What are the Necessary Ingredients to Achieve Rural Economic Development?

1
What are the Necessary Ingredients to Achieve
Rural Economic Development?

• Paul Lasley, Professor and Chair
• Department of Sociology
• Iowa State University

2
What are the barriers to achieve rural economic
development?
3
Establishing the Need for Rural Economic
Development?

• Defining the need
• Changes in the population
• Income statistics
• Employment opportunities
• Workforce characteristics
• Standard of living indices
• Quality of life measures

4
What is development?

• Process to raise the level of living
• Improvements in productivity or efficiency
• Enlarging the opportunity structure
• Economic Growth

5
What is rural economic development?

• Efforts to improve the well-being of rural
  people through comprehensive programs to utilize
  natural and human resources more effectively

6
What is rural economic development?

• Economists tend to emphasize increased
  productivity
• Sociologists emphasize improved conditions of
  living and the expansion of opportunities for
  self-realization

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Who are the key stakeholders in rural development
that can make things happen?

• Public Agencies
• Federal
• State
• Local

8
Key stakeholders (continued)

• Private-public groups
• Chamber of Commerce
• Local economic developers
• Industrial development

9
Community Development
Agricultural Development
Human Development
Mainstreet Development
DEVELOPMENTACTIVITIES
Economic Development
Small Business Development
Industrial Development
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How to get these groups together

• How to build a cohesive network among the various
  stakeholders
• Strategies to achieve collaboration and
  cooperation
• Building networks

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The presence of organized groups is necessary but
not sufficient

• Must be some agreement on the need
• Commitment to working together
• Collaboration doesnt just happen
• There must be leadership as well as followership

12
What types of appeals will cause people to work
together?

• Threats---If we dont do something, then.
• Providing hope for a better tomorrow
• Need to provide opportunities

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Traits of successful communities

• Commitment
• Persistence
• Higher levels of social capital
• Willingness to seek outside assistance
• Inclusiveness
• Strong cultural identity

14
Change is difficult to accept?

• Why is change difficult?
• We love progress, but hate change
• Too often change has meant losses to rural places
• Change is never neutral in its impacts it causes
  gains for some and losses for others.

15
People generally profess their desire for
progress and yet hate change

• WHY?
• In many cases change has not meant gain
• and too often change has meant loss

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Need to tie development to creating opportunities
for the future

• Investments today are for those who follow us
• Is there a diminished sense of deferred
  gratification?
• Expectations for immediate payoff
• Judgments are too often made by standards of
  presentism

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Scarcity of opportunities and resources creates
competition rather than cooperation

• Opportunities for everyone
• The future is in large part determined by our
  actions todaytomorrow will reflect what we do
  today

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Brokering Solutions Among Stakeholders
Federal Partners
State Agencies
Local Government
Community Leaders
Local Schools
Comprehensive Rural Development
Citizens
Local Lenders
Industrial Developers
Chamber of Commerce
Extension
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Trust

• Trust is earned through
• Open and honest communication
• Access to information
• Hearing all voices
• Encouraging diversity
• Dependability

20
People tend to support decisions that they help
make

• Work for Consensus Building Through
• Understanding
• Trust
• Cooperation

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THANK YOU