1. Thinking “Bigger” About Smaller Places: Rural and Urban America, Collective Impact, and the Power of A New Rural Narrative: Comprehensive Rural Wealth
Presented to the
Strengthen Creative Placemaking and Creative Economy in Communities
West Memphis, Arkansas
May 16, 2019
Charles W. Fluharty
Founder & President Emeritus
Rural Policy Research Institute

2. RUPRI’s Rural Arts and Cultural Policy Commitment
Why RUPRI engaged
Where it led us
Where we’re headed
Charles W. Fluharty
Founder & President Emeritus
Rural Policy Research Institute

3. RUPRI’s Focus on Comprehensive Rural Wealth

5. • Regional Networks
• Rural Creative Placemaking Summit
• Digital Learning Commons

12. “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” --George Bernard Shaw

13. Promoting Growth
in All Regions

14. Contributions to aggregate growth depend on few hub regions…
…the fat tail is equally important - if not more - to aggregate growth…

16. So, What is Rural, Anyway?

17. In fact… Over half of all rural people live in metropolitan counties!
Most metropolitan areas contain rural territory and rural people.
In fact…
Over half of all rural people live in metropolitan counties!

18. The Framework for Regional Rural Innovation
New
Narratives
& Networks
Quality of
Place
Collaborative
Leadership
Knowledge Networks & Workforce
E-ship & Innovation
Critical Internal Considerations
Wealth Creation, Intergenerational Wealth Retention, and Appropriate Wealth Distribution
Youth Engagement, Retention, and Leadership Development
Social Inclusion and Social Equity Considerations
Specific Attention to Social Mobility and Inequality

19. Three Questions: Innovating What? Diversifying How?
Transitioning Where?

20. Innovating What? How “We” Consider “Us” How We “See” Our Region
How We “Consider” Our Options
How We Support The “Connectors”

21. Diversifying How? In Our Vision of the Future
In Our Sense of Possibility
In Our Actions and Alignments
In Our New Collaborations

22. Transitioning Where?

24. Five Conditions for Collective Impact Success
Common Agenda
Shared vision for change
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Differentiated, but still coordinated
Backbone Organization
Serves entire initiative, coordinating participating
organizations, firms and agencies

25. Five Conditions for Collective Impact Success (cont’d)
Continuous Communication
Consistent, open, unmediated
Rigorous and Shared Measurement
Collecting predictive indicators, regional data: then
measuring ongoing results consistently

31. NEWS: Delta Creative Placemaking Initiative Grants Awarded - October 11, 2017  The Delta Regional Authority, in partnership with leading national arts and government organizations, is pleased to announce $309,000 in seed investments for 16 community projects across eight states through the Delta Creative Placemaking Initiative (DCPI)

34. Time to leave GDP behind Gross domestic product is a misleading measure of national success. Countries should act now to embrace new metrics, urge Robert Costanza and colleagues 1 6 JA N UA RY | VO L | N AT U R E | 2 8 3

35. GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.
- Robert F. Kennedy

36. Problems with GDP
G = Gross: It ignores the consumption of capital and natural resources 01
D = Domestic: It measures production in the nation, state, or region without regard to ownership or distribution 02
P = Product: It includes only those outputs valued in formal markets; ignores informal and voluntary activities, and externalities 03

37. Recent focus on wealth

38. Especially Rural Wealth

39. Are We Valuing What We Measure, or Measuring What We Value?
Why this matters and what we can do about it

40. Eight Forms of Comprehensive Rural Wealth/Distribution
Physical
Financial
Natural
Human
Intellectual
Social
Cultural
Political

41. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Flows versus stocks (wellbeing versus wealth) Individual wellbeing is fundamentally a flow measure GDP is our most common measure of income flow But well being is dependent on wealth Wealth is a stock—the net accumulation of assets and liabilities

43. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 1. Financial capital Cash, deposits, stocks, bonds, futures contracts Claims on assets held by others 2. Built capital Buildings, machines, roads, bridges, parks, dams, transmission lines

44. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital
3. Natural capital
Air, water, soil, forests, animals, minerals, etc.
4. Human capital
Education, health, skills, experience, etc.
5. Social capital
Social organization, networks, trust, markets, etc.

45. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 6. Intellectual capital Knowledge, books, patents, music, etc. 7. Political capital Political networks, and trust and access in these networks, etc. 8. Cultural capital Art, architecture, music, literature, sense of history and place, etc.

46. Policy Implications
A superior basis for assessing economic performance Considers benefits and costs of non-market effects Considers the returns to investment in the environment, education, health, intellectual property and social capital Clarifies the concept of sustainability Sustainability is growth in comprehensive wealth Recognizes the complementarity among types of capital Environment and health, natural capital and intellectual capital, for example

47. RUPRI’s Rural Cultural Wealth Lab
Established March 2017 w/ funding from the NEA
Initial focus was on a literature review to determine research needs and priorities:
Significant metro bias
Importance of natural amenities
Influence of natural and cultural heritage assets
Arts and culture create a sense of place and social cohesion
Clusters of artists leads to creative milieu that attracts creative manufacturing firms
Importance of informal social networks
Effect of rural arts and culture on the vitality of quality of life not well understood

48. RUPRI’s Rural Cultural Wealth Lab: A Wealth-based Conceptualization of Arts and Culture
The Rural Cultural Wealth Lab is focused on better understanding:
The nexus of arts and culture, innovation, entrepreneurship, and rural sustainability and prosperity; and, how the unique assets of rural communities contribute to the wellbeing of rural people, and the sustainability of rural communities.
How to measure wealth:
Individual wellbeing is fundamentally a flow measure;
GDP is our most common measure of economic flow, but wellbeing is dependent on our stock of assets (wealth);
Our true wealth goes far beyond financial assets

49. RUPRI’s Rural Cultural Wealth Lab: A Wealth-based Conceptualization of Arts and Culture
What is comprehensive wealth?
Financial capital
Built capital
Natural capital
Human capital
Intellectual capital
Social capital
Political capital
Cultural capital

51. It is not happiness that makes us grateful
It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy. - The Buddha