LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE
(Page 2 of 3)
November/December 1980
By the Mother Earth News editors
The Brooklyn study provides us with a bench mark to use in looking at neighborhood economies, but no other research has been attempted on the same scale in the past seven years. One reason that few studies are completed is the fact that accurate data on neighborhood economies are difficult to find. In some cases, specific information either isn't available, or isn't broken down by neighborhoods. In other instances, the public isn't allowed — or can obtain only at considerable expense — access to the necessary records.
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In addition to the difficulty of gathering data, community cash flow studies must wrestle with problems of evaluation. There is often no accurate way of measuring the quality of goods and services received by neighborhood residents . . . or whether the population values government services . . . or the influence of local notions of exploitation and racism . . . or the relative impact of certain flows (narcotics trade and housing disinvestment, for instance, have more influence than their dollar total might suggest).
Still another problem involves the goals of a community cash flow study. Although such research can take many forms, its purposes should be to uncover new information, and to point to real strategies for change . . . both of which are frequently difficult aims to achieve. It may be interesting to discover, for example, that many people who live outside a community hold jobs in it, but the information isn't very useful unless it also specifies what kinds of jobs — at what pay scales — are affected.
Considering such difficulties, you may wonder if community cash flow studies have any value. Well, we feel that they can be worthwhile . . . if specific questions are asked and a reasonable number of data obtained in response. In fact, one recently completed investigation points to some interesting possibilities.
The report, entitled An Income and Capital Flow Study of East Oakland (prepared by the Community Economics Organization of Oakland, California), analyzes four basic cash flows: residents' income and consumer spending, housing, community businesses, and credit.
