A market paradigm has been dominant in the field of community development, defining how governmental officials, development professionals and even academics view the world, and influencing the way problems are identified, the kind of questions asked, the solutions considered, the criteria for ‘success’ and even the evaluative methodologies employed. This article maintains that the market paradigm has not succeeded from the micro‐social perspective of the residents or the development of their communities as a whole. By problematizing two concepts embedded in the market economy paradigm, value (both monetized and non‐monetized) and exchange (terms of trade), we offer a concrete vision of urban policy analysis from a social economy paradigm.