Entrepreneurialism, commodification and creative destruction: a model of post-modern community development.

摘要

The paper outlines the process by which commodification of rural heritage contributes to the destruction of the rural idyll. It presents a five stage model of creative destruction and tests the model in the community of St Jacobs, a picturesque village in the heart of Ontario's Mennonite country (Canada). The premise underlying the model is that entrepreneurial investment in the selling and marketing of rural value and tradition entices the post-modern consumer in search of a nostalgic return to rural roots. While the resulting consumption of rural tradition (i.e. the purchase of hand made quilts, pottery, etc.) provides entrepreneurs with profit for reinvestment, the creation of this commodified landscape will ultimately result in the destructionof the old; a landscape perceived by residents as one embodying vestiges of the past; in essence the rural idyll. As the components of entrepreneurialism and commodification interact through time, heritage shopping villages evolve through the five stages in the process of creative destruction. The model reflects observations that heritage shopping villages, such as St Jacobs, have reached a state of disequilibrium. It is concluded that the model may be a useful tool for geographers and planners interested in guiding the fate of communities whose development has occurred around the commodification of the rural tradition.