Author:

Keywords:

Community development, social movements

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the relationship between community development and (urban) social movements. Community development organizations have their roots in urban social movements, but today the relation between the two is ambivalent, entailing both opportunities and problems. In a first section, I discuss the concepts of social movement and urban social movement, describing urban social movements as social movements with a strong spatial orientation, being oriented towards issues emerging in the immediate living environment. Secondly, the relationship between community development organizations and urban social movements is unraveled. In a third section, I review the historical development of community development in relation to urban social movements. Finally, I discuss the challenges currently faced by community development organizations willing to interact with contemporary urban social movements.