Community Entrepreneurship in Deprived Neighbourhoods: Comparing UK Community Enterprises with US Community Development Corporations

David P. Varady (), Reinout Kleinhans () and Maarten van Ham
Additional contact information
David P. Varady: University of Cincinnati
Reinout Kleinhans: Delft University of Technology

No 8777, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Through a review of the recent American community development literature, this paper tests the assertion that British community enterprises (CEs) are fundamentally similar to American community development corporations (CDCs), and therefore, that CEs can learn from CDCs. In the context of the current austerity regimes, CEs and community entrepreneurship are increasingly considered as a means to continue small-scale urban regeneration, not only in the UK but also in several other European countries. While the CDC sector has achieved a relatively successful record in affordable housing production in distressed areas, CDCs are fundamentally limited in terms of reversing the processes of community decline. Our comparison of CDCs and CEs reveals similarities, but also differences with regard to organizational characteristics, co-operation on multiple scales, comprehensiveness, targeting and community participation. Apart from outlining lessons that CEs can learn from CDS, we provide recommendations for further research that should cover the lack of empirical evidence in this field.

Keywords: neighborhood revitalization; community enterprises; community development corporations; entrepreneurship; regeneration; United States; United Kingdom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 L31 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ent and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published as 'The Potential of Community Entrepreneurship for Neighbourhood Revitalization in the United Kingdom and the United States' in: Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy , 2015, 9 (3), 253-276.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp8777.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8777

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().