1 Building Rural Capacity in the New Economy Bill Reimer with the NRE 2 Team Tom Beckley David Bruce Omer Chouinard Ivan Emke Greg Halseth Bruno Jean Patrice LeBlanc Diane Martz Steve Plante Doug Ramsey Ellen Wall Derek Wilkinson Anna Woodrow

2 Outline Framework Framework Research Design Research Design Administration and Students Administration and Students Key Findings Key Findings  Environment  Governance  Communications  Services Integration Integration

3 The New Rural Economy Old Economy Homogeneous culture Homogeneous culture Low knowledge demands Low knowledge demands Resource commodities Resource commodities Simple and repetitive Simple and repetitive Low mobility Low mobility Local relations important Local relations important New Economy Diverse cultures High knowledge demands Services and amenities Complex High mobility External relations important

4 How can rural Canada (re)vitalize? Identify the conditions that have contributed to devitalization Identify the conditions that have contributed to devitalization Organize assets and resources to do the things considered important Organize assets and resources to do the things considered important This ability to organize is: Capacity Capacity transforms assets into valued outcomes

5 ASSETS Economic Capital Human Skills and Abilities Social Capital Natural Resources OUTCOMES Economic wealth Social and political inclusion Social Cohesion Environmental security Social and self- worth Health Personal security CAPACITY MODEL RELATIONS & CHOICES Market Bureaucratic Associative Communal outcomes can become new assets and liabilities

6 Market Associative Communal Bureaucratic High Capacity = Agility among systems Capacity is embedded in Social Relations

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8 Context Matters exposure to global economies stability of the local economy adjacency to metro regions social and institutional capacity ASSETS Economic Capital Human Skills and Abilities Social Capital Natural Resources PROCESSES Market Bureaucratic Associative Communal OUTCOMES Economic wealth Social and political inclusion Social Cohesion Environmental security Social and self- worth Health Personal Security outcomes can become new assets and liabilities CAPACITY MODEL

9 The NRE Sample Frame Low CapacityHigh Capacity LagLead LagLead Distant Adjac. Distant Adjac. Distant Adjac. Distant Adjac. Local Exposed Stable Fluctu- ating Stable Fluctu- ating Global Exposed

10 NRE…The Rural Observatory …an International Network

Census CSDs 1991 Census CSDs 1996 Census CSDs 2001 Census CSDs Common- Boundary Census CSDs Profile 1998 Profile 2000 Profile 2003 Field Site Profile Series Capacity Interview s 1999 Capacity Interview s 2000 Capacity Interview s 2001 Capacity Interviews Field Site Taxfiler Series HH Survey 2001 Household Survey 2001 Municipal Finances CSD Trajectories

12 NRE Project to the site to the household linking the world both ways

13 Administration Central Administration Central Administration  PI – Primary responsibility  Project Administrator – Operationalization of policy  Office Manager – Day-to-day demands  Liaison Officer – Liaison and support  Communications Officer and Controller - Communications PI and Steering Committee – 6 members Central Administration B. Reimer Concordia U. Services Theme G. Halseth UNBC Communications Theme D. Bruce Mt. Allison U Governance Theme B. Jean UQAR Environment Theme T. Beckley UNB

14 Students 49 students (23 UG, 18 MA, 7 PhD, 1 Post-Doc.) 49 students (23 UG, 18 MA, 7 PhD, 1 Post-Doc.) Strong record (NRE 1 ) Strong record (NRE 1 )  Academic Careers (MA, PhD, College, University)  Revitalization of non-students  Statistics Canada Professional Training Program  Health Canada  BC Centre of Excellence on Women’s Health

15 Building rural student capacity Challenges Challenges  Smaller pool of students  Long process of training and mentoring  High demand for our students Strategies Strategies  Build cross-institution opportunities  Build student support network  Maintain ‘diaspora’

16 Some key findings Publishable or published Publishable or published Relevant for policy-makers Relevant for policy-makers Relevant for rural communities Relevant for rural communities Offered for replication and evaluation Offered for replication and evaluation Provide a basis for new and better questions Provide a basis for new and better questions

17 AVAILABLE Social Capital is not always USED AVAILABILITY of Social Capital (Site-level) USE of SoKp (HH-level) MarketBureau.Assoc.Comm.Total Market Bureaucratic Associative Communal * Total (r) (N=1849) Unless otherwise indicated p<.01; * p<.05 Availability is measured at the site level (Source: NRE Site Profiles 2000) Use is measured at the household level (Source: NRE HH Survey 2001) Focusing on one type will distort results and policies

18 Correlations are all positive for types of social capital used Bureau.Assoc.Comm’nl Market Bureau Assoc..29 No substitutions Policy: Weak safety net But: Complementary Policy: Local strength in one can be used to build capacity in others (r) 1995 HHs – sums of logged items p<.01 Source: NRE HH Survey 2001

19 Context Matters for Capacity HH Income by Associative Social Capital and Global Exposure The use of social capital increases HH incomes …but not if exposure to the global economy is low Public expenditure on associative social capital will have higher impact in globally exposed sites NRE HH Survey 2001 (N=1698) Adj. R 2 =.04

20 Building Capacity through… Environment and Natural Resources Environment and Natural Resources Governance Governance Communications Communications Services Services Integration Integration

21 Building Rural Capacity in the New Economy The New Rural Economy Project /09/09