Summarizes competing approaches to the role of culture in community development and use of community media--as top-down dissemination of messages or as participatory action research. Presents a case study of the use of video for community participation and empowerment in Burkina Faso. (Author/SK)

Article by the Regional Development Section, United Nations, deals with the relationship between community development and government, at the national and local levels. Includes a section on the manner in which community development and broad policies of social institutional reform are interrelated, using land reform as a case in point. (Author/DR)