ABSTRACT
Over the course of its 40-year modern history, community development has moved from a small-scale endeavor by a limited number of organizations fighting seemingly Quixotic struggles to improve the conditions and quality of life in a few poor urban neighborhoods to a mainstream set of practices and institutions. In doing so, community development has become a significant component of urban political economies in the United States. In many neighborhoods and cities, community development organizations are increasingly assuming the roles of local governments, and the organizations involved construct affordable housing, offer access to credit to low-income people, provide education and other social services, and more generally try to build the community’s capacity to gain resources, achieve goals, and participate effectively in the American political economy.
