Herbert J. Rubin

Economic Development Incentives The Poor (Cities) Pay more

After establishing a way of classifying economic development incentives, this article examines four different explanations of why cities differ in their willingness to provide such incentives to encourage business growth. In order of explanatory power the explanations are citizen need, administrative capacity, fiscal stress, and the process of growth. Specific types of cities are more willing to use some incentives than others. Some underlying rules are suggested to explain why city officials make the decisions they do about economic development issues. It is the symbolic value of the actions rather than their concrete consequences that motivate much of local economic development activity.

Shoot Anything that Flies; Claim Anything that Falls: Conversations with Economic Development Practitioners

Economic development practitioners face an uncertain environment in which their ability to bring about economic development is dependent upon factors over which they have little, if any, control. Using extended excerpts from open-ended interviews, the author explores how the economic development practitioners attempt to cope with uncertainty. The interviews illustrate both the frustrations practitioners feel about their work and the accommodations they make in doing their work. The author presents a speculative model, based upon Stones work on system bias, of how the perspective toward developmental work held by the practitioner might increasingly tilt public sector actions toward the business community.

There Aren't Going to Be Any Bakeries Here If There Is No Money to Afford Jellyrolls: The Organic Theory of Community Based Development

Community based development organizations — CBDOs — are nonprofit developers whose mandate is to revitalize communities devastated by broader transformations in the economy. While best known for their work in building homes and commercial properties in poor communities, CBDOs accomplish more. This article presents theories put forth by community activists of what community development is about beyond doing bricks and mortar projects. While guiding the work of CBDOs, these theories also speak to the conceptual issues that scholars of community development term the ‘dilemmas of activism.’

Renewing Hope in the Inner City Conversations with Community-Based Development Practitioners

A recent literature documents the successes of community-based development organizations (CBDOs) in providing housing and employment in impoverished communities. Such successes provide hope that it is possible to reverse urban decline. Whether, at the same time, it is possible to create jobs and housing in ways that empower the people within poor communities and increase community capacity for self-directed growth is less certain, as funders emphasize physical production over the goals of empowerment and capacity building. This article, based on in-depth interviews with more than 100 community activists, describes the efforts of CBDOs to balance pressures to concentrate on physical production with their efforts to build capacity and create empowerment within poor communities. The implications of how they do so for the new institutionalism paradigm in organization theory are explored.

Working in a Turbulent Environment: Perspectives of Economic Development Practitioners

The relationship between environmental turbulence and the economic development strategies followed by municipalities is described. A belief that the economic environment is not controllable is associated with an increase in formalistic activities, as well as a sense that economic development policies redistribute wealth to businesses. In more placid environments, attention is paid to improving public and private cooperation. Though local economic conditions as well as the amount of political pressure influence economic development approaches, the effect of turbulence remains important.

Will and Awe: Illustrations of Thai Villager Dependency Upon Officials

T HE superior in Thailand has been described as unquestioned and domineering. Inferiors stand in awe of (kreng) the superior. Yet, the superior is expected to act to his inferiors in a concerned and benevolent fashion. He should aid his inferiors yet not dominate them to such an extent as to destroy their sense of autonomy. In this paper I shall extend previous discussions of Thai superior-inferior behavior by showing the compatibility of the Thai concepts of benevolence and awe. This sense of awe felt towards a superior permits him to undertake actions considered benevolent by his inferiors. To illustrate this situation I shall describe certain types of contact that occurred between rural Thai officials, as superiors, and villagers as their inferiors.1 This discussion complements previous articles on superior-inferior relations. Such articles have emphasized both the way in which the position of a superior has been

Economic partnering with the poor: why local governments should work with community-based development organizations to promote economic development

Much of conventional economic development ends up as a transfer of wealth from the public sector to successful firms. Instead, local governments would be better off working to support the efforts of community-based development organizations to expand the economic pie for those most in need. Suggestions are made of ways to bring about equity development programs that would help those most in need rather than merely subsidizing established businesses.

The Meshing Organization as a Catalyst for Municipal Coordination

The concept of a meshing organization is defined. A meshing organization brings about coordination between political and bureaucratic entities without threatening their autonomy. Differences between meshing organizations and other coordinative structures are explored. The strategies are interpreted in terms of the resource-dependence model of interorganizational relations. Nine strategies through which the meshing organization can strengthen itself bureaucratically while increasing the degree of intergovernmental coordination are discussed. Examples of an active meshing organization in a conservative, metropolitan county.

Rules, Collective Needs, and Individual Action A Case Study in a Townhouse Cooperative

An observational and survey study is undertaken to observe how members of a townhouse cooperative seek to reduce collective choice dilemmas. So long as individuals perceive that it is costless to take from the collectivity while someone else is contributing, such dilemmas will arise. At the cooperative we find that a sense of ownership, an understanding of a governmental subsidy, and a willingness to accept rules affect the resolution of such dilemmas. Our findings are used tp show the relevance of both social-psychological theories of fate control and equity theories toward understanding problems of collective choice.