Contemporary Community Development Leadership Theory and Practice

Kenneth Pigg (2013 ) shared in a special issue journal focusing on community leadership: “There is little doubt that improved and increased leadership capacity is needed in rural areas” (p. 408). At the time, Pigg had spent significant time engaging with other community development scholars and practitioners at a national conference, noticing many were frustrated with how often there was little to show for their work. He went on to argue that while there could have been several reasons as to the lack of observable change, this issue still clearly illustrated the need for better measurements on how (community development) efforts were building leadership capacity. The resulting answer – effective community leadership. We consider community leadership as a social context dependent upon social interaction. The case of ONE Lexington is presented as an example of an integrated community leadership approach and to illustrate applications of community leadership theory and practice.