TOWARD A RECONSIDERATION OF THE TERM "CATALYST" IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT THEORY.

The article presents a discussion on the use of the term "catalyst" in community development theory. A major lesson of social psychology is that the external world is perceived through the medium of concepts which facilitates observation and understanding. The use of term catalyst in community development is inadequate and misleading. A catalyst is an agent that induces a reaction without changing itself. In community development, the term catalyst is used to describe the roles played by community development specialists. But it falls far short of describing the role. Unlike the catalyst, the community development specialists are not inert as their presence is not sufficient to produce the result. They have to be active in educating and persuading a community to take action. They are concerned with stimulating action on several fronts on a continuing basis and with creating a self-generating process which will insure the continuation of action after their withdrawal. Unlike the catalyst, they can't expect the same reaction from all the communities. In fact, same community behaves differently at different times. A community development specialist does not remain unchanged by the experiences he goes through.