Economic Development
Overview
The term economic development generally refers to work aimed at increasing or diversifying the range of income and wealth generating opportunities in a given place. The focus can be directly on jobs, attracting new businesses or workforce development. Or, often, groups make a “business case” for improving education, housing, recreation and access to health care by noting the relationship of those opportunities to jobs, workforce development and the ability of a community to attract new businesses. It is interesting to note that the way groups tend to make this kind of “business case” to promote efforts to improve the lives of marginalized individuals is one of the times we most clearly describe structural racism. John Powell, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and others have flipped this insight to create “opportunity maps” showing the overlap of demographics, access to health, employment, public transit and many other factors in a given place, as one way of helping people working on economic development to do so from a lens that promotes explicit attention to race/ethnicity and entry points (opportunities) for development, and understanding the likely systemic and population impact these factors have.
Key Sites
- The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
- Poverty and Race Research Action Council
- PolicyLink
Research
- An Asset-Based Community-Building Paradigm for Twenty-First Century Development
- ARRA & the Economic Crisis - One Year Later: Has Stimulus Helped Communities in Crisis?
- Moving To Equity: Addressing Inequitable Effects of Transportation Policies on Minorities
- From Urban Renewal and Displacement to Economic Inclusion: San Francisco Affordable Housing Policy 1978-2012
- The Retail Race Divide: How the Retail Industry is Perpetuating Racial Inequality in the 21st Century
- "The Black Butterfly": Racial Segregation and Investment Patterns in Baltimore"
- Five-star reviews, one-star profits: The devaluation of businesses in Black communities
Practices
- Racial Equity Impact Assessments of Economic Policies and Public Budgets
- Communities of Opportunity: A Framework for a more Equitable and Sustainable Future for All
- The Right to The City: Reclaiming Our Urban Centers, Reframing Human Rights, and Redefining Citizenship
- A Path: Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore
- Equitable Development Toolkit
- What Does Racism Have to do with Gridlock?
- Building an Equitable Tax Code: A Primer for Advocates
- #BlackWorkersMatter
- Educate and Empower Tools for Building Community Wealth
- Best Practices for Incorporating Equity and Inclusion in Planning
- REWRITE the Racial Rules: Building an Inclusive American Economy
- Diversity and Inclusion for the 21st Century Economy: An Imperative for Chambers of Commerce
- How the Women of Standing Rock Are Building Sovereign Economies
- Solidarity Economy in the South
