ABSTRACT
Community economic development (CED) needs to occupy a central role in local and regional regeneration strategies as part of a holistic approach to economic, social and environmental improvement. Community-based knowledge, sensitivity, experience and resources are essential to building durable solutions to the problems facing our cities, towns and rural areas. Years of experience have shown the futility of pouring large amounts of state and private sector investment into projects which lack a long-term, community-based perspective. On its own, however, CED will not turn round the fates of those areas most disadvantaged by economic recession, social exclusion and environmental degradation. Community-based approaches can help such areas but are unlikely to reach sufficient critical mass to overcome the depredations caused by decisions over which communities have little or no say. The community-based approach to economic development needs to be distinctive in its own right, but it also needs to integrate with and infuse the work of other organisations whose activities make a difference to an area, from local authority service departments, to private businesses, and local, regional and national regeneration agencies.
