Community Capacity Building and the Local Economy: Private, Government and Non-profit Approaches

This chapter considers the theories of community capacity building and social capital and their connections and inter-relationships with strategies to develop and sustain local economies. Theories and policies are described, and a series of international examples provided that show how policy makers’ ambitions to boost economic development and community capacity building should be delivered in unison. The chapter explores a series of examples from the private, public and non-profit sectors, including policies that promote inward investment, local entrepreneurship and franchised business development, as well as new and alternative models for social and economic business development such as co-operatives, time banks, reinvestment trusts and local exchange trading schemes. Specific examples of firms and experiences in North America and Europe, focusing on deprived areas in cities such as Chicago, Birmingham, Leeds, Barcelona and Stockholm and on rural economic development in Canada and Italy, are detailed.