The Community Development Industry System: A Case Study of Politics and Institutions in Cleveland, 1967–1997

Abstract

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.

Progressive Reform, Gender and Institutional Structure: A Critical Analysis of Citizen Participation in Detroit's Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

“…In essence, Clavel and his associates argued for a restructuring of policy-making and implementation powers in order to promote greater accountability to constituents at the grassroots level. In the second piece of research, Yin (1998) examined the expansion of CDCs in Cleveland, Ohio, and argued that over time these organisations had become incorporated into local institutional networks. The crux of this argument was that CDCs had become part of a network of organisations that formed a community development industry system.…”

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

“…A banker who criticized the initiative in his county as a ''waste of money'' put it this way, ' The white business elite's interest in community development is further suppressed by their general view of such programs as ''black initiatives'' targeting the black community. What is more, many alluded to Yin's (1998) concept of the ''community development industry system'' to describe such initiatives as merely Community Development 9 265 providing resources to organizations viewed as self-serving, ineffective, and corrupt. A white leader of a business association expressed this as follows, ''We've been through so many of these initiatives here.…”

CDCs and the Changing Context for Urban Community Development: A Review of the Field and the Environment

“…The community development industry system is now broader and more established; it has a history that enables it to be studied. In a rich case study, Yin (1998) showed how the "community development industry system" developed in Cleveland. CDCs progressed from largely independent, grassroots organizations, to a model of development built upon key relationships with government, philanthropy and churches.…”