Office hours: Tues. 2-4, Weds.1-3, or by appointment. Office hours are held in PA 5358

Course meeting time and location

The course will meet on Wednesdays, 3:30-6:20 in Public Affairs 2343

Course description

The term “community economic development” is used to refer to two different things: scale (economic development at the neighborhood level) and approach or philosophy (local community control over economic development). We will look at both. As the course title suggest, our focus will be economic development rather than any number of other important dimensions of development. While we’ll touch on some specific techniques, our main emphasis will be on broad planning skills of analysis and problem-solving. We will primarily use US examples, but will occasionally look at other countries to flesh out ideas or make comparisons.

Course requirements

This course is built around informed discussion and independent work by students. Doing the readings on time, attending class, and participating in discussion on the readings are absolutely required, because students need to do these things to get value from the class.

As a way of encouraging critical thinking about the readings, each week an arbitrarily chosen group of students is assigned to do a presentation on that week’s readings to kick off the class. Because the class is large, each student will just have to be in such a readings presentation group once. It is up to the group how to divide up the turf: have each person pick a reading and develop her/his own presentation, discuss presentations together, or something else.

There are also two take-home assignments:

1) Take-home test. Your chance to broadly discuss and apply the main concepts in the first half of the course. You must do the test individually.

2) Term paper on a current community economic development topic (more detail on the next page). This can be turned in by an individual student, or a group of up to 4. The paper assignment includes four checkpoints:

a) Topic prospectus

b) Outline and progress report

c) Presentation in the final class meeting

d) Turning in the finished paper

The final grade will be approximately based on the following:

25% Class participation (PLEASE NOTE THAT ONE-QUARTER OF THE GRADE IS CLASS PARTICIPATION)

30% Take home exam

45% Paper (grade composed of all 4 checkpoints)

Due dates of all assignments are given in the course schedule. Assignments turned in late will be graded down severely.

PAPER ASSIGNMENT

The assignment is to write a reflective paper on a community economic development topic of your choosing, within certain parameters. The parameters are:

The paper should speak to one of the Big Questions introduced in session 1 of the class: people vs. place, the problem of scale, politics vs. economics, internally driven vs. externally driven development. The Big Question involved does not have to be the main topic of the paper, but it should be clear how the paper connects to it.
You should draw on literature from the course reader and other relevant analytical literature. By analytical, I mean articles, books, or reports that do not simply report a series of facts or events, but try to explore or explain broader or deeper patterns. Not just newspaper articles, for example. But they do not have to be academic pieces—they could be directed at policy or practice.
You should also draw one at least one real-life example. The example can be in LA, elsewhere in the United States, or elsewhere in the world. You can learn about the example either by conducting one or more interviews, by consulting other sources (media accounts, case studies written up by researchers, etc.), or both. I will not give you more credit for doing an interview rather than a media search, but I will give you more credit for presenting a richer, more multi-dimensional picture of the example(s). If you are thinking of going the interview route, please be warned that if you do not already have contact with people involved in the example, it may be very hard for you to find them and convince them to give you an interview!
The paper should be 3750-5000 words (about 15-20 pages, double-spaced). If it is considerably longer or shorter, its length should justify itself: a short paper should pack a lot into few words; a long paper should make evident why you needed to present more evidence or arguments to make your point clearly.
Always be careful to cite all sources used, to put direct quotations in quotation marks, to use direct quotes rather than close paraphrases, etc. See the advice on using sources that starts at the bottom of p.2 of the syllabus. One added piece of advice: though when you are on a roll with writing it is tempting to not stop and note the sources you are using, it is always easier to put in sources while you are writing than to go back and try to find them later.

Group papers by groups of no more than 4 are OK. Not surprisingly, I expect a group paper to gather more information and cut deeper than an individual paper. This means a longer paper, but it should not be twice as long for two students, etc.

There are four checkpoints for the paper assignment, and your grade will be based on all four. Please post all assignments on the CCLE website. I prefer to get a hard copy as well, but this is not required.

a) Topic prospectus, due October 13. Your prospectus should identify your topic, explain how it links to one or more of the Big Questions, and say what example or examples you plan to use. Say what types of sources you plan to use. If you are planning to conduct one or more interviews, describe your strategy for obtaining interviews. About 250-500 words.

b) Outline and progress report, due November 17. The outline should be an elaborated outline laying out the main topics and arguments you plan to explore, not just “introduction – findings – conclusion.” If you know what sources you will use or plan to use for particular sections, you can note those as well (I am not looking for full, correct references at this stage for writing). The progress report is saying briefly what you have done and what you plan to do to complete the research for the paper. This can be point-by-point within the outline, or set apart as a separate narrative. The outline/progress report document should probably be at least 500 words.

c) Presentation in front of the class, Week 11 (date to be set). We will allot 3 minutes per student (!), maybe a bit more if the class enrollment shrinks. For papers by groups of students, everybody should present, but you do not have to present “what you wrote”; you can divide up the presentation in any way you see fit.

d) Finished paper, December 6.

In all written work, we expect you to identify all sources of data, information, and ideas. When quoting or paraphrasing someone else’s work, cite the source. My preferred form of citation is the author-date form. For example:

The data on firm size indicate that small business’s contributions to U.S. growth are actually relatively modest (Harrison 1994, Chapter 2).

Then at the end of the paper, have a complete list of references. For example:

Bennett Harrison. 1994. Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility. New York: Basic Books.

NOTE: Using someone else’s information or ideas without citing the source is misleading, prevents a reader from following up on interesting ideas, and defeats the educational purpose of the assignments (which is to build on other people’s work to come up with your own ideas and conclusions). Also, the university forbids it, and stipulates serious penalties if a student is caught at it. Please don’t do it. Guidelines for academic honesty are posted at http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/StudentGuide.pdf, with a more complete code of conduct at http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/studentconductcode.pdf. In brief, to adhere to academic honesty, you should:

Again, provide citations for information, except for information that is general knowledge or that you learned from direct observation.
When you use a direct quotation, “put it in quotation marks.” (For direct quotes, give the page number.) It is not OK to use a close paraphrase as an alternative to a direct quotation—if it’s close, we expect you to just use the direct quote.
Most of a paper should be your own work. It is fine to summarize, critique, or build on other people’s ideas. But if a paper is mostly a string of quotations or descriptions of statements from others, that is a bad sign. We want you to develop your own synthesis and ideas.

Readings

Readings will be available via the CCLE website, under the headings “Week 1,” “Week 2,” etc. Some readings are also available online at URLs identified in the syllabus.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1 (Sept. 29): Defining the problem, the goal, and a first look at solutions

What is community economic development? What problem is it trying to solve? What are some of the limits and tradeoffs involved in CED?

READINGS:

Peter Marcuse, “The enclave, the citadel, and the ghetto: What has changed in the post-Fordist U.S. city,” Urban Affairs Review, Vol.33, No.2, 228-264, 1997
Steve Fisher, “What is economic development?” in It's Everybody's Business: A People's Guide to Economic Development; Southern Exposure, Durham, NC 1986
Gilda Haas, “Turning economic justice into economic development,” no date.
Michael Teitz, “Neighborhood economics: Local communities and regional markets,” Economic Development Quarterly, Vol.3, No.2 (May 1989), 111-122.
Randall Crane and Michael Manville, “People or place? Revisiting the who vs. where of urban development,” Land Lines (Lincoln Land Institute), July 2008, 2-7.
OPTIONAL: Chris Tilly, “The economic environment of housing: Income inequality and insecurity.” In Rachel Bratt, Chester Hartman, Mary Ellen Hombs, and Michael Stone, eds., Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Assignments for presenting readings handed out

Term paper assignment handed out

WEEKS 2-4: CONTEXTS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Week 2 (Oct. 6): Focus on power: Community organizing

How do you figure out who has power in (or over) a community? What are different community organizing approaches to changing the balance of power? What is a planner’s role and responsibility in the face of power imbalances?

READINGS:

§ Kristina Smock, Democracy in Action: Community Organizing and Urban Change. New York: Columbia 2004, Ch.2, “Models of community organizing: An overview” (10-33) and Ch.9, “Lessons learned” (248-255 only)

§ Marie Kennedy, “Transformative community planning: Empowerment through community development,” New Solutions, Summer 1996, 93-100

§ SKIM: G. William Domhoff, “Power structure research and the hope for democracy,” WhoRulesAmerica.net, 2005. http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/theory/power_structure_research.html

Week 3 (Oct. 13): Focus on large-scale markets: Regional development theory

Why do economic activities locate where they do? What is agglomeration, and how does it affect where businesses locate? Why do rich regions stay rich and poor regions stay poor?

READINGS:

John P. Blair and Robert Premus "Major factors in industrial location: A review," Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 1, No.1, 1987, 72-85

§ SKIM: Natalie Cohen, “Business location decision-making and the cities: Bringing companies back,” Working paper, The Brookings Institution, Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy, May 2000

§ Mary E. Edwards, Regional and Urban Economics and Economic Development (Boca Raton and New York: Auerbach Publications, Taylor & Francis Group, 2007), “Economic base theory and analysis,” pp.170-175.

§ William Easterly, The Elusive Quest for Growth, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001). Ch.8, “Tales of increasing returns,” 145-169.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Paper topic prospectus due

Week 4 (Oct. 20): Cities and urban problems

What forces affect the economies of the cities? What approaches to urban revitalization have succeeded?

READINGS:

Henry R. Richmond, “Metropolitan land-use reform: the promise and challenge of majority consensus,” pp.9-39 in Bruce Katz, ed. Reflections on Regionalism, Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2000.
Hank V. Savitch and Paul Kantor, “Urban Strategies for a Global Era: A Cross-National Comparison,” American Behavioral Scientist, Vo. 46 No. 8, April 2003: 1002-1033
Merrill Goozner, “The Porter prescription,” The American Prospect, May/June 1998, p. 56-64.

§ Mackenzie Baris, Book review, Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life, The Next American City, Spring 2003. http://www.americancity.org/article.php?id_article=78

Optional (this article has a lot of interesting ideas, but also assumes a lot of prior knowledge so parts of it may be hard to understand): Neil Brenner and Nik Theodore, “Cities and the geographies of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’,” Antipode, June 2002: 349-379.

WEEKS 5-10: CAPITAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Week 5 (Oct. 27): Alternatives to disinvestment and displacement

Why does capital abandon some urban areas? Why does investment lead to displacement in other areas (or sometimes the same areas at another time)? What strategies can we use for reinvestment without displacement?

READINGS:

Stephan Michelson, “Community-based development in urban areas,” pp.534-549 in Robert Friedman and William Schweke, editors, Expanding the Opportunity to Produce: Revitalizing the American Economy through New Enterprise Development (Washington, DC: Corporation for Enterprise Development, 1981).
Tom Angotti, “The real estate market in the United States: Progressive strategies,” Graduate Center for Planning and Environment, Pratt Institute, 1999.
Michael Stone, “Social ownership,” pp.240-260 in Rachel G. Bratt, Michael E. Stone, and Chester Hartman, eds., A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006).

ASSIGNMENTS:

Take home test handed out

Week 6 (Nov. 3): Financial strategies

Can specialized financial institutions, tools, or programs help get capital flowing to businesses and households in poor neighborhoods? What are the prospects for more unconventional strategies?

READINGS:

Lehn Benjamin, Julia Sass Rubin, and Sean Zielenbach, “Community Development Financial Institutions: Current Issues and Future Prospects.” Seeds of Growth: Sustainable Community Development: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why. Washington, D.C.: The Federal Reserve Systems’ Third Community Affairs Research Conference, March 27-28, 2003. http://www.community-wealth.org/_pdfs/articles-publications/cdfis/paper-benjamin.pdf
Lisa J. Servon, Microenterprise development in the United States: Current challenges and new directions,” Economic Development Quarterly, Vol.20, No.4, 351-367 (2006).
Sanford Schram, Welfare Discipline: Discourse, Governance, and Globalization (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 2006), Ch.5, “Recommodified discourse: The limits of the asset building approach to fighting poverty,” 107-135.
Mark A. Willis, “Community reinvestment: The broader agenda.” The American Prospect, August 11, 2009, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=community_reinvestment_the_broader_agenda (6 pages)

§ Marie Kennedy, Fernando Leiva, and Chris Tilly, “What is the potential of Latin America’s ‘third left’?” In David Fasenfest (ed), Engaging Social Justice: Critical Studies of 21^st Century Social Transformation, Leiden: Brill, 2009, 233-252.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Work on take-home test

Week 7 (Nov. 10): Making redevelopment benefit the community

Why does the normal, “neutral” process of redevelopment disadvantage communities of color? What are strategies for making development more accountable to lower income and minority communities and workers?

READINGS:

Leland T. Saito, The Politics of Exclusion: The Failure of Race-Neutral Policies in Urban America, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. Ch.1, “Introduction: The racialized outcomes of race-neutral policies,” Ch.2, “Econmic redevelopment, historic preservation, and the Chinese Mission of San Diego,” and Ch.3, “African Americans and historic preservation in San Diego: The Douglas Hotel and the Clermont/Coast Hotel”, pp.1-98
William Ho, “Community benefits agreements: An evolution in public benefits negotiation processes,” Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Vol.17, Nos.1-2, Fall 2007/Winter 2008, pp.7-34.
David Reynolds, “Building coalitions for regional power: Labor’s emerging urban strategy,” Ch.4 in Lowell Turner and Daniel B. Cornfield, eds., Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds: Local Solidarity in a Global Economy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2007).

ASSIGNMENTS:

Turn in take-home test

WEEKS 8-10: UPGRADING SKILLS AND CAPACITIES: WORKERS, BUSINESSES, COMMUNITIES

Week 8 (Nov. 17): Workforce development strategies

Michael Teitz (Week 1) says that building up skills is one of the best ways to help poor neighborhoods. What approaches to skill upgrading and placement work? How do skill-building strategies fit in with other strategies such as strengthening career ladders, politically enhancing access to jobs, and/or improving the jobs people already have?

READINGS:

Robert Giloth, “Learning from the field: Economic growth and workforce development in the 1990s,” Economic Development Quarterly Vol.14, No.4 (November 2000), pp.340-359.
Joan Fitzgerald and Virginia Carlson, “Ladders to a better life.” The American Prospect, November 2002.
Jeff Grabelsky and Phil Thompson, “Emerald cities in the age of Obama: A new social compact between labor and community,” Perspectives on Work 13(2): 15-18, 2010
Paul Sonn and Stephanie Luce , “New directions for the living wage movement,” Ch.11 in Annette Bernhardt, Heather Boushey, Laura Dresser, and Chris Tilly, eds., The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), pp.269-286.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Outline and progress report on term paper due

Week 9 (Nov. 24, but I imagine we will reschedule): Small business strategies

What are winning strategies for developing small businesses? Is it most helpful to provide supports, set standards, or simple not regulate them too much?

READINGS:

Robert Forrant and Erin Flynn, “Seizing agglomeration's potential: The greater Springfield, Massachusetts metalworking district in transition, 1986-1996.” Regional Studies 32: 209-22, 1998.
Lisa R. Peattie, “What is to be done with the ‘Informal Sector:’ A case study of shoe manufacturers in Colombia,” 208-232, in Helen Safa, ed., Towards a Political Economy of Urbanism, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Judith Tendler, “Small firms, the informal sector, and the ‘devil’s deal.’” Institute for Development Studies Bulletin (University of Sussex), Vol.33 No.3, July 2002.
Seidman, Karl F. "Urban Inner City Commercial Revitalization: A Literature Review." Unpublished article, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, June 2002. “Executive Summary,” pp.1-8. http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Urban-Studies-and-Planning/11-439Spring-2005/BAFBC134-3457-41A5-ACF9-2E5880567575/0/seidman4.pdf

Week 10 (Dec. 1): Social capital in economic development, and course wrap-up

What is social capital, and does it matter? Also, let’s take some time to think back on what we have learned.

READINGS:

Robert D. Putnam, “The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life, The American Prospect, Spring 1993, 35-42.

§ Alejandro Portes and Patricia Landolt. “The Downside of Social Capital, ‘Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II,’” The American Prospect, May 1, 1996.

Valdis Krebs and June Holley, “Building Smart Communities through Network Weaving,” OrgNet.com, 2006. http://www.orgnet.com/BuildingNetworks.pdf
Flashback: Look back at the Teitz and Crane/Manville readings from week 1 (both provide overall framing of community economic development)

Week 11 (To be scheduled during finals week): Student presentations

The length of the presentations will depend on the number of students, but it will probably be about 3 minutes per student (!). For papers by groups of students, everybody should present, but you do not have to present “what you wrote”; you can divide up the presentation in any way you see fit.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Paper due December 6

There is no final exam