Generating Community Change 351groups, usually a city or county government, working with private-sector groups
of individuals within a community to establish a locally controlled enterprise. A
national inventory of self-development projects by rural sociologists Jan Flora,
Gary Green, Frederick Schmidt and Cornelia Flora identified a number of differ-
ent types of self-development efforts and mechanisms through which they worked.
Key to each of them was local investment of time and capital, coupled with a
sound management structure and good links to outside resources of both capital
and information. Although the short-term impact on the number of jobs created
may not be as great as attracting a branch plant of a major multinational corpora-
tion, communities involved in self-development have found that the risk is lower
and the gains more consistent than even successful industrial recruitment. Further-
more, self-development communities were more successful in attracting branch
plants than were non-self-development communities. The choice to emphasize
self-development did not preclude firm recruitment, although it did make the
communities less likely to offer extreme tax benefits or public investments in infra-
structure.
Self-development involves sustained local economic development activities. It
encourages broad-based participation, involving newcomers, women and minori-
ties. It depends on and encourages the development of community organizations.
Self-development contributes to community development and it tends to encour-
age participation. It gives community members a feeling of control over the eco-
nomic life of their communities. In short, it promotes collective agency. It is most
consistent with the self-help form of community development although it can be
compatible with the conflict approach.
Successful self-development models reorganize and mobilize local assets (Kretz-
mann and McKnight, 1993; Green and Haines, 2002; Feikema et al, 1997). Local
communities and organizations that conduct asset-mapping exercises realize the
power of local assets as a mobilizing tool to bring people together, as illustrated in
Box 18.2.
Asset mapping is a process of discovery, of learning what is there. If carried out
properly, this process will result in new patterns of interaction among community
members. Discovery is most effective when it revolves around an issue.
Mapping assets, however, is not enough. There has to be commitment on the
part of local people to figure out ways of recombining the assets to address the issue
under discussion. The Heartland Center for Leadership Development, the
Nebraska Community Foundation and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension have
been engaged in important issue-oriented asset mapping as a basis for community
action.
Asset mapping is important because it allows communities to move beyond a
victim mentality and recognize that by working together locally, changes can be
made. It means putting faith in local people to evolve a people’s programme (Alin-
sky, 1946, p56). Asset mapping works best when communities begin by addressing
pieces of issues that can be quickly alleviated. However, early success should be a
learning experience on addressing the more complex aspects of the issue, such as