tially at their own initiative. Plun- ning means deliberateanalytic ef- forts designed to guidefuture deci- sions and action. The distinction between planning for action and the actionitselfis important.Some community-based development ac- tivity is based on plansformulated elsewhere. Some activity is un- planned. The focusis on planning itself, on the process of reflection that precedes and guides action. The meaning of development here, asin the current development literature, is amorphous. It derives from traditional interpretations concerned with increasing levels of industrialization and from modern conceptions centered on fulfill- ment of basic needs, but the mean- ing looks more toward the tran- scendent interpretations basedon ideas of humandignity and fulfill- ment.The formulationthat "devel- opment is the process of people taking chargeof their lives" cap- tures the meaning to be used here.t To develop is to gain increasing powerto define, to analyze, and to solve one's own problems. In these terms, community-based planning canbe seen asa direct means of de- velopment, not for the product it yields, but in its process. The idea of involving ordinary people in planning is well estab- lished in the literature, even if it is not so well established in the prac- tice of planning. Typically, popu- lar participationis advocated vir- tually without limit; the populist reaction against elitism is total. Despite the enthusiasm of its supporters,however, it must be acknowledged that popular parti- cipation has its disadvantages and (w.vs -7utl l?Et) its limits. For example,planners may wish to consult broadly on whethera bridge should be built, but gladlyleave its technical design to experts. Moreover, manypeople simply do not want to participate. It seems that people should have some right to become disengaged from public issues to tend to their own concerns. By any realistic appraisal, then, the objectivecannot be to maxi- NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT