Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Outputs include: Functioning and self-sustaining interuniversity interdisciplinary on-line Master's degree in Community Development. An on-going webinar series on rural development in the North Central Region to enhance work and reduce poverty, begun at Iowa State University and transferred and expanded by Michigan State University. System of monitoring and evaluation of food and fitness programs utilized by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and applied in the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiation. Analysis of food security policies compared to food sovereignty as a strategy for poverty reduction. Formation of a regional research team for 4-H extension professionals addressing the impact of 4-H on social capital. Established a network of niche meat processors through eXtension. Formation of a research/extension network for those working with immigrant and Latino populations. PARTICIPANTS: Mary Emery, Jan Flora, David Peters, Tim Borich, Steffen Schmidt, Tara Clapp, Marta Maldonado, Arion Thiboumery, Cornelia Flora, ISU. TARGET AUDIENCES: Researchers and outreach practitioners in the North Central states; secondary audiences researchers and outreach practitioners in the U.S. and internationally. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: During the last year of the project, the NCRCRD was successfully transferred to Michigan State University.
Impacts
Increase in the skill and effectiveness of community development practitioners in Iowa, the North Central Region and beyond, influencing community economic development that is aimed at reducing poverty and increasing rural wealth. Increased use of local food in local schools in Northeast Iowa. Increased number and efficiency of small meat processors in Iowa, throughout the region and the U.S. Increased inclusion of immigrants and Latinos in extension programs.
Publications
- Flora, C.B., M. Livingston, I. Honyestewa and H. Koiyaquaptewa. 2009. Understanding Access and Use of Traditional Food by Hopi Women. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 4:158-171.
- Flora, C.B. and A.H. Gillespie. 2009. Making Healthy Choices to Reduce Childhood Obesity: Community Capitals and Food and Fitness. Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society. 40:1-9.
- Flora, C.B. 2008. Social capital and community problem solving: Combining local and scientific knowledge to fight invasive species. Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts (Australia), & Kritis: Journal of Interdisciplinary Development Studies (Indonesia). BIOSECURITY BILINGUAL MONOGRAPH, pp. 41-54.
- Fey, S., M. Emery and C. Flora. 2008. Student Issues in Distance Education Programs: Do Inter-institutional Programs Offer Students More Confusion or More Opportunity Sloan Consortium Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network. 12:3.
- Emery, M., C. B. Flora, E. Fernandez-Baca, I. Gutierrez. 2007. Leadership as community capacity building: A study on the impact of leadership development training on community. Journal of the Community Development Society. 38:60-70.
- Emery. M, C. Bregendahl, E. Fernandez-Baca, and S. Fey. 2007. An Appreciative Inquiry into the Role of Appreciative Inquiry in Research: Findings Regarding an Analysis of Six Cases. AI Practitioner. November Issue: 25-30.
- Emery, M. 2007. Entrepreneurship: A Driver for Economic Development in Indian Country. eXtension, Entrepreneurs and their Communities section. http://www.extension.org/pages/A_Driver_for_Economic_Development_in_I ndian_Country.
- Flora, C.B. and J.L. Flora. 2008. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. (3rd Edition) Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
- Lachappelle, P,M. Emery, and R. Hayes. 2010. The pedagogy and practice of community visioning: Evaluating effective community strategic planning in rural Montana. Community Development: The Journal of the Community Development Society.
- Emery, M. and I. I Gutierrez-Montes and E. Fernandez-Baca. July 2009. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach and the Community Capitals Framework: the importance of systemic approaches to community change efforts. Community Development: The Journal of the Community Development Society.
- Flora, C.B. 2010. Food security in the context of energy and resource depletion: Sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 25:118-128
- Emery, M. 2007. Entrepreneurship: Coaches for Entrepreneurs: More than Just Technical Assistance. eXtension, Entrepreneurs and their Communities section. http://www.extension.org/pages/Looking_for_Success%3A_Try_a_Coach.
- Emery, M. 2007. Coaches Communities to Support Entrepreneurship: Building Community Capacity to Support and Generate Entrepreneurship. eXtension, Entrepreneurs and their Communities section. http://www.extension.org/pages/Community_Coaches_:_Building_Capacity_ to_Support_and_Generate_Entrepreneurship.
- Flora, C.B. and M. Bendini. 2007. Globalization and Changing Relations among Market, State and Civil Society: A Comparative Analysis of Patagonia and Iowa. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. 15:1-21.
- Fey, S., M. Emery, and C. B. Flora. 2007. How to Create an Effective Inter-institutional, Trans-disciplinary On-line Faculty. Distance Learning Journal, 4(1):29-34.
- Emery, M., M. Wall, C. Bregendahl, and C.B. Flora. 2006. Economic Development in Indian Country: Redefining Success. Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 4. Available at http://www.ojrrp.org.
- Fey, S., C. Bregendahl, and C.B. Flora. 2006. The Measurement of Community Capitals through Research: A Study Conducted for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy. Available at http://www.ojrrp.org/issues/2006/01/index.html.
- Emery, M. and S. Fey. 2006. Using the Community Capitals Framework. CD Practice, Issue 13.
- Emery, M., S. Fey, and C.B. Flora. 2006. Using Community Capitals to Build Assets for Positive Community Change. CD Practice 13. http://www.comm-dev.org/.
- Flora, C.B. and J.L. Flora. 2009. Postville, Iowa: Lessons for Immigration Reform. Immigration Reform: Implications for Farmers, Farm Workers, and Communities, Washington, DC. May 21, 2009. http://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/files/2009-may/Flora.pdf.
- Flora, C.B. and M. Maldonado. 2006. Immigrants as Assets for Midwestern Communities. Changing FaceProceedings Washington, DC. June 1, 2006. http://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.phpid=190_0_2_0.
- Flora, C.B. 2005. Economic Theories of Community Economic Development. Pp. 185-194 in Proceeding of the 2003 National CED Symposium: Setting Economic Policy to Achieve Social Goals. Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH, May 12-14, 2003.
- Flora, C.B. and M. Delaney. 2010. Pp. 36-41 in J. Kuan Cubillas. Movilizacion de la sociedad civil en un contexto dominado por la agricultura industrial. Desarrollo Rural Territorial y Gobernanza de los Recursos Naturales: Reflexiones en los Andes. Lima, Peru: CONDESAN.
- Flora, C. B. and A. Thiboumery. 2009. Governance of Landscape Systems: A Dinner Party Approach. Pp: 95-105 in K. Moore (ed.) The Sciences and Art of Adaptive Management: Innovating for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management. Ankeny, IA: Soil and Water Conservation Society.
- Valdivia, C., M. Gold, L Zabek, J. Arbuckle, and C. Flora. 2009. Human and Institutional Dimensions of Agroforestry. Pp. 339-366 in H.E. Garrett (ed.) North American Agroforestry: An Integrated Science and Practice 2nd edition. Madison, WI: American Society of Agronomy, Inc.
- Flora, C.B. 2009. The Role of Philanthropy in the Next Ten Years: Innovative Systemic Change for Sustainability in a Climate of Scarcity and Uncertainty. Pp.65-69 in M. Lawless (ed.). Looking Forward: Perspectives on Future Opportunities for Philanthropy. Coral Gables, FL: Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.
- Flora, C.B. and J.L. Flora. 2006. Sociology of Development. Pp. 496-506 in C.D. Bryant and D.L. Peck (eds) 21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Flora, C.B. and L.M. Butler. 2006. Expanding Visions of Sustainable Agriculture. Developing and Extending Sustainable Agriculture: A New Social Contract. Pp. 203-224 in C. Francis, R. Poincelot, and G.Bird (eds.) Binghamton, New York: Haworth Food and Agricultural Products Press.
- Emery, M. and C.B. Flora. 2006. Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with Community Capitals Framework. Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society 37:19-35. http://www.soc.iastate.edu/extension/ncrcrd/Spiraling_Up.pdf.
- Flora, C.B. and A. Thiboumery. 2006. Community Capitals: Poverty Reduction and Rural Development in Dry Areas. Annals of Arid Zone 45:239-253.
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A multi-state, interdisciplinary research team addressing work based poverty in the Midwest completed its modeling work and conducted initial analysis using a variety of methodologies in outlier counties; those counties that performed better or worse than the model predicted. We developed a mixed methods approach to developing comparative case studies in the North Central region, based on the particular characteristics of the evolution of work based poverty in the region. Research teams convened around rural community responses to new immigrant populations. One team is nation wide, and is developing a transnational research agenda. The second team is specifically addressing community responses to recent raids by immigration authorities in meat packing plants across the region. Multi state teams are also working with the NCRCRD on a series of interrelated food and fitness projects. We have developed an effective method of using the community capitals framework to analyze community investments and processes to improve community well-being. The team formally disbanded in June of 2009 with team members moving forward with joint publications. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Our long-term goal is to help rural communities increase quality of life by decreasing work-based poverty; increasing the integration of new migrants into rural communities, and strengthening local food systems and healthy life styles. By identifying and compare the collection actions of the communities that have successfully addressed work-based poverty, integrated new migrant populations and built local food systems and healthy life styles and comparing those processes to less successful community responses to these issues, we will provide community development practitioners and scholars with concrete tools and methodologies to bring about positive social change, as measured by a decrease in work-based poverty, increase in immigrant civic participation and community well-being, and increased community health. We expect to identify community-based activities undertaken by state, market, and civil society partnerships that increasing the number and efficiency of firms, but also related to increasing productivity of management and labor, reducing transaction costs, and cutting regulatory barriers to innovative economic development. The economic rationale is that as efficiency increases, so does the possibility of firms providing wages and benefits that contribute to worker self sufficiency. We suspect that investment in built capital alone will not be enough to change the situation of the working poor. We expect to find that local action enhancing cultural capital, human capital, social capital, and political capital will interact with the other investments to make them more effective.
Publications
- Anderson, C.D., Goe, W.R., and Weng, C.Y. 2007. A Multi Method Research Strategy for Understanding Change in the Rate of Working Poor within the North Central Region of the United States. Review of Regional Studies 37(3): 367-391.
- Brooks, Trevor; Michael McCurry; and Donna Hess. 2007. Working Poverty. South Dakota State University Rural Life and Census Data Center Newsletter. http://sdrurallife.sdstate.edu/working%20poverty%20newsletter.pdf.
- Brooks, Trevor, Trushenski, S., McCurry, M. and Hess, D. South Dakotas Food Deserts by Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter, No. 1, Feb. 2008. It picks up on the work of Morton & Blanchard 2007 and Blanchard & Lyson 2006 and access to reasonably priced, quality food by those living in rural areas of SD.
- Brooks, M.T., Khatiwada, S. and Hess, D. South Dakotas Child Poverty Change Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter, No.2, June 2008. The title is fairly self explanatory. It examines trends in child poverty rates in SD from 1980 to 2005.
- Flora, C.B., Bregendahl, C. and Fey, S. 2007. Mobilizing Internal and External Resources for Rural Community Development. Pp. 210 to 220 in Knutson, R.D., S.D. Knutson, and D.P. Ernstes, eds. Perspectives on 21st Century Agriculture: A Tribute to Walter J. Armbruster. Chicago, IL: The Farm Foundation.
- Flora, C.B. 2007. Theoretical Framework for Participatory Rural Development: The Role of the Public University. Pp. 45 to 55 R. F. Gonzalez Sanchez and M. A. Barron Perez, eds. Experiencias de desarrollo rural, Dos visiones de vinculacion universitaria: Colima y Iowa. Colima, Mexico: Universidad de Colima and Ames, IA: Iowa State University.
- Green, G. P. 2007. Workforce Development Networks in Rural Areas: Building the High Road. Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Green, G. P. and Haines, A. 2007. Asset Building and Community Development, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Green, G. P. and Sanchez, L. 2007. Does manufacturing still matter Population Research and Policy Review 26, 5/6: 529-551.
- Schulman, M.D., Hossfeld, L., McTague, T., Charleston, D., and Stainback, K. 2008. Globalization and Worker Displacement: Is There Life After Converse Pp. 184-215 in Crawford, V. and E.A. Fogarty, eds. The Impact of Globalization on the United States: Volume 3 Business and Economics. Westport: Greenwood Ebooks.
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We submitted a proposal to the NRI, based on the comments from our past submissions to NSF and NRI, but it was not funded. We built on the Extension linkages of the NCRCRD to make the data gathering more action oriented and to develop modules to be used in on-line and face to face graduate courses on rural development, research methods, and rural poverty. However, two other NRI Rural Development projects that built on the work of NC-1100 were funded. One is led by Richard Goe at Kansas State University, with participation from Nebraska and Iowa, and the other is led by Ed Kissam of JRB, with North Carolina and Iowa participating. As a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Symposium on Poverty and Economic Security, we are sharing our results on the working poor and new poor in the planning work. The NCRCRD convened research/extension working groups on: New Immigrants and Rural Communities, which is now NCDC 217. The Impact of Visioning on rural community change, funded by the Farm Foundation in collaboration with scholars from throughout the region, which is resulting in a special issue of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society. The Impact of Corn Ethanol Plants on the North Central Region (NC506), and organized the input for the proposal for NC TEMP1175: Sustainability of Next Generation Biofuels Systems. Community Capitals Framework Workshop, which resulted in the publication of a special issue of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society. The NCRCRD was a participant in two research/extension working groups; Contribution of 4-H Participation to the Development of Social Capital Within Communities and helped the group develop NC_TEMP1174. Working with Extension program leaders to develop an integrated NRI project on environmental contributions to childhood obesity and ways to overcome them. While the project was not funded, the group is utilizing the comments from the reviewers to put together further proposals. PARTICIPANTS: Richard Goe, Kansas State University; Cindy Anderson, Ohio University; Linda Lobao, Ohio State University; Scott Loveridge, Michigan State University; Cornelia Flora, Iowa State University; Donna Hess, South Dakota State University; Michael Schulman, North Carolina State University; Gary Green, University of Wisconsin. TARGET AUDIENCES: Scholars, policymakers, not-for-profit organizations, Extension, and local elected officials. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Three major Foundations have adopted the capitals framework in their programming and evaluation. Two major Foundations and one Federal agency (USDA/Rural Development/ Rural Utilities) are using our model as a basis of determining community readiness for different kinds of investments. 4-H has adopted the Community Capitals Framework in designing program evaluation. The model is widely distributed and understood by foundations, governments and businesses. Investments are made with multiple objectives, including improving the situation of the working poor through good jobs and business opportunities. Communities use their scarce resources to better enhance the conditions of the more vulnerable people who live there.
Publications
- Anderson, C. D., Richard Goe, W. and Weng, C.-Y. 2007. A Multi-Method Research Strategy for Understanding Change in the Rate of Working Poor within the North Central Region of the United States. Review of Regional Studies 37(3): 367-391.
- Brooks, T., Trushenski, S., McCurry, M. and Hess, D. 2008. South Dakotas Food Deserts by Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter, No. 1, Feb. 2008. It picks up on the work of Morton & Blanchard 2007 and Blanchard & Lyson 2006) and access to reasonably priced, quality food by those living in rural areas of SD.
- Brooks, T., Khatiwada, S. and Hess, D. 2008. South Dakotas Child Poverty Change, Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter, No.2, June 2008. The title is fairly self-explanatory. It examines trends in child poverty rates in SD from 1980 to 2005, consequences and contributing factors.
- Flora, C.B. and Bendini, M. 2007. Globalization and Changing Relations among Market, State and Civil Society: A Comparative Analysis of Patagonia and Iowa. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. 15: 1-21.
- Hossfeld, L. D. Schulman, C. and M. 2008. Services Delivery for Displaced Rural Workers: A North Carolina Case Study of the Theory and Reality of One Stop. Sociation Today. 6:2: (http://ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v62/)
- Lobao, L. and Stofferhan, C.W. 2008. The Community Effects of Industrialized Farming: Social Science Research and challenges to Corporate Farming Laws. Agriculture and Human Values 25 (2):219-240.
- Loveridge, S., Lobao, L., Goe, R., Thomas, P., Bradshaw, N., Bokemeier, J.L., Brooks, W.T., Hess, D.J. and McCurry, M. 2007. Advances and Declines in the Rural Working Poor: Complementing Traditional Econometric Results with Case Analysis. Review of Regional Studies. 37(3): 392-410.
- Schulman, M., Hossfeld, L., McTague, T., Charleston, D., and Stainback, K. 2008. Lobalization and Worker Displacement: Is There Life After Converse. Pp 187-214 in The Impact of Globalization on the United States: Volume 3 Business and Economics, Crawford, B., and E. Fogarty, eds., Greenwood Publishing Group.
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Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Team members presented a session at the National Regional Science Association, presenting our continuing macro-level analysis and model refinement. We submitted a grant proposal to NSF, which was not funded. Using the reviewer comments for both our last NRI submission and the NSF submission, we have outlined two new proposals. Because the NRI will be integrated, we will build on the Extension linkages of the NCRCRD to make the data gathering more action oriented and to develop modules to be used in on-line and face-to-face graduate courses on rural development, research methods, and rural poverty. We continued our association with the Regional Science Association International, which continues our link to a multi-disciplinary group interested in this issue. As a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Symposium on Poverty and Economic Security, we are sharing our results on the working poor and new poor in the planning work. In addition, the NCRCRD is convening
research working groups on: New Immigrants and Rural Communities (scholars from Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, and North Carolina). Initial work funded by the Northwest Area Foundation includes Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. The Impact of Visioning on rural community change, funded by the Farm Foundation in collaboration with scholars from throughout the region. The community conditions under which entrepreneurship contributes to community economic development. Working with Extension program leaders to develop an integrated NRI project on environmental contributions to childhood obesity and ways to overcome them. NC506 took on the leadership of Team 4, the impact of ethanol production on rural communities (Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Michigan are part of the team, with the NCRCRD working with collaborators in Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Indiana and Illinois for additional case studies). Working with 4-H Extension
educators throughout the nation to develop a research project on how the structures and processes in 4-H contribute to intergenerational bridging social capital and community development.
PARTICIPANTS: Richard Goe, Kansas State University; Cindy Anderson, Ohio University; Linda Lobao, Ohio State University; Scott Loveridge, Michigan State University; Cornelia Flora, Iowa State University; Donna Hess, South Dakota State University; Michael Schulman, North Carolina State University; Gary Green, University of Wisconsin.
TARGET AUDIENCES: Scholars, policy makers, not-for-profit organizations, Extension and local elected officials
Impacts
Three major Foundations have adopted the capitals framework in their programming and evaluation. Two major Foundations and one Federal agency (USDA/Rural Development/ Rural Utilities are using our model as a basis of determining community readiness for different kinds of investments. 4-H has adopted the Community Capitals Framework in designing program evaluation. The model is widely distributed and understood by foundations, governments and businesses. Investments are made with multiple objectives, including improving the situation of the working poor through good jobs and business opportunities. Communities use their scarce resources to better enhance the conditions of the more vulnerable people who live there. The number and proportion of working poor in the region declines more rapidly than structural trends predict.
Publications
- Brooks, Trevor; Michael McCurry; and Donna Hess. 2007. Working Poverty. South Dakota State University Rural Life and Census Data Center Newsletter. http://sdrurallife.sdstate.edu/working%20poverty%20newsletter.pdf.
- Green, Gary Paul. 2007. Workforce Development Networks in Rural Areas: Building the High Road. Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Green, Gary Paul and Anna Haines. 2007. Asset Building and Community Development, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Green, Gary Paul and Landy Sanchez. 2007. Does manufacturing still matter? Population Research and Policy Review 26 (5/6): 529-551.
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
A multi-state, interdisciplinary research team addressing work-based poverty in the Midwest completed its modeling work and conducted initial analysis using a variety of methodologies in outlier counties - those counties that performed better or worse than the model predicted. We have developed a mixed methods approach to developing comparative case studies in the North Central region, based on the particular characteristics of the evolution of work-based poverty in the region. Research teams convened around rural community responses to new immigrant populations. One team is nation-wide, and is developing a transnational research agenda. The second team is specifically addressing community responses to recent raids by immigration authorities in meat packing plants across the region. Multi-state teams are also working with the NCRCRD on a series of interrelated food and fitness projects. We have developed an effective method of using the community capitals framework to
analyze community investments and processes to improve community well-being.
Impacts
Our long-term goal is to help rural communities increase quality of life by 1) decreasing work-based poverty; 2) increasing the integration of new migrants into rural communities, and 3) strengthening local food systems and healthy life styles. By identifying and comparing the collection actions of the communities that have successfully addressed work-based poverty, integrated new migrant populations and built local food systems and healthy life styles and comparing those processes to less successful community responses to these issues, we will provide community development practitioners and scholars with concrete tools and methodologies to bring about positive social change, as measured by a decrease in work-based poverty, increase in immigrant civic participation and community well-being, and increased community health. We expect to identify community-based activities undertaken by state, market, and civil society partnerships that increasing the number and
efficiency of firms, but also related to increasing productivity of management and labor, reducing transaction costs, and cutting regulatory barriers to innovative economic development. The economic rationale is that as efficiency increases, so does the possibility of firms providing wages and benefits that contribute to worker self-sufficiency. We expect to find that local action enhancing cultural capital, human capital, social capital, and political capital will interact with the other investments to make them more effective.
Publications
- Fey, S., Bregendahl, C., and Flora, C.B. 2006. The Measurement of Community Capitals through Research: A Study Conducted for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 1. Available at http://www.ojrrp.org/issues/2006/01/index.html
- Emery, M., Wall, M., Bregendahl, C., and Flora, C.B. 2006. Economic Development in Indian Country: Redefining Success. Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 4. Available at http://www.ojrrp.org
- Emery, M., Fey, S. and Flora, C.B. 2006. Using Community Capitals to Build Assets for Positive Community Change. CD Practice 13. http://www.comm-dev.org/
- Emery, M. and Flora, C.B. 2006. Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with Community Capitals Framework. Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society 37: 19-35. http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/pubs/flora/spiralingup.htm
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
A multi-state, interdisciplinary research team has been formed and focused our research around the working poor. We have developed a predictive model of working poor by county in the North Central region. Working poor as a proportion of the workforce is relatively stable over time, contributing to differential community prosperity and quality of life. Counties that were more rural in 1990 tended to experience declines in the rate of working poor rate over the subsequent decade. But when we add demographic variables, the significance of rurality disappears. This indicates that the differences in demographic characteristics of more rural counties compared to less rural counties are more important in explaining change in the rate of working poor than being in a remote location per se. Our findings reaffirm the importance of the age structure of the labor force and the gender of household heads as supply-side factors influencing the prevalence of working poor. It is not
the prevalence of women in the labor force per se that contributes to the growth of the working poor. Rather, it is the presence of female headed households that tend to lack income from other sources, are urgently in need of employment, and more likely to accept low-wage jobs. Having got a first approximation about the importance of structure in influencing changes in the proportion of working poor, we have designed a study to examine the role of community agency in building alternative economic opportunities from which the working poor particularly benefit. We include North Carolina in the project because of the large number of displaced workers there due to outsourcing and the structural changes associated with that global shift. We have also analyzed the potential impact of outsourcing on the North Central region.
Impacts
Rural communities across the North Central region, based on the hope and knowledge they have gained from understanding what works to reduce the number of working poor in low amenity rural communities, institute processes and projects that reduce the number of working poor in their communities, increase the county per capita income, and decrease their rate of out-migration.
Publications
- Flora, C.B. 2005. Economic Restructuring and Outsourcing in the North Central Region. Rural Development News.28: 1: 1-2.
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