RENEWING HOPE IN THE INNER-CITY - CONVERSATIONS WITH COMMUNITY-BASED DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONERS

A recent literature documents the successes of community-based develop ment organizations (CBDOs) in providing housing and employment in impo verished communities. Such successes provide hope that it is possible to reverse urban decline. Whether, at the same time, it is possible to create jobs and housing in ways that empower the people within poor c ommunities and increase community capacity for self-directed growth is less certain, as funders emphasize physical production over the goals of empowerment and capacity building. This article, based on in-depth interviews with more than 100 community activists, describes the effo rts of CBDOs to balance pressures to concentrate on physical productio n with their efforts to build capacity and create empowerment within p oor communities. The implications of how they do so for the new instit utionalism paradigm in organization theory are explored.