Managing Economic Development

The authors review six recent books on managing local economic development, focusing on how they join scholarship to practice. They note that the books provide sufficient information on tools and techniques of economic development practice but fail to describe or account for conflict so characteristic of the development process. Although the books emphasize the importance of creating partnerships in development, they ignore demands for inclusion by minorities, unions, and other groups historically not included in the partnerships that ultimately determine development strategy. Likewise, strategy formulation is treated as a logical outcome of economic analysis and the influence new participants might have in defining problems and developing alternative strategies remains unanswered. The authors suggest that these weaknesses can be overcome by developing generative metaphors integrating scholarship and practice. New insights might emerge from a methodology not guided exclusively by technical rationality, one more narrative and subjective in focus.