Anyone involved in community and economic development in Wisconsin has surely experienced the surge of interest in "sustainable development". U.W. Extension has a team that focuses on this specific issue. For those that are interested in this specific topic, I would start with:
http://www.uwsuper.edu/cee/bed/ncced/current_projects.cfm
While the tools and processes for getting decision makers to think more strategically about sustainability have gotten a lot more sophisticated, Ron Shaffer, the founder of the Center for Community and Economic Development, had this to say about the difference between "economic development" and "economic growth"...
"How do we distinguish between the concepts of economic development and economic growth? Maybe an analogy will help: You are 12 years old, and you meet an uncle who has not seen you for 3 years. The uncle says, "My, but how you have grown." Now you are 28 years old, you meet an uncle whom you have not seen for 3 years, and he again says, "My how you've grown." in the second instance, you might take umbrage with this long-lost relative because the implication is that your waistline is increasing. As humans, we tend to stop growing sometime before the age of 20 but continue to develop our understanding, insights, and maturity. Growth and development are very similar; they tend to be related to time and the point from which we started."
Source: Community Economics: Linking Theory and Practice (second edition), Shaffer, Deller, Marcouiller
Said another way, I believe economic development is:
“The process of retaining, expanding, and attracting jobs, income and wealth in a manner that improves individual economic opportunities and the quality of human life.”
Here's a challenge. How many communities are taking the time to identify metrics for the measurement of quality of life? Have our communities even taken the time to identify what contributes to their "sense of place" within the community? Do our residents take for granted the amenities that might have value to prospective residents and businesses?
This last year I accepted the challenge of assisting the Thrive economic region with the task of identifying priority quality of life issues and metrics for measuring quality of life (on a contract basis with the CCED). That report is available on-line at:
http://www.thrivehere.org/articlemanager/rsrchqoflsurvey.aspx
That project, helped contribute to the compilation of data sources that might be useful to other communities interested in measuring and monitoring quality of life. See:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/communities/QualityofLifeDataIndicatorsDataSources.cfm
This is a "work in progress" and I would like to hear from you on potential additions to this list!
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As part of a two-county community and economic development effort to retain our students and attract young workers from outside the area, I conducted a survey of 668 young people living in the community to determine their location preferences and perceptions of the community. The survey results revealed meaningful findings giving new insights into challenges facing the community (including that the community is not perceived as a good place to live and work and that young people moving into the community are not connecting to the community socially) as well as strong community attributes for attracting young workers (including safety, affordability, a place to raise family and good schools plus a very strong outdoor-nature based recreational niche).
I presented these results to the community and created four work-groups to address key issues identified in the survey. Here is a link to an on-line community newspaper for more details on this program: http://www.superiorchronicle.com/archives/08_december/followup.html
See the Iron County UW-Extension web-site for a summary of the survey results:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/iron/cnred/index.html
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