Desarrollo económico local: leyendas y realidades

The approach to local economic development proposed in this paper differs dramatically from the common practice of establishing patterns of presumed universal validity. Rather than proposing generalization, this approach contrast national experience and tires to identify major options and dilemmas wich define each particular experience. Absolute distinctions made by theory are not confirmed on local economic development practice, in which concepts and strategies erroneously considered to be incompatible seem to mix. The state of the art tends to indicate that simple recipes and formulas are not recommendable. Knowledge of local history, culture, institutions and idiosyncrasy could help to solve those dilemmas of local economic development which are indeed universal: the dilemmas of territorial competence, of private and public responsibilities, and of new sociospatial imbalance and ways of intervening in them.