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A New Narrative for the Southern Rural Development Center
J. Matthew FanninAssociate Professor
LSU AgCenter and LSU A&MJanuary 22, 2014
Southern native: Rural North Louisiana◦ (Jackson Parish)
Local Influences◦ Elementary and High School: Agriculture and Manufacturing Dep.
Economies◦ Undergraduate and Graduate School: Non-Ag. Rural Development /
Public Sector Education: B.S. and M.S. Ag. Economics – LSU
Ph.D.: Ag. Economics- Univ of Missouri
Background
Rural America is facing identity crisis◦ What does rural America think about itself?◦ How does it market itself to an increasingly urbanized America?
SRDC faces evolutionary questions◦ How do we define our self under
new leadership?◦ Who are our constituencies?
Why a New Narrative?
Sweeps up increasing geography – portions with sizable “rural characteristics”
Researchers lose “rural signal” provided for scholarship – forced to alternative definitions
Researchers/policy makers focused on metro/urban creating homogeneous description (e.g. Brookings Institution) neglecting rural components
Challenges with the Old Geography
Attributes◦ Broaden “rural” rather than “narrow”◦ Sustaining people in place◦ Build evidence to support narrative◦ “Overlooked Agriculture” a part of narrative
Narrative
The “lost rural”
In the South, the expanding “metropolitan” has 13,901,067 rural metro residents (2010)◦ 13.19% of Southern population◦ 53.80% of Southern rural population
What do we bring to the table for this constituency?
Broadening Rural
Labels
pct_rural_ruralmetro
0% - 30%
30.01% - 45%
45.01% - 55%
55.01% - 70%
70.01% - 100%
Micropolitan regions◦ New category created from 2000 census◦ Functional region under-studied by rural scholars
Research:◦ Are they distinct?◦ How do they compare to non-micro rural and metro?
Micropolitan leadership: Captains of the rural renaissance?
The “Under-focused” rural
Agriculture and rural constituencies have interesting recent history◦ Rural Ag. vs Rural non-Ag.
Stylized facts Federal funding Historical institutions and practices
Rural non-Ag. and rural Ag. need each other in 21st century
Overlooked Role of Agriculture
A broadening rural constituency needs to leverage agriculture to promote sustainable places◦ Role in wealth and health◦ Alternative to default urban choice for potential residents
Overlooked Role of Agriculture
Treat agriculture as part of a portfolio of household production◦ Historically consistent with much of Southern Agriculture (e.g. beef
cattle)◦ Emerging consistency seen from cotton vs alternatives in row crops◦ Consistent with emerging local and alternative attribute production
systems
Overlooked Role of Agriculture
Diversify agricultural research activities around theme as part-time operations that compliment household income
Focus on geographic opportunities throughout regions of the south
Incorporate risk Extension should provide decision support through online
complimentary ag. opportunities in regions and show proof of concept on ground
Overlooked Role of Agriculture
Constituency◦ Rural places and people◦ Land grant universities and their faculty
Yes and Yes
Defining SRDC for the Future
What is SRDC’s niche?◦ Direct objective rural scholarship (research and extension)
Define and test rural conceptual frameworks Develop evidence base and indicators Provide decision support Conduct rural policy analysis Training future rural scholars/practitioners
◦ Leadership in defining rural trends and future rural narratives◦ Supporting land grant mission through support of its faculty
SRDC does NOT have an advocacy role
Defining SRDC for the Future
◦ Wealth Creation Framework (Pender, Weber, Johnson and Fannin In Press)
Focus on wealth assets (capital) Place vs people Public vs private Local vs non-local ownership
◦ Health (writ large) Human Economic Fiscal Social
Rural Conceptual Frameworks
Pender, John, Thomas Johnson, Bruce Weber, and J. Matthew Fannin. Eds. (In Press). Rural Wealth Creation. Routledge Press.
Measurement based on conceptual frameworks◦ Wealth indicators◦ Returns to wealth
Defining “healthy” indicator thresholds◦ Existing best practice◦ New research
Collect evidence by codifying case studies◦ Define measurables◦ Include context◦ Highlight best practice
Rural Indicators and Evidence Base
Develop research that links indicators to decision tools Simplify, Simplify Minimize undo input effort by communities,
research/extension personnel Use facilitation to harmonize and narrow differences in
goals and objectives Focus on generalizable decision tools Use technology and co-brand as much as possible
Provide Decision Support
Focus on southern policy challenges◦ Implications of federal on south
◦ State and local comparative analysis
Rural Policy Analysis
Extension should go “Back to the Future”◦ Seaman Knapp focused on incorporating technology in decision
making
We should focus on incorporating technology in community development decision making◦ Focus more on human input into community decision models
Source: McCafee. E. 2013 “Big Data’s Biggest Challenge? Convincing People NOT to Trust Their Judgment.” Harvard Business Review Blog Network. December 9. http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/big-datas-biggest-challenge-convincing-people-not-to-trust-their-judgment/
Community Development Extension in an Internet Age
1862 Land Grants◦ Persuade administrators increase RD research FTEs in academic
departments with historic “rural” mission◦ Promote RD as essential input and leadership for inter-departmental
research programming◦ Promote “rural household” as a unit of analysis for production
agriculture oriented departments and faculty◦ Expand RD mission into land grant university’s non-land grant
colleges
SRDC Vision – Land Grant Universities
1890 Land Grants◦ Increase expansion of service mission to more rural places
Minority-focused municipalities/counties Minority-focused rural regions within metropolitan areas
◦ Expand household focused research/extension success to rural places Fiscal health (Brown, Fannin, and Detre 2013) Disaster resilience (EDEN, Franze and Fannin, 2011)
◦ Promote and feed small-limited resource farm success into rural household decision tools
Brown, Kayla, J. Matthew Fannin, and Joshua D. Detre. 2013. “Fiscal Health Revisited: Evaluating County Government Finances as Local Government Vulnerabilities Increase.” Presentation Made at Annual Meetings of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, August 4th-6th, Washington, DC.
Franze, Carol A. and J. Matthew Fannin. 2011. Community Decision Support to Local Governments in Budget Planning Under Coastal Risk. First Edition. Extension Program Manual. Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, Louisiana Sea Grant, and LSU AgCenter. August.
SRDC Vision – Land Grant Universities
SRDC co-brand and expand Financial Disaster Resiliency Programs (Research and Extension)◦ Research: Identifying research-supported healthy thresholds of public
sector financial capacity given a place’s financial vulnerability
◦ Extension: Enhance existing decision support tool for measuring local government financial vulnerability and capacity
◦ Expand extension educator training programs beyond Gulf Coast
◦ Develop collection of best practice narratives for evidence base on financial disaster resiliency
SRDC Programming – Proposed
Regional wealth indicator series (wealth creation framework)◦ Start with public sector wealth
◦ Research: Identify factors leading to southern U.S. public sector bankruptcies and fiscal stress
◦ Extension: Development of empirical indicators of fiscal health of Southern U.S. counties
SRDC Programming – Proposed
Deliver co-branded indicators between SRDC and land grants
Indicators delivered in three dimensions to three audience types
Generalize template to have land grant faculty disseminate other geographically diverse region wide indicators across platform
SRDC Programming - Proposed
Challenge: “Managing busy-overhead work / Investment in writing”
Address – Compartmentalize overhead time
Challenge: “Advising undergraduate and graduate students” Address - Develop initial in-person relationship; move to
alternative interaction methods with value-added components
Challenges to SRDC Director and MSU Faculty Position
Challenge – “Maintaining disciplinary support/service” Address – Push SRDC research/outreach scholarship as
much as possible to disciplinary outlets
Challenge – “Mentoring junior faculty” Address – Involve in grant proposal
Challenges to SRDC Director and MSU Faculty Position
Challenge – “Extensive travel schedule” Address – Increase intensity of travel effort – learn how to
say “no” when not mission critical / leverage technology effectively
Challenges to SRDC Director and MSU Faculty Position
How “new” is the new narrative?◦ Fostering civic-minded communities◦ Building Economically Vibrant Communities◦ Enhancing Distressed Communities
Sometimes we need to refresh the brand to deliver the same story◦ Paraphrase from Steve Deller, University of Wisconsin, after
discussion on differences between Community Economic Development and Rural Wealth Creation themes
Conclusion
Page 2: http://www.demacmedia.com Page 4: http
://www.apta.com/members/memberprogramsandservices/advocacyandoutreachtools/tellingourstory/Pages/default.aspx
Page 4: http://www.johngarvins.com Page 10: http://www.ourkittery.com Page 15: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com (ag)
http:/www.chronicle.com (small town rural) Page 16: http://123rf.com Page 19: http://knoxcounty.org Page 21: http://new-hire.com Page 22: http://www.acornsys.com
Image Credits
Page 24: http://worldcampus.psu.edu (US) and http://commons.wikimedia.org (MS)
Integration
Low High
Geography Region SRDC Support Research/Extension
Southern PI Consortia region wide research / extension
State Low Generalizability Research and OutreachMS-specific
State research model and extension program templates; high generalizability
Intersection of State/Regional Initiatives
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