The Enterprise and Economic Development
Glossary
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American Industrial Development Council:
... with roots in the 1920s, AIDC was
a national-level association made up mostly of area
and local development representatives in the US. Industrial
development was the AIDC focus for about
50 years before the name was changed to American
Economic Development Council.
For three-quarters of
the 20th century the typical location wanting
jobs for its laborforce thought
in terms of
manufacturers as primary prospects. This was especially true in the so called US Sunbelt. See Shadows of the Sunbelt, A Report of the MDC Panel on
Rural Economic Development published at www.mdcinc.org. (about MDC organization).
It was in the Southern US that the first regional prospect
development programs were organized. Opportunities for many places seeking economic development came by
way of relocations of labor
intensive manufacturing operations from the area
of the country later to be identified as the rust
belt. The
website, www.sedc.org,
has an explanation of the role of AIDC in preparing economic developers for their participation. AIDC took the reigns of the Industrial
Development Institute, which was housed in an institution of higher learning.
The industrial development focus transitioned to economic development throughout the US, including the region of SIDC (Southern
Industrial Development Council) during the 1970s.
AIDC became the American Economic Development Council. AEDC published Economic Development Today: A Report to the Profession. The report defined economic development ... the process of creating wealth through the mobilization
of human, financial, capital, physical and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services. The economic developer's role is to influence the process for the benefit of the community
through expanding job opportunities and the tax base. (AEDC
/ 1984)
AEDC reaffirmed its definition of economic development in 1991 after Ronald J. Swager completed an study of it as a practice. Page 4 of Economic Development Tomorrow stated that ... The
entire set of approaches to economic development practice may be considered a specialized form of marketing. In addition to pointing out what Swager added to AEDC's definition of the process it note that Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist and political scientist,.is credited with coining economic development as an expression in 1911.
The diverse interests of those focused on development opportunities for cities and those focused on area
development, for example rural
areas, brought about the creation of a
Council of Urban Economic Development.
AEDC members later merged with CUED to
form the Inter nation
Economic Development Council.
Before the CUED/AEDC merger the American
Economic Development Council published
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