Interactive Strategic Planning and Community Development: The Northern Ireland Experience

This paper discusses a model of community development practice that involves an interactive relationship between organized rural residents and outside technical facilitators. A central argument is that a strategic plan in a multi-community planning situation benefits from a series of specific community development inputs. The discussion draws upon a case study in Northern Ireland where, in a deeply divided society, community-led rural development not only contributes to social and economic change, but also helps promote mutual understanding and reconciliation between contesting cultural traditions. The paper identifies three key issues of wider interest: engaging in strategic planning, supporting multi-community activity, and forging new partnership arrangements. It points to some mechanisms for replication elsewhere.