Marxist Approach to Local Economic Development
Economic Development Workers in a community who take a Marxist approach to their work, view economic development as being the result of specific decisions made by groups of peel rather than by an aggregate of individual firm decisions. This is in contrast to workers who view the market locused forces as being the determinative forces in the dynamic. As outlined elsewhere, this philosophy of approach tents to show ore interest in the dynamics of where the market forces do not work for a sub-set of people than in the dynamics of the market-based successes. They tend to be oriented more towards community organization activities as they view political persuasion as far more effective in gaining benefits for their constituency than business formation. This is because they view the "controllers of surplus capital" a being the ones who really shape the big picture of economic development, and therefore need to be addressed by themselves or by an empowered community.
Marxists will tend to address the controlling class of economic players, usually found in and around the local and upper levels of government within the country. Dependency oriented workers will tend to address whoever is seen as having created a dependency status with their community, local or international. Both of these sub-groups of the Political Economy school will tend to show much more interest in preserving and empowering the prevailing culture of the local community than the Market oriented workers.
The links below are to sites, which relate to the political economy approach to Community Economic Development work.
Links To Further Resources
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