This dissertation explores the nuanced ways in which heterogeneity in social relationships and community characteristics influence processes of economic development. It contributes novel theoretical and empirical insights using a combination of social network analysis on originally collected surveys of farmers in Ghana and Malawi. Each chapter highlights the nuanced and unique contributions of social networks within village economies, including the ways they influence decision-making through social learning processes and local norms of redistribution. Chapters two and three suggest that variation in bonds of friendship influence the quality of information one receives and the extent to which redistributive giving leads to efficient outcomes. Chapter four explores a common policy framework utilized by governments and NGOs to engage with communities as comprehensive units of society. It finds that variation in capacity for local collective action is not adequately harnessed when NGOs and governments deal with communities in a homogeneous manner. As a whole, this dissertation invites a new path of inquiry that takes seriously the varying degrees to which communities possess the capacity to influence economic development. The nuanced understandings of community economies invites future research to consider means of integrating community functions into development policies that have historically depended on broadening access to mutually beneficial exchange through markets.