ABSTRACT
There is considerable evidence that Local Economic Development (LED) has emerged as a major research focus internationally, as verified by research undertaken in cities in North America and Western Europe since the 1980s (Harvey, 1989; Judd and Parkinson, 1990; Leitner, 1990; Bailey et al., 1995). Planning for LED has become one of the fastest growing academic and policy areas in the United States and “there is no end in sight to the proliferation of LED strategies in Britain” (Lovering, 1988, p. 145). As a result, “local economic development activities have assumed the importance once attached to regional policy” (D’Arcy and Guissani, 1996).
