The Community Economic Development Movement: Law, Business, and the New Social Policy

Recent cutbacks in traditional welfare programs in the United States have been accompanied by the emergence of a new style of social policy implementation. The Community Economic Development (CED) movement has revitalised poor neighbourhoods across the country by emphasising neighbourhood initiative through community-based organisations and embracing efforts in housing, banking, job and employment development, health care, and welfare. In this book William H. Simon provides the first comprehensive examination of the evolution of CED, complete with an analysis of its operating premises and strategies. He describes the profusion of new institutional forms that have arisen from the movement, amalgamations that cut across conventional distinctions-such as those between private and public-and that encompass the efforts of non-profits, co-operatives, churches, business corporations, and public agencies. Combining local political mobilisation with entrepreneurial initiative and electoral accountability with market competition, this phenomenon has catalysed new forms of property rights designed to motivate investment and civic participation while curbing the dangers of speculation and middle-class flight. Illustrated with examples from many localities and including an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the prevailing view of CED, this book will prove to be a valuable resource for local housing, job, and business development officials, community activists, and students of law, business, and social policy.