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Journal of Community PracticePublication details including instructions forauthors and subscription informationhttpwwwtandfonlinecomloiwcom20

Reconceptualizing CommunityOrganization in IndiaJanki Andharia PhD a aa Department of Urban and Rural CommunityDevelopment (URCD) Tata Institute of SocialSciences IndiaPublished online 22 Sep 2008

To cite this article Janki Andharia PhD (2007) Reconceptualizing CommunityOrganization in India Journal of Community Practice 151-2 91-119 DOI 101300J125v15n01_05

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101300J125v15n01_05

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UNIVERSITIES ANDINTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT

Reconceptualizing Community Organizationin India

A Transdisciplinary Perspective

Janki Andharia PhD

SUMMARY This article traces the history of community organization(CO) in the disciplinary and practice arena in India Although CO withinthe academia grew with social work the trajectory of CO practice reveals

Janki Andharia is Professor and Head Department of Urban and Rural CommunityDevelopment (URCD) Tata Institute of Social Sciences India

Address correspondence to Professor Janki Andharia PhD Tata Institute of SocialSciences Deonar Mumbai Indiandash400088 (E-mail andhariatissedu)

The author acknowledges the collective work of the faculty members of the Depart-ment of URCD over the years Dr Maveen Periera Dr H Beck Dr Amita BhideDr Mouleshri Vyas Mr PK Shajahan and Mr Manish Jha have contributed substan-tively to specific areas of community practice Useful suggestions on earlier drafts ofthe paper were made by Dr Manoj Jha Delhi University and Dr Surinder JaswalTISS The careful reading by the editors particularly by Dr Johnson Butterfield andher incisive comments helped sharpen the focus of this article

[Haworth co-indexing entry note] ldquoReconceptualizing Community Organization in India A TransdisciplinaryPerspectiverdquo Andharia Janki Co-published simultaneously in the Journal of Community Practice (The HaworthPress Inc) Vol 15 No 12 2007 pp 91-119 and Interdisciplinary Community Development InternationalPerspectives (ed Alice K Johnson Butterfield and Yossi Korazim-Kotilderoumlsy) The Haworth Press 2007 pp91-119 Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document DeliveryService [1-800-HAWORTH 900 am - 500 pm (EST) E-mail address docdeliveryhaworthpresscom]

Available online at httpcomhaworthpresscomcopy 2007 by The Haworth Press Inc All rights reserved

doi101300J125v15n01_05 91

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an increasing tension with the discipline of social work especially theway it is structured and taught in India The interface with the commu-nity development (CD) programme of the government as also the growthof the voluntary sector and the influence of new social movements com-pelled a review of the orientation of CD and CO A sectoral thrust onlivelihoods health education housing wages land alienation access toentitlements along with the pluralization of debates on caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities enriched CO in India The article offers a per-spective on CO based on practice and the critical engagements of facultymembers in one of the premier institutes of India which offers socialwork programmes Concerted efforts to respond to the changing socialand political context with consistent pro-poor stances provided uniqueinsights which are reshaping refining and re-conceptualizing the per-spective of CO in India This is reflected in course work the conscious re-casting of fieldwork the criteria of selecting sites of practice andagencies and the policy work undertaken by faculty members Couldthe new curriculum be termed as transdisciplinary or is CO emergingas a distinct discipline This is a question posed for further debatedoi101300J125v15n01_05 [Article copies available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service 1-800-HAWORTH E-mail addressltdocdeliveryhaworthpresscomgt Website lthttpwwwHaworthPresscomgtcopy 2007 by The Haworth Press Inc All rights reserved]

KEYWORDS Community organization community development Indiasocial work education curriculum transdisciplinary

INTRODUCTION

Community organization (CO) as a method of social work practice usedto be seen as a means to facilitate communities towards self-directedchange Although historically CO focused on community building self-help and mobilization of local resources over the years there has beenan increasing realization that integrated local approaches by themselvesare inadequate to deal with wider causes of poverty and inequality InIndia CO as a process encompasses all efforts that seek to redefinepower relations which contribute to the experience of discriminationand marginalization Therefore CO entails efforts not just at the level ofcommunities but with social structures and with democratic institutionsof governance With this broad understanding it is important to recognize

92 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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that although many community workers have often received their disci-plinary orientation in social work they are not mono-disciplined andhave expanded their repertoire of knowledge from a variety of disci-plines Furthermore in India specialists from different disciplines anddiverse backgrounds or other domains of activity have also undertakencommunity organization practice demonstrating innovation and effi-cacy of a number of strategies They include journalists law graduateshealth workers educational specialists engineers environmentalistsarchitects planners and so on Therefore CO in India has grown in mul-tiple directions and effective practice draws from diverse disciplinesand practice constituencies and also addresses a wide range of concernsIn their practice community workers are seen crossing disciplinaryboundaries with ease responding to specific issues and engaging in pol-itics of change and resistance with a focus on social justice equality andaccess to entitlements What then are the contemporary perspectives ofCO and CD in the Indian subcontinent How have they evolved andthrough what processes What are their disciplinary orientations

Beginning with a perspective on CO in India this article is dividedinto four main sections First the historical background traces the tra-jectory of post independence CD programmes and locates CO withinthe academia and practice Second there is a review of the growth of thevoluntary sector and the influence of social movements which has chal-lenged traditional conceptions of social work as taught in most universi-ties Recognizing the political dimensions of practice has created aconstructive tension and led to a reconceptualisation of CO The thirdsection elucidates this process of recasting COndasha shift from being amethods course within the interdisciplinary programme of social workto creating a new curriculum This has been evolved reflexively frompractice perspectives as well as from the multiple levels of engagementof faculty members of the Department of Urban and Rural CommunityDevelopment1 The last section discusses the implication of this shiftwhich is opening up a new debate on CO

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN INDIAA PERSPECTIVE

In India progressive community organization practice takes asits basis the inequalities in society manifested through processes ofmarginalization discrimination or disempowerment of groups Theseprocesses have also implied loss of control over traditional community

Janki Andharia 93

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resources Therefore CO is seen as a para-political process aimed towardsredistribution of resources and power in favor of the poor and the vul-nerable It is seen as a means as well as an end where collective processesare sought to be institutionalized in order to sustain the communityrsquos ca-pacity to bring about change as well as enhance responsiveness of stateinstitutions (legislature executive and judiciary) to concerns of socialjustice Grassroots organizing efforts at improving access to servicesandor their quality and advocacy are aspects of CO process Whileanalyzing and addressing inequality and discrimination in society variousfactorsndashincluding caste class religion age and genderndashassume signifi-cance These factors are also critical in disaggregating communitiesin analyzing the complexities of inequality and in determining the na-ture of intervention strategies The conceptual framework of the RightsBased Approach (RBA) to development assumes significance in thiscontext2

Since community organization as a framework for bringing aboutchange is used extensively by a wide variety of practitioners and profes-sionals in the development field the approach of CO practice can rangefrom improving welfare-oriented service delivery (working within thesystem) to extreme radicalism challenging the structure and function-ing of the state machinery Much of CO practice is also creating greaterroom for maneuver (Clay amp Schaffer 1984) for the voiceless enablingthe articulation of their priorities building on their generalizable inter-ests of livelihood security with dignity and respect However the unityof the marginalized or vulnerable on specific issues is never a givenSuch a unity has to be generated in the mobilization process for changeForging linkages through commonalities of experience (of marginaliza-tion exploitation or of vulnerabilities experienced) developing peoplersquosconfidence to negotiate with social and political institutions and prac-tices is fundamental to CO practice The need to synthesize structuralperspectives with individual experiences is reiterated in communityorganization in India3 Therefore CO is much more than a method ofsocial work as was originally conceived Whether it is a tool a frame-work or a paradigm is a matter of negotiating boundaries in situatedcontexts This perspective on CO in India is to be viewed in the contextof the history of community development and the subsequent contribu-tions of the new social movements the voluntary sector and the richpolitical debates on issues of poverty alleviation equality and socialjustice

94 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Contextualizing Community Development in IndiaPolicy and Programmes

India is a vast nation the largest democracy of the world with a popula-tion of 1027 million (GOI 2001) living in a geographic area of 3300000square kilometers It is also the seventh largest country Although Indiaaccounts for 24 of the worldrsquos surface area it supports 167 of theworldrsquos population Regarded as one of the oldest civilizations with arich and variegated cultural heritage the country during the 58 years ofindependence has demonstrated progress on several frontsndashagricultureself sufficiency and a fair degree of industrialization It is the tenth in-dustrialized country in the world and sixth to have gone into outerspace On the flip side 260 million Indians live in poverty the largestnumber in any single country in the world Over 80 of the poor belongto the socially disadvantaged groups (such as scheduled castes sched-uled tribes and other backward castes) Nearly half of the child populationremains malnourished

This history and cultural diversity are of enormous significance fromthe point of view of understanding community development In 1947 asa new nation free from nearly 200 years of colonial rule there wereseveral challenges Feudalism with widespread poverty very low liter-acy levels alongside social and economic inequalities characterized theIndian society Over 90 of the population lived in rural areas whereagriculture was dependent on the monsoons and the standard of livingwas very low4 The economic strategy of the 1950s was based on theassumption that an accelerated growth rate would help reduce povertyIn most parts of the country power and wealth were concentrated in thehands of a few Although enormous efforts were made to implementredistributive measures such as land reforms progress was slow and thesocialist goals met only partial success The Nehruvian modernizationagenda was the central framework of development which privilegedthe scientific management of society and development The IndianConstitution under the Directive Principles of State Policy held out apromise that the state would attempt to maintain a minimum standard ofliving for all its citizens5

The Five-Year Plans were initiated in 1951 aimed at economic growthand enhanced investment rates to address poverty (Bhagwati 1999)Economic planning envisaged a growing public sector with massive in-vestments in basic and heavy industries To protect domestic industry

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against foreign imports trade was regulated through tariffs and quotasDuring each of the Five Year Plans government involvement in socialwelfare increased creating the need for trained personnel in communitywelfare The CD strategy of involving people in taking action to meettheir needs was pioneered in India in the 1950s Until the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-1966) the Community Development Programme wasa comprehensive development effort to rebuild rural life and livelihoodIt became a bundle of special programmes with a focus on poverty alle-viation The CD Programme was envisaged to bring about a change inthe attitude of village cultivators from complete reliance on the tradi-tional way of the past to the active acceptance of science and tech-nology which when applied to agriculture could increase productionand thereby a distinct improvement in their standard of living

Two processes in the methods of CD were identifiedndashextension edu-cation and community organization The latter required the setting up of3 institutions at the village level (1) village panchayat (2) village coop-erative and (3) village school The objectives of community organizingwere to mobilize these new institutions for purposeful action to takeparticular care of the underprivileged class and to address the entireprocess of development Table 1 shows the national extension programmeof CD with its various components

The significance of the early phase of the CD Programme in Indiawas two-fold (1) it was launched and carried out by the governmentwithout the involvement of any voluntary organizations and (2) it re-mained rural specific with a block identified as the community Subse-quently a large body of literature has shown that the impact of these

96 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1 Thrust of Community Development Programme of Indiarsquos Five-YearPlans up to 1966

Areas of Intensive Efforts for Overall Development Of Social and Economic LifeDifferent Development Agencies of Government Work As A TeamParticipation of Villagers in Economic Development Programs through Self-Help andCo-OperationCoverage of All Rural Families Especially Those Who Are ldquoUnderprivilegedrdquoCo-OperativesmdashCo-Operative FarmingDevelopment Panchayats Actively Responsible for CDLandholding Consolidation Land Reforms AgriculturalDevelopment of Small and Village IndustryWomen and Youth Special FocusIntensive Work in Tribal Area

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programmes on poverty alleviation was limited The CD strategy ofwelfare and outreach was criticized as a top-down centrally-guided andcentrally-sponsored programme with a management approach rooted ina liberal ideological framework At the policy level it was abandoned inthe 1960s in favor of the more growth-oriented agricultural develop-ment programme However in the phase during and after the 1970scommunity development began to be increasingly used as a method inthe urban areas in the voluntary sector (Siddiqui 1997) Community wastypically viewed as a target population in a defined geographic area orneighborhood

In 1975 a 20 point programme was introduced in which the CDProgramme did not find a place in the text of the Plan Subsequent Plansfocused on rural and tribal development through special programmesand schemes targeting specific populations and regions In the SeventhPlan (1985-1990) the role of voluntary sector was recognized andthe government formally solicited their assistance in development pro-gramme The Council for Advancement of Peoplersquos Action and RuralTechnology (CAPART) was founded in 1986 with the objective of im-proving the quality of life in rural areas particularly the poor and so-cially disadvantaged sections of society People below the poverty linethe scheduled castes and tribes bonded labor women and people withdisabilities have been priority groups for CAPART Its major goalshave been to support voluntary organizations to implement projects forsustainable development in rural areas promote appropriate rural tech-nologies and support voluntary action and peoplersquos participation for ruraldevelopment

Between 1950 and 1980 the Indian economy grew at a comparativelylow rate of about 35 Embarking on a policy of comprehensive eco-nomic reforms in 1991 the rupee was devalued and severe import con-trols were imposed due to the worsening balance of payments positionThe Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced after 1992-1993which included a package of trade reforms exchange rate reforms infinancial policy public sector reforms including disinvestment andprivatization of public sector enterprises which gradually dismantledthe forces of planning in favor of the market The second generation re-forms currently being envisaged are designed to carry forward the pro-cess of economic liberalization and globalization These reforms areaimed at private market institutions as prime movers in the developmentprocess thus replacing the state and public agencies in as many spheresas possible As a result of the reform process growth rates have increasedto about 6 and foreign exchange reserves have reached unprecedented

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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4

non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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4

resources Therefore CO is seen as a para-political process aimed towardsredistribution of resources and power in favor of the poor and the vul-nerable It is seen as a means as well as an end where collective processesare sought to be institutionalized in order to sustain the communityrsquos ca-pacity to bring about change as well as enhance responsiveness of stateinstitutions (legislature executive and judiciary) to concerns of socialjustice Grassroots organizing efforts at improving access to servicesandor their quality and advocacy are aspects of CO process Whileanalyzing and addressing inequality and discrimination in society variousfactorsndashincluding caste class religion age and genderndashassume signifi-cance These factors are also critical in disaggregating communitiesin analyzing the complexities of inequality and in determining the na-ture of intervention strategies The conceptual framework of the RightsBased Approach (RBA) to development assumes significance in thiscontext2

Since community organization as a framework for bringing aboutchange is used extensively by a wide variety of practitioners and profes-sionals in the development field the approach of CO practice can rangefrom improving welfare-oriented service delivery (working within thesystem) to extreme radicalism challenging the structure and function-ing of the state machinery Much of CO practice is also creating greaterroom for maneuver (Clay amp Schaffer 1984) for the voiceless enablingthe articulation of their priorities building on their generalizable inter-ests of livelihood security with dignity and respect However the unityof the marginalized or vulnerable on specific issues is never a givenSuch a unity has to be generated in the mobilization process for changeForging linkages through commonalities of experience (of marginaliza-tion exploitation or of vulnerabilities experienced) developing peoplersquosconfidence to negotiate with social and political institutions and prac-tices is fundamental to CO practice The need to synthesize structuralperspectives with individual experiences is reiterated in communityorganization in India3 Therefore CO is much more than a method ofsocial work as was originally conceived Whether it is a tool a frame-work or a paradigm is a matter of negotiating boundaries in situatedcontexts This perspective on CO in India is to be viewed in the contextof the history of community development and the subsequent contribu-tions of the new social movements the voluntary sector and the richpolitical debates on issues of poverty alleviation equality and socialjustice

94 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Contextualizing Community Development in IndiaPolicy and Programmes

India is a vast nation the largest democracy of the world with a popula-tion of 1027 million (GOI 2001) living in a geographic area of 3300000square kilometers It is also the seventh largest country Although Indiaaccounts for 24 of the worldrsquos surface area it supports 167 of theworldrsquos population Regarded as one of the oldest civilizations with arich and variegated cultural heritage the country during the 58 years ofindependence has demonstrated progress on several frontsndashagricultureself sufficiency and a fair degree of industrialization It is the tenth in-dustrialized country in the world and sixth to have gone into outerspace On the flip side 260 million Indians live in poverty the largestnumber in any single country in the world Over 80 of the poor belongto the socially disadvantaged groups (such as scheduled castes sched-uled tribes and other backward castes) Nearly half of the child populationremains malnourished

This history and cultural diversity are of enormous significance fromthe point of view of understanding community development In 1947 asa new nation free from nearly 200 years of colonial rule there wereseveral challenges Feudalism with widespread poverty very low liter-acy levels alongside social and economic inequalities characterized theIndian society Over 90 of the population lived in rural areas whereagriculture was dependent on the monsoons and the standard of livingwas very low4 The economic strategy of the 1950s was based on theassumption that an accelerated growth rate would help reduce povertyIn most parts of the country power and wealth were concentrated in thehands of a few Although enormous efforts were made to implementredistributive measures such as land reforms progress was slow and thesocialist goals met only partial success The Nehruvian modernizationagenda was the central framework of development which privilegedthe scientific management of society and development The IndianConstitution under the Directive Principles of State Policy held out apromise that the state would attempt to maintain a minimum standard ofliving for all its citizens5

The Five-Year Plans were initiated in 1951 aimed at economic growthand enhanced investment rates to address poverty (Bhagwati 1999)Economic planning envisaged a growing public sector with massive in-vestments in basic and heavy industries To protect domestic industry

Janki Andharia 95

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against foreign imports trade was regulated through tariffs and quotasDuring each of the Five Year Plans government involvement in socialwelfare increased creating the need for trained personnel in communitywelfare The CD strategy of involving people in taking action to meettheir needs was pioneered in India in the 1950s Until the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-1966) the Community Development Programme wasa comprehensive development effort to rebuild rural life and livelihoodIt became a bundle of special programmes with a focus on poverty alle-viation The CD Programme was envisaged to bring about a change inthe attitude of village cultivators from complete reliance on the tradi-tional way of the past to the active acceptance of science and tech-nology which when applied to agriculture could increase productionand thereby a distinct improvement in their standard of living

Two processes in the methods of CD were identifiedndashextension edu-cation and community organization The latter required the setting up of3 institutions at the village level (1) village panchayat (2) village coop-erative and (3) village school The objectives of community organizingwere to mobilize these new institutions for purposeful action to takeparticular care of the underprivileged class and to address the entireprocess of development Table 1 shows the national extension programmeof CD with its various components

The significance of the early phase of the CD Programme in Indiawas two-fold (1) it was launched and carried out by the governmentwithout the involvement of any voluntary organizations and (2) it re-mained rural specific with a block identified as the community Subse-quently a large body of literature has shown that the impact of these

96 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1 Thrust of Community Development Programme of Indiarsquos Five-YearPlans up to 1966

Areas of Intensive Efforts for Overall Development Of Social and Economic LifeDifferent Development Agencies of Government Work As A TeamParticipation of Villagers in Economic Development Programs through Self-Help andCo-OperationCoverage of All Rural Families Especially Those Who Are ldquoUnderprivilegedrdquoCo-OperativesmdashCo-Operative FarmingDevelopment Panchayats Actively Responsible for CDLandholding Consolidation Land Reforms AgriculturalDevelopment of Small and Village IndustryWomen and Youth Special FocusIntensive Work in Tribal Area

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programmes on poverty alleviation was limited The CD strategy ofwelfare and outreach was criticized as a top-down centrally-guided andcentrally-sponsored programme with a management approach rooted ina liberal ideological framework At the policy level it was abandoned inthe 1960s in favor of the more growth-oriented agricultural develop-ment programme However in the phase during and after the 1970scommunity development began to be increasingly used as a method inthe urban areas in the voluntary sector (Siddiqui 1997) Community wastypically viewed as a target population in a defined geographic area orneighborhood

In 1975 a 20 point programme was introduced in which the CDProgramme did not find a place in the text of the Plan Subsequent Plansfocused on rural and tribal development through special programmesand schemes targeting specific populations and regions In the SeventhPlan (1985-1990) the role of voluntary sector was recognized andthe government formally solicited their assistance in development pro-gramme The Council for Advancement of Peoplersquos Action and RuralTechnology (CAPART) was founded in 1986 with the objective of im-proving the quality of life in rural areas particularly the poor and so-cially disadvantaged sections of society People below the poverty linethe scheduled castes and tribes bonded labor women and people withdisabilities have been priority groups for CAPART Its major goalshave been to support voluntary organizations to implement projects forsustainable development in rural areas promote appropriate rural tech-nologies and support voluntary action and peoplersquos participation for ruraldevelopment

Between 1950 and 1980 the Indian economy grew at a comparativelylow rate of about 35 Embarking on a policy of comprehensive eco-nomic reforms in 1991 the rupee was devalued and severe import con-trols were imposed due to the worsening balance of payments positionThe Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced after 1992-1993which included a package of trade reforms exchange rate reforms infinancial policy public sector reforms including disinvestment andprivatization of public sector enterprises which gradually dismantledthe forces of planning in favor of the market The second generation re-forms currently being envisaged are designed to carry forward the pro-cess of economic liberalization and globalization These reforms areaimed at private market institutions as prime movers in the developmentprocess thus replacing the state and public agencies in as many spheresas possible As a result of the reform process growth rates have increasedto about 6 and foreign exchange reserves have reached unprecedented

Janki Andharia 97

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Contextualizing Community Development in IndiaPolicy and Programmes

India is a vast nation the largest democracy of the world with a popula-tion of 1027 million (GOI 2001) living in a geographic area of 3300000square kilometers It is also the seventh largest country Although Indiaaccounts for 24 of the worldrsquos surface area it supports 167 of theworldrsquos population Regarded as one of the oldest civilizations with arich and variegated cultural heritage the country during the 58 years ofindependence has demonstrated progress on several frontsndashagricultureself sufficiency and a fair degree of industrialization It is the tenth in-dustrialized country in the world and sixth to have gone into outerspace On the flip side 260 million Indians live in poverty the largestnumber in any single country in the world Over 80 of the poor belongto the socially disadvantaged groups (such as scheduled castes sched-uled tribes and other backward castes) Nearly half of the child populationremains malnourished

This history and cultural diversity are of enormous significance fromthe point of view of understanding community development In 1947 asa new nation free from nearly 200 years of colonial rule there wereseveral challenges Feudalism with widespread poverty very low liter-acy levels alongside social and economic inequalities characterized theIndian society Over 90 of the population lived in rural areas whereagriculture was dependent on the monsoons and the standard of livingwas very low4 The economic strategy of the 1950s was based on theassumption that an accelerated growth rate would help reduce povertyIn most parts of the country power and wealth were concentrated in thehands of a few Although enormous efforts were made to implementredistributive measures such as land reforms progress was slow and thesocialist goals met only partial success The Nehruvian modernizationagenda was the central framework of development which privilegedthe scientific management of society and development The IndianConstitution under the Directive Principles of State Policy held out apromise that the state would attempt to maintain a minimum standard ofliving for all its citizens5

The Five-Year Plans were initiated in 1951 aimed at economic growthand enhanced investment rates to address poverty (Bhagwati 1999)Economic planning envisaged a growing public sector with massive in-vestments in basic and heavy industries To protect domestic industry

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against foreign imports trade was regulated through tariffs and quotasDuring each of the Five Year Plans government involvement in socialwelfare increased creating the need for trained personnel in communitywelfare The CD strategy of involving people in taking action to meettheir needs was pioneered in India in the 1950s Until the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-1966) the Community Development Programme wasa comprehensive development effort to rebuild rural life and livelihoodIt became a bundle of special programmes with a focus on poverty alle-viation The CD Programme was envisaged to bring about a change inthe attitude of village cultivators from complete reliance on the tradi-tional way of the past to the active acceptance of science and tech-nology which when applied to agriculture could increase productionand thereby a distinct improvement in their standard of living

Two processes in the methods of CD were identifiedndashextension edu-cation and community organization The latter required the setting up of3 institutions at the village level (1) village panchayat (2) village coop-erative and (3) village school The objectives of community organizingwere to mobilize these new institutions for purposeful action to takeparticular care of the underprivileged class and to address the entireprocess of development Table 1 shows the national extension programmeof CD with its various components

The significance of the early phase of the CD Programme in Indiawas two-fold (1) it was launched and carried out by the governmentwithout the involvement of any voluntary organizations and (2) it re-mained rural specific with a block identified as the community Subse-quently a large body of literature has shown that the impact of these

96 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1 Thrust of Community Development Programme of Indiarsquos Five-YearPlans up to 1966

Areas of Intensive Efforts for Overall Development Of Social and Economic LifeDifferent Development Agencies of Government Work As A TeamParticipation of Villagers in Economic Development Programs through Self-Help andCo-OperationCoverage of All Rural Families Especially Those Who Are ldquoUnderprivilegedrdquoCo-OperativesmdashCo-Operative FarmingDevelopment Panchayats Actively Responsible for CDLandholding Consolidation Land Reforms AgriculturalDevelopment of Small and Village IndustryWomen and Youth Special FocusIntensive Work in Tribal Area

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programmes on poverty alleviation was limited The CD strategy ofwelfare and outreach was criticized as a top-down centrally-guided andcentrally-sponsored programme with a management approach rooted ina liberal ideological framework At the policy level it was abandoned inthe 1960s in favor of the more growth-oriented agricultural develop-ment programme However in the phase during and after the 1970scommunity development began to be increasingly used as a method inthe urban areas in the voluntary sector (Siddiqui 1997) Community wastypically viewed as a target population in a defined geographic area orneighborhood

In 1975 a 20 point programme was introduced in which the CDProgramme did not find a place in the text of the Plan Subsequent Plansfocused on rural and tribal development through special programmesand schemes targeting specific populations and regions In the SeventhPlan (1985-1990) the role of voluntary sector was recognized andthe government formally solicited their assistance in development pro-gramme The Council for Advancement of Peoplersquos Action and RuralTechnology (CAPART) was founded in 1986 with the objective of im-proving the quality of life in rural areas particularly the poor and so-cially disadvantaged sections of society People below the poverty linethe scheduled castes and tribes bonded labor women and people withdisabilities have been priority groups for CAPART Its major goalshave been to support voluntary organizations to implement projects forsustainable development in rural areas promote appropriate rural tech-nologies and support voluntary action and peoplersquos participation for ruraldevelopment

Between 1950 and 1980 the Indian economy grew at a comparativelylow rate of about 35 Embarking on a policy of comprehensive eco-nomic reforms in 1991 the rupee was devalued and severe import con-trols were imposed due to the worsening balance of payments positionThe Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced after 1992-1993which included a package of trade reforms exchange rate reforms infinancial policy public sector reforms including disinvestment andprivatization of public sector enterprises which gradually dismantledthe forces of planning in favor of the market The second generation re-forms currently being envisaged are designed to carry forward the pro-cess of economic liberalization and globalization These reforms areaimed at private market institutions as prime movers in the developmentprocess thus replacing the state and public agencies in as many spheresas possible As a result of the reform process growth rates have increasedto about 6 and foreign exchange reserves have reached unprecedented

Janki Andharia 97

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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against foreign imports trade was regulated through tariffs and quotasDuring each of the Five Year Plans government involvement in socialwelfare increased creating the need for trained personnel in communitywelfare The CD strategy of involving people in taking action to meettheir needs was pioneered in India in the 1950s Until the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-1966) the Community Development Programme wasa comprehensive development effort to rebuild rural life and livelihoodIt became a bundle of special programmes with a focus on poverty alle-viation The CD Programme was envisaged to bring about a change inthe attitude of village cultivators from complete reliance on the tradi-tional way of the past to the active acceptance of science and tech-nology which when applied to agriculture could increase productionand thereby a distinct improvement in their standard of living

Two processes in the methods of CD were identifiedndashextension edu-cation and community organization The latter required the setting up of3 institutions at the village level (1) village panchayat (2) village coop-erative and (3) village school The objectives of community organizingwere to mobilize these new institutions for purposeful action to takeparticular care of the underprivileged class and to address the entireprocess of development Table 1 shows the national extension programmeof CD with its various components

The significance of the early phase of the CD Programme in Indiawas two-fold (1) it was launched and carried out by the governmentwithout the involvement of any voluntary organizations and (2) it re-mained rural specific with a block identified as the community Subse-quently a large body of literature has shown that the impact of these

96 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

TABLE 1 Thrust of Community Development Programme of Indiarsquos Five-YearPlans up to 1966

Areas of Intensive Efforts for Overall Development Of Social and Economic LifeDifferent Development Agencies of Government Work As A TeamParticipation of Villagers in Economic Development Programs through Self-Help andCo-OperationCoverage of All Rural Families Especially Those Who Are ldquoUnderprivilegedrdquoCo-OperativesmdashCo-Operative FarmingDevelopment Panchayats Actively Responsible for CDLandholding Consolidation Land Reforms AgriculturalDevelopment of Small and Village IndustryWomen and Youth Special FocusIntensive Work in Tribal Area

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programmes on poverty alleviation was limited The CD strategy ofwelfare and outreach was criticized as a top-down centrally-guided andcentrally-sponsored programme with a management approach rooted ina liberal ideological framework At the policy level it was abandoned inthe 1960s in favor of the more growth-oriented agricultural develop-ment programme However in the phase during and after the 1970scommunity development began to be increasingly used as a method inthe urban areas in the voluntary sector (Siddiqui 1997) Community wastypically viewed as a target population in a defined geographic area orneighborhood

In 1975 a 20 point programme was introduced in which the CDProgramme did not find a place in the text of the Plan Subsequent Plansfocused on rural and tribal development through special programmesand schemes targeting specific populations and regions In the SeventhPlan (1985-1990) the role of voluntary sector was recognized andthe government formally solicited their assistance in development pro-gramme The Council for Advancement of Peoplersquos Action and RuralTechnology (CAPART) was founded in 1986 with the objective of im-proving the quality of life in rural areas particularly the poor and so-cially disadvantaged sections of society People below the poverty linethe scheduled castes and tribes bonded labor women and people withdisabilities have been priority groups for CAPART Its major goalshave been to support voluntary organizations to implement projects forsustainable development in rural areas promote appropriate rural tech-nologies and support voluntary action and peoplersquos participation for ruraldevelopment

Between 1950 and 1980 the Indian economy grew at a comparativelylow rate of about 35 Embarking on a policy of comprehensive eco-nomic reforms in 1991 the rupee was devalued and severe import con-trols were imposed due to the worsening balance of payments positionThe Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced after 1992-1993which included a package of trade reforms exchange rate reforms infinancial policy public sector reforms including disinvestment andprivatization of public sector enterprises which gradually dismantledthe forces of planning in favor of the market The second generation re-forms currently being envisaged are designed to carry forward the pro-cess of economic liberalization and globalization These reforms areaimed at private market institutions as prime movers in the developmentprocess thus replacing the state and public agencies in as many spheresas possible As a result of the reform process growth rates have increasedto about 6 and foreign exchange reserves have reached unprecedented

Janki Andharia 97

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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4

non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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programmes on poverty alleviation was limited The CD strategy ofwelfare and outreach was criticized as a top-down centrally-guided andcentrally-sponsored programme with a management approach rooted ina liberal ideological framework At the policy level it was abandoned inthe 1960s in favor of the more growth-oriented agricultural develop-ment programme However in the phase during and after the 1970scommunity development began to be increasingly used as a method inthe urban areas in the voluntary sector (Siddiqui 1997) Community wastypically viewed as a target population in a defined geographic area orneighborhood

In 1975 a 20 point programme was introduced in which the CDProgramme did not find a place in the text of the Plan Subsequent Plansfocused on rural and tribal development through special programmesand schemes targeting specific populations and regions In the SeventhPlan (1985-1990) the role of voluntary sector was recognized andthe government formally solicited their assistance in development pro-gramme The Council for Advancement of Peoplersquos Action and RuralTechnology (CAPART) was founded in 1986 with the objective of im-proving the quality of life in rural areas particularly the poor and so-cially disadvantaged sections of society People below the poverty linethe scheduled castes and tribes bonded labor women and people withdisabilities have been priority groups for CAPART Its major goalshave been to support voluntary organizations to implement projects forsustainable development in rural areas promote appropriate rural tech-nologies and support voluntary action and peoplersquos participation for ruraldevelopment

Between 1950 and 1980 the Indian economy grew at a comparativelylow rate of about 35 Embarking on a policy of comprehensive eco-nomic reforms in 1991 the rupee was devalued and severe import con-trols were imposed due to the worsening balance of payments positionThe Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced after 1992-1993which included a package of trade reforms exchange rate reforms infinancial policy public sector reforms including disinvestment andprivatization of public sector enterprises which gradually dismantledthe forces of planning in favor of the market The second generation re-forms currently being envisaged are designed to carry forward the pro-cess of economic liberalization and globalization These reforms areaimed at private market institutions as prime movers in the developmentprocess thus replacing the state and public agencies in as many spheresas possible As a result of the reform process growth rates have increasedto about 6 and foreign exchange reserves have reached unprecedented

Janki Andharia 97

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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levels However the basic measures of social developmentndashfalling birthrate rising life expectancy improvement in child health and nutritionstandards higher levels of literacy and educationndashremain poor in IndiaFor example infant mortality is 72 per 1000 live births and 321 millionremain illiterate with the situation of women of scheduled castes andtribes being extremely poor In the absence of social safety nets pov-erty fear of destitution and income and food insecurity remain debilitat-ing features of the Indian society Discrimination social exclusionregional disparities high levels of poverty and unemployment continueto cause serious concern (Parikh 2002)

Although the policy and programmatic approach to development hasundergone substantial shifts the term community development in Indiagenerally connotes a failed government programme On the other handin countries like Australia UK and the US community developmentemerged as a philosophy and as a political strategy (Curno 1978 Onyx1996) CO in the Indian academia rooted in pro-poor organizing hasdrawn on development discourse an analysis of society state powerand politics of resistance and social change It is in this overall develop-mental context of the country which is moving towards increasingacceptance of capitalist values and interpretations that tracing the rela-tionship between CD community studies and CO as a taught disciplinein the academia becomes pertinent

Locating Community Organizationin the Disciplinary and Practice Arena

Historically as a discipline community studies developed as a subsetof sociology through the 1880s to 1920s (Cheysson 1899 Scott 1927Steiner 1930) The term community organization was first introduced inthe US during World War I by sociologists and adult educators althoughthe intellectual foundation of CO was laid through the work and experi-ences of community workers during the 1920s (Betten amp Austin 2006)The Lane Report of 1939 to the National Conference of Social Workidentified CO as a field of social work practice and it has been taught asa professional practice area largely in schools of social work since 1940sIn India too schools of social work introduced community organizationas a method of social work in the 1950s

When the first school of social work was established in India in 1936the thrust was to alleviate human suffering in low-income urban settle-ments and in public hospitals6 The education programme facilitated thelearning of skills for systematic intervention in the form of fieldwork

98 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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and field-action projects where teachers worked provided leadershipand students contributed their energies (TISS 1952) Much of the cur-riculum of social work was imported from North America and teachersemulated western approaches and methods with considerable enthusiasmof introducing a new profession Clients were identified for learningcasework skills each student was assigned a group to acquire groupwork skills and some students undertook community work The methodswere differentiated by identifying units of intervention (individuals groupscommunities) and casework was one of the most dominant methods insocial work in India in its early years of inception However internation-ally through 1960s and 1970s community studies were marginalizedwithin sociology although community practice and community organi-zation grew within social work with several international journals dedi-cated to the theme of community development and community practiceGradually however a distinctive body of literature around communitystudies developed through individual contributions from across disciplin-ary boundariesndashsociology anthropology geography and urban studies

In India as an arena of professional practice or within disciplinescommunity development in the academia was fairly dormant between1936 and 1952 With the launching of the Community DevelopmentProgrammes in India in 1952 formal structures of the village panchayat(councils) were created in accordance with the recommendations of theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee to carry out developmental functions ef-fectively (Siddiqui 1997) The need for staff duly sensitized to humanbehavior and social processes continued to be articulated within thewelfare and development sectors during the rsquo60s and rsquo70s Simulta-neously there was a realization that the knowledge base and skills re-quired to produce a cadre of workers trained for social welfare workservice delivery and development functions were unique to the socialwork programme The Central government therefore provided grants tomany of the social work colleges to set up departments to train their staffin social welfare community development and tribal welfare Forexample several new departments were established at TISS with finan-cial support from the Ministries of Rural Welfare Tribal DevelopmentUrban Development where government officers were deputed for train-ing In TISS by 1970s there were 5 departments offering a MA in So-cial Work with specialization in Family and Child Welfare Medical andPsychiatric Social Work Urban and Rural Community DevelopmentLabour Welfare and Social Welfare Administration Gradually the de-mand for committed workersndashsensitized trained and qualified in severalsectorsndashand community workers increased since there were no specialized

Janki Andharia 99

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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academic institutions in the country until the late 1970s offering a highereducation programme especially an MA Development studies orsocial action with an interdisciplinary focus on intervention did not ex-ist as an academic programme This vacuum contributed to the growthof social work and of community work in the academia However for avariety of reasons in the Indian subcontinent institutionalization ofsocial workers within state run welfare services did not happen auto-matically as in Europe and North America7

THE CHANGING TRAJECTORY OF THE CD APPROACH

Growth of the Voluntary Sector

There was also a parallel process which is often not recognized butwhich has had an enormous influence on the social work curriculumespecially the components of CO and CD in India This parallel processoutside of social work challenged the ldquoprofessionalismrdquo and ldquoneutralityrdquoof social work and community development India has had a rich tradi-tion of organizing and is a home to a number of ideologies and contestationsranging from the reform movement the pre-independence movementinfluence of the left movement the radical movement of the naxalite aswell as the so-called ldquoinsurgencyrdquo movement All these have impactedupon CO practice and inspired social workers some of whom joinedthese groups

Through the 1960s and 1970s organized societal actors played a sig-nificant role in mobilizing farmers students youth and women in Indiaaround class and poverty concerns Several nationalist and idealistyouth began to address issues of education health poverty the practiceof bonded labor and so on They experienced disillusionment and frus-tration with ineffective state planned programmes the benefits of whichdid not reach the majority of Indian villages8 The fact that naturalcalamities such as floods cyclones and droughts regularly ravaged therural areas posed additional challenges In almost every region enlight-ened youth went out to rural and tribal areas and set up voluntary orga-nizations and worked with remarkable dedication undertaking welfareand development work They took technology to neglected areas anddemonstrated effectiveness of community strategies This period evincedgreat enthusiasm about voluntary workers in India Many well-educatedand professionally qualified youth gave up good job prospects withinthe mainstream in favor of micro-level grassroots involvement in remote

100 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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4

CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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4

approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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areas to address issues of poverty education and ruraltribal develop-ment In literature of the late 1970s and 1980s they are referred to as theldquonew missionariesrdquo pointing to a ldquonew futurerdquo9 Non-party politicalprocesses mobilizing tribals dalits women peasants and workers alsogrew in strength through the decades of seventies and eighties (Gandhi ampShah 1991 Kappan amp Selvaraj 1994 Pinto 1994 Raj 1996) Thesesocial movements and mass-based organizations focused on povertyalleviation land reforms and issues of gender and caste inequalityexploitation and oppression (Shah 1990 2001 2002) Many of theorganizations were aligned to the left politically or ideologically andbelieved that professional social workers offered band-aid solutions andwere counter productive for ushering a structural change

Some authors view the emergence of grassroots groups in the 1970sand 80s in India as a revival of the CD strategy with emphasis not onlyon decentralized and community-based services but also on politicalaction (Alliband 1983 Holdcroft 1978 Khan 1978) The nationalemergency10 of the 1970s saw a renewed enthusiasm for activism due toits oppressive nature A number of action groups were formed and theychallenged feudal and dominant relations campaigned for human rights(struggle for land rights minimum wages liberation of bonded labourfought against forest contractors and agitated against construction of bigdams such as Silent Valley Project and Koel Karo Project) Committedyouth believed that their active involvement to organize and mobilizerural poor would bring new consciousness and social transformation inthe country This form of political activism paid virtually nothing andrequired commitment of the highest order and a willingness to live withpeople in poverty Such voluntary efforts had an enormous impact andthe country witnessed pluralization of debates about caste ethnicitytribal and gender identities

These social activists organized for asserting rights of people to de-termine decisions that affected their lives emphasized collective actionmutual support and active participation as citizens of a democratic na-tion They challenged feudal practices demanded resources and greateraccountability from the bureaucracy and elected representatives Thesestrategies and their successes forced a re-examination of the CD ap-proach within academia The divide between community developmentof social work and that of grassroots mobilization increased ConsequentlyTISS regularly had students who came with an expectation of learningto organize analyze social and political processes and address issues ofpoverty and development Many were frustrated with the non-politicaland benign orientation of the social work programme especially in the

Janki Andharia 101

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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4

CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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70s and 80s Peoplersquos movements and the struggle-based strategies ofthe voluntary sector emphasizing the need for political and social em-powerment of marginalized groups were not discussed in previous con-ventional literature on CD in India (eg Gangrade 1971) The processof organizing for an assertion of rights assumed significant dimensionswhich compelled a review of the way CD was taught in the academiaSince social workers in the academia were slow in theorizing and bring-ing in these practice perspectives they continued to reproduce westernand conventional ideas of ldquoproblem fixingrdquo The spirit of critical en-gagement with the social context was lacking Some of the subsequentgains of these voluntary processes and mobilization efforts of 1980s and1990s include the passing of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amend-ments11 the setting up of National Commission on Women in 1992 theNational Human Rights Commission in 1994 the Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes Commission under the amendment of Article 338 bythe 65th Amendment Act 1990

It is now recognized that in developing countries like India the insti-tutional social and political processes of welfare and development wereled more effectively by the voluntary sector This sector grew as ideolo-gies perspectives approaches and strategies expanded Trained socialworkers were an integral part of the sector which had no ldquoprofessionalrdquoboundaries Doctors engineers political science graduates lawyers andpeople from diverse backgrounds and disciplines committed themselvesto development work Community practitioners learnt and borrowedfrom other professions and disciplines as well as contributed in a vastmeasure to this process They successfully initiated and aligned them-selves with progressive forces within each of the development sectors atrend not as pervasive in the developed countries where social workersoperated within ldquostatutory welfarerdquo and were increasingly criticized forbeing ldquoan arm of the staterdquo

The wide gulf between social work educators relying on westerntexts and community practitioners in India has been extensively dis-cussed and critiqued at seminars and workshops It is during this periodthat a conscious effort was made by faculty members of certain univer-sities to ground the course on CO and the social work curriculum in per-spective building and political analysis This was done through activeengagement in a range of processes which reflect the trajectory of theevolution of the CO perspective presented earlier It also marks the con-structive turmoil within social work Although located within the disci-pline of social work in the teaching of CO the relative freedom enjoyedby social work educators in India has been used creatively by many

102 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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academic institutions to reshape the course content of community organi-zation In exploring multidisciplinarity teachers and practitioners bor-rowed concepts from various disciplines (see Figure 1) The ongoingtension between social work and CO is discussed in the next section andthe fact that this process has refined the conceptualization of CO andfurther transformed the social work curriculum bringing in a sharperpolitical perspective is highlighted

Janki Andharia 103

FIGURE 1 Historical Trajectory of CO and CD in India

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CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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4

CO IN INDIA AS A PARA-POLITICAL PROCESSCONSTRUCTIVE TENSION WITH SOCIAL WORK

A community worker in India is confronted with the imbalances indistribution of economic resources and power relations at local and re-gional levels This makes intervention work a political activity Whenlarge sections of people struggle with exploitative systems and pooraccess to basic facilities such as food shelter education and health ser-vices working with an orientation of ldquohelpingrdquo or ldquoproblem solvingrdquo canbe myopic Much of traditional social work discourse is centered aroundldquoperson in needrdquo ldquoproblem solvingrdquo adaptation of individuals and im-proving their social functioning rather than action strategies based on ananalysis of social and political structures which create inequalities ordeny access to services or basic means of survival Effective CO in Indiais necessarily a political process as it is concerned with power equityand justice Social movements and other organized social actorsndashpoliticalparties mass organizations labor unions and small non-profit organiza-tions and collectives reflect the rich organizing tradition in India Theyhave played a significant role in mobilizing specific constituencies Yetthese important processes of mobilization and subsequent assertion ofthe constituencies are still struggling to find an appropriate space withinthe knowledge system of social work curriculum as traditional socialwork teaching in most universities has not consciously aligned itself tothese processes

Many argue that interventionist models based on the Weberian notionof purposive rationalization must be interrogated in the cultural andpolitical context of countries like India Conventional social work rolesmodels and approaches have been located in the concept of welfare stateand provisioning of services As a result much of traditional social workhas been conceptualized in an apolitical way (Ife 1997) The instrumentalrole of social workers is valued much more than their political role In manyways an instrumental approach de-legitimizes peoplersquos experiences andrenders them powerless to create choices and change for themselves(Cox amp Hardwick 2002) This is compounded by the fact that the socialwork discipline has created a set of academicians who often reproduceassumptions and theories based on modernization values of western soci-eties This brings the risk of a profession becoming over prescriptive andpromoting a one-dimensional application of ideas Over twenty-five yearsago discussing the future direction of community work Sills (1974-75)cautioned that professionalism carries the dangers of inflexibility and

104 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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non-accountability to constituencies that social workers claim to workfor or work with in a prescribed change resistant form

In India the recognition that while occupying a position professionalscould go on to ldquoprescribe solutionsrdquo has challenged entrenched socialwork teaching based on early western models of social work Thelanguage of ldquoneedrdquo is associated with a top-down approach which con-structs ldquoclientsrdquo of bureaucratic provisions or ldquotargetsrdquo of social workinterventions (Elson 1991 Jones 1983) It is a perception from abovethe perspective of ldquoexpertsrdquo and ldquoadministratorsrdquo To speak only interms of ldquoneedsrdquo leaves open the question of who is to define what thoseneeds are in what terms and who is to act on behalf of them Socialwork is also critiqued the most for being dominated by the values andinterests of white middle-class professionals who often ignore classcaste ethnic and racist oppression which are pervasive in most societ-ies In India sensitive workers and professionals questioned the dispar-ity between what educators believe to be ldquosocial workrdquo (as seen fromthe curriculum the course reference lists and choice of field work agen-cies) and the knowledge generated from the experience base of commu-nity workers and development practitioners A framework of relationsbetween power and structure based on the notion of human agency andidentity (which is multiple shifting and sometimes contradictory) iscritical in the analysis of experiences Totalizing frameworks includingthose of social work curriculum often undermined cultural specificitiesand contexts

Similar debates on social work took place in other parts of the worldas well Viewing social work as a monolith was regarded as problematicand there have been radical critics of social work (Bailey amp Brake 1975Corrigan amp Leonard 1978 Galper 1980 Langan amp Lee 1989 Mullaly1997) In India too although many practitioners worked with a groundedpolitical perspective to intervention the shifts in curriculum based onthese experiences was very slow However there were a few individualteachers and students who were decisively influenced by these experi-ences and writings Teachers of CO and a few other faculty membersencouraged the questioning of the continued validity of the language ofldquosocial workrdquo and the hegemonic tendencies within the disciplineHowever teachers who inculcated and advanced the premises of locat-ing the centrality of marginalized communities within the core domainof community organization in the class rooms as also in the sites ofpractice themselves remained on the margins of the dominant paradigmof social work in India

Janki Andharia 105

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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It was in the above context that the faculty members from the Depart-ment of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) at TISSrecognized that unless practice oriented disciplines accept the complexityof a given social context and the ambiguities contradictions and incon-sistencies they will continue to have a myopic and fragmented approachand will fail to address in more encompassing ways the lives and strug-gles of people social workers work with The preparedness to questionthe basic lsquotoolsrsquo and methodologies bringing alternate discourse andpractices in the academia closer to the daily lives and struggles of peoplewas a challenge The effort then over the last one and a half decades hasbeen to generate and refine interactive contextualized perspectives andapproaches which emphasize search for pattern and meaning ratherthan prediction and control aspects characteristic of lsquoproblem-solvingrsquoapproaches within social work

Paying attention to the creativity in the field of practice CO teachersargue that the assumptions made by social workers about peoplersquosneeds and emotions must be interrogated rather than taken for grantedFurther the perspective and the disciplinary frameworks used by a prac-titioner offer different routes to the articulation of priorities and containdifferent ldquopolitical sub textsrdquo of social change Implicit in these politicalsub-texts are different ideologies and views of practitioners It is herethat the tension between ad hoc provisioning of services within socialwork practice and the political and ideological positioning of commu-nity organization becomes evident For example several social workersare engaged in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with-out recognizing that community development based on economic ratio-nalism often adopts a rhetoric which sounds politically progressivewhile in fact serving a different agenda of the relatively privilegedEducators in the academia need to be conscious of these distinctions

Another dimension of this tension is that trained graduates from schoolsof social work engaged in grassroots work or development practicehave always had to grapple with the polemics of ldquocommitmentrdquo ldquovol-untarismrdquo and the so-called ldquoprofessionalismrdquo There is a regular ques-tioning about whether they should call themselves ldquosocial workersrdquo ordevelopment workerspractitioners Within social work assuming acritical self reflexive posture has sometimes invited criticism fromsenior social work educators occupying positions of power and author-ity Many of them subscribe to a fixed posture of traditional social workand push for a homogenized view of social work in their respective uni-versities in India Those who advocate alternate views are sometimesconfronted with a subtle allegation of ldquolack of loyaltyrdquo to the discipline

106 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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which it is argued is relatively young requiring greater unity thandiversity As suggested by Lorenz (2001) ambiguities tensions andcontradictions of social work have to be constantly negotiated and re-negotiated rather than resolved to constitute its success It is these verytensions that lend richness to the theory and practice dialectic and leadto the development of a variety of constructions Are these interdisci-plinary multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary This discussion followsthe next section which presents efforts at transforming the curriculum ofcommunity development

TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM

This ldquoconstructive turmoilrdquo together with the space available to modifyand recast CO using innovative pedagogies has enabled the search foralternative approaches and curriculum which do justice to the complexitytenacity and indeterminacy of most human experience Several teachersand practitioners recognized that development interventions are notsimply a technocratic response to neutrally determined imperatives Thereis also a process of struggle over concepts meanings priorities andpractices which themselves arise out of competing world views aboutthe process goals and strategies of development Many in India haverejected a monolithic homogenizing understanding of ldquoprofessionalsocial workrdquo in the academia Instead they sought to locate the disciplinendashits practice and teaching in a complex world fraught with competingalignments positions and commitments Acknowledging the divergentunderstanding and practice of social work has been a major strength inIndia and many practitioners firmly believe that this diversity has en-abled the growth of CO perspective as well as the ability to respond increative ways to the changing socio-political context from specific posi-tions A consciousness that ldquopracticerdquo cannot be devoid of ideology alsodeveloped This has been possible because of the space available tointerrogate community practice and social work in institutional intel-lectual and political terms

Faculty members from various disciplines and practitioners havecontributed (and continue to do so) in numerous ways to the teaching ofCO and CD This openness to learn from various disciplines as well asfrom the practice base has enriched CO It is this cumulative experienceof debates in the development sector and the practice perspectives thatled to conscious shifts in the way CD and CO were approached in thesocial work programme Considerable innovations have been introduced

Janki Andharia 107

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in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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201

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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Oct

ober

201

4

in several institutions since the 1990s The shifts in curriculum of theDepartment of URCD of TISS is presented as an illustration highlight-ing a more grounded ideological and political perspective to CO

Course Work in Urban and Rural Community Development

Courses offered under this specialization aim at equipping the studentswith a sound theoretical understanding about concerns of rural and urbancommunities The vast range and coverage of courses is strongly linked tofield realities and emerging development concerns of the Indian societyInterdisciplinarity is emphasized in the academic programme by includ-ing courses on traditional disciplines such as economics politics soci-ology tribal anthropology and progressively other courses such as RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj Social and Legal Dimensions of COUrban poverty and pro-poor governance Communication ProgrammePlanning Disaster Management Environment and Development areoffered Many are new courses where modules are taught by plannershuman geographers and environmentalists The substantive contentincludes for example the discourse on participation the interrogationof the notion of ldquocommunityrdquo the gender analysis in developmentre-definition of urban planning and notions of ldquospacerdquo the debate onNorth and South divide on environmental issues and use of legal instru-ments by the vulnerable to assertprotect their rights The social workcurriculum of most universities in the country would not offer this depthand diversity in courses While discussing housing rights of slum dwell-ers having architects social planners and geographers taking sessionson politics of space or land allocation or land use is valued within theCD curriculum In other courses examining the impact of developmentprojects on the poor an exposure to tools such as environment impactassessments is provided by environment engineers Similarly since 1980sDisaster Management is a course taught within the URCD specializa-tion a unique feature of the social work programme in India In the eventof national disasters students and faculty members participate in reliefand rehabilitation processes (Andharia 2002) Communication skillsespecially development communication has been vital for all studentsof CD Similarly campaigns based on special interests and demands orrights of specific constituencies (women tribals dalits unorganizedlabor etc)ndashbecome relevant in CO practice and are included in the cur-riculum The effort in the specialization in URCD since the mid 1990shas been to focus on critical inquiry into action and research policydevelopment and planning community processes and mobilization

108 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

Janki Andharia 109

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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strategies of advocacy and collective action across sectors It must beacknowledged that this range of course content has been possible becauseof the specialization focus at TISS and the scope to collaborate withfaculty members from diverse disciplines in the Institute (23 DepartmentsUnits with over 100 faculty members) to teach and bring in their fieldand research experiences in the curriculum

Shifts in Field Work AgenciesMultiple Sites of Political Engagement

In early 1990s for concurrent field work in the Department of URCDthere were five to six government and non-governmental agencies withan emphasis on programme delivery liaising with the poor and improv-ing outreach of community-based services By the year 2000 there wereas many as 15 different sites of practice where 50 to 60 students wereplaced While this had direct implications for supervision and workloadof the seven faculty members in the Department it has enriched the De-partment by strengthening its field linkages The field work agencieswere consciously expanded to include trade unions womenrsquos organiza-tions peoplersquos movements and advocacy groups These non-governmentaland governmental agencies work with diverse constituencies rangingfrom children of tribals women the urban poor to unorganized laborMore recently citizensrsquo groups of certain wards in the city of Mumbaiwere included A deliberate interaction and dialogue have been soughtwith struggle-based organizations working with the marginalized Theseorganizations reflect the process of CO provide political education andenhance political consciousness of students The CO perspective isrefined in exploring the ideology orientation and approach of these or-ganizations where use of democratic processes and an awareness of rightsare considered a significant strategy Many of these organizations do notemploy trained social workers do not have offices or conventional staffhierarchies Many are small localized initiatives

The conscious effort in working and strategizing collaboratively isreflected in the way student tasks are evolved and the regularity withwhich contributions of faculty members in each of the agencies is ac-knowledged The depth of involvement and the support provided byfaculty members to these organizations have been of mutual value Thedemand for continuing with such a relationship is one indication ofwhat students and faculty engagements bring to the organization or tothe issue

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

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f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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by [

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ober

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4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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ober

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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Rural camps study tours and rural practicum offer additional oppor-tunities and many students are encouraged to go for block fieldwork orinternships with these organizations As a result students of URCDafter graduating have contributed to a variety of issues in creating ofalternate services advocacy grass root mobilization and policy inter-ventions Through field work and through field action support the De-partment has influenced the way tasks are undertaken worked towardsfostering and demonstrating change processes by engaging in directpractice in critical areas The development of organizational relationshipswhich support the interests of specific constituencies thus creating pres-sure for systemic change and reform is an example This includes advo-cacy for change in specific directions building support or resistance andopposition to certain state policies Besides students are encouraged tovisit interact and join organizations which possess strong developmen-tal and political perspectives Activists are invited to come in as resourcepersons to interact with students In the selection of field work agenciesand by modifying the content of courses faculty members and practitio-ners have jointly reassessed recast or modified the traditional (western)social work moorings

By emphasizing the need to clearly position interventions privilegingthe vulnerable sections of the society the curriculum in the Departmenthas stressed the significance of local democracy The overarching ori-entation of the curriculum asserts the centrality of the urban and ruralpoor in development processes and advocates their participation in so-cial and institutional practices that affect and shape their everyday livesin myriad ways Identifying and creatively utilizing spaces that existexploring and contributing to action strategies with a pro-poor stance onthe one hand and working at policy levels on the other were consideredsignificant

Negotiating Spaces Through Policy Work

Policy related assignments undertaken by faculty members of URCDillustrate the wide range of sectoral expertise which is also recognizedby central and state governments Within social work in most countriessuch an involvement is perhaps not very common After the Latur earth-quake in Maharashtra which claimed over 8000 lives the state govern-ment appointed TISS as the Community Participation Consultant from1994-1997 The assignment aimed at institutionalizing community par-ticipation within the World Bank aided Rehabilitation Programme Itrequired extensive field involvement and demonstration of participatory

110 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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ober

201

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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ober

201

4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

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Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

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3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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by [

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f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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ober

201

4

approaches It included community level conflict resolution enhancinggender sensitivity and dealing with caste dynamics Similarly in 1997-98a faculty member was involved in preparation of the Bangalore Sub-Regional Development Plan for Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Develop-ment and Finance Corporation for another state government (Karnataka)

Another faculty member is a part of the District Urban DevelopmentAgency MCGB Mumbai responsible for providing direction to theimplementation of poverty alleviation programmes in Mumbai since1999 In the post liberalization era labor reforms were necessitated andthe central government set up the Second National Commission on La-bor Six study groups were constituted and a faculty member was in-vited to be a part of the Study Group on Women Workers and ChildLabor from 2000-2001 The department of URCD was also requested towork on an Approach Paper on Community Participation in DisasterManagement for Ministry of Agriculture Government of India for theTenth Five Year Plan document 2002 In 2004 a National Committeeexamining rules and policies pertaining to Coastal zone management inthe country also had a faculty member from the Department More recentlytwo states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) commissioned a large study on safaiworkers (workers clearing garbage) for policy and programmatic inter-ventions Being invited for policy work in many of these ldquonon-tradi-tional social work sectorsrdquo represents recognition of the value of agrounded experiential and ideological perspective that faculty mem-bers bring with them to the policy forum It also represents the creationof political space for action by undertaking specific forms of researchand use of that research for advocacy in favor of the most marginalizedor select constituencies

Elsewhere social workers may have missed opportunities to partici-pate in policies related to housing local government welfare and com-munity development (Ife 1997) but in India at TISS the scope andspaces available to develop effective partnerships have been consciouslyutilized in these engagements by the Department of URCD Graycar(1990) has rightly pointed out that a number of challenging constraintsexist in such work At a practical level he indicates that time can be asignificant factor Faculty members had to take this in their stride Muchof this work is carried out over and above their regular work load Furtherpolicy makers and practitioners rarely speak the same language Thisrequired learning to negotiate The institutional credibility enjoyed byfaculty members is used to full measure to address specific concernsfrom a firm pro-poor perspective It is through this process that effective

Janki Andharia 111

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nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

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04

Oct

ober

201

4

Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

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Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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by [

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vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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ober

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partnerships have also been built enhancing the scope and relevance ofCO

RECONCEPTUALIZING COTRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A serious engagement with the Indian society and its myriad issues ofpeople-centric development in a rapidly globalizing era requires closerattention to new forms of exploitation and pauperization (Andharia2000) Despite the growth of the Indian economy material distress andsocial tension are increasing Landlessness among rural householdsthe agrarian crisis and food security concerns the farmersrsquo suicides anddeprivation deaths (malnutrition and poor access to assured water supply)ndashall constitute contemporary challenges to the democratic fabric of Indiansociety Widespread communalization of social and political life hasbecome a force to reckon with Market-driven development is aggravat-ing dispossession and dislocation especially among the peasantry andforest dwellers

The emerging areas in which the Department of URCD is currentlyworking arendashInformal Sector and Livelihoods Food Security Pro-PoorUrban Governance and Civic Issues Human Security Peace and Con-flict Resolution Disaster Preparedness and Response The Tenth Plandocument clearly reflected these thrust areas The reconceptualizationof the curriculum of URCD is also to be viewed in this context Anotherprocess of intensive review and reflection over the last 3 years has nowculminated Over and above the methods courses of social work andcourses on Research and Development Communication courses focuson several new areas at the two years Masters Programme in SocialWork

In this recent revision it is also envisaged that the curriculum wouldprovide students the scope to specialize in one of the last four areaslisted in Table 212 What is evident is a clear shift from ldquoworking withcommunitiesrdquo for local and neighborhood development to an engage-ment with social contexts at multiple levels Interestingly in the currentphase of globalization there is a revival of community studies and COand greater recognition of the need to strengthen community processesand local democracy The discourse on community identity ethnicityand human security (Jodhka 2001) finds immense relevance in the cur-riculum of CO A dual focus on collectives and the context or environ-ment is a hallmark of CO and the level of analysis that CO can provide is

112 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

particularly powerful because it is grounded in practice and the curricu-lum is creating what Gramci calls the ldquoorganic intellectualsrdquo (Sassoon1987 p 138) Today Community Organization and Development Prac-tice in India communicates a thrust that privileges the role of collec-tives an emphasis on community practice and community studies withreference to issues of vulnerability and marginalization Could this newcurriculum be seen as moving towards transdisciplinarity

Although this question is very closely tied to fundamental epistemo-logical assumptions about the structure or nature of science and theshifting boundaries of ldquodisciplinerdquo itself five key dimensions are rele-vant to the discussion on CO First disciplines are closely associatedwith the historical development of modern universities and researchinstitutions Second it has been customary to look at science as passingfrom the basic to the applied Third disciplines reflect knowledge do-mains and are embedded in theories ongoing research and often guidepractices Fourth it was believed that bodies of knowledge are ldquonatu-rallyrdquo developed for themselves (knowledge for the sake of knowledge)Further interdisciplinarity was originally conceived as holding thepromise of ultimate unity However this social construction of disci-plines has outlived its usefulness and is seen by many as a major obsta-cle to serious intellectual work (Wellerstein 2003)

Janki Andharia 113

TABLE 2 Transdisciplinary Curriculum with a CO Perspective

Society Structure Culture and ChangeSociety State Politics Resistance and Change in Post-Colonial IndiaDemocratization and Governance (Pro-poor Policies amp Practices)Social Policy and PlanningSocial Justice and AdvocacyDevelopment Theories Issues and StrategiesGender and Development Policies Politics and PracticeHuman Rights and Sustainable Human DevelopmentRight to Peace and Development Human Security and DevelopmentGlobal Economy and Polity Implications for Local Action Planning and Governance of CitiesSystems Issues Perspectives Rural Governance DevelopmentIntroduction to Disaster and DevelopmentLivelihood Work and Informal SectorEnvironment and Development Overview of Policies and Institutional Mechanisms

Adapted from URCD (2005) Review and restructuring A proposal from the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

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by [

Uni

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Oct

ober

201

4

Finally the fact that disciplines and bodies of knowledge are linked tointerests and goals that they are formed by the social economic and po-litical contexts in which they are found was argued by the scholars of theFrankfurt School It is now widely acknowledged in the academia thatgrowth of disciplines is propelled by multiple contextual dynamics Pestre(2003) for example argues that besides following the logic of theoreticalinquiry sciences also follow other logicsndashinstrumental institutionalpolitical He therefore suggests that it is useful to think of the growth ofdisciplines in terms of institutionally and economically situated practicedomains of mixed regimes of production that define the forms of knowl-edge whose logic varies according to the institutions in which they areinscribed This is true of social work and community development too

Multidisciplinarity interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity repre-sent innovation within a knowledge domain an overflow of disciplinaryboundaries- the recasting reshaping and recombining different parts ofknowledge13 The curriculum of CODP includes a number of socialscience theories draws from technological areas in addressing concernsof watershed management organic farming alternate sources of fuel andenergy and so on According to Weingart and Stehr (2000) establishedorder of knowledge within modern universities is beginning to dissolveCiting a number of examples which reveal an ldquounprecedented hellip cou-pling and amalgamation of disciplinesrdquo (p xiv) they emphasize thatdisciplinary interests boundaries and constraints are dissolving disci-plines are merging in areas where they overlap form a new field eitherproviding stimulus for other new developments or responding to chal-lenges from outside Transdisciplinary education enables establishmentof links between persons facts images representations fields of knowl-edge and action (Nicolescu 2005) It is not concerned with the simpletransfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another but ratherwith the study of isomorphisms (correspondence in form and relation)between the different domains of knowledge The transdisciplinary ap-proach is a science and an art of dialogue Hacking (2004) points outthat in transdisciplinarity the focus is not breaking down of disciplinaryboundaries but of mutual respect which as a new group of issues arisesmay create a new discipline Often there is a need to transcend a disci-pline or a knowledge domain to enhance understanding and to sharpenaction strategies

According to Nicolescu (2005)

hellip transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once betweenthe disciplines across the different disciplines and beyond all

114 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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04

Oct

ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

disciplines (Italics added) Its goal is the understanding of thepresent world of which one of the imperatives is the unity ofknowledgehellip It concerns the dynamics engendered by the actionof several levels of reality at once The discovery of these dynam-ics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge

He also argues that ldquoTransdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinaryresearch in turn disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinaryknowledge in a new fertile way In this sense disciplinary and trans-disciplinary are not antagonistic but complementaryrdquo (Nicolescu 1997p 2) A new vision and a lived experience are subsumed in transdisci-plinarity Moving beyond the domain of social work interventions in-formed by the CO perspective entail dialogue and praxis Several socialworkers concur that skills and knowledge required for CO practice areunique The unsettling of boundaries of generic forms of social workcurriculum and the evolution of CO with a more distinct perspective incountries like India needs careful attention Following the argument thatCO is inherently radical (Kahn 1995) can community organization beviewed as a separate discipline requiring sharper positioning and greaterflexibility within the education process Is CO a new discipline emerg-ing out of a transdisciplinary orientation Or is it best located within thediscipline of social work in India These are questions that require fur-ther debate and discussion

NOTES

1 This Department has existed since 1955 in the Tata Institute of Social SciencesMumbai The Institute was established in 1936 The Department comprises since the1980s eight faculty members who have consciously and collectively addressed them-selves to transforming the approach to community development and community orga-nization within the academia with a stronger political and social analysis of contexts

2 The core of a rights based approach is to enhance the rights dignity and resourcebase of vulnerable communities or of vulnerable people RBA is based on the convic-tion that every human being by virtue of being human is a holder of rights The rightsbased approach involves not charity or simple economic development but a process ofenabling and empowering those not enjoying their economic social and cultural aswell as civil and political rights A right entails an obligation on the part of governmentto respect protect promote and fulfill it Values and principles of a rights basedapproach include universality and indivisibility equality and non-discrimination par-ticipation and inclusion accountability and rule of law A human rights approach todevelopment focuses on empowering all people to claim their rights to opportunitiesand services made available through pro-poor development

Janki Andharia 115

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

Janki Andharia 117

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

3 Most community workers concerned with development in India would validatethis approach on the basis of their experiences This is not to be confused with theintegrated approach to social work of Pincus and Minahan (1975) which has been criti-cized for its traditionalist and depoliticizing assumptions (see Roberts 1990)

4 In the decades prior to 1947 both communist and socialist activists broughtissues of economic justice and well-being of Indiarsquos poor to the fore

5 The recognition of the contradiction between democratic socialism and the pres-sures of capitalist development came later (eg Frankel 1978) although during the1940s there were heated debates among Gandhi Nehru Ambedkar and Ram ManoharLohia on causes of poverty and issues of equality and social justice and policies whichwould be clearly responsive to the most deprived sections of society

6 This marked the initiation of professional social work education in India The SirDorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in Mumbai and later re-named the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) It is regarded as the premier institu-tion not only in India but also in South East Asian region By 1940s seven more schoolswere established and with every passing decade 10 to 12 more were added The countrynow has over 100 schoolsdepartments of Social Work which draws from TISS curric-ulum structure often adding their own specificities and developing uniqueness of cur-riculum The parity in course contents standards of curriculum delivery and evaluationin India across schools is limited

7 In the West social work as a profession obtained statutory recognition and trainedor qualified social workers like doctors and lawyers were licensed and became anintegral part of state institutions or welfare services They played an important role inhumanizing service delivery improving its quality and social workers became part ofthe state apparatus In India on the other hand although considerable effort has beenput in by social workers to establish definite posts of social workers in institutions suchas hospitals prisons police stations education departments and housing authorities ithas been an uphill task and the process met with varying degrees of success Furtherwhere positions of medical social workers probation workers or community develop-ment workers have been established the way these are defined by the state authoritiesor employers reveals that they do not distinguish between social workers sociologistseconomists home science graduates and psychologists

8 The Mahalanobis Commission in the late sixties found no reductions in inequali-ties of wealth health or consumption in the two decades of Independence

9 Kishore Bharti SWRC Peoplersquos Science Movement Kashtakari SanghatanaShramajeevi Sanghatana Bhoomi Sena Peoplersquos Science Institute exemplified thistrend They engaged in more constructive and people-oriented activism as there wasdisillusionment with ineffective government programmes Their commitment oftenparalleled the ongoing work of the Gandhians in village construction village industriesprohibition leprosy untouchability and the work of Christian missionaries who werededicated to the fields of health and education in various parts of the country

10 Despite 30 years of strong parliamentary majority the government was unableto significantly address basic problems of mass poverty glaring inequalities growingunemployment and rising corruption in public offices The poor harvest of 1972-73the grain crisis of 1973 and the sharp increase of prices between 1973-75 createddiscontent amongst the people of the country Large groups of peasants workers andintellectuals became critical of the government and organized various forms of agitationsThe strength of social movements in various parts of the country grew In response theruling Congress Party declared a state of Emergency which lasted nineteen months

116 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f W

est F

lori

da]

at 0

911

04

Oct

ober

201

4

between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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between 1975 and 77 The period of emergency represented the growing discontent ofmasses and rising authoritarianism of the government During this period of democracyIndia witnessed concentration of power in the hands of select politicians and top bu-reaucrats Subversion of parliamentary and judiciary procedures and severe restrictionson civil liberties were the hallmark of internal emergency Laws were blatantly floutedand preventive illegal detentions were carried out The Constitution was suspendedcensorship was imposed and a large number of opposition leaders were arrested allover the country

11 They institutionalized local self governance in rural and urban areas respectivelywhich has strengthened democracy and decentralization in planning They provide onethird reservation for women candidates and proportionate (to their population) repre-sentation for dalits and tribals paving the way for institutionalized participation ofmarginalized sections in political processes at the grassroots for the first time

12 To distinguish its specific thrust on the CO perspective the Department ofUrban and Rural Community Development has also been recast as Community Organi-sation and Development Practice (CODP) CODP thus articulates transdisciplinaryefforts on campus The nomenclature and the new curriculum have been accepted by theAcademic Council recently with some modifications For viewing the full curriculumsee httpwwwtissedumaswhtm

13 Transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity The goal of latter is always remains within the framework of a disci-pline According to (Nicolescu 2005) multidisciplinarity brings an additional or a plusto the discipline in question (eg the history of economic development of India to socialwork) This ldquoplusrdquo enriches the home discipline (social work) The multidisciplinaryapproach overflows disciplinary boundaries while its goal remains limited to theframework of the discipline Transdisciplinarity however is distinct because of itsgoal the understanding of the present world which cannot be accomplished in theframework of a discipline

REFERENCES

Alliband T (1983) Catalyst of development Voluntary agencies in India HartfordKumarian

Andharia J (2000) Challenges for social work educators in the context of globalisationIn L Shilneva amp R Sundby (Eds) Social work and social development New trendsin changing Europe (pp 120-130) Riga Attista

Andharia J (2002) Institutional response to disasters Changing contours of the roleof an academic institution Indian Journal of Social Work 63(2) 293-312

Bailey R amp Brake M (Eds) (1975) Radical social work London Edward ArnoldBetton N amp Austin MJ (2006) The roots of community organizing 1917-1939

Philadelphia Temple UniversityBhagwati J (1999) The design of Indian development In I Alhuwalia amp I Little

(Eds) Indiarsquos economic reforms and development essays for Manmohan Singh(pp 23-39) New Delhi Oxford University Press

Cherysson M (1899) The monograph of the community The American Journal ofSociology 5(1) 17-21

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Clay E amp Schaffer B (Eds) (1984) Room for maneuver An exploration of publicpolicy planning in agriculture and rural development London Heinemann Educa-tional Books

Corrigan P amp Leonard P (1978) Social work practice under capitalism A Marxistapproach London Macmillan

Cox P amp Hardwick L (2002) Research and critical theory Their contribution tosocial work education and practice Journal of Social Work Education 21(1) 5-47

Curno P (Ed) (1978) Political issues and community work London Routledge ampKegan Paul

Elson D (1991) (Ed) Male bias in development process Manchester ManchesterUniversity Press

Frankel F (1978) Indiarsquos political economy 1947-1977 The gradual revolutionPrinceton NJ Princeton University Press

Galper J (1980) Social work practice A radical perspective Englewood Cliffs NJPrentice-Hall

Gandhi N amp Shah N (1991) The issues at stake theory and practice in the contem-porary womenrsquos movement in India New Delhi Kali for Women

Gangrade K (1971) Community organization in India Bombay Popular PrakashGOI (Government of India) (2001) Census report 2001 New Delhi GOI PublishingGraycar A (1990) Practice under pressure in the changing welfare state Australian

Social Work 43 23-28Hacking I (2004) The complacent disciplinarian Interdisciplines Retrieved December

25 2005 from httpwwwinterdisciplinesorginterdisciplinaritypapers7205th20Jan202004

Holdcroft LE (1978) The rise and fall of community development in developing coun-tries 1950-65 A critique analysis and an annotated bibliography East LansingMichigan State University

Ife J (1997) Rethinking social work Towards critical practice Australia Addison-WesleyLongman

Jodhka SS (2001) Community and identities Contemporary discourses on culture andpolitics in India London Sage

Jones C (1983) State social work and working class London MacmillanKahn S (1995) Community organization In RL Edwards amp JG Hopps (Eds)

Encyclopedia of social work ndash19th Edition (pp 569-576) Washington DC NASWPress

Kappan M amp Selvaraj D (Eds) (1994) Resistance and hope Stories and docu-ments of peoplersquos struggles Bangalore VISTHAR

Khan AH (1978) Ten decades of rural development Lessons from India Rural De-velopment Paper No 1 East Lansing Michigan State University

Langan MG amp Lee P (Eds) (1989) Radical social work today London RoutledgeLong N (1989) Encounters at the interface A perspective on social discontinuities in

rural development Wageningen Wageningen Studies in Sociology 27Lorenz W (2001) Social work in Europe-portrait of a diverse professional group

In S Hessle (Ed) International standard setting of higher education (pp 3-15)Stockholm Stockholm University

Mandal KS (1989) American influence on social work education in India and itsimpact International Social Work 32 (4) 303-309

118 INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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Mullaly B (1997) Structural social work Oxford Oxford University PressNicolescu B (2005) Towards transdisciplinary education The Journal for Trans-

disciplinary Research in Southern Africa 1(1) 5 -16 Retrieved 15 December 2005from httpvaalpukaczabastdjournalpdf01ArticleNicolescupdf

Onyx J (1996) Community development in Australia Trends and tensions Commu-nity Development Journal 31(2) 99-103

Parikh KS (2002) Overview Ten years of reform what next In KS Parikh amp RRadhakrishna (Eds) India Development Report 2000 (pp 1-30) New DelhiOxford University Press

Pestre D (2003) The evolution of knowledge domains Interdisciplinarity and coreknowledge A paper presented at the scientific council of the CNRS (Centre Nationalede la Rechache Scientifique on 14th Jan 2002) Retrieved 25 November 2005 fromhttpwwwinterdisciplinesorginterdisciplinaritypapers87

Pincus A amp Minahan A (1975) Social work practice Models and method ChicagoFE Peacock Publishers

Pinto A (1994) The rising consciousness of dalits In M Kappan and D Selvaraj (Eds)Resistance and hope Stories and documents of peoplersquos struggles (pp 99-109)Bangalore VISTHAR

Radhakrishna (Eds) India Development Report 2000 (pp 1-30) New Delhi OxfordUniversity Press

Raj SL (1996) The emerging political scenario and the role of NGOs Social Action46(1) 3-5

Roberts R (1990) Lessons from the past Issues for social work theory LondonTavistockRoutledge

Sassoon AS (1987) Gramcirsquos Politics London Hutchinson pp 138Scott R (1927) Some problems of community organisation Journal of Educational

Sociology 1(4) 197-204Shah G (1990) Social movements in India A review of literature New Delhi SageShah G (2001) Dalit land struggle India Mumbai Vikas Adhyayan KendraShah G (2002) Social movements and the state Delhi SageSiddiqui HY (1997) Working with communities New Delhi Hira PublishersSills P (1974-75) Community work The action dimension New Community 4(1)

122-128Steiner JB (1930) Community organization Myth or reality Social Forces 8(3)

334-339TISS (1952) Silver Jubilee Report 1936-51 Bombay Tata Institute of Social Sciences

[Unpublished manuscript]Weingart P amp Stehr Nico (2000) Practising Interdisciplinarity Toronto University

of Toronto PressWellerstein I (2003)Anthropology sociology and other dubious disciplines Current

Anthropology 44(4) 69-75

doi101300J125v15n01_05

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