| Abstract: | I have been involved in community development in Hungary since1980 and during this period international work has always playeda significant part in my work. However, four years ago, theHungarian Association for Community Development (HACD) beganto reorganize its contacts in other central and eastern Europeancountries. In this paper I seek to avoid generalities and insteadfocus on a small portion of our joint work in the region, describingthe experience we gained through carrying out comparative research.I begin by exploring the concept of civil society as the idealgoal of community development. I then introduce the situationin Hungary and, to a certain extent, the central and easternEuropean region, and outline some of the findings we have obtainedin measuring social capital. I go on to raise some issues concerningthe main challenges facing community development in the regionand, in a concluding section, I discuss the position of communitydevelopment workers. |
