Neighborhood Economics: Local Communities and Regional Markets

Despite the large numbers of organizations claiming to promote economic development at the neighborhood level, there is little conceptual foundation for the idea. Substantial arguments can be made for alternative bases for economic development at the city or regional level, in contrast to arguments advanced by conventional growth advocates. But neighborhoods themselves are unlikely to constitute economic entities around which economic development policy can be constructed. Although they are strongly influenced by economic conditions, neighborhoods are best seen as social communities. Their economic dependence on city and regional labor, capital, and real estate markets makes neighborhoods vulnerable to economically motivated forces of change. Efforts to resist or shape this change at the neighborhood level are more likely to work if they are directed at political mobilization and access of residents to urban labor markets, rather than at direct job creation within the neighborhood itself