Community, Culture, and Economic Development: The Social Roots of Local Action (Suny Series, Democracy in American Politics)

A comparative study of economic development policy, and its relationship with local power structures and cultural and social relations, in two Maryland towns that have rejected development.

This book questions the conventional wisdom in studies of local economic development that communities will invariably pursue outside investment as a way of increasing land values and creating jobs and opportunities. Meredith Ramsay demonstrates how two towns in Maryland's poorest county have routinely rejected economic development, and in a further challenge to the dominant paradigm, she shows that these rejections were "rational": Opposition to economic development was a reasonable means of protecting and achieving community values. Contrary to the market paradigm, Ramsay shows how the goals of economic policy are ultimately derived from cultural values and ways of life. By showing how the insights of cultural studies can be integrated with political economy, this book reveals the contextual character of economic rationality and, at the same time, illustrates how nonmaterial values can guide economic policymaking.