Civic Culture and Local Economic Development in a Small Town PDF Download

Author: Deidré Van Rooyen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community development
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Author: Laura A. Reese
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0761916911
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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"The focus on economic development policy provides a window on local decision making and allows for the development of a theory, introduced by the authors, about the role of local civic culture in framing local decisions of all types. This ultimately provides a theoretical vehicle for categorizing cities and predicting policy outcomes.

Author: Laura A. Reese
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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In this seminal work, the authors argue that there are distinct local factors that shape the environment of economic development decision-making. These factors, taken together, constitute a community's local civic culture. Using survey and case study data from U.S. and Canadian cities, the authors make the case that different cultures will produce different types of economic development policies, and that local civic culture will effect the whole array of local policies.

Author: Meredith Ramsay
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438448872
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Newly updated comparative study of economic development policy, and its relationship with local power structures and cultural and social relations, in two Maryland towns. Community economic development is conventionally explained using one of two models: a market model that assumes individuals always attempt to maximize their wealth, or a growth model that assumes land use is controlled by real estate developers who invariably pursue outside investment as a way of increasing land values and creating jobs and opportunities. In the first edition of Community, Culture, and Economic Development, Meredith Ramsay’s close study of two small towns on Maryland’s Lower Shore demonstrated that neither model can explain why these communities, alike in so many ways, responded so differently to economic decline or why archaic hierarchies of race, class, and gender remain deeply embedded and poverty seems nearly intractable. Ramsay showed how the lack of economic progress in Somerset, Maryland’s poorest county, can best be explained by factoring history, culture, and social relations into the investigator’s research. In this second edition she discusses changes that have taken place in the county since the early 1990s, including the dramatic legal victory of the “Somerset Six” and the Maryland ACLU, which ultimately paved the way for the election of an African American to a top county position for the first time in history. Praise for the First Edition “This is a fascinating and sophisticated account of rural politics that is much more than anecdotal. The book is unique in applying theories developed in the study of urban policy (market, growth machine, regime) to the politics of rural places. The analysis rings true; it is both theoretically interesting and factually revealing. It may be the best account of small-town politics since the classic Small Town in Mass Society.” — Alvin D. Sokolow, University of California Davis “On rare occasions a book has such depth of insight and freshness of presentation that it breaks down conventional distinctions among facts, values, and theory. Meredith Ramsay’s account of two rural communities is such a study. It incorporates all three in a seamless account. This is a book about everyday people engaged in real struggles, and it never loses sight of the context in which they operate. Ramsay makes social and historical embeddedness come alive and inform in a way that few authors can.” — Clarence Stone, University of Maryland

Author: Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III,
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786476788
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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We tend to associate small town economic development with the decline of the rural United States--empty houses, shuttered shops and rusting factories. A common diagnosis of sluggish small town recovery is their lack of lifestyle amenities that attract new residents and businesses. Yet many small towns have shown progress and potential in recent years. This collection of recent articles by experts presents stories of small-town America's struggle and describes innovations and practices behind successful revivals.

Author: Peter V. Schaeffer
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275965767
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Similar to large cities, rural towns have undergone dramatic change since mid-century. The decline in retailing, changes in manufacturing, and jobs moving abroad have had a tremendous impact. Yet while rural and industrial areas have similar concerns about adjusting to a changing economy, successful urban strategies cannot be blindly transferred to rural areas. Nor can rural areas be considered homogeneous. They differ in ethnic makeup, industrial structure, topography, and natural and human resources. Appreciating the diversity of rural areas, this book presents case studies from different industries, regions, and cultures, providing examples of the activity in small town and rural development, and reflecting on how these strategies might be pursued elsewhere. This collection provides examples of communities that have attempted to affect their future. Telling the stories of small towns that do not attract the attention of national media, this book celebrates the success, creativity, and vision of rural residents. Also included are examples of less effective rural development initiatives, which can be lessons to analyze and avoid mistakes. Ultimately, what is best in small town and rural development is the result of community engagement. This volume will help people to begin, or strengthen, that process of engagement.

Author: James Fallows
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101871857
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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NATIONAL BEST SELLER • The basis for the HBO documentary now streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

Author: Daniel Bliss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351188011
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Who governs? And why? How do they govern? These remain vital questions in the politics of our small cities and towns. In this new book, author Daniel Bliss takes issue with those who believe that small towns and cities are fatally vulnerable to the pressures of a global economy. Based on in-depth analyses of small town America, this book demonstrates how political agency can address and solve real problems affecting US towns, including capital flight, industrial closures, and job losses. Bliss illustrates how small localities exercise choices – such as nurturing local businesses and developing infrastructure rather than engaging in a "race to the bottom," heavily mortgaging tax revenues to attract large box retailers and small box call centers while passively watching more productive firms and better-paying jobs slip away. Taking careful account of comparative literature as well as variations in city governments, their planning agencies, and their relations with state authorities, this book explores the ways in which local politicians and public planning bodies can mobilize local constituencies to weather global challenges and common structural problems such as unfavorable demographics, skill shortages and out-migration. Economic Development and Governance in Small Town America holds out the promise of meaningful democratic change even in unfavorable political and economic circumstances.

Author: Gary S. Sands
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814343600
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Explores popular economic development strategies in midsize Canadian urban areas. Roads to Prosperity: Economic Development Lessons from Midsize Canadian Cities explores the relative prosperity of midsize Canadian urban areas (population 50,000 to 400,000) over the past two decades. Communities throughout North America have strived for decades to maintain and enhance the prosperity of their residents. In the areas that are the focus of this research, the results of these efforts have been mixed—some communities have been relatively successful while others have fallen further behind the national averages. Midsize cities often lack the resources, both internal and external, to sustain and enhance their prosperity. Policies and strategies that have been successful in larger urban areas may be less effective (or unaffordable) in smaller ones. Roads to Prosperity first examines the economic structure of forty-two Canadian urban regions that fall within the midsize range to determine the economic specializations that characterize these communities and to trace how these specializations have evolved over the time period between 1991 and 2011. While urban areas with an economic base of natural resource or manufacturing industries tend to retain this economic function over the years, communities that rely on the service industries have been much more likely to experience some degree of restructuring in their economies over the past twenty years. The overall trend among these communities has been for their employment profiles to become more similar and for their economic specialization to fade over time. The second part of the book looks at a number of currently popular economic development strategies as they have been applied to midsize urban areas and their success and failures. While there appears to be no single economic development strategy that will lead to greater prosperity for every community, Sands and Reese explore the various factors that help explain why some work and others don’t. Those with an interest in urban planning and community development will find this monograph highly informative.

Author: Charles Bartsch
Publisher: Northeast-Midwest Institute
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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