Growth Machine Attitudes and Community Development in Two Racially Diverse Rural Mississippi Delta Communities: A Monolithic Approach in Acomplex Region

Abstract

Residents and identified community leaders from two rural Mississippi Delta communities were studied to determine the extent to which diverse groups of this region advocate the same needs of, perceived attitudes toward, and approaches within community development. Five assumptions concerning community development in the racially diverse Mississippi Delta, a region argued to have a patronage approach to economic development and social opportunities, were empirically examined through cross-tabulations, exploratory factor analysis, and independent sample T-tests. Virtually no differences were found across race, gender, income, owning additional property (other than a house) in the region, and leaders versus non-leaders in their needs, attitudes and approaches. All groups adhere to a monolithic "growth machine" approach which seems to perpetuate a patronage system in the region. To keep political and economic elites from dominating the community development agenda, more emphasis needs to be placed on local community betterment than on community economic development, potentially giving rise to different voices in the community.

Consensus-based community development, concentrated rural poverty, and local institutional structures: the obstacle of race in the lower Mississippi Delta

“…Harvey 268 community and economic development initiatives in the region (Brown et al, 2000;Barton & Leonard, 2010;Blejwas, 2010). While such initiatives often fail due to other, more specific factors such as insufficient funds and/or poor implementation (Harvey & Beaulieu, 2010), the findings here suggest that such factors are themselves related to the broad failure of the consensus paradigm to pay adequate attention to the nature of local institution spheres, the relationships among them, their ties to extra-local entities, and the role of race in structuring all of these relationships.…”

“…The ethnographic data were collected between 2006 and 2011 through in-depth interviews with a total of 73 local leaders (see Harvey & Beaulieu, 2010 for details on the initiatives). Respondents were selected on the basis of their official positions in the economic, governmental, and civic spheres or their reputations as community leaders (see Brown et al, 2000). Positional leaders in government included elected and appointed officials such as county judges, city mayors, and administrators.…”

“…While these case studies suggest that race is a major obstacle to community development, they do not link their ethnographic findings in a systematic way to the region's institutional structure to explain why such initiatives routinely fail to produce community change (Brown, Nylander, King, & Lough, 2000). That is, they do not examine how the consensus-building approach is undermined through its interaction with the profoundly racialized institutional structure of the Delta.…”

The role of voluntary organizations in the development and retention of social capital in areas of persistent poverty

“…This is accomplished through growth-oriented policies and initiatives that benefit Gaventa's "A" group -those elites whose agendas and efforts coalesce to form what has been called a "growth machine" (Logan and Molotch, 1987). In rural communities where space and place are pivotal influences, economic and political elites control traditional community development activities to maintain inequality, not undo it (Brown, et aL, 2000).…”