A Tale of Two Villages: Institutional Structure and Sustainable Community Organizations

This paper describes the organizational features of community-controlled economic development ventures associated with heritage sites located in two contrasting rural communities, one in Ireland and the other in Belize. The paper demonstrates that sustainable community organizations share institutional governance features that reflect general principles previously identified by scholars of common pool resources and community heritage tourism projects. The paper argues that archaeologists or heritage specialists working with local communities to develop sustainable economic development projects are more likely to succeed if attention is paid to the establishment of appropriate governance institutions for the project that are rooted in local conditions but follow proven governance principles.