Rhonda Phillips

Community indicators measuring systems

Contents: Theory And Basis For Community Indicators: Understanding indicators, Heidi Hoernig and Mark Seasons Historical background of community indicators, Clifford Cobb and Craig Rixford. Relating Community Indicators To Planning And Development: The sustainable Calgary story: a local response to a global challenge, Noel Keough Indicators and core area planning: applications in Canadas mid-sized cities, Mark Seasons Integrating community indicators with economic development planning, Rhonda Phillips and Susan Bridges. Technological Dimensions: Community statistical systems: discussion of development and data issues, Naomi Oliver, Christiana Schumann and Marc T. Smith Role of multi-scalar GIS-based indicators studies in formulating neighbourhood planning policy, Rina Ghose and William Huxhold Where do we want to be? Making sustainability indicators integrated, dynamic and participatory, Jeff Carmichael, Sonia Talwar, James Tansey and John Robinson Subject index.

Exploring the Intersection of Community Well-Being and Community Development

Community well-being, defined as that state in which the needs and desires of a community are fulfilled, is the focus of this chapter. Additionally, the connections between community well-being and community development, an allied and complementary area of study and practice, is explored. Community development can serve a vital role in actualizing community well-being as defined by those who live it—the citizens and residents of villages, towns, cities and countries. Application in particular is where community development and community well-being intersect.

Stakeholder Engagement in Tourism Planning and Development

Quality-of-life is at the center of decisions about tourism planning and development for residents of host communities. Stakeholders are affected in different ways by tourism development; as some stakeholders may see an increase in their quality-of-life, others may experience a decrease in quality-of-life, and still others may experience mixed impacts. Understanding diverse perspectives of stakeholders and how they are affected by tourism development is critical for constructively engaging stakeholders in planning, but designing an effective strategy is not straightforward. Several techniques exist to engage stakeholders, ranging from information dissemination to public meetings to task forces. Case studies of participatory modeling workshops, training and technical assistance, and surveys and focus groups illustrate the effectiveness of different techniques applied in different situations. Challenges to constructively engage stakeholders include resistance among stakeholder sets, ensuring equity and fairness, problematic relationships among institutions, communication issues, lack of time and money, and difficulty defining and measuring quality-of-life. To address these challenges, researchers are working closely with practitioners to expand the body of knowledge and practical tools available for engaging stakeholders and assessing quality-of-life indicators for residents of host communities.

Local food systems and community economic development through the lens of theory

Abstract The premise of this article is that community support for local food systems and agriculture enterprises represents a convergence of both community and economic development approaches. By drawing on theory for understanding how local food systems and agriculture enterprises are pursued, there are lessons offering understanding and guidance for actions to support more holistic community economic development (CED) approaches. Using theory as a foundation, we seek to articulate the relationships between local food systems, agriculture enterprises, and CED, providing Hardwick, Vermont, as our case study. We seek to explore four theories: social capital, conflict theory, symbolic interaction, and rational choice. It is our intent to show that theory can provide insight for action and deepen understanding of local food system changes and CED impacts.

The Community and Economic Development Chain: Validating the Links Between Processes and Outcomes

The community development and economic development literatures have evolved largely independently with little recognition of the critical relationship between the two disciplines. This omission is not so obvious when researchers focus on individual components of each discipline in isolation, but upon examination of how community and economic development systems work in theory and practice overall, this shortcoming becomes apparent. A proposed framework illustrates the links between community and economic development capacities, factors, and functions and shows the importance of community development to economic development outcomes. In particular, it focuses on the link between social capital and the outcome of community development and an economic development ready community. The framework provides an overarching paradigm that helps tie together some of the research in the two fields. Using data from a statewide survey, correlation coefficients are calculated, showing the connections between capacity factors, development factors, and development functions. Strong statistical results provide evidence to support the community and economic development framework and validate the use of subjective data.

Community economic development

1. Introduction Rhonda Phillips and Terry L. Besser 2. Achieving Sustainable Economic Development in Communities Ron Shaffer 3. Gleaners, Do-Gooders, and Balers: Options for Linking Sustainability and Economic Development Ted Bradshaw and Karri Winn 4. The Community and Economic Development Chain: Validating the Links Between Processes and Outcomes Robert Pittman, Evan Pittman and Rhonda Phillips 5. Economic Development in the Nonmetropolitan West: The Influence of Built, Natural, and Social Capital Jessica Crowe 6. Development of Last Resort: The Impact of New State Prisons on Small Town Economies in the United States Terry L. Besser and Margaret M. Hanson 7. Chain stores and local economies: a case study of a rural county in New York Stephen Halebsky 8. Micro Businesses as an Economic Development Tool: What They Bring and What They Need Glenn Muske and Michael Woods 9. Citizen Participation in Nonprofit Economic Development Organizations Daniel Monroe Sullivan 10. Community Development Corporations as Vehicles of Community Economic Development: The Case of Rural Manitoba Kenneth C. Bessant

Modeling Community Well-Being: A Multi-dimensional Approach

This chapter aims to model community well-being as the appropriate value goal for effective local governance. The community well-being model is based on an analysis of related concepts and highlighting the uniqueness of community well-being. It is also connected to community development, defined as both a process and an outcome for achieving community goals.

Building Community Well-Being Across Sectors with “For Benefit” Community Business

Community business is reflective of several dimensions impacting community well-being, including economic sustainability and community development . This chapter provides an illustration of an alternative way of thinking economic and social well-being concerns, from the vantage point of community well-being. It is proposed that benefits accrue in an environment where social, natural and cultural dimensions of community are important and recognized by the private sector as well as the civic sector (public and non-governmental organizations) and reflected in community business approaches.

State Level Applications: Developing a Policy Support and Public Awareness Indicator Project

Indicator projects have numerous goals and one of the most pressing is providing information to support policy decision-making. Whether it is to encourage policy changes or monitor existing policy, indicators can often be the focus point for starting dialogue around issues and potential solutions. Further, indicator projects can provide a public awareness mechanism, bringing data to the forefront so that reactions and responses by those most impacted can be addressed. This chapter begins with an exploration of the policy support and public awareness dimensions of indicator projects. While there are numerous local, regional and even national indicator projects, there are less at the state level. However, at this level, indicators can often serve as discussion points for addressing policy issues while at the same time broadening awareness of key concerns. An overview of state level projects is provided, including by types and approaches. Begun in 2007, Arizona Indicators has been selected for the case study, examining the process of creating a support system for policy and public awareness.

Conceptualizing a Community Well-Being and Theory Construct

This chapter focuses on a comprehensive understanding of the concept of community well-being and develops a construct based on several common characteristics. Building on theoretical approaches, this construct helps explain aspects of community well-being. The basic premise of this paper is that community well-being is a comprehensive concept covering other related life and community aspects. The term community well-being encompasses comprehensive and integrated concepts developed by synthesizing research constructs related to residents’ perceptions of the community, residents’ needs fulfillment, observable community conditions, and the social and cultural context of the community. Related terms such as well-being, happiness, and quality of life take on crucial roles in constructing community well-being. The construct presented is inspired by well-established theoretical analysis such as systems theory, bottom-up spillover theory, social capital and needs theory. Community well-being is a relatively new idea in social science, in this modern rendition of its applications. It still lacks the theoretical structure to explain or predict, and the exploration of related theoretical basis is important for fostering understanding of its application and structure. This chapter strives to help develop a construct for promoting further understanding.