Duration: 10/01/2004 to 09/30/2010

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Rural areas of the twelve North Central states face serious transitions due to dramatic changes in government programs and economic restructuring (Walzer, 2003; Flora and Flora, 2003). Devolution of responsibility for the delivery of public goods and services, including dealing at the local level with the second round of welfare reform, environmental threats, and economic contraction that impacts both the public and private sector, means that, despite globalization, localities have ever-greater responsibilities and opportunities (Dewees et al., 2003; Labao and Hooks, 2003). The need for more integrated value chains that include environmental and nutritional information make the social organization component of value-added production even more important than before for the well-being of producers and the communities and regions where they are located (Flora, 2001a; Tweeten and Flora, 2001). Insecurity is high, as the threats of war, terrorism, and economic uncertainty test the assumptions held about the degree to which the past predicts the future (Beck, 1992; 1999). Conflicts increase in the countryside, as contested access and control of land and water leads to civil suits and even violence. Population continues to decline in western parts of the region, and many areas have new immigrants with cultures, traditions, and languages the long-term residents do not understand (Lasley and Hansen, 2003). While poverty is not as extreme in the North Central region as in other parts of the country, there is serious poverty in rural areas, and often that poverty is ignored because of the cultural context: poverty is equal to moral failure. Further, poverty increased almost twice as rapidly in the North Central region than in the rest of the United States between 2001 and 2002 (Proctor and Dalakar, 2003). While the latest ERS publication on food security states that it is lower in the Midwest than in other regions of the country (Nord, et al. 2003), that may be due in part to the culture of the Midwest where the cultural norms stop parents from reporting that their children have gone without food (Hamilton, et al. 1997). Many who are eligible for support, including earned income tax credits and school-based free or reduced lunches, do not participate in these programs and thus are unable to increase their assets, including human and financial capital, to build regional prosperity.

Ignoring or stigmatizing rural poverty does more than disadvantage the rural poor. It helps perpetuate the current model of industrial attraction of low wage industries at substantial local expense. It shifts emphasis from increasing the productivity of workers to increasing the number of jobs.

Further, the culture that ignores poverty often also rejects the kind of innovation that can make workers more productive, giving employers the opportunity to raise wages. The rural poor in the North Central Region are generally the working poor, but employed in low wage jobs, often several at a time. Often, the poor are in an intact household with at least two jobs in that household. Thus attention to poverty and its culture context must also address attention to entrepreneurship and its culture context.

NC-1100 links analysis of labor markets and cultural perceptions of poverty with economic development models to reduce poverty and increase local residents' assets.

Related, Current and Previous Work

The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development is working collaboratively with the National Rural Funders Collaborative and USDA Rural Development to develop a model of regional strategic readiness aimed at poverty reduction and regional rural prosperity. In that effort, we focus on six capitals as the basis for strategic readiness to increase family self-sufficiency, increase local residents wealth, and increase leadership and civic engagement. Those capitals are: natural, cultural, human, social, political, and financial/built. We have found that to achieve the goals around poverty reduction, strategies must enhance all the capitals and are most effective when applied at a regional level.

The comparative advantage of the NCRCRD is identification of output and outcomes measures that are real time and meaningful to a wide variety of stakeholders and investors in rural America (Flora, et al., 1999; Aigner et al., 2001: Aigner et al., 1999; Flora, 1998). That activity includes the development of poverty reduction and its measurement in ways that are culturally meaningful to rural communities. Our work with tribal and community colleges builds on these insights (Flora, 2002). In our previous work, the importance of the cultural context of poverty in rural areas is emerging as a critical base for rural development efforts that will address the issues of the less well-to-do in the rural Midwest.

Building leadership capacity in rural areas can enhance all the forms of capital in rural communities and regions. The NCRCRD and colleagues developed an inventory and analysis of community leadership programs (Flora, J. et al., 2002; Flora, 2001b; Flora and Luther, 2000; Luther and Flora, 2000). We found that leadership development that does not specifically address rural poverty assumes a trickle down model of economic development. There is substantial evidence that trickle down does not occur when the culture is based around family farms and minimum wage jobs as the economic engine for wealth accumulation.

We have determined that cultural capital is a basis for economic development and poverty reduction that is often ignored in rural research, with the exception of the important and illustrative work of Sonya Salamon (1992) and Cynthia (Mildred) Duncan (1999). Cultural capital includes ways of knowing (what is accepted as evidence), language, ways of acting, and defining what is problematic. Cultural capital determines how we see the world (the causes of poverty and what constitutes poverty), what we take for granted, what we value, and what things we think possible to change. Hegemony allows one group to impose its cultural values and reward system on others. Thus, if poverty perceived as due to moral failure  poor attitudes and unwilling to work hard (Viditch and Bensman, 1971)  then it is important to shame those that are poor so that they are motivated to change their attitudes and work harder. In such communities, poverty is stigmatized and ignored; individuals do not take advantage of programs for which they are eligible, such as free and reduced lunches for children or the Earned Tax Credit for the working poor. For the community as a whole, it decreases the total resources available and reduces the opportunity to increase the local capital assets, particularly human, social and financial capital.

There are many cultural capitals within the rural Midwest, although there is almost always a single cultural capital more highly valued than others and thought to be the right way to know, act and understand. Cultural capital determines what constitutes "knowledge," how knowledge is to be achieved, and how knowledge is validated. Those with power are able to define these key issues according to their own values, and provide their children with cultural advantages that are translated into social and economic advantage.

Cultural capital includes the values and symbols reflected in clothing, books, machines, art, language, and customs. Cultural capital can be thought of as the filter through which people live their lives, the daily or seasonal rituals they observe, and the way they regard the world around them. The socialization process serves to transmit values via various forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal, whether people learn to share money or save it, whether they trust people in authority or fear them, what career they choose to pursue, or simply what they think is important are all products of cultural capital.

Aspirations are a part of cultural capital that communities can affect. In dominant American society, the norm is to succeed educationally and achieve a higher status than ones parents. For middle class, suburban European Americans, this is normal. These shared aspirations of parents and children unite them during the end of their high school years in order to make preparations for leaving the community and entering college life. These aspirations tie them more closely to their parents and their parents lifestyle. But in Appalachia, American Indian reservations, and the Mississippi Delta, and perhaps in some areas of the rural Midwest, educational aspirations separate the young person from her community and her parents. It is obvious to all in the community, peers and their parents, that a young person is "learning to leave." Local folks no longer want to have much to do with you, as they figure you already think you are better than they are. The community, observing that she is "opting out" by spending time studying instead of reinforcing local ties, may even become hostile toward her. Or, in other situations, young people who want to stay in town are defined as failures. Education is to escape place and thus the inevitability of low income, rather than a way to contribute to place-based productivity.

Cultural capital can be thought of as "congealed and convertible social energy." Cultural capital determines how we see the world, what we take for granted, what we value, and what things we think are possible to change. Hegemony allows one social group to impose its symbols and reward system on other groups.

Bourdieu (1980, 1986), observing the rigid class structure in France, saw that the wealthy provided personal and symbolic connections for their children. They "automatically" knew how to behave in formal situations and could chat easily with others of their class. That shared behavior and knowledge of symbols gave the children of the upper classes power beyond their material situation when dealing with those in authority, from government bureaucracies to corporations to civic organizations. Sennet and Cobb (1972) saw different kinds of cultural capital contributing to the "hidden injuries of class." The discomfort powerless people feel in the presence of the powerful is partially due to not comprehending all the symbols that give meaning to the situation. People in positions of power feel uncomfortable and threatened upon entering communities composed of excluded groups, because the excluded groups may be resentful of power symbols they do not have, like cars, dress, and language.

Some jobs in rural areas pay very poorly, and employers, whose cultural capital prevails, describe such jobs as requiring few skills. These jobs are unstable, low paying, part-time or seasonal, and sometimes require migration. The wage earned does not depend on a worker's skills, but rather on the supply of workers willing to take jobs and on the cultural assessment of what the work is worth. Since supply almost always exceeds demand, the state's minimum wage becomes the maximum wage for this group. In many cases, these individuals see little chance of accumulating enough money to buy their own business or home. These individuals move often, as they live in low quality housing or in undesirable areas or cannot pay that months rent. A few months with relatives or friends, a few months of independent living, moving to a new town hoping to find better work, or even sleeping in the car means that children attend school irregularly and often change schools during a school year. Thus it is easy for rural communities to view such people as outsiders, and not worthy of community attention or support.

In contrast to the stereotype that poor people are lazy and don't want to work, a substantial number of the rural poor are among the working poor. Over two-thirds of the rural poor who were not ill, disabled, or retired work all or part of the year.

Native Americans represent the poorest ethnic minority in the Midwest. Despite the rich history and culture of the various tribes, Native Americans today offer their children one of the bleakest legacies. As of 2000, 26 percent of Native Americans live below the poverty line, more than twice the national rate of 11.8. The average length of schooling is only eight years, and the high school dropout rate is twice the national average. Alcoholism is a pervasive and persistent problem. The rate among Native Americans is nearly five times that of the nation as a whole. Tribal elders stress the necessity to build and use tribal cultural capital to confront these forms of dependency, which mirror the dependency established by Treaty Rights, through which Native Americans gave up their ways of supporting themselves in response to a promise that the U.S. Government would take care of them, directly and explicitly creating dependency.

Even in the face of such devastating statistics, Native Americans strive to maintain and convey pride in their heritage. Schools on some reservations, once used as a tool to eliminate the Native American cultures, now incorporate native and white culture in their curricula. Efforts to stimulate economic development on native lands are also beginning to reflect native values and orientations toward the land. Increasingly, Native Americans seek to transfer a legacy that respects their own culture but equips young people to function more effectively in the white world. It is our plan to expand the research effort to include researchers at Tribal Colleges in the region to help address the issues of the perception of poverty by different Tribal Nations in the region and the regional economic development strategies that are implemented to both mitigate and reduce it.

Latino is used to refer to people of Spanish-speaking ancestry, but this is clearly not a homogeneous group. In the Midwest, there is a heavy prevalence of Latinos of Spanish-speaking Mexican ancestry, although the more recent waves of migration include indigenous people from Mexico and Central America who are not Spanish-speakers, as well as immigrants from South America and the Caribbean. Rural areas in the Midwest are generally the second stage in their migration north. While many Latinos in the West and Midwest can trace their residence in the U.S. for generations, the vast majority arrived during the period following World War II. Significant migration continues today, particularly from Mexico and countries of Central America such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. As with other newly arrived immigrants in the past, Latinos tend to reside in national enclaves, to an extent resisting assimilation into the wider culture. For many, there are few job opportunities, a function in part of inadequate English language skills. Many are drawn into low paying manufacturing and service occupations in rapidly expanding rural communities. These typically offer few opportunities for advancement. In the Midwest, as in the rest of the U.S., Latinos are less likely to be poor in areas of recent migration than they are in areas of long-term settlement (Kandell, 2003). Latinos value family loyalty, respect, obligation and commitment to mutual support. Latinos definition of poverty may be very different from that of Anglo community residents. This research will attempt to clarify such differences and their implications for poverty reduction.

Objectives

1. Determine the model of the changes in low wage employment growth in rural areas by looking at the intersection of household, employer, labor force, and labor market. Are these changes indications of significant restructuring or are jobs disappearing?
   
2. Determine the degree to which rural labor markets in each state deviate from the predictive model.
   
3. Identify in each state rural labor markets that have been most successful in increasing good jobs (non-low wage work) and those who have been least in increasing good jobs a stratified.
   
4. Compare the development strategies and practices of employers offering high wage jobs with benefits and those offering low wage jobs with out benefit in each labor market.
   
5. Determine what actions at the community level are related to the creation of good jobs and the creation of low wage, temporary, and part time work.
   

Methods

Specific hypotheses to be tested:

• Proportion of and change in working poor in labor markets is a function agricultural dependency, low educational levels, and distance from urban centers (Beale code).
• Labor markets with a higher dependence on import sensitive industries are more likely to increase in proportion of working poor.
• Labor markets with high concentrations of women and immigrants would be more likely to have high proportions of working book.
• Labor markets with high numbers of immigrants will have higher levels of entrepreneurship, as measured in number of small businesses.
• Communities clusters that counties that invest in big box stores are have more low wage jobs and higher rates of SSI.
• Community action can have an impact on improving the situation of the working poor.

Research Methodologies:

• Labor market and county level will be compiled in an SPSS file from a variety of data sources will be compiled (Iowa, South Dakota, Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin).
• Using multiple regression and hierarchical modeling, a predictive model of % working poor and change in working poor will be developed (Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin).
• High low wage work rural communities and low low wage work communities in each North Central state will be identified using the models developed (Iowa, Michigan, Purdue).
• Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with employers in those communities. That data will be coded using N-Vivo and SPSS (All states. Wisconsin, Purdue, North Carolina and Michigan will take the lead in framing the interview schedule).
• Community case studies to determine the degree of community agency and its impact on low wage work will be carried out in the identified (All states: Michigan and Minnesota will take the lead in determining the specific data gathering instruments to be used in each community). Analysis of rural labor markets, rural labor force, and levels of poverty.
• Analysis of changes in rural labor markets, rural labor force, and presence of working poor.
  • Status: Existing databases have been combined into to data sets - labor markets and counties and individual characteristics of rural labor markets and the rural labor force have been correlated with the percent working poor. Counties at risk of outsourcing and with high levels of inequality have been identified and zero-order correlations calculated.
• Conduct employer interviews.
  • Status: A basic questionnaire has been developed in Wisconsin and will be discussed electronically by the group in the fall.
• Community case studies to determine the intersection of structure and agency.
  • Status: The committee is discussing a community capitals approach.
• A grant-writing team has been formed (Iowa, Michigan).

The Committee will organize a conference on perception of poverty in the rural Midwest, linked to community and individual situations. From that workshop, a research design will be developed that will involve sampling in areas of high poverty and high program participation by eligible households, high poverty and low poverty program participation, low poverty and high poverty program participation and low poverty and low poverty program participation. For those areas, focus groups with community leaders and parent groups will be held and a community-wide survey on perceptions of poverty conducted.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• A workshop on culture and poverty reduction strategies in the rural Midwest
• A research design based on the workshop to gather data of culture and the perception of poverty in different regions and among different ethnic groups in the rural Midwest.
• Identification of community and regional poverty reduction and amelioration strategies that are less stigmatizing of low-income people.
• Refereed journal articles on: <P><ul><li>Labor markets, productivity, and poverty level in the rural Midwest<li>Cultural perceptions of poverty and ways to reduce it in the different areas in the rural Midwest, <li>Ethnic differences in the perceptions of poverty and what can be done<li>The perceptions of poverty and its importance for alternative community economic development strategies in a regional context</ul>

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• Researchers and extension educators use their new understanding of cultural perceptions of poverty to work with diverse regional and community groups.
• Application of identified strategies for poverty reduction and amelioration that are less stigmatizing of low-income people.

Milestones

(2004): Conference on the cultural perceptions of poverty and their implications for rural development in the rural Midwest, based on existing research. This conference is also the meeting of the NC-1100 Committee.

(2005): Research design based on the conference to further specify the cultural perceptions of poverty and its alleviation.

(2005): Analysis of rural labor markets, rural labor force, and levels of poverty

(2006): Funded proposal to gather primary data on cultural perceptions of poverty and its alleviation in the rural Midwest.

(2007): Data gathered on cultural perception of poverty and its alleviation in the rural Midwest

(2008):ubmission of articles in refereed journals

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

The NCRCRD and many members of the research team work with Community Development and Families Extension programming. Thus we will use our findings to create extension curriculum that can be used by Specialists and regional and county agents and educators to share with communities. Through our link with the RUPRI Rural Poverty Center and the NCRCRD Policy Brief series, we will prepare a series of briefing papers aimed at state and local decision makers. We will publish scientific articles in appropriate journals to further influence scholarship and we will include the findings in the new regional distance masters degree in community development. We will work with federal agencies involved in rural development that address poverty, particularly USDA Rural Development and the Rural Conservation and Development program of USDA/Natural Resource Conservation Service, to utilize the findings in their organizing and investment work. Finally, through our work with not-for-profit agencies, such as the Heartland Center for Community Leadership and the Rural Community Assistance Project, to develop joint programs to help communities address their perception of poverty and ways of effectively addressing it.

Evaluation

• a. Number of papers from the research presented at professional meeting.
  
• Number of change agents addressing issues of community perceptions of poverty in the rural Midwest to change the way that community development takes place.
  
• b. Number of scholars trained in research on community perceptions of and responses to rural poverty.
  
• c. Number of local policies and regulations altered to de-stigmatize low-income households and increase access to resources and good jobs for low-income workers.
  

Organization/Governance

NC-1100 will initially be led and organized by Cornelia Flora, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development for the first year. The NCRCRD will provide logistical support to the Committee. The Committee will initially meet through conference calls to refine the proposal and plan the workshop, expanding the team as needed to be sure the most knowledgeable people are included in the process. The NCRCRD will generate outside funding to support the initial workshop beyond the participation of the state representatives. Each year the group will choose a chair and vice-chair to facilitate the research process and ensure accountability.

Reporting:An annual report will be available on the web, with a hard copy available as requested that will report on each indicator. The research products are published in refereed journals, with articles written for lay readers in Rural Development News and in the newsletters of our community development partners, such as state community development extension, the Heartland Center for Rural Development, RC and D Newsletters, and Rural Matters, published by RCAP.

Literature Cited

Aigner, S.M., C.B. Flora and J.M. Hernandez. Fall, 2001. "The Premise and Promise of Citizenship and Civil Society for Renewing Democracies and Empowering Sustainable Communities." Sociological Inquiry. 71 (4): 493-507. http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/pubs/flora/empower.htm

Aigner, S.M., C.B. Flora, S.N. Tirmizi, and C. Wilcox. 1999. "Dynamics to Sustain Community Development in Persistently Poor Rural Areas." Community Development Journal. 34(1): 13-27.

Beck, Ulrich.1992.Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publications.

Beck, Ulrich. 1999. World Risk Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press/Blackwell Publishers, Ltd,

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. "The Forms of Capital." Pp. 241-258 in Handbook of Theory and Research in the Sociology of Education, edited by J.C. Richardson. New York: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1980. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Dewees, Sarah, Linda Labao, and Louis Swanson. 2003. "Local Economic Development in an Age of Devolution." Rural Sociology 68 (2):186-206.

Duncan, Cynthia M. 1999. World Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Flora, Cornelia Butler and Jan Flora with Susan Fey. 2003. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. (2^nd Edition) Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Flora, Jan L., Cornelia Butler Flora, Stacy Bastian, and Elizabeth Manion. 2002. "Leadership and Community Capacity Building: An Inventory and Analysis of Curricula and Tools." http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/pubs/flora/leadership.htm

Flora, C.B. 2002. "Rural Community College Initiative: Implementing a Vision for the 21^st Century." Rural Development News. 26 (1): 1-3.

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/Vol26No1-2002/rcci.html

Flora, C.B. (editor). 2001a. Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Flora, C.B. 2001b. "Leadership Development: Investing in a Critical Community Asset." Rural Development News. 25 (1): 1-2.

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/Vol25No1-2001/flora.html

Flora, C.B. and V. Luther. 2000. "An Introduction to Building Community Capacity." Pp. 1-3 in Small Town and Rural Economic Development: A Case Studies Approach. P. V. Schaeffer and S. Loveridge (eds.) Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.

Flora, C.B., M. Kinsley, V. Luther, M. Wall, S. Odell, S. Ratner, and J. Topolsky. 1999. Measuring Community Success and Sustainability. (RRD 180). Ames, IA: North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/Community_Success/about.html

Flora, C.B. 1998. "Skills for the 21^st Century: Relation-Building." Rural Development News. 22 (2): 1-2. http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/Summer98/flora.html

Hamilton, William L., John T. Cook, William W. Thompson, Lawrence F. Burton, Edward A. Frongillo, Jr., Christine M. Olson, and Cheryl A. Wehler. 1997. Household Food Security in the United States in 1995: Technical Report. Apt Associates, Inc., Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutritional Policy, Cornell University Division of Nutritional Sciences, and CAW Associates.

Kandell, William. 2003. "Demographic Change in New Rural Immigrant Destinations." Paper presented to the Rural Sociological Society, Montreal, Canada. (forthcoming as a USDA/ERS publication).

Labao, Linda and Gergory Hooks. 2003. "Public Employment, Social Welfare and Local Well-Being: Does a Lean and Mean Government Benefit the Masses?" Social Forces (in press).

Lasley and Hansen. 2003. "The Changing Population of the Midwest: A Reflection on Opportunities" in Norman Walzer, The American Midwest: Managing Change in Rural Transition. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY and London, England.

Luther, V. and C.B. Flora. 2000. "Capacity Building and Leadership in Yuma, Colorado." Pp.6-9 in Small Town and Rural Economic Development: A Case Studies Approach. P. V. Schaeffer and S. Loveridge, (eds.) Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Nord, Mark, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson. 2003. Household Food Security in the United States, 2002. Washington, DC. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report Number 35.

Proctor, Bernadette D. and Joseph Dalaker. 2003. Poverty in the United States: 2002. Washington, D.C. U.S. Census Bureau. P-60-222.

Sennet, Richard and Jonathan Cobb. 1972. The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York: Knopf.

Salamon, Sonya. 1992. Prairie Patrimony: Family, Farming, and Community in the Midwest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Tweeten, L.G. and C.B. Flora. 2001. Vertical Coordination of Agriculture in Farming-Dependent Areas. Ames, IA: Council for Agricultural Sciences and Technology Task Force Report No. 137. http://www.cast-science.org/pubs/vert.pdf

Vidich, Arthur J. and Joseph Bensman. 1971. Small Town in Mass Society. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.

Walzer, Norman (Ed) and Bernard Siegan. 2003. The American Midwest: Managing Change in Rural Transition. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY and London, England.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NC, NE, OH, SD, WI

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions