Bounce back or move on: Regional resilience and economic development planning

While psychologists and ecologists have identified many factors that increase the odds of resilience in a person or an ecosystem, economic development officials and planning scholars do not yet have a firm grasp on how economic development planning relates to regional resilience. This study explores how two regions – Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio – have adapted and responded to deindustrialization using economic development. Interviews were conducted with past and present planning and economic development leaders and historical and current economic development plans were analyzed in order to increase our understanding of how regions respond to challenges, how economic development planning shapes these responses, and how both economic development planning and the larger response relate to adaptive resilience in distressed regions.

► I examine regional resilience in two post-industrial regions.
► Responses are analyzed using economic development plans and interview data.
► Adaptive resilience is associated with a process of continual development.
► Regions that are resilient show evolution in their economic development plans.