The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · 1993 · 382 citations · 1 references
Local Economic DevelopmentEntrepreneurshipSocial SciencesCommunity BuildingManagementCommunity GeographyCommunity ManagementCommunity NetworkEntrepreneurial PhenomenonCommunity LeadershipCommunity EngagementCommunity EmpowermentResource MobilizationSymbolic DiversityCommunity ParticipationCommunity DevelopmentCommunity OrganizingSociologyBusinessSocial BusinessCommunity PlanningSocial InnovationCommunity StudiesEntrepreneurial Social Infrastructure
Local communities face growing responsibilities with shrinking resources, making entrepreneurial social infrastructure essential for linking people, resources, and leadership to foster development. ESI comprises symbolic diversity that encourages constructive controversy, resource mobilization that generates surplus and equitable investment, and quality networks that connect communities internally and externally for shared knowledge.
Local communities are faced with increasing responsibilities to provide for their own well-being and development. With fewer resources, communities need more successful ways of uniting people and resources. Entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) is a necessary ingredient for successfully linking physical resources and leadership for community development. ESI includes three elements: symbolic diversity, resource mobilization, and quality of networks. Instead of fostering perverse conflict or superficial harmony, symbolic diversity inspires communities to engage in constructive controversy to arrive at workable community decisions by focusing on community processes, depersonalization of politics, and broadening of community boundaries. Resource mobilization involves generating some surplus within the community beyond basic subsistence with relative equity in resource and risk distribution, investment by residents of their own private capital locally, and collective investment in the community (willingness of residents to tax themselves). Quality networks include establishing linkages with others in similar circumstances and developing vertical networks to provide diverse sources—both within and outside the community—of experience and knowledge.
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