In discussions of community participation it is important to identify the appropriate definition
of community. When involving the community it is essential to recognize that communities
are not homogeneous but in fact heterogeneous (Mompati and Prinsen 2000). Cleaver
(1999:603) identified common myths of community.
‘Community in participatory approaches to development is often conceptualized as
some kind of natural, desirable social entity imbued with all sorts of desirable values
and the simple manifestation of this in organizational form’.
Three aspects of community are most important to those who advocate a positive role for
communities in resource management: community as a small spatial unit; as a homogenous
social structure; and as shared norms (Agrawal and Gibson 1999). Boundaries of
community are usually based on people or places so the distinction between interest
communities (people centered) and territorial communities (place centered) is often made
(Kelly 2001). Boundaries are often culturally and socially determined making them unclear
and defining them will depend on the perspective of the individual. The concept of
community is linked to thinkers such as Tonnies, Durkheim, Cooley and Weber (Colombo,
Mosso et al. 2001). Agrawal and Gibson identified that it is more important and realistic to
view community as having multiple interests and actors with a focus on how these actors
influence decision-making, and on the internal and external institutions that shape the
decision-making process.