Market Mechanisms

Market Mechanisms for Sustainable Community Development was a three-year research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and delivered by Mark Roseland (Principal Investigator), Chris Lindberg, Sean Connelly and David Hendrickson of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University. The purpose of the Market Mechanisms project was to advance our theoretical and practical understanding of building sustainable communities. Specifically, the project built on Roseland’s Community Capital Framework (Roseland, 2005) and Framework for Sustainable Community Development (Roseland, 1998) by examining how market forces may be positively and proactively understood and captured for promoting and building sustainable communities.

Research was motivated by the expanding role of markets, the private sector and social enterprises in governance- and planning-related decision-making and policy implementation at the community level. This trend is driven by a myriad of factors including fiscal challenges from government retrenchment and downloading of services; the gap between strategic planning and implementation; and the emergence of public policy philosophies that support more entrepreneurial and pro-market approaches (e.g. privatization, public-private partnerships). These developments point to the need for planning-related organizations and institutions to adopt market-based approaches and to understand market-based solutions.

These realities present challenges and opportunities for advancing sustainability at community and regional levels. The Market Mechanisms project provides a systematic framework for defining, exploring and ultimately understanding how market-based approaches both impact and advance sustainable community development.

Publications resulting from this research are in progress; details will be posted here in future.