Advanced community development practice involves a critique of dominant development along with the planning and implementation of alternative operating systems. Alternative systems draw on many if not all of the ten principles of sustainability discussed in class and contest accumulation-centred (capitalist) relations.
Explore an example of an alternative to conventional development in Northern Ontario or elsewhere in Canada, drawing on course concepts, materials and readings and other academic and community sources.
Do not “list” the ten principles of sustainability, but rather you should integrate them into your exploration/critique of the alternative community development project you have chosen. You may wish to consider one of the following questions to guide your paper:
How does the initiative foster alternative ownership, production, consumption and/or distribution?
How does the initiative contribute to advancing a more progressive “standard of measurement” for development than the Gross Domestic Product?
How does the initiative challenge or subvert dominant development paradigms?
