An analysis of Local Economic Development

This book focuses on the unique case of Stutterheim (South Africa) in trying to understand the nature of LED implementation in poor, small rural town municipalities. It also seeks to explore LED's effect on the intended socio-economic and political development outcomes in such communities. As a well noted ‘model’ of bottom-up initiatives that have made significant gains in racial reconciliation and socio-economic development in a developing country context, Stutterheim is an interesting case as its LED strategies developed largely ‘organically’ from members of the community themselves and have survived state formalisation, albeit in a revised form.