A prerequisite for effective development work is a knowledge and understanding of the approach, perspective and value-base from which the practitioner works. This handbook aims to provide a source of knowledge and inspiration to those actively engaged in development work.

A prerequisite for effective develoment work is a knowledge and understanding of the approach, perspective and value-base from which the practitioner works. This handbook aims to provide a source of knowledge and inspiration to those actively engaged in development work. It demonstrates that the discipline of the field worker is an art which demands imagination, flexibility, the ability to work with ambiguity and contradiction, and to use guidelines but not rules. It provides suggestions on how western-trained workers should think about themselves and their work, and views development from various viewpoints - the individual, the organization, community and society.

1. Natural processes: biological, human, and organizational development processes
interlude - cohesion and division. 2. Paths and destinations: phases of development, and some initial thoughts on direction
interlude - resistance and awakening. 3. Social development as growth and revolution: the current impasse in development. 4. Development as the building of civil society: new directions for development
interlude - leadership. 5. A new stance
integration, interdependence and organizational consciousness
interlude - intervention. 7. The art of the development practitioner.