Community development both a collective effort and an achievement driven by individual facilitators with the aim of lifting a community out of poverty. The sixth edition of Community Development: Breaking the cycle of poverty continues to be a definitive guide for community development workers, students and practitioners alike. The book contextualises poverty and explains the process of community development.

It pays attention to the development environment and explains concepts such as asset-based community development and the social enterprise sector. In addition to context and process, the book details the skills required by a community development worker to function in the field. It also explains how to empower the development worker to train others in order to build capacity in the community and work towards breaking the cycle of poverty.

This edition of Community Development: Breaking the cycle of poverty is strengthened by the inclusion of extensive support material. More practical case studies, specifically relevant to the South African environment, have been added and questions on the case studies are included in the book.

The authors investigate the evolution of thought on community development from a methodology and technique to a set of (often normative) principles. Based on an extensive literature study the book argues that the more recently evolved fashionable concepts such as participatory development, people-centred development and empowerment can all be traced to a 'community development' origin. They conclude that community development was not evil but that, in the hands of powerful people, it became a tool of marginalisation and disempowerment. Key issues on community development are introduced and explained by way of annotated case studies.