Community Asset Holding Institutions in the U.S.

Recent historic political shifts within the United States -
particularly as embodied in the movement away from "big government," the radical redirection of social welfare programs, and the mobility of capital due to escalating globalization - are having significant ramifications for the quality of life in communities across the country. How will communities cope with the new financial and social realities that they now face? How will existing jobs be retained and new jobs generated at a time when capital is becoming increasingly global in its movement? How can communities stabilize their economic base? What is the future of community-based economic development?

The answers lie at least in part in a diverse set of emerging forms of community-rooted, asset-building institutions. Among them: new forms of community development corporations, employee-owned businesses, municipal enterprise, and community land trusts. These innovations in asset holding and ownership emanate from grassroots initiatives which enhance local control of decision-making and productive assets through local-level institutions. An article about some of these models, "Innovations in Ownership," is available. A comprehensive report will be issued in late 2002.

Significant Scale Community-based Economic Development Institutions Abroad

A broad range of new forms of significant scale community-benefitting economic entities are active throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. These institutional innovations are providing stability for communities and security for individuals, families, and groups in society. Many involve partnerships and collaboration between community groups and local government. These little-studied community-based asset building experiments occur in a variety of forms: hybrid consumer-producer enviro-cooperatives, community-owned and -operated businesses, alternative financial institutions, nonprofit businesses, worker-owned cooperatives, and public-private and government-community partnerships.

Comprehensive Community-stabilizing
Policies for the Global Era

In an era in which communities are increasingly threatened economically by mobile capital, ongoing internal competition among states and localities for new investment and jobs, and the growth of sprawl, what policy options are available — or could become available — to achieve greater community stabilization? How can alternative institutional structures favorable to community stability be nurtured?

Research now underway examines a comprehensive range of actual or proposed policies at the local, state, federal, and international levels that can substantially contribute to the goal of stabilizing communities in the United States and support community-based economic development here and abroad. The overall thrust is in the direction of a more community-based, decentralized, and less globalized political-economy. A book, "Making a Place for Community," will be released by Routledge in 2002.