Community Economics Newsletter No. 224 June 1995 ====================================================================== E-Mail additions or corrections to: LOHR@AE.AGECON.WISC.EDU ====================================================================== SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Ron Shaffer 1/ The idea of sustainable development is appearing more frequently in discussions regarding communities, but the meaning of the concept remains somewhat murky. This community economics explores some of the definitions of sustainable development and links them back to changing the perceptions of the four fundamental leverage points (resources, markets, rules, and decision making capacity) of community economic development policy. The concept of sustainable development is broader than the physical-biological definition most of us think of, but includes the dimensions of time, space, marginalized social-economic groups, and dynamic economies. Any definition of sustainable development needs to start with the World Commission (Brundtland) report _Our Common Future_ which defines sustainable development as "that which ensures the needs of the present are met, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." 2/ The Brundtland report emphasizes management and control over development, a holistic approach to problem solving, and recognition that "development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change in which the use of resources, direction of investments, orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future was well as present needs." Hooper offers "...sustainability as an understanding of the components needed for the adaption through time of human culture and society ... generating a high level of human welfare and well-being within the bounds of the global resource endowments and global tolerance of the consequences of the human-resource interactions. ... define a sustainable society as one in which there is a conscious effort to adapt its social and cultural institutions to the needs for maintaining its resource base within the limits of the known adverse consequences of its human-resource interactions." 3/ Dykeman's definition of sustainable community economic development suggests "...those communities that manage and control their destiny based on a realistic and well thought through vision. Such a community based management and control approach requires that a process be instituted within the community that effectively uses knowledge and knowledge systems to direct change and determine appropriate courses of action consistent with ecological principles. The process must be comprehensive and address social, economic, physical, and environmental concerns in an integrated fashion while maintaining central concern for present and future welfare of individuals and the community." 4/ An important element of the definitions is recognition of the changing circumstances in which the community functions. These changes can be depletion or revaluation of a resource (e.g., ground water, forest, scenic vistas), technological changes (e.g., drip irrigation, genetic engineering, fiber optics), demographic (e.g., aging population, single parent families, working couples), or economic structure (e.g., transnational corporations, relative decline of manufacturing employment). If community economic development explicitly incorporates sustainable, resources take on new meanings including: assimilative capacity; including marginalized groups; recognizing nonrenewable resources; lower energy use technology; and different skill sets for people, including access to acquiring new skills. Likewise markets start including recycling; consuming green products; and lifestyles. Decision making capacity now adds sensitivity about the bio-sphere; sensitivity about inter-generational implications; and sensitivity about marginalized groups. The rules of the economic game now includes discharge permits and markets; compensation to adversely affected people; development impact hearings; and taxes on transboundary environmental use. The themes that emerge from the expanded definition of sustainable community economic development leads to policies that explore -- increased community self-reliance; increased niche marketing (i.e., less volume more value); increased ecological awareness (e.g., diversification of production from mono-culture, recycle wastes or reduce waste stream); changes in labor and management requirements; increased demands on knowledge, creativity, and innovativeness. The paradigm shifts that must occur include reframing the growth/non-growth dichotomy; market/state directed dichotomy, and that marginalized groups will not improve their relative position, thus absolute growth is the only choice. There is a need to explore new procedures (collaboration rather than competition becomes the guiding principle). Some of the new processes that sustainable communities will need to master include negotiation and conflict management skills, and accumulating and incorporating new knowledge into the choices considered and made. Sustainable development encourages different forms of growth, rather than a no growth. It recognizes a dynamic economy is not a euphemism for growth, but refers to changing choices, reframing issues, changing perceptions of markets and resources, and changing values. It is not absolute, but relative to shifting constraints, acknowledges different forms of capital, (e.g.., renewable and nonrenewable), and appreciates the capacity to accommodate change. Nostalgia is replaced with the reality of changing needs and functions. Insistence on some historic view (e.g., production processes or community role) will only delay making needed choices. Economic choices are guided by both market and nonmarket (including intergenerational) determined values. There is concern about how change is creating increased disenfranchisement based on gender, skills, ethnicity, space, or economic status. Sustainable contains an effort to increase access to decision making and decision making with a fuller array of knowledge. Ron Shaffer Community Development Economist 1/ Professor of Agricultural Economics and Community Development Economist, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension. 2/ World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, _Our Common Future_, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.9. 3/ Hooper, W. David, 1992, "Sustainability: Cult? or Something We Can Live By?" in _The Rols of Universities in a Sustainable Society: Workshop Proceedings_, Guelph, ONT: University of Guelph, p. 13. 4/ Dykeman, Floyd W., 1990, "Developing an Understanding of Entrepreneurial and Sustainable Rural Communities" in _Entrepreneurial And Sustainable Communities_, Dept. of Geography, Mount Allison University, pp 6-7.