A call for abstracts is invited on the topic of Measuring Community and Economic Development Outcomes (Special Issue of Community Development: Journal of the CDS).

Federal and state governments, private organizations, foundations, and many other agencies with major investments in community and economic development have a growing interest in measuring outcomes from community and economic development efforts. Past evaluations have often relied mainly on employment and investment changes to measure outcomes. However, local development agencies recognize that these programs affect many groups throughout a community, and it is important to recognize and document other ways in which communities have changed. Jobs and private investment, while important, are not sufficient to evaluate community and/or economic development.  Moreover, systemic changes that can lead to higher employment and per capita income rates often take  years to show up in commonly used indicators. For example, the Community Capitals literature has recently been used by agencies to monitor changes in each capital.

All local development groups can benefit from learning about innovative approaches used successfully to measure and document outcomes from programmatic efforts. Consequently, we are issuing this call for abstracts on Innovative Measures of Community Development Outcomes. Abstracts will be selected with authors invited to prepare papers for inclusion in a special issue of Community Change: Journal of the Community Development Society in 2013. Mary Emery (South Dakota State University), Jane Leonard (Bush Foundation), and Norman Walzer (Northern Illinois University) will edit the special issue. Invited papers submitted in response to this call will undergo the usual refereeing processes used to evaluate manuscripts submitted to the journal.

Abstracts on a broad range of measurement approaches and tools are encouraged including:

• Short-term outcomes and outputs; Long-term impacts; tools used successfully to measure impacts on special groups in the community; policy changes that have resulted from improved measurement approaches; and other topics that address outcome measurement.
• The abstracts should provide examples of how local agencies have implemented innovative approaches and measures but must also include a theoretical foundation rather than only a case-study format.  Likewise, authors should go beyond reporting on a single successful community or economic development project. The focus should include ways to measure outcomes. In compliance with the goals of the Journal, the articles selected for inclusion in the special issue will include materials that can be generalized and adapted by users in other areas.  Submissions from outside the U.S. are encouraged to obtain insights into innovative practices used by organizations in diverse settings.

Authors of abstracts selected to prepare papers will be notified by August 15, 2012, with an expected paper completion date of December 15, 2012. A small stipend will be provided to authors. The final papers submitted must comply with the manuscript standards set forth in the Journal.   

Abstracts (no more than 500 words) should be submitted to: [email protected] by July 15th, 2012.      

Norman Walzer
Senior Research Fellow
Center for Governmental Studies
Northern Illinois University
[email protected]