Rethinking Community Economic Development

Abstract

In this article, the authors present arguments for a more interdisciplinary approach to community economic development. Building an alternative paradigm that includes six elements—resources, markets, institutions, society, decision making, and space—they rethink the framework that links economic theory to the practice of community economic development. Major attention is paid to the integration of economic and noneconomic factors in the practice of community economic development. In the end, the goal of this new paradigm is to more directly link the practice of community economic development to its solid interdisciplinary theoretical foundation.