The readings for this week:Jan 20: Social Justice and Economic Development IPutnam, Robert D. "The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life." The American Prospect, Vol. 4, No. 13, March 21, 1993, pp. 35-42.

Sugrue, Thomas J. 1998. The Origins of the Urban Crisis. Princeton: Princeton Univ Press. (Ch 5)Juzhong, Zhuang. 2008. Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China: Policy Implications. Asian Development Review 25 (1/2):22

Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1999. Development as freedom. 1st. ed. New York: Knopf. (Ch. 2).

 Jan 22: Social Justice and Economic Development II - the debate over inner-city revitalization

  Assignment One due Jan 22Porter, Michael. "New Strategies for Inner-City Economic Development." Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 1997, pp. 11-27Harrison, Bennett and Amy K. Glasmeier "Response: Why Business Alone Won't Redevelop the Inner City: A Friendly Critique of Michael Porter's Approach to Urban Revitalization." Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 1997, pp. 28-38. Blair, John P., and Michael C. Carroll. 2007. Inner-city neighborhoods and metropolitan development. Economic Development Quarterly 21 (3):263-277.see also:Savitch, H.V. et. al. “Ties that Bind: Central Cities, Suburbs, and the New Metropolitan Region” Economic Development Quarterly v. 7, n. 4 (Nov. 1993)

-> PLUS: short presentations/discussion of selected economic profiles (Assignment 1)

Fitzgerald, Joan and Nancey Green Leigh. 2002. “Introduction” and “Redefining the Field of Local Economic Development.” In Economic Revitalization: Cases and Strategies for City and Suburb. London: Sage Publications.

Another historical view….Fitzgerald, Joan and Nancey Green Leigh. 2002. Economic Revitalization: Cases and Strategies for City and Suburb. Sage. pp. 10-26

PHASE Selective characteristics

1. State Industrial Recruitment (starting in the 1930s)

Create good business climate (taxes, loans, infrastructure, etc.) • “greasing the skids” for business • corporatist paradigm

2. Political Critiques of Local Economic Development Activity (starting in the late 1960s)

Focus on who is paying and who benefits. ED actors as political agents • political economic analysis • critique of “smokestack chasing” • recognition of tension between footloose capital and communities •

3. Entrepreneurialism and Equity Strategies Two separate movements: Promoting high tech (mimic Silicon Valley) and pushing equity/redistribution (e.g., Mayor Harold Washington’s initiatives in Chicago, 1980s).

4. Sustainability with Justice Balancing economic development, social justice and environmentalism. Brownfield development.

5. Privatization and Interdependence Market solutions (e.g., Michael Porter’s competitive inner cities) and regional/metropolitan strategies.

Mier, Robert. Metaphors of Economic Development, in Bingham, Richard D., and Robert Mier, eds. 1993. Theories of Local Economic Development. Newbury Park: Sage. (Chapter 14, pp. 284-304)OED: 1. A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression. 2. Something regarded as representative or suggestive of something else, esp. as a material emblem of an abstract quality, condition, notion, etc.; a symbol, a token. Freq. with for, of.

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The readings for this week:Jan 20: Social Justice and Economic Development IPutnam, Robert D. "The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life." The American Prospect, Vol. 4, No. 13, March 21, 1993, pp. 35-42.

Sugrue, Thomas J. 1998. The Origins of the Urban Crisis. Princeton: Princeton Univ Press. (Ch 5)Juzhong, Zhuang. 2008. Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China: Policy Implications. Asian Development Review 25 (1/2):22

Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1999. Development as freedom. 1st. ed. New York: Knopf. (Ch. 2).

 Jan 22: Social Justice and Economic Development II - the debate over inner-city revitalization

  Assignment One due Jan 22Porter, Michael. "New Strategies for Inner-City Economic Development." Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 1997, pp. 11-27Harrison, Bennett and Amy K. Glasmeier "Response: Why Business Alone Won't Redevelop the Inner City: A Friendly Critique of Michael Porter's Approach to Urban Revitalization." Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1, February 1997, pp. 28-38. Blair, John P., and Michael C. Carroll. 2007. Inner-city neighborhoods and metropolitan development. Economic Development Quarterly 21 (3):263-277.see also:Savitch, H.V. et. al. “Ties that Bind: Central Cities, Suburbs, and the New Metropolitan Region” Economic Development Quarterly v. 7, n. 4 (Nov. 1993)

-> PLUS: short presentations/discussion of selected economic profiles (Assignment 1)

Economic DevelopmentSocial Justice

equity

fairness

redistribution

empowerment

freedom

inclusiveness

diversity

respectpower

equal opportunity

dignity

self-determination

Putnam, Robert D. "The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life." The American Prospect, Vol. 4, No. 13, March 21, 1993, pp. 35-42.

Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow. I have no kindness for you, and know you have as little for me. I will not, therefore, take any pains upon your account; and should I labour with you upon my own account, in expectation of a return, I know I should be disappointed, and that I should in vain depend upon your gratitude. Here then I leave you to labour alone; You treat me in the same manner. The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests for want of mutual confidence and security.--David Hume

Social traps

he predicament of the farmers in Hume's parable is all too familiar in communities and nations around the world:

Parents in communities everywhere want better educational opportunities for their children, but collaborative efforts to improve public schools falter.

Residents of American ghettos share an interest in safer streets, but collective action to control crime fails.

Poor farmers in the Third World need more effective irrigation and marketing schemes, but cooperation to these ends proves fragile.

Global warming threatens livelihoods from Manhattan to Mauritius, but joint action to forestall this shared risk founders.

THREE TYPES OF CAPITAL:Physical capitalHuman capitalSocial capital

OED: capital: 3b. Pol. Econ. The accumulated wealth of an individual, company, or community, used as a fund for carrying on fresh production; wealth in any form used to help in producing more wealth.

"social capital" refers to features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. Social capital enhances the benefits of investment in physical and human capital. {35-6}

Civic rich

“These communities did not become civic simply because they were rich. The historical record strongly suggests precisely the opposite: They have become rich because they were civic. The social capital embodied in norms and networks of civic engagement seems to be a precondition for economic development, as well as for effective government. Development economists take note: Civics matters.” [37]

Social capital and innovation

The destruction of social capital

The place-ness of social capital: where you live, where you work, where you connect

Like conventional capital for conventional borrowers, social capital serves as a kind of collateral for men and women who are excluded from ordinary credit or labor markets. In effect, the participants pledge their social connections, leveraging social capital to improve the efficiency with which markets operate.

Economist Juliet Schorr's discovery of "the unexpected decline of leisure" in America suggests that our generation is less engaged with one another outside the marketplace and thus less prepared to cooperate for shared goals. Mobile, two-career (or one-parent) families often must use the market for child care and other services formerly provided through family and neighborhood networks. Even if market-based services, considered individually, are of high quality, this deeper social trend is eroding social capital. There are more empty seats at the PTA and in church pews these days. While celebrating the productive, liberating effects of fuller equality in the workplace, we must replace the social capital that this movement has depleted.

Social capital is not a substitute for effective public policy but rather a prerequisite for it and, in part, a consequence of it. Social capital, as our Italian study suggests, works through and with states and markets, not in place of them. The social capital approach is neither an argument for cultural determinism nor an excuse to blame the victim.

Sugrue, Thomas J. 1998. The Origins of the Urban Crisis. Princeton: Princeton Univ Press. (Ch 5)

24July, 1967

Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1999. Development as freedom. 1st. ed. New York: Knopf. (Ch. 2)

It is mainly an attempt to see development as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In this approach, expansion of freedom is viewed as both (I) the primary end and (2) the principal means of development. They can be called respectively the "constitutive role" and the "instrumental role" of freedom in development. The constitutive role of freedom relates to the importance of substantive freedom in enriching human life. The substantive freedoms include elementary capabilities like being able to avoid such deprivations as starvation, undernourishment, escapable morbidity and premature mortality, as well as the freedoms that are associated with being literate and numerate, enjoying political participation and uncensored speech and so on. In this constitutive perspective, development involves expansion of these and other basic freedoms. Development, in this view, is the process of expanding human freedoms, and the assessment of development has to be informed by this consideration.

… political participation and dissent are constitutive parts of development itself.

This fundamental point is distinct from the "instrumental" argument that these freedoms and rights may also be very effective in contributing to economic progress.

types of instrumental freedoms: (I) political freedoms, (2) economic facilities, (3) Social opportunities, (4) transparency guarantees(5) protective security.

“These instrumental freedoms tend to contribute to the general capability of a person to live more freely, but they also serve to complement one another.”

I) for high economic growth economies, the contrast between:1. I) those with great success in raising the length and quality of life (such as South Korea and Taiwan), and1.2) those without comparable success in these other fields (such as Brazil);

2) for economies with high success in raising the length and quality of life, the contrast between:2. I) those with great success in high economic growth (such as South Korea and Taiwan), and2.2) those without much success in achieving high economic growth (such as Sri Lanka, pre-reform China, the Indian state of Kerala).

Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1999. Development as freedom. 1st. ed. New York: Knopf. (Ch. 2)

Conclusion:

“…enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and the primary means of development. The objective of development relates to the valuation of the actual freedoms enjoyed by the people involved.” [p. 53]

“there is a need to develop and support a plurality of institutions, including democratic systems, legal mechanisms, market structures, educational and health provisions, media and other communication facilities and so on.”

Sen, Amartya Kumar. 1999. Development as freedom. 1st. ed. New York: Knopf. (Ch. 2)

“The ends and means of development call for placing the perspective of freedom at the center of the stage. The people have to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively involved-given the opportunity in shaping their own destiny, and not just as passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs. The state and the society have extensive roles in strengthening and safeguarding human capabilities. This is a supporting role, rather than one of ready-made delivery. The freedom-centered perspective on the ends and the means of development has some claim to our attention.”

Juzhong, Zhuang. 2008. Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China: Policy Implications. Asian Development Review 25 (1/2):22

For future policy choices, what is important for the PRC is to avoid (i) focusing only on economic growth while ignoring the inclusiveness of growth, and (ii) relying excessively on redistributive policies in order to achieve equalization of incomes. International experience has shown that neither of these policies is good for efficient and sustainable economic growth and development.