Community Economic Development and the Paradox of Power

Abstract:     
This article starts from the premise that poverty is a growing problem in the United States. Intergenerational poverty, the entrenchment of a class of very poor people, is a major sub set of that problem and is tied very closely to the issue of race. The author claims that missing in the fight by the poor and their allies against stratified poverty is the creation and utilization of power. This paper examines the disparate ways in which commentators have defined power. It suggests that those seeking to obtain power must understand the concept’s varying meanings and direct their activities to meet their own understanding of the concept. Community Economic Development (CED) may be nothing more than a re-affirmation of existing power relationships or it may be the cause and the result of a change in those relationships. This paper attempts to make sense of this apparent paradox.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 22

Keywords: CED, theories of power, poverty, race

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K19

Accepted Paper Series