Local community services at the heart of a new type of development

There is a current tendency to confine the concept of community services within a reductionist framework that regards it as a mere employment policy tool. The time has come to restore an alternative perspective and return this concept to its rightful place in the centre of a more ambitious overall context, namely a completely new type of development. The purpose of this article is thus to restore to this concept its full dimension and to show that it is not a question of using public subsidies to develop a few domestic-type jobs but to open up the way to another form of growth better able to meet the essential social needs which can be satisfied neither by the market consumer society nor by public funding. It turns out to be the case, moreover, that this new type of development, geared to a considerable extent to services, is actually richer in terms of job creation, and we speak, naturally, of permanent and skilled jobs. It is a question - no more no less - of prompting the emergence of a completely different approach to the economy, and this is a challenge for trade unionists who must find ways of reconciling two essential and apparently contradictory imperatives : the guarantee of quality services to the consumer and of a decent employment contract to employees. We are faced with major challenges requiring a political approach if they are to be developed on the appropriate scale.