This article examines the emergence of community development corporations (CDCs) from a peripheral component of neighborhood-based community development in the late 1960s to a leading role in community development in the 1990s. An emphasis is placed on the historical development of CDCs as they have progressed from neighborhood social movements, to neighborhood-based organizations, to the current emergence of a citywide communio development industry system bringing CDCs together with traditional urban institutions such as local government, corporate philanthropy, and the religious establishment. The industry system framework provides an analytical context for a case study of Cleveland's CDCs from the late 1960s through the late 1990s.

There is a plausible community option in local and national urban policy, an alternative to growth-oriented and top-down approaches that represents a possible new reality to be considered by urban scholars and professionals. The authors present evidence from interviews with the staffs of community development corporations and allied organizations and draw implications for professional schools in outreach work and in research.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract