A "Scale" Approach To Community Development

When one looks into the literature on community development one finds a plethora of definitions. For example, Biddle and Biddle list seventeen different definitions, some of which seem to contradict others. Community development is also frequently treated as virtually synonymous with such terms as modernization, urbanization, industrialization, etc . As to theories of development, each social science discipline has tended to go its own way with the result that there is no over~all theory, only partial theories. Anthropologists tend to stress anthropological variables (Goodenough); economists stress mostly economic variables (Rostow); political scientists stress primarily political variables (Apter); sociologists stress sociological variables (Loomis); and psychologists focus on psychological variables (McClelland).