Community Economic Development: In Search of Empowerment and Alternatives

Eileen Goltz is an associate librarian and chair of the Public Services
Department at Laurentian University.

This book argues that the economy should act in the social interest of
the local community, and should be controlled, to a large degree, by
that community. And further, that the practice of community economic
development (CED) reconciles both business and community interests.

CED is a new form of community intervention, occurring most often, in
underprivileged, or underdeveloped neighborhoods. The contributors to
this book have all been directly involved in CED, and believe CED should
address both the economic and social needs of communities.
Empowerment—the altering of power relations between individuals,
groups, and social institutions—is a central concept in the essays.

Editor Eric Shragge discusses the issues that practitioners must
address to assist in the linking of specific CED practice to
social-change strategies. Marcia Nozick describes the relationship
between sustainable communities and social development, setting the
stage for six case studies that follow. (While some of the case studies
relate to CED in actual communities, others are concerned with distinct
aspects of CED.) Other essays focus on the development of a community
loan fund; women’s production co-operatives; the provision of capital
to local enterprises; the first CED organization in Montreal; a CED
project in Ottawa; and CED practice in Victoriaville, east of Montreal.
All are well-researched scholarly reports.

This timely work will be of particular value to those who are seeking
decentralized means of re-vitalizing community economies.