While Waiting for Rain
What might a sensible community choose to do if its economy has fallen apart and becoming a ghost town is not an acceptable option? Unfortunately, answers to this question have long been measured against an implicit standard: the postwar economy of the 1950s. After showing why that economy provides...
I tiakina i:
| Kaituhi matua: | |
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| Hōputu: | Online |
| Reo: | Ingarihi |
| I whakaputaina: |
University of Michigan Press
2022
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| Ngā marau: | |
| Urunga tuihono: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58040 |
| Ngā Tūtohu: |
Kāore He Tūtohu, Me noho koe te mea tuatahi ki te tūtohu i tēnei pūkete!
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| _version_ | 1869526204323725312 |
|---|---|
| author | Schlegel, John Henry |
| author_browse | Schlegel, John Henry |
| author_facet | Schlegel, John Henry |
| author_sort | Schlegel, John Henry |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | What might a sensible community choose to do if its economy has fallen apart and becoming a ghost town is not an acceptable option? Unfortunately, answers to this question have long been measured against an implicit standard: the postwar economy of the 1950s. After showing why that economy provides an implausible standard—made possible by the lack of economic competition from the European and Asian countries, winners or losers, touched by the war—John Henry Schlegel attempts to answer the question of what to do.
While Waiting for Rain first examines the economic history of the United States as well as that of Buffalo, New York: an appropriate stand-in for any city that may have seen its economy start to fall apart in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It makes clear that neither Buffalo nor the United States as a whole has had an economy in the sense of “a persistent market structure that is the fusion of an understanding of economic life with the patterns of behavior within the economic, political, and social institutions that enact that understanding” since both economies collapsed. Next, this book builds a plausible theory of how economic growth might take place by examining the work of the famous urbanist, Jane Jacobs, especially her book Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Her work, like that of many others, emphasizes the importance of innovation for economic growth, but is singular in its insistence that such innovation has to come from local resources. It can neither be bought nor given, even by well-intentioned political actors. As a result Americans generally, as well as locally, are like farmers in the midst of a drought, left to review their resources and wait. Finally, it returns to both the local Buffalo and the national economies to consider what these political units might plausibly do while waiting for an economy to emerge. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-91412 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | University of Michigan Press |
| publisherStr | University of Michigan Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-914122025-08-13T13:42:20Z While Waiting for Rain Schlegel, John Henry Buffalo, Community, Development, Economic History, Economy, Grace, Innovation, Jane Jacobs, Law, Legal History, Middle Classes, Political Economy, Railroads, Redevelopment, the Rust Belt, Transportation, The United States, Working Class, Ethnic Neighborhoods, The Fifties thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy What might a sensible community choose to do if its economy has fallen apart and becoming a ghost town is not an acceptable option? Unfortunately, answers to this question have long been measured against an implicit standard: the postwar economy of the 1950s. After showing why that economy provides an implausible standard—made possible by the lack of economic competition from the European and Asian countries, winners or losers, touched by the war—John Henry Schlegel attempts to answer the question of what to do. While Waiting for Rain first examines the economic history of the United States as well as that of Buffalo, New York: an appropriate stand-in for any city that may have seen its economy start to fall apart in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It makes clear that neither Buffalo nor the United States as a whole has had an economy in the sense of “a persistent market structure that is the fusion of an understanding of economic life with the patterns of behavior within the economic, political, and social institutions that enact that understanding” since both economies collapsed. Next, this book builds a plausible theory of how economic growth might take place by examining the work of the famous urbanist, Jane Jacobs, especially her book Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Her work, like that of many others, emphasizes the importance of innovation for economic growth, but is singular in its insistence that such innovation has to come from local resources. It can neither be bought nor given, even by well-intentioned political actors. As a result Americans generally, as well as locally, are like farmers in the midst of a drought, left to review their resources and wait. Finally, it returns to both the local Buffalo and the national economies to consider what these political units might plausibly do while waiting for an economy to emerge. 2022-08-23T04:02:32Z 2022-08-23T04:02:32Z 2022-08-22T09:55:45Z 2022 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58040 9780472075614 9780472055616 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/91412 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58040/1/9780472902972.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58040/1/9780472902972.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58040/1/9780472902972.pdf University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12158309 10.3998/mpub.12158309 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 0cdc3d7c-5c59-49ed-9dba-ad641acd8fd1 9780472075614 9780472055616 Sustainable History Monograph Pilot (SHMP) Sustainable History Monograph Pilot (SHMP) 408 open access |
| spellingShingle | Buffalo, Community, Development, Economic History, Economy, Grace, Innovation, Jane Jacobs, Law, Legal History, Middle Classes, Political Economy, Railroads, Redevelopment, the Rust Belt, Transportation, The United States, Working Class, Ethnic Neighborhoods, The Fifties thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy Schlegel, John Henry While Waiting for Rain |
| title | While Waiting for Rain |
| title_full | While Waiting for Rain |
| title_fullStr | While Waiting for Rain |
| title_full_unstemmed | While Waiting for Rain |
| title_short | While Waiting for Rain |
| title_sort | while waiting for rain |
| topic | Buffalo, Community, Development, Economic History, Economy, Grace, Innovation, Jane Jacobs, Law, Legal History, Middle Classes, Political Economy, Railroads, Redevelopment, the Rust Belt, Transportation, The United States, Working Class, Ethnic Neighborhoods, The Fifties thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy |
| topic_facet | Buffalo, Community, Development, Economic History, Economy, Grace, Innovation, Jane Jacobs, Law, Legal History, Middle Classes, Political Economy, Railroads, Redevelopment, the Rust Belt, Transportation, The United States, Working Class, Ethnic Neighborhoods, The Fifties thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RP Regional and area planning::RPC Urban and municipal planning and policy |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58040 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT schlegeljohnhenry whilewaitingforrain |