The Potential Role of an Alternative Political Economy Sector in Detroit’s Revival

Focusing on development in terms of the quality of life, residents may become more cognizant of the need to create a new, locally based, more self-reliant system, ¹ making use of two key resources: vacant land and underutilized human capabilities. Building on existing neighborhood institutions and establishing new ones, Detroiters may come to realize that their material needs, as opposed to their wants, are much simpler than they previously thought. A community-driven approach could serve residents’ basic needs: food, shelter, health care, clothing, and education. Residents could create a less consumption-oriented lifestyle and a more self-sufficient pattern centered on the local production and distribution of goods and services. They could create a model of urban sustainability, far less reliant on the public sector, thereby upsetting the prevalent, nearly eighty-year-old pattern.