Building Rural Capacity in the New Economy

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Building Rural Capacityin the New Economy

• Bill Reimer
• with the NRE2 Team
• reimer_at_vax2.concordia.ca
• 2004/09/09

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Outline

• Framework
• Research Design
• Administration and Students
• Key Findings
• Environment
• Governance
• Communications
• Services
• Integration

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The New Rural Economy

• Old Economy
• Homogeneous culture
• Low knowledge demands
• Resource commodities
• Simple and repetitive
• Low mobility
• Local relations important

• New Economy
• Diverse cultures
• High knowledge demands
• Services and amenities
• Complex
• High mobility
• External relations important

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How can rural Canada (re)vitalize?

• Identify the conditions that have contributed to
  devitalization
• Organize assets and resources to do the things
  considered important

This ability to organize is Capacity
Capacity transforms assets into valued outcomes
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CAPACITY MODEL

• OUTCOMES
• Economic wealth
• Social and political inclusion
• Social Cohesion
• Environmental security
• Social and self-worth
• Health
• Personal security

• ASSETS
• Economic Capital
• Human Skills and Abilities
• Social Capital
• Natural Resources

outcomes can become new assets and liabilities
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Capacity is embedded in Social Relations
High Capacity Agility among systems
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(No Transcript)
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Context Matters

• exposure to global economies
• stability of the local economy
• adjacency to metro regions
• social and institutional capacity

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The NRE Sample Frame
Low Capacity
High Capacity
Lag
Lead
Adjac.
Fluctu-ating
Global Exposed
Distant
Stable
Local Exposed
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NREThe Rural Observatory
an International Network
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1986 Census CSDs
1991 Census CSDs
1996 Census CSDs
2001 Census CSDs
Profile 1998
Profile 2000
Profile 2003
Field Site Taxfiler Series 1994-99
HH Survey 2001
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NRE Project
both ways
linkingthe world
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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

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Students

• 49 students (23 UG, 18 MA, 7 PhD, 1 Post-Doc.)
• Strong record (NRE1)
• Academic Careers (MA, PhD, College, University)
• Revitalization of non-students
• Statistics Canada Professional Training Program
• Health Canada
• BC Centre of Excellence on Womens Health

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Building rural student capacity

• Challenges
• Smaller pool of students
• Long process of training and mentoring
• High demand for our students
• Strategies
• Build cross-institution opportunities
• Build student support network
• Maintain diaspora

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Some key findings

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

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AVAILABLE Social Capital is not always USED
AVAILABILITY of Social Capital (Site-level) AVAILABILITY of Social Capital (Site-level) AVAILABILITY of Social Capital (Site-level) AVAILABILITY of Social Capital (Site-level)
USE of SoKp (HH-level) Market Bureau. Assoc. Comm. Total
Market .12 .08 .21 .15
Bureaucratic .22 .13 .35 .29
Associative .20 .09 .28 .22
Communal -.18 .09 .07 .05
Total .19 .12 .32 .25

• (r) (N1849) Unless otherwise indicated plt.01
  plt.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
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Correlations are all positive for types of social
capital used
Bureau. Assoc. Commnl
Market .18 .28 .27
Bureau. .37 .41
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
plt.01 Source NRE HH Survey 2001
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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 (N1698) Adj. R2 .04
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Building Capacity through

• Environment and Natural Resources
• Governance
• Communications
• Services
• Integration

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Building Rural Capacity in the New Economy

• The New Rural Economy Project
• http//nre.concordia.ca
• http//www.crrf.ca
• 2004/09/09