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

The desire to experience the countryside ideal is a growing trend among North American residents. Entrepreneurs have reacted to this by commodifying the countryside and its associated rural heritage. The result has been the creation of heritage shopping villages: centres of consumption providing post-modern consumers with tangible keepsakes of the past. While contributing to the accumulation of capital within the community, investment in commodification may lead to destruction of the rural idyll. The process by which this occurs is outlined in a stage model of community development. The model is then tested in the community of St. Jacobs, a picturesque village located in the heart of Ontario's Mennonite country. It is concluded that the model presented here 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. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.