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Forthcoming Book: Rural Igenuity (2025)
I am writing a book on the future for rural America at the intersection of health, environment, and development. After much back and forth with the publisher, I propose a framing that I call "rural ingenuity." This recognizes and enhances the creative abilities of rural people, communities, organizations, and businesses to solve critical problems that are impacting their lives, livelihoods, and futures. I intend to focus on two dimensions of rural life and development: the health and care of the land and the health and care of rural people. The land dimension is partly about addressing the past and current challenges which are the legacies of exploitation, discrimination, and technological change, and partly about the likely impacts of climate change on food, water supply, energy, and biodiversity. The people dimension is concerned with reinvestment in rural infrastructure and places so that the opportunities that will arise from tackling the land challenges offer a better quality of life and well-paying employment for rural people. This includes education, workforce development, and affordable housing, but I expect to concentrate on health and healthcare. I am now looking for examples of efforts across rural America that demonstrate four dimensions of rural ingenuity -- responsibility (sustainable, future-oriented, resilient), capability (capacity, community assets), effectiveness (regionalism, collaboration, integration, and innovative technologies), and equity (place, race, and class). The book will not be about what's wrong with rural America, but about what it will take to create a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable future. The publisher does not want this to be a theoretical or academic treatise -- they are looking for something that policymakers and practitioners can and will want to use. They want this to be much more than a "bag of stories" but well-grounded insights on how rural America can embrace the future. I welcome any thoughts and ideas.
Marjory Givens, Brian Dabson, Hilary Joyner, and Olivia Little (2023) Connecting Minority-Serving Institutions and Rural Research
This is part of the Thrive Rural Field Perspectives Series published in July 2023. It explores the intersections between rural research systems and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Specifically, it demonstrates the role of MSIs in rural research and the potential for MSIs to be better supported and integrated into the rural research system to forward the goals of rural and racial equity embodied in the Thrive Rural Framework.
Traveling in Eastern Oregon and the Mississippi Delta, July 2022
During 2022 I spent time in rural Oregon and Mississippi talking with state and local government officials, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, researchers, and business owners about the challenges and opportunities of living and working in rural communities. In Oregon, I visited four counties on the eastern and southern borders of the state, characterized by its remoteness, sparse population, and semi-desert terrain. Much of the area is ranchland where 100,000 beef cattle range free over public and private lands. The population is predominantly white and aging, with pockets of growing Hispanic communities. In Mississippi, I interviewed people in five counties in the Delta. This is a flat, fertile alluvial plain in which grows cotton, rice, corn, and soybeans. Its population is mainly black and is among the poorest in the nation. My conversations in these quite different regions were rich and wide-ranging, from which I observed seven common themes that have broad applicability well beyond Oregon and Mississippi. 1. There is a strong sense in rural communities that they are ignored by the government and by those with resources, creating increasing cultural and political cleavages that benefit neither urban nor rural people. Some of this is the result of economic changes that have upended livelihoods and some of it is due to generations of racism and neglect. The need for cross-community conversations and reconciliation has never been more urgent. 2. Limited capacity in rural communities is a critical issue, one that needs to be addressed not simply by importing expertise from elsewhere, but by investing in local people and organizations to build their own ability to articulate their needs and priorities, and to compete for state and federal funds. 3. In every state there is an organizational infrastructure of regional development organizations and hubs that can be partnered with, invested in, and strengthened to provide effective and coordinated services to the rural population, including older adults. 4. A shortage of affordable and safe housing is a common theme across rural America, with disproportionate impacts on older populations. A lack of maintenance of existing housing stock and little new housing development leaves very limited options for those wishing to “age in place.” Creative strategies by housing agencies and housing associations can make a huge difference in the prospects for rural communities. 5. For some economically-distressed communities, a focus on building new futures out of strong historical, cultural, architectural, or other assets can be a winning strategy. Given the right conditions, local entrepreneurs and investors can convert these assets into opportunities for jobs and new development. 6. Traveling long distances to access basic health, education, employment, and shopping has become the way of life for many rural communities, but for those with limited transportation options, especially older adults, this can be a challenging, health-threatening, and isolating experience. Community transport, broadband deployment, telehealth, investing in local health and educational facilities, incentives to attract medical staff, and building local food systems are being pursued in many rural areas as ways to halt population decline and improve the quality of life for all residents. 7. Economic development increasingly means not waiting for some company to relocate to the community, but engaging actively in promoting and supporting entrepreneurship. Experience from across the country shows that investing in people and their ideas is an effective rural economic development strategy.
Brian Dabson and Christiana K. McFarland (2021) Collaborative Rural Development and Regional Economic Connectivity IN Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Investing in Rural Prosperity.
Investing in Rural Prosperity is a major publication intended to outline a framework for conducting community and economic development that can help more communities achieve shared prosperity. This framework proposes a development strategy that is tailored to the local context and resilient to short-term shocks and long-term structural shifts, is intentionally inclusive of all memebers of the community and is designed and carried out through a collaborative process that includes stakeholders from different sectors and from across the region. This chapter discusses rural development in a regional context and shows how industry clusters that connect economies along the urban-rural continuum can bridge the urban-rural divide.
The first in a series of five Field Perspectives published by the Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group. These papers are designed to propel and deepen understanding about rural issues and realities, shine a light on rural innovation and investment opportunities, connect and align fields of practice and interest, and call for constructive changes in the design and implementation of key public and private systems. This paper draws from two research projects, one with Chitra Kumar (below) and the other from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (2021) Rural Public Health and Health Care: A Scan of Field Practice and Trends.
This is one of ten papers commissioned by the NADO Research Foundation for its Stronger CEDS, Stronger Regions Economic Development Writing Series. The focus is on the Rural Well-Being framework developed by the OECD and how shifts in the practice of rural economic development in the US reflects and supports this framework. A video presentation can be seen here.
Brian Dabson and Chitra Kumar (August 2021) Rural Development: A Scan of Field Practice and Trends
"This scan of field practice begins with an overview of the main economic theories and policy frameworks that guide and influence the practice of economic development, particularly in a rural context. This leads to a presentation of the results of qualitative research on economic development practice and how it is evolving, based on a series of interviews with over 40 experts representing a range of perspectives on economic development. It concludes with a commentary on how economic development can foster a more prosperous, healthier, equitable and environmentally sustainable rural America." Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group
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