'Development' is what most people see as progress in the places where they live and in the ways they live. It has to do with public services, the ways to complain when these are not delivered properly, and the spaces to change power structures. It is related to the economy, the opportunities to access a secure job, a sustainable livelihood and increased welfare while caring for the planet and others. It is also linked to the institutions that allow people to live life well, using resources ethically and doing business responsibly in relation to other communities and future generations. This edited collection examines the interconnections between local governance, economic development and institutions, by focusing on what initiatives work and under what conditions they do so. Based on a variety of theories and empirical data, it presents evidence from current experiences around the world, revealed by researchers across different continents and several generations.

This title was first published in 2003. Development is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon, driven by the expansion of one or more sectors and their influence on the others. It is the outcome of local interdependencies among firms, households and institutions which give rise to specific territorial patterns of local systems. Policies of development cannot therefore restrict themselves to undifferentiated intervention from the centre to the periphery, but must be able to stimulate and sustain endogenous bottom-up growth by means of specific programmes. Thus, individuals and organizations, public or private interact, take decisions and devise strategies in a context that is simultaneously co-operative and competitive. The first in a series, this volume brings together a team of leading international social scientists from the IGU study group on local development. Illustrated by a wide range of global case studies, it analyses what knowledge is required for industrial production and how best to organize this knowledge, embedded as it is in physical, human and social capital. It focuses on the formation of social capital and the various forms into which this may evolve, in particular, the sets of institutions which regulate relationships within and among firms.

Local and regional development is an increasingly global issue. For localities and regions, the challenge of enhancing prosperity, improving wellbeing and increasing living standards has become acute for localities and regions formerly considered discrete parts of the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. Amid concern over the definitions and sustainability of ‘development’, a spectre has emerged of deepened unevenness and sharpened inequalities in the development prospects for particular social groups and territories. Local and Regional Development engages and addresses the key questions: what are the principles and values that shape definitions and strategies of local and regional development? What are the conceptual and theoretical frameworks capable of understanding and interpreting local and regional development? What are the main policy interventions and instruments? How do localities and regions attempt to effect development in practice? What kinds of local and regional development should we be pursuing? This book addresses the fundamental issues of ‘what kind of local and regional development and for whom?’, frameworks of understanding, and instruments and policies. It outlines what a holistic, progressive and sustainable local and regional development might constitute before reflecting on its limits and political renewal. With the growing international importance of local and regional development, this book is an essential student purchase, illustrated throughout with maps, figures and case studies from Asia, Europe, and Central and North America.

Decades before Occupy Wall Street challenged the American financial system, activists began organizing alternatives to provide capital to “unbankable” communities and the poor. With roots in the civil rights, anti-poverty, and other progressive movements, they brought little training in finance. They formed nonprofit loan funds, credit unions, and even a new bank—organizations that by 1992 became known as “community development financial institutions,” or CDFIs. By melding their vision with that of President Clinton, CDFIs grew from church basements and kitchen tables to number more than 1,000 institutions with billions of dollars of capital. They have helped transform community development by providing credit and financial services across the United States, from inner cities to Native American reservations. Democratizing Finance traces the roots of community development finance over two centuries, a history that runs from Benjamin Franklin, through an ill-starred bank for African American veterans of the Civil War, the birth of the credit union movement, and the War on Poverty. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with CDFI leaders, presidential archives, and congressional testimony, Democratizing Finance provides an insider view of an extraordinary public policy success. Democratizing Finance is a unique resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and social investors.

Both economic research and the history of foreign aid suggest that the largest barriers to development arise from a society's institutions - its norms and rules. This book explains how institutions drive economic development. It provides numerous examples to illustrate the complex, interlocking, and persistent nature of real world rules and norms.

This report discusses the findings from a mail survey of local government economic development activities that was sent to all 540 municipalities and 100 counties in North Carolina. An important part of the analysis examines whether cities and counties differ significantly in their economic development efforts and whether smaller jurisdictions employ different types of development strategies and tools than larger ones. The survey findings also highlight the barriers that local governments face in promoting economic development and identify important technical assistance needs and gaps in local capacity.

This edited volume brings together the work of scholars from different disciplines including sociology, political science and anthropology, and analyses how global institutions are embedded in local contexts within development aid. It examines theoretical and empirical implications of the diffusion and anchoring of world polity institutions at the local and global levels. The volume furthers the understanding of the dynamics of norm negotiation and glocalization processes in culturally varied societies in an era of globalization. Themes and topics covered include: children and human rights, gender mainstreaming, multi-level actor partnerships, anti-corruption programming, local ownership, land rights and corporate social responsibility. Bringing together expert contributors, this comprehensive volume will be an invaluable resource for all scholars of localization and globalization studies, as well as those in the field of international relations.

An analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies is developed in this analysis of economic structures.

This book identifies how development agencies and companies work, what they do and how they can collaborate and what constitutes success and value added in their efforts to achieve local economic development.

This book evaluates approaches towards regional and local socio-economic development, identifying practical instruments and solutions for shaping the local economy. It will be of interest to economics, geography, politics, and planning scholars and researchers working on regional sciences and local development.