Neighbourhood and Localities Based Approaches to Local Economic Development
Many Community Development workers view all local economic development work worthy of the name as being "action at the community level". Though this is not universally held, it is a very common outlook.
Community is defined in two main ways. An earlier definition of community referred to a group of people with aspects of life in common including some sort of geographic location. The second definition does not view the geographic tie as being important, owing to changes in modern transportation and communication. This second definition, of course, is gaining popularity now with the emergence of "virtual communities" on the Internet, made up of like-minded people scattered throughout the world. That raises the picture of "virtual community economic development officers" plying their trade in cyberspace in the future.
Wiewel, Teitz and Giloth ( ) describe seven activities which are characteristic of workers operating at this level, as they address needs typical of people living in communities of one sort or another:
- Business retention - stabilizing what already exists.
- Commercial revitalization - bringing in new businesses.
- Entrepreneruialism - Starting up new businesses.
- Capital accumulation - Assembling money and resources.
- Education, training and placement - Improving "human capital".
- Community Organizing and planning - Brokering stakeholder relationships.
Community-level economic development officers approach their work from a variety of perspectives, links to which are outlined below.
Neighbourhood and Localities Approaches
- Sociological View of Community Based Approahch
- Integrated Discipline Approach
- Marxist Approach
- Market Based Approach
- Political Process Approach
- Faith Based Approaches to Local Economis Development
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