ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies categories or points of learning and innovation that would improve the development of people and places. Public sector innovation is a change that improves the effectiveness of policy or strategy in any given issue arena. Innovation in the public sector has been helped along by the federal devolution begun in the 1970s that dispatched increased responsibilities to states and local governments. Broadening the scope of public leadership and management becomes the means to understand how policy networks within and across fields can promote and sustain innovation in community economic development (CED). Leadership has become central to the discussion of economic prosperity in a time of increased turbulence and change. CED capacity focuses on building the organizational and institutional ability to plan and execute development projects of scale and effectively implement and manage human development programs. Building the infrastructure, the capacity, of a community is the most critical component of sustainable CED.
