Geography

“I don't think anybody’s ever been to scale:” the imperative for growth and the implications of scale for Community Land Trusts in Minnesota, USA

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This paper examines the scalar logics of Community Land Trusts, nonprofits that work to facilitate affordable housing and promote community control of local development. Like many nonprofits, CLTs face a tension between assumed efficiencies that come with larger size on one hand, and the assumed responsiveness to community stakeholders that comes with smaller size on the other. Through an examination of CLTs in Minnesota, USA that included over 100 interviews with CLT stakeholders, we explore how CLTs understand and operationalize scale as they attempt to grow. Various CLT stakeholders adopt distinct (sometimes implicit) functional scalar logics for CLTs. This leads to growth strategies which are articulated as scalar but which are not clear about which registers of scale will be altered. In particular, we identify four key registers of scale for CLTs: organizational, jurisdictional, service area, and community identity. These do not always shift in lock-step; but because CLTs are trusts that own portfolio properties in perpetuity, we suggest that changes in the relationships between these registers pose larger risks for CLTs than for many other kinds of nonprofit service organizations.

Publication Title

Urban Geography

Publication Date

2024

ISSN

0272-3638

DOI

10.1080/02723638.2024.2336843

Keywords

affordable housing, Community land trusts, community organizations, growth, scale

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