The New Rural Economy Project: 1997-2006

1. Tom Beckley David Bruce Omer Chouinard Ivan Emke Greg Halseth Bruno Jean Patrice LeBlanc Dianne Looker Diane Martz Solange Nadeau John Parkins Steve Plante Doug Ramsey Richard Stedman Ellen Wall Derek Wilkinson Anna Woodrow The New Rural Economy Project: 1997-2006 Bill Reimer bill.reimer@concordia.ca nre.concordia.ca 2006/10/27

2. Making research work for you • What’s exciting and/or useful? • What’s not? • What’s clear? • What’s not? • What’s missing? • How can we improve? • What do you need to know?

3. 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 What are the differences between the old and new economies?

4. 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

5. Context: Institutions and Entitlements PROCESSES Bureaucratic Communal Market Associative OUTCOMES • Economic wealth • Social and political inclusion • Social Cohesion • Environmental security • Social and self-worth • Health • Personal Security ASSETS and LIABILITIES • Economic Capital • Human Skills and Abilities • Social Capital • Natural Resources outcomes can become new assets and liabilities

6. Bureaucratic Market Associative Communal Normative Systems Market-based: Contractual, short-term, supply and demand E.g. commerce, labour, housing, trade Bureaucratic-based: Rationalized roles, principles E.g. government, law, corporations Associative-based: Shared interests E.g. recreation, charity, religious groups Communal-based: Generalized reciprocity, identity, birth E.g. families, cultural groups, gangs

7. Cap-à-l’aigle

8. Lead Lag 175 27 46 15 251 13 124 44 Adjac. 4 26 8 19 Distant 5 16 18 30 Fluctu-ating Adjac. 4 5 4 9 Distant 12 16 5 13 Stable Adjac. 12 100 7 45 Distant 15 99 16 56 The NRE Sample Frame High Capacity Low Capacity Lead Lag Global Exposed Fluctu-ating Adjac. Distant Stable Local Exposed

9. NRE…The Rural Observatory …an International Network

10. General Observations - 1 • Rural Canada is diverse • Primary industries are shedding labour • Manufacturing and services competitive • Environment more important • Knowledge-intensive employment growing • Communication and transportation price falling • Youth leaving, families returning

11. General Observations - 2 • Industry has concentrated • Government services more centralized • Rural aging fastest • Rural perceived as safe • Immigration strong • Rural and urban Canada are interdependent • Social capital is critical

12. Social Capital Relationships, networks, and associated norms that facilitate collective action • Social capital is as important as human capital for key economic outcomes • Social capital is organized in different normative systems • Social capital most often used in combination • Available social capital is not always used • Impacts of social capital vary by context

13. Social Cohesion The extent to which people respond collectively to achieve their valued outcomes • Perception and behavior-related social cohesion are not highly correlated • Relational types of social cohesion matter • Social cohesion can mitigate economic challenges • Social cohesion is not always under local control

14. The Informal Economy • Supports the formal economy • Primarily used by middle income people • Strongly gendered • Women participate more • Self-employment of women increases their burden but decreases it for men • But only for rural women – not for urban women

15. Services • Service needs and delivery changing • Reducing and Regionalizing • Population shifts • Financial supports changing • How have communities responded? • Communication • Finances • Partnerships • Organization

16. Communications • Cost of communication and transportation falling • Presence of media doesn’t mean they are used • Locally-oriented communication remains important • Communication requires multiple venues

17. Governance • Local governance is more than government • New governance = sharing of power, authority, information among municipal, private, civic sectors • Leading sites: • Innovative reorganization of assets • Multiple uses of assets, multiple outcomes • Local recognition of value of NGOs

18. Environment and Natural Resources • Resource and land entitlements changing • Capacity in new conditions is challenging • External forces are dominant • Unit of analysis is critical • Multiple ways to develop capacity

19. Building Capacity • Capacity comes in many forms • Available social capital is underutilized • Modern technologies provide useful tools (but they need supports to build capacity) • Government, private, civic sector alliances strengthen local capacity • Service innovations help, but volunteer sector has limited capacity • Context matters

20. The New Rural Economy Project: 1997-2006 The Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation nre.concordia.ca www.crrf.ca 2006/10/27

21. Round Table Questions • Introductions • What are the 2 most important questions you have for the researchers? • How are the answers likely to affect your decisions or actions? • What more do you need to know?

22. Type of Social Capital used matters for HH Incomes Return • Adj. R2 = .37 • Constant = $9102 • N = 1697 • Logged values for USE of social capital • P < .05 • Source: NRE HH survey, 2001 • Total HH income • Market, bureaucratic, communal, associative: indexes of types of social capital • Education of the respondent • HH Size: number of people in the household

23. Social relations most often used in combination Return NRE Household survey 2001; 1995 respondents

24. Available Social Capital is not always Used Return NRE HH Survey (N=1849) ** p<.01; * p<.05; Social Capital Used within 30 minutes of site

25. Context Matters (Metro Adjacency) Return NRE HH Survey (N=1849) ** p<.01; * p<.05; Social Capital Used within 30 minutes of site

26. Context Matters Return 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. R2 = .04

27. Perception vs. Behaviour-based Indicators Return All correlations significant at .01 level (2-tailed) NRE HH survey, 1995 respondents

28. SoCo and Household Changes Return

29. +$2,000 +$4,500 -$680 -$7,000 SoCo mitigates external context External factors have significant effects Fluctuating Economy Average HH Income Social cohesion can mitigate these effects The relations are often conditional $47,000 Global with Bureaucratic or Local with non-Bureaucratic Market-based SoCo Bureaucratic-based SoCo Return

30. SoCo not all under local control Return

31. Participation in the IE by Employment(social activities only) Employment Connects Nonemployment Isolates Return

32. Participation in the IE by Income Mid incomes participate most Return

33. Participation in the IE by Gender Return

34. IE by Employment and Gender Self-employment is additional burden for women Return

35. IE by Employment and Location(women only) Self-employment reduces burden for urban women only Return

36. Newspapers and Internet used most often for financial, employment, living changes % Media Used for Financial, Employment, or Living Changes NRE Household Sample – 1995 cases

37. Use of Media by HH Changes NRE Household Sample – 1995 cases