Indoctrinated Developmentalism and Local Sustainability: A Social–Ecological Model for Community-Based Enterprises

Developmental approaches over time have been largely economistic and overlooked local sustainability preconditions. They were greatly influenced by a host of doctrines, theories, and strategies argued through macro-level, macro-scale policies. This research retrospectively views these approaches as they have evolved post-WWII and their effect on sustainability at a community level. It eventually focuses on a specific community-level developmental strategy, i.e., “microfinance”, which has led to the establishment of millions of microenterprises. In recent decades, community-based enterprise (CBE) development has been a widely practiced mode of developmental intervention to develop underdeveloped communities in developing countries. The primary goal of CBEs is to generate profit for people’s livelihood. This research indicates that CBEs offer potential. They can be ecologically sustainable and socially responsible too. A shift in the present model to encourage CBEs’ pursuit of ecological principles is tenable. Foucault’s notion of “dispositif” allows such a shift with incorporation of environmental alongside economic and social goals as a new strategic disposition (model). Therefore, this study presents a social–ecological model of CBE and asserts that it embeds the necessary components to bring about sustainability at a community level.