Small-town sustainable development opportunities

Abstract

The notion of sustainable development in a line with local economic development emerged in the seventies of the 20th century when local authorities in the western countries realized that their local communities had begun abandoning mobile capital, which resulted in limiting their economic potentials and opportunities for citizens' employment. This necessitated both a detailed study of the local economic potentials, the determination of best ways to use, maintain and develop them, and a thorough examination of the impediments to the local community's economic development. Local economic development is also seen as a process of certain changes, where, in the competition for the market, economic and country dominance, local governments, despite their status as the lowest level of public administration, are recognized as competitors in the market and, in collaboration with the economic sector, try to be more innovative and more competitive among them.