Social Structures as Economic Growth Tools Cityscape 245 Social Structures as Economic Growth Tools

Urban economic growth is a net result of myriad business decisions to create, expand, extinguish, or contract a business enterprise at a particular location. These location deci-sions depend on many variables relating to the advantages and disadvantages of particular sites; the nature, size, and needs of the enterprise; and the state of the economy. Two questions are addressed in this article. First, how much does one cluster of these vari-ables—the social structures of an urban community—influence the location decisions of various kinds of businesses and thereby affect the community’s prospects for economic development? Social structures include schools and training resources, the criminal justice system, medical services, the housing stock, resources for alleviating the extent and con-sequences of poverty and unemployment, and “social capital”; that is, structures that pro-mote social cohesion, stability, and control (Coleman, 1990). Second, is it reasonable to expect that national urban policy can help improve urban social structures as they affect the location decisions of businesses and the prospects of urban economic growth? Such issues are central to an evaluation of the role that enterprise or empowerment zones or other place-oriented policies might play in revitalizing deteriorating urban communi