The current period of finance-driven capitalism, which can be broadly dated from the mid-1970s, has had profound implications for community development. Yet there is relatively little sustained engagement with research on financialized capitalism in community development circles. Bringing together writers and activists from a variety of contexts, the purpose of this special issue is to demonstrate the significance of financialization and its connections, on various levels, to community development globally. This introductory article synthesizes the insights of our contributors with scholarship from the fields of critical political economy, economic and historical sociology, and social movement studies, among others. In doing so, it analyses the diverse and variegated ways financialized capitalism is affecting communities’ access to public resources, affordable housing, safe and stable livelihoods, and a clean and healthy environment. We also highlight how the complexity and depth of financialization, and the extent to which it relies on highly specialized and inaccessible forms of knowledge to reproduce itself, impacts on community development as a form of praxis. The institutional cover provided to the system of finance by states and international financial institutions, and by certain NGOs and community organizations, has deeply embedded financialization at macro, micro and meso levels of the economy and society. However, while financialization places profound and often insurmountable constraints on community development’s democratic ideals, some of our contributors have pointed to possible ways forward. These are characterized by intensive popular education, political engagement and action. We also outline these in the hope that the special issue will contribute to more discussion of these vital processes and stimulate further purposive action.
