A New Narrative for the Southern Rural Development Center

J. Matthew FanninAssociate Professor

LSU AgCenter and LSU A&MJanuary 22, 2014

Who am I?

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?

Example: Metropolitan Counties, 2010

Louisiana Metro Areas 1970

Metropolitan Area

Micropolitan Area

Louisiana Metro Areas 2010

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

Changing the NarrativeWhat should the new narrative include?

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

Micro Areas 2010

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

Broaden rural Engage larger cohort of scholars/educators Focus on decision making

Conclusion

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

Thank You!mfannin@agcenter.lsu.edu225.578.0346

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