Sustainable Communities

Creating a Durable Local Economy

Rhonda Phillips, Bruce Seifer, Ed Antczak

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135048068
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

With a foreword written by Senator Bernie Sanders

What is a durable economy? It is one that not only survives but thrives. How is it created, and what does it take to sustain over time? Sustainable Communities provides insight and answers to these questions.

Citing Burlington, Vermont's remarkable rise to award-winning status, this book explores the balance of community planning, social enterprise development, energy and environment, food systems and cultural well-being. Aimed at policymakers, development practitioners, students, and citizens, this book describes which and how multiple influences facilitate the creation of a local, durable and truly sustainable economy. The authors hope to inspire others by sharing this story of what can be done in the name of community economic development.

1	The quest for a durable local economy
	How Can Economic Durability and Community Resiliency Be Encouraged?

Burlington, Vermont

“Top 10 City for the Next Decade” – Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, June 2010.

“#1 Happiest Small City in U.S., March 2011, Gallup.”¹

“10th lowest unemployment rate in the nation” – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July, 2012.

2nd lowest foreclosure rate in the U.S., 2010 – RealtyTrac, March, 2011.

Community resiliency is the topic of the moment, given current economic conditions. It implies the ability to be resilient in the face of challenges. From the Latin word, resallive, it literally means to spring back. It also has deeper meaning; the Community and Regional Resilience Institute points out the following characteristics of resiliency:²

• Attribute: resilience is an attribute of the community.
• Continuing: a community’s resilience is an inherent and dynamic part of the community.
• Adaptation: the community can adapt to adversity.
• Trajectory: adaptation leads to a positive outcome for the community relative to its state after the crisis, especially in terms of its functionality.

While these characteristics are applied mostly in the context of responses to environmental disasters, there’s relevance for community and economic development at the local level too.

Building resiliency in a local economy and society is a dynamic process, and requires continuing effort, as well as adaptation to changing conditions (and certainly some of those can be considered adverse!). It’s also about wanting positive outcomes for the community, with planning and action aimed at this trajectory. As the Stockholm Resilience Center defines it, “resilience is the capacity of a system to continually change and adapt yet remain within critical thresholds.”³

The title of this book reflects both durability and resilience, which imply being able to withstand the test of time. Bill McKibben, in Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future issues a call for an economy that creates and supports community and ennobles lives: “For the first time in human history, ‘more’ is no longer synonymous with ‘better’ – indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites.” McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things people buy, the food they eat, the energy used, and the money that pays for it all. “Our purchases,” he says, “need not be at odds with the things we truly value.”⁴ Inspiration is found in this work, and it is noted that durability is both a noble goal and essential requirement for healthy local economies. His work also inspires an exploration of the full spectrum of an economy, incorporating social, cultural, political, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable sectors or components contributing to a more durable, resilient economy.

And what about these sectors or components of an economy as introduced in the preface? It’s been the experience of the authors that it takes many types of efforts from the public, private, and nonprofit arenas to foster durability and resilience over time. It requires a combination of economic components and a host of cooperative stakeholders. Figure 1.1 illustrates the interconnection of these components, and it’s no coincidence it’s a lifesaver pattern – to stay afloat in any economy requires many sectors working together.

Figure 1.1 Creating a durable local economy

There is a direct connection between resiliency and building capacity at the community level, and the way to foster this connection begins with a mindset of social and civic entrepreneurship. It’s all about fostering community for mutual benefit. Social and civic entrepreneurs are described as those who help:

Communities collaborate to develop and organize their economic assets and to build productive, resilient relationships across the public, private, and civil sectors. They forge the ties that bind economy and community for their mutual benefit. They provide continuity to work on tough issues over the long haul. The term civic entrepreneur combines two important traditions: entrepreneurship – the spirit of enterprise – and civic virtue – the spirit of community. Social entrepreneurs are change agents.⁵

Much is happening in this arena now – witness the terminology emerging: mission-related investing, social enterprise, common good corporations, green businesses and sustainable enterprises, corporate social responsibility, social marketing, and economic sustainability. And it’s happening in what some now call the Fourth Sector: organizations that integrate social purposes with business methods,⁶ or businesses that integrate social purposes. These organizations can be in any sector with the distinguishing feature of serving as change agents and catalysts for making things better (including communities). It’s a reflection, too, of creating and sustaining a “culture of something greater than the individual.”⁷ John Abrams, in Companies We Keep, states it clearly:

We need to change our definition of success, so that it’s less about doing and making as much as we can as fast as we can and more about satisfying human needs as elegantly and effectively as we can. We need to think about enough rather than more. We need to consider new forms of governance and business.⁸

These new forms of governance and business hold transformative potential for our communities, regions and nations.

Economic development, as if people mattered

All of the types of components, or sectors, discussed in this book (locally-focused, social, cultural, environmentally sustainable, inclusive, and political) relate to economic development and creating a durable economy. Actually, it more than relates. It is akin to being foundational, or essential, and works both ways – economic development both as an innovative approach to any of these types while any of these sectors serve as a gateway to launch innovative economic development initiatives. Either way, the focus is on human and environmental well-being and not driven solely by economic output. This mindset reflects a different kind of economics, one in which people matter the most. It takes inspiration from the work of alternative economists like E. F. Schumacher,⁹ author of the now classic 1973 Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. Here’s a brief glimpse into the issue of people in economics:

If we talk of promoting development, what have we in mind – goods or people? If it is people – which particular people? Who are they? Where are they? Concerns with people raise countless questions like these. Goods, on the other hand, do not raise so many questions. Particularly when econometricians and statisticians deal with them, goods even cease to be anything identifiable, and become GNP, imports, exports, savings, investment, infrastructure, or what not. Impressive models can be built out of these abstractions, and it is a rarity for them to leave any room for actual people. Of course, “populations” may figure into them, but as nothing more than a mere quantity to be used as a divisor after the dividend, i.e. the quantity of available goods, has been determined. The model then shows that “development,” that is, the growth of the dividend, is held back and frustrated if the divisor grows as well. It is much easier to deal with goods than with people – if only because goods have no mind of their own and raise no problem of communication.

(E. F. Schumacher¹⁰)

See the underlying issue? Most current economic analyses and approaches don’t always address the human e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• 1. The Quest for a Durable Local Economy: How Can Economic Durability and Community Resiliency Be Encouraged?
• 2. Localize and Socialize: How Does Fostering Locally-focused and Socially Responsible Businesses Help Create a Durable Economy?
• 3. Welcome One, Welcome All: Economic Inclusiveness: How Are All – Women, Minorities, New Arrivals, Disadvantaged, and Others – Integrated into the Economic and Social Fabric of the Community?
• 4. Crunch and Funk: Cultural Vibrancy: How Is a Culturally Vibrant Community Created where People Want to Live, Work, Play and Visit?
• 5. I’m OK, You’re OK: Social Well-being: How Are Civic-minded Organizations Supported for Fostering Social Well-being?
• 6. Glowing and Growing: Energy and Environment: How Is Ecological Balance Maintained, and Efficient Energy Sources Provided?
• 7. Tasting as Good as It Looks: Local Food System Sustainability: How Is a Food System Sustainability Maintained in the Context of Community and Economic Development?
• 8. Summing Up: Lessons Learned and Other Insights
• Appendix A: Accolades List
• Appendix B: Twenty-five-year Timeline and Milestones
• Notes
• Index