There is a danger of subscribing too readily to the rhetoric of participative development. The communitarian assumptions of the endogenous approach privilege a ’territory’ as potentially homogenous and gloss over internal socio-economic and cultural inequality. The insights of Bourdieu are particularly instructive here. This paper argues that LEADER-type programmes need to include pro-active action targeted at raising the social and cultural capital of individuals and of disadvantaged groups (either of which happen to be in the area, but not innately defined by the area).The ideas are illustrated in relation to LEADER in the United Kingdom.