Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada - Centre for the Study of Co ...

~ C O - O P E R A T I V E S A N D C O M M U N I T I E SCommunity-Based (Public/Private) Models of DevelopmentCommunity economic development corporations have flourished in the past ten years,often with the support of government policy. They provide a core of generic developers,trained in business and co-operative organizations, who pull in specialized consultants asthey are needed for specific projects.Within Aboriginal and First Nation communities, band-owned development corporationshave been established to promote economic and social development on reserves. Thesecorporations have been supported as a primary mechanism to dispense and manage federaltransfers and settlements of land claims and self-government negotiations.The Role of Social CapitalCommunity economic development pays particular attention to what Robert D. Putnam 6and others call “social capital.” Putnam, in “The Prosperous Community,” described howtwenty regional government centres were established in a variety of locations in Italystarting in the 1970s. All the institutions were identical in form, but implanted in contextsthat were very different, ranging from pre-industrial to postindustrial, feudal to modern,Catholic to Communist. The research was concerned with observing patterns of developmentin each of the centres. In explaining the variations, the research indicated thesignificance of social capital. It showed that governments were more successful in communitieswith strong traditions of civic engagement—“voter turnout, newspaper readership,membership in literary circles, service clubs, organized amateur sport”. A similarstudy in North America revealed similar results: inner-city communities that had establishedtraditions of collective action were more likely to benefit from direct capitalinvestment.Cornelia and Jan Flora include social capital as one of the three components critical forthe development and maintenance of dynamic and vibrant communities. The first two,which are relatively well known, are: 1) the physical infrastructure—the developmentof railroads, telecommunications, roads, postal services, etc.; and 2) the personal infrastructure—thedevelopment of individual leadership within the community. The thirdnecessary component—the social infrastructure—has been given less attention byresearchers and CED workers. 7 It is, nevertheless, the key ingredient that ties togetherthe physical and the human, allowing the community to grow and develop.6 Robert D. Putnam, “The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life,” American Prospect 13(1993): 35–42.7 C.B. Flora and J.L. Flora, “Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure: A Necessary Ingredient,” Annals AAPSS i.529 (1993): 49.~ 239