Ron Dwyer-Voss

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Community Development Cliches to avoid. What do you think?

user image 2017-01-09
By: Ron Dwyer-Voss
Posted in: Reflections and Ideas

This is an interesting read. Anyone else committing to avoid these terms?

Community Development Cliches

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John Hamerlinck
01/11/17 01:27:06PM @john-hamerlinck:

Great article. Thanks for sharing it, Ron.

I would also add these cliches:

synergy - it made my skin crawl to even type the word


best practices - "BEST?" - you can't replicate history, relationships, local culture . . .don't just do what other people have done


self-sufficiency - We need each other.


Deb Wisniewski
01/09/17 12:30:33PM @deb-wisniewski:

Good article.... These words have bothered me for a long time: 

  • capacity building (who's capacity and who's doing the building? Capacity for what? What about the the capacity/gifts someone already has?)
  • empowerment (can I truly empower someone else? isn't that an oxymoron?)
  • stakeholders (who decides who's a stakeholder? Doesn't this lump people into one category without thinking about what they each care about).

One other word that wasn't mentioned in the article - volunteer. Don't get me started on that one! 

thanks for sharing this, Ron!