in Mississippi

CHAPTER 17
COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
DEFINITION, STRATEGIES, AND ISSUES
Roberto Gallardo, PhD
INTRODUCTION
Community economic development (CED) is a crucial process for any community regardless of
size or location. With globalization continuing to impact communities and the digital age in fullswing,
understanding what affects community economic development is critical. Community
economic development, when implemented correctly, has the potential to help communities not
only remain competitive but more importantly adapt to a very complex and dynamic context.
The CED process is analyzed to provide a detailed understanding of what this process includes,
what affects it, and how it can be unleashed in your communities. In practice community and
economic development go hand in hand and distinguishing them is somewhat difficult; in theory
however, it is easier and appropriate to distinguish them. Some key concepts are discussed that
collectively affect and result in the community economic development process. The main
objectives of this chapter are (1) to distinguish between community and economic development,
(2) how both are needed for communities to be sustainable and (3) to provide a general
understanding of this important process to community leaders.
KEY CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
Several concepts are related to community economic development. Though the concepts covered
here are not intended to be comprehensive, they should provide a better understanding of the
dynamics taking place in the community economic development process. Before we discuss
these concepts however, a key difference must be understood between growth and development.
Many people equate these two terms and that can have negative consequences for the community
and the community economic development process. Growth is a quantitative increase while
development is a change aimed at a particular goal (Robinson and Green 2010). In other words,
growth is more about quantity while development is more about quality. As a community leader,
do you want your community to grow or do you want it to develop? Answering this question is
critical before attempting to implement a community economic development process in your
community.
Back to the key concepts, let us begin with the most basic: what is a community? The definition
of community is usually taken for granted but not truly understood. As an example, ask several
of your colleagues how they would define community and you will see that their definition will
vary widely. So, what is a community? Though multiple definitions exist, community is a
geographically defined place where people interact (Robinson and Green 2010). But a
community is not only the physical space where people interact, it also provides important
activities and functions that serve its residents (Warren 1987). These community functions range
229