Community development planning depends, for its success, on a bottom-up approach and a depe understanding of local culture. In this paper, a case of economic development planning invoMng the Calcha, an ethnic group living in southern Bolivia, is used to illustrate how different the understanding of a same reality can be for planners and for local residents. Planners are urged to look at communities not as given objects but as cultural entities being continu­ ously created and adapted through the interpretive work of individuals and households interacting with one another and with their changing environment.