Doing community economic development

Summary: Challenging traditional notions of development, these essays examine bottom-up, community economic-development strategies in a wide variety of contexts?as a means of improving lives in rural, and inner-city settings, shaped and driven by women and by Aboriginal people, and aimed at employment creation for the most marginalized. Most authors have employed a participatory research methodology, but all of the essays are the product of a broader, three-year community?university research collaboration. This same collaboration focuses on the strengths and difficulties of participatory, capacity-building strategies for those marginalized by the competitive, profit-seeking forces of capitalism. Many exciting initiatives with great potential are described and critically evaluated, along with on-the-ground descriptions of a wide variety of community economic-development projects, from urban aboriginal businesses to the rural and agricultural fields.