Wim Wiewel

Goal Achievement, Relationship Building, and Incrementalism: The Challenges of University-Community Partnerships.

The University of Illinois at Chicagos Neighborhoods Initiative is used as a case study of how planning occurs in a situation of shared power; what the relationship is between the goals of participants and what actually gets done; and what the role of planners is in linking knowledge to action. The collaborative planning model is characterized by incrementalism, and relationship building is a key element. Relationship building and goal achievement are not opposites; the achievement of goals requires some level of trust in a partnership. The relative emphasis on one or the other depends on the specific context in which planning is done. The implications for planners and planning education are a greater emphasis on political and communicative skills in order to be effective in collaborative planning.

Import Substitution and Local Economic Development

Import substitution deserves more consideration as a theoretical basis for local economic development policies. Its role in promoting local growth is theoretically well-founded. Less clear is the extent to which public policies can promote it. In order to facilitate experimentation, the article discusses several examples of analyses and programs that can be used to select target industries for import substitution policies. One approach uses changes in location quotients to identify potential targets; another approach focuses on the potential impact of redirecting purchases by local governments to targeted industries.

The growing localness of the global city

An increasing share of economic activity in large metropolitan areas serves local markets. For such areas, other researchers have demonstrated the rising importance of internationally oriented activities. These findings are not necessarily contradictory. The shares of both local and internationally oriented activities have grown at the expense of manufacturing production oriented to national markets. Even allowing for the expansion of traded producer services in global cities and other large metropolitan areas, the decline of manufacturing and the continuing expansion of consumer services imply a growing local share. This proposition is supported by using a minimum requirements approach to measuring changes in the local share for large metropolitan areas. The basic data are for payroll by two-digit industries in U.S. metropolitan areas with more than one million people for 1969, 1979, and 1989. Important implications for public policy center on the use of the nonmobile, local sector to advance local economic development goals. Such policies, if successful, will yield gains not only to the local labor force, but also to locally oriented businesses.

Learning to Think as a Region: Connecting Suburban Sprawl and City Poverty

Throughout the US there is an increasing debate about the nature of urban development, including such aspects as suburban sprawl and continuing central city poverty. This debate is driven by a range of motivations, including concerns about the effect of growth on the environment, quality of life, government efficiency, economic competitiveness, and equity. Several metropolitan areas have developed new governmental and fiscal structures or land use policies to address problems caused by growth, or by inequalities within regions. A detailed case study of Chicago shows how different groups deal with these issues politically. The article concludes with an overview of the policies most likely to be successful.

The Linkage between Regional and Neighborhood Development

Current theories about regional and neighborhood development suggest that there are four mechanisms linking economic development at the regional and the neighborhood level. These mechanisms are (a) market processes, (b) the capitalist accumulation process, (c) the process of industrial change and corporate decision making, and (d) the political process. The literature on each of these sheds partial light on the linkage question and suggests a comprehensive, multilevel analytical model. However, much more research is needed to elaborate specific elements of the model.

Policy Research in an Imperfect World: Response to Terry F. Buss, “The Case Against Targeted Industry Strategies”

It is a sign of the coming of age of economic development research that tough questions are being asked about the quality of the data, how solid the conclusions from research are, and when we are better off with limited data and knowledge than without them. Buss makes a valuable contribution in raising these issues. He goes too far in damning all studies because individual errors appear in some of them and is wrong in calling the studies atheoretical. His ideological bias causes him to attack any tinkering with the free market; on that basis, all economic development efforts are inappropriate. However, more external review of targeting studies and more evaluation of targeting programs would greatly improve the quality of data, studies, and economic development policy and practice.

Urban productivity and the neighborhoods: the case for a federal neighborhood strategy

In this paper the authors seek to build a new case for neighborhood-oriented government programs, primarily based on economic, rather than moral, political, or social policy considerations. Serious government investment can provide a base for much expanded service sector employment in neighborhoods in the central city and aging suburbs. Agglomeration effects in expanding service industries remain important for productivity, in spite of decentralization. Furthermore, the costs of decentralization impose constraints on further suburban growth. Urban neighborhoods can provide relatively high-productivity locales for service industries, because of existing infrastructure, a large labor force, proximity to downtowns, local entrepreneurs, and the enduring advantages of density. However, programs are needed to improve public infrastructure to increase productivity; invest in human capital; and strengthen the competitive position of neighborhoods through quality-of-life improvements.

Planning the New Urban University: The Role of Planning Departments

Funding constraints and increased criticism of institutions of higher education are forcing many universities to reformulate their missions or develop new strategic plans. For a variety of reasons urban issues appear prominently in the new mission statements of universities. This article explores the extent of this new urban emphasis and its reflection in proposed new university structures, processes, and programs. Because urban planning is the academic discipline most explicitly and specifically concerned with urban areas, one might expect urban planning departments to play a lead role in these redefinitions of mission and new initiatives and take advantage of their knowledge base to advance their standing in the institutions. A survey of universities that have engaged in strategic planning and mission formulation shows, however, that the role of urban planning departments is fairly limited. The article concludes with a discussion of possible explanations for this limited role and an identification of areas of opportunity.

Industry Task Forces As Pragmatic Planning: The Effect of Ideology, Planning Process, and Economic Context on Strategy Selection

Industry task forces represent a new approach to local economic develop ment planning. It is being applied to many industries and cities by a wide variety of sponsors, who approach the issues with different ideologies and use different planning processes. Yet the outcomes of these planning efforts often exhibit surprising simi larities. It appears that the specifics of the planning processes used, as well as the concept of a task force itself, lead to a washing-out process which subdues most differences and produces a form of generic plan ning. This confirms other recent re search which suggests that, in local planning, pragmatism suppresses ideological differences.

A mid-level methodology for evaluating economic development projects

This article describes the key elements of a computerized spreadsheet model that can be used by public officials and agency staff to assess in advance the likely economic and fiscal effects of economic development projects. While the model in its current state is based on Chicago, local data can be used to adapt it to other places. The project is innovative in its use of current economic theory, data, and tools to create a model useable on a routine basis by non-specialist public agency staff. The aim is to narrow the gap between academic economic analysis and public sector practice. A key element of the model is that it was developed in close cooperation with staff of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and combines rigorous economic analysis with the political priorities and choices of public agency staff. Also, the model includes key data about the local economy and standard industry data, but can be overridden by an analyst if project-specific information is available.