Planning for Economic Development

This chapter explores the history of economic development planning by examining its shifting goals and approaches in association with driving forces, resulting policy and practice, and the writing of them. It pays special attention to three forces—the new economy, globalization, and sustainable development—to illustrates how they have impacted economic development planning, and explains how they have led to a departure from the traditional goals and approaches of economic development planning. The planning goals and approaches of economic development have also experienced paradigmatic changes, responding to macroeconomic restructuring, globalization, new technology, and environmental and social challenges. The chapter focuses on economic development for cities at the local/regional level. This spatiality is different from macroeconomics at the national level and microeconomics for individual firms and consumers. The chapter considers the influences of macroeconomics and microeconomics on a city's economic development to highlight the importance of coordinated planning at multiple scales and between different stakeholders