Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Local Economic Development (local + economic_development)
Selected AbstractsHISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF CIVICNESS AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2010Guido De Blasio ABSTRACT The paper investigates the importance of history for local economic performance in Italy by studying the role of social capital, which refers to trust, reciprocity and habits of co-operation that are shared among members of a local community. The paper presents a test based on worker productivity, entrepreneurship, and female labor market participation. Using as instruments regional differences in civic involvement in the late 19th century and local systems of government in the middle ages, it shows that social capital does have economic effects. [source] Externalities, Learning and Governance: New Perspectives on Local Economic DevelopmentDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2001Bert Helmsing In spite of growing mobility of production and production factors, economic development is increasingly localized in economic agglomerations. This article reviews three partially overlapping perspectives on local economic development, which derive from three factors intensifying the localized nature of economic development: externalities, learning and governance. Externalities play a central role in the new geographical economics of Krugman and in new economic geography of clusters and industrial districts. The dynamics of local economic development are increasingly associated with evolutionary economic thinking in general and with collective learning in particular. Inter-firm and extra-firm organization has experienced considerable innovation in the last few decades. New institutional devices are based on the notions of commodity chain, cluster and milieu. These innovations introduce new issues of economic governance both at the level of industry and of territory. [source] Information Linkages in Local Economic DevelopmentGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2000Stephan Weiler Profitable private investments may be bypassed in struggling regions due precisely to such regions' isolation, leading to a self-reinforcing cycle of marginalization. In many cases, development in such regions may be most effectively promoted by providing key information to the private and public sectors, thus addressing potentially significant market failures. In the case study project, the calculation of private and social returns have been particularly crucial in sparking both private investor interest and public support of this business venture. The project's example suggests an updated role for universities in the assistance of productive economic development programs. [source] The Interface of Globalization and Peripheral Land in the Cities of the South: Implications for Urban Governance and Local Economic DevelopmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007RAMIN KEIVANI Abstract This essay examines the impact of globalization on land peripheral to large cities of the south. It identifies such land as providing major arenas for contested claims between the requirements of international firms and those of local inhabitants and businesses, entailing both threats and opportunities in terms of local economic development. Much depends on the urban governance and institutional processes surrounding the use and allocation of land that are themselves directly influenced by the globalization process. In many cities national, state or provincial governments have set up special parastatal organizations with substantial funding and significant decision-making powers over infrastructure development and land use to facilitate the rebirth of their cities as havens for international investment. In the process local municipalities and the local population are often excluded from the decision-making process, while being left to cope with the aftermath and maintenance of the grand projects. The essay identifies weaknesses in elite governance models usually centred at the state or national levels, and asks if a better alternative may be a local government-led ,inclusive leadership' model capable of clear leadership, greater coordination of different governance layers and inclusion of local actors. Résumé Cet essai étudie l'impact de la mondialisation sur les terrains situés à la périphérie des grandes villes du Sud. Il identifie ces terrains comme des scènes majeures de contradiction entre les besoins des multinationales et les revendications des entreprises et habitants locaux, ce qui créent à la fois menaces et opportunités en termes d'expansion économique locale. Le résultat dépend largement des processus institutionnels et de gouvernance urbaine qui entourent l'utilisation et l'affectation des terrains, processus eux-mêmes directement influencés par la mondialisation. Dans de nombreuses villes, les organes de gouvernement nationaux, étatiques ou provinciaux ont créé des entités para-étatiques spécialisées, dotées de fonds et de pouvoirs décisionnels considérables en matière d'aménagement des infrastructures et d'occupation des sols, afin de réinstaurer leur ville en terre d'accueil de l'investissement international. Or, les municipalités et populations locales sont souvent exclues du processus de décision alors qu'on les laisse assumer les conséquences et la maintenance des grands projets. L'article repère les faiblesses des modèles de gouvernance par les élites, généralement centrés aux niveaux de l'Etat ou de la nation, et se demande si un modèle de ,leadership inclusif' sous la houlette du gouvernement ne serait pas une meilleure alternative, permettant un leadership clair, une meilleure coordination des différentes strates de gouvernance et l'intégration des acteurs locaux. [source] Externalities, Learning and Governance: New Perspectives on Local Economic DevelopmentDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2001Bert Helmsing In spite of growing mobility of production and production factors, economic development is increasingly localized in economic agglomerations. This article reviews three partially overlapping perspectives on local economic development, which derive from three factors intensifying the localized nature of economic development: externalities, learning and governance. Externalities play a central role in the new geographical economics of Krugman and in new economic geography of clusters and industrial districts. The dynamics of local economic development are increasingly associated with evolutionary economic thinking in general and with collective learning in particular. Inter-firm and extra-firm organization has experienced considerable innovation in the last few decades. New institutional devices are based on the notions of commodity chain, cluster and milieu. These innovations introduce new issues of economic governance both at the level of industry and of territory. [source] Laissez-faire governance and the archetype laissez-faire city in the USA: exploring HoustonGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2003Igor Vojnovic This article explores the governance of Houston, the archetype laissez-faire city in the USA. The research examines the complexity of Houston's minimal government intervention rhetoric, which in practice involves extensive federal, state and local government involvement in economic development in combination with a disinterest in social service and income maintenance programmes. This governance strategy is outlined through an examination both of regional public policy and local public finances. The analysis illustrates that Houston's local governance has historically been based on a management approach that attempts actively to minimize costs for potential investors to locate in the City, through public intervention, while at the same time generating an unattractive urban environment for the socially marginalized , hence the disinterest in social services. Thus, despite the local laissez-faire rhetoric, government intervention in Houston's growth has been vital and has produced the extraordinary impacts usually expected from public involvement in local economic development. The foundations of this local governance strategy are both predicted and advocated by the public choice approach, a theoretical framework whose emphasis on inter-municipal competition advances management tactics based on maintaining low taxes and low expenditures on public welfare. The research also shows, however, that Houston is unique, when compared to other economically successful US cities, in following such an extreme approach of this management strategy. [source] The Interface of Globalization and Peripheral Land in the Cities of the South: Implications for Urban Governance and Local Economic DevelopmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007RAMIN KEIVANI Abstract This essay examines the impact of globalization on land peripheral to large cities of the south. It identifies such land as providing major arenas for contested claims between the requirements of international firms and those of local inhabitants and businesses, entailing both threats and opportunities in terms of local economic development. Much depends on the urban governance and institutional processes surrounding the use and allocation of land that are themselves directly influenced by the globalization process. In many cities national, state or provincial governments have set up special parastatal organizations with substantial funding and significant decision-making powers over infrastructure development and land use to facilitate the rebirth of their cities as havens for international investment. In the process local municipalities and the local population are often excluded from the decision-making process, while being left to cope with the aftermath and maintenance of the grand projects. The essay identifies weaknesses in elite governance models usually centred at the state or national levels, and asks if a better alternative may be a local government-led ,inclusive leadership' model capable of clear leadership, greater coordination of different governance layers and inclusion of local actors. Résumé Cet essai étudie l'impact de la mondialisation sur les terrains situés à la périphérie des grandes villes du Sud. Il identifie ces terrains comme des scènes majeures de contradiction entre les besoins des multinationales et les revendications des entreprises et habitants locaux, ce qui créent à la fois menaces et opportunités en termes d'expansion économique locale. Le résultat dépend largement des processus institutionnels et de gouvernance urbaine qui entourent l'utilisation et l'affectation des terrains, processus eux-mêmes directement influencés par la mondialisation. Dans de nombreuses villes, les organes de gouvernement nationaux, étatiques ou provinciaux ont créé des entités para-étatiques spécialisées, dotées de fonds et de pouvoirs décisionnels considérables en matière d'aménagement des infrastructures et d'occupation des sols, afin de réinstaurer leur ville en terre d'accueil de l'investissement international. Or, les municipalités et populations locales sont souvent exclues du processus de décision alors qu'on les laisse assumer les conséquences et la maintenance des grands projets. L'article repère les faiblesses des modèles de gouvernance par les élites, généralement centrés aux niveaux de l'Etat ou de la nation, et se demande si un modèle de ,leadership inclusif' sous la houlette du gouvernement ne serait pas une meilleure alternative, permettant un leadership clair, une meilleure coordination des différentes strates de gouvernance et l'intégration des acteurs locaux. [source] NGOs, gender and indigenous grassroots developmentJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2002Janet Henshall Momsen This paper looks at two very similar efforts by indigenous communities to develop a tourist attraction based on their own culture and to market it in two very different environments: California and Mexico. Both groups have been displaced from their traditional areas, are being advised by a woman consultant and are expecting women community members to provide cultural performances and crafts for sale to visitors. Unlike the NGOs involved, the communities see this tourism activity as a reclamation and reaffirmation of a culture that has been almost lost, rather than as an exercise in local economic development. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Note on the Geographic Interdependencies of Retail Market AreasJOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2002David Mushinski Central place theory describes an orderly hierarchy of places, with particular retail services developing for lower-ordered places as they reach a threshold. Yet it is likely that nearby areas could serve simultaneously as a source of demand and a source of competing supply for retail stores in a place. This paper contributes to the understanding of local economic development by modeling and estimating the geographic interdependence between a place and its neighboring areas. The simultaneous equation Tobit results suggest that such geographical interdependence exists for most retail industries, with spatial competition on the supply side being particularly important. [source] Human rights and development: the case of local government transformation in South AfricaPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2007Linda Jansen van Rensburg Abstract Local governments throughout the world are assuming a more important role in economic development of their communities as an increasing number of governments begin to decentralise powers and functions. As these lower levels of government seek sustainable local economic development (LED) strategies the human rights approach towards development becomes pertinent as globalisation accelerates. This article proposes an emphasis on socio-economic rights as the basis for sustainable LED in developing countries. The article is based on the experience of South African local government in the period after 1994, leading up to the first democratic local government elections on 5 December 2000. Proceeding from the view that the promotion of human rights is necessary for the promotion of economic development, the article critically assesses the role of local government in the promotion of LED through a rights-based approach. It is argued that the identification in the South African Constitution of local government with basic service provision (recently emphasised by a Constitutional court judgement) will place socio-economic rights at the centre of LED strategies in South Africa. It is argued that this is indeed the most appropriate cornerstone of LED in South Africa. However, the transformation process that leads the country towards its progressive Constitution needs to be maintained and this article identifies five broad areas for transformation that may still be needed to entrench an adequate human rights culture within the sphere of local governance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Une histoire de résidus : à propos des facteurs généraux et locaux de croissance régionale au Canada, de 1971 à 2001THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 4 2009PHILIPPE APPARICIO local economic development; regional growth models; centre-periphery En partant d'un modèle géostatistique d'explication des variations locales de croissance d'emploi pour le Canada (1971,2001), les résidus , par rapport aux prédictions , sont analysés dans le temps et dans l'espace, permettant ainsi de faire la distinction entre, d'une part, des facteurs à portée générale et, d'autre part, des facteurs proprement locaux, conjoncturels ou aléatoires. Le pouvoir d'explication du modèle, qui intègre des variables telles que la taille, la distance et les structures industrielles s'accroît dans le temps, si bien que la dynamique spatiale de l'économie canadienne s'aligne de plus en plus sur des grandes variables géo-structurelles. Toutefois, un regard sur les résidus révèle des processus plus localisés. La volatilité des trajectoires est surtout manifeste en Alberta et en Colombie-Britannique, qui abritent les économies locales les plus erratiques. Des processus émergents se devinent pour la dernière période, dont la sous-performance du Nord ontarien et des localités non-métropolitaines sur l'axe Québec-Windsor, riveraines du Saint-Laurent et des Grands-Lacs. En contrepartie, la surperformance de villes moyennes du Sud-est québécois laisse deviner des processus proprement locaux, associés au dynamisme de l'entreprenariat local. Starting from an econometric model of local employment growth, applied to Canada (1971,2001), residuals,relative to model predictions,are analyzed over time and over space, in turn allowing us to draw a distinction between general explanatory variables and factors of a more local, cyclical or accidental nature. The model's explanatory power grows over time, founded on variables such as urban size, market access and industrial structure, allowing us to conclude that local employment growth in Canada follows an increasingly geographically predictable pattern. However, an examination of the residuals reveals more localized processes. Growth volatility is most manifest in Alberta and British Columbia, home to the most erratic local economies. Emerging patterns are visible in the last period, most notably the underperformance of Northern Ontario and of non-metropolitan communities between Windsor and Québec City, lying along the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence. The over-performance,compared to model predictions , of small and mid-sized towns in south-eastern Québec can, on the other hand, be interpreted as a sign of truly local social processes, generally associated with a particularly dynamic local entrepreneurial class. [source] Ethics commentary: subjects of knowledge and control in field primatologyAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2010N.M. Malone Abstract Our primate kin are routinely displaced from their habitats, hunted for meat, captured for trade, housed in zoos, made to perform for our entertainment, and used as subjects in biomedical testing. They are also the subjects of research inquiries by field primatologists. In this article, we place primate field studies on a continuum of human and alloprimate relationships as a heuristic device to explore the unifying ethical implications of such inter-relationships, as well as address specific ethical challenges arising from common research protocols "in the field" (e.g. risks associated with habituation, disease transmission, invasive collection of biological samples, etc.). Additionally, we question the widespread deployment of conservation- and/or local economic development-based justifications for field-based primatological pursuits. Informed by decades of combined fieldwork experience in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we demonstrate the process by which the adherence to a particular ethical calculus can lead to unregulated and ethically problematic research agendas. In conclusion, we offer several suggestions to consider in the establishment of a formalized code of ethics for field primatology. Am. J. Primatol. 72:779,784, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Power over, power to, power with: Shifting perceptions of power for local economic development in the PhilippinesASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 3 2008Amanda Cahill Abstract Power has long been recognised as crucial to the sustainability of community development interventions; however, the way in which space affects power relations within such interventions has remained relatively under-theorised in the development literature. Many practitioners continue to regard power as located centrally and as embedded in particular institutions, networks, knowledge and resources. According to this logic, processes of empowerment involve the redistribution of these resources to marginalised groups through their participation in development interventions such as microfinance and sustainable livelihood initiatives. The danger inherent in such development approaches is that they can discourage the potential for participants to use their own agency by overemphasising an existing lack of resources locally and inadvertently feeding a sense of dependency on formal development interventions initiated by external agencies. This paper suggests that a post-structural conceptualisation of power as dynamic, multiple and mediated at the local level offers a more productive starting point for thinking about approaches to empowerment. Drawing on data from an action research project designed to initiate community enterprises in a small rural municipality in the Philippines, I suggest how a post-structural approach to power can be enacted by building on the existing local resources and practices of everyday life. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||