Category: Economic Development

Resource Category Topic Type
Rural America in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the Field (Report to the Rural Assembly)
Rural America in the twenty-first century must develop new relationships and new ways of doing things to ensure an economically prosperous, socially just, and environmentally healthy future. Tapping into the resourcefulness and creativity of rural people will be essential in addressing this challenge. However, they cannot do it alone. Rural communities need critical infrastructure, investment, capital, and services. The overlapping forces shaping rural America–demographic transitions, economic changes, the legacy of chronic underinvestment in community institutions, and environmental factors—present challenges and opportunities. With the voices and strategies of rural Americans in hand, the National Rural Assembly can now move forward toward this vision for a twenty-first century rural America.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Community, Demography, Economic Development, Environment, Rural Publication
Rural Areas with Seasonal Homes Hit Hard by COVID-19
In this data snapshot, author Jess Carson finds that rural counties where at least 25 percent of the housing units are for seasonal use are hit especially hard by COVID-19 compared with urban and other kinds of rural counties.
Center for Social Policy in Practice, COVID-19 Community Development, COVID-19, Economic Development, Rural Publication
Southeastern Kentuckians Remain Optimistic Through Great Recession: Growing Concerns about Sprawl, Housing, and Recreational Opportunities
In May and June of 2007, Carsey Institute researchers surveyed 1,000 randomly selected respondents from Kentucky’s Harlan and Letcher counties, and between November 2010 and January 2011, they returned to survey 1,020 different randomly selected respondents from the same counties. These two Kentucky counties provide a snapshot of perceptions of community and environmental change in a chronically poor rural place. This brief focuses on the questions asked in both surveys to identify area wide (Harlan and Letcher counties combined) changes since the Great Recession. The surveys reveal that the recession has exacerbated concern about many community-level problems including poverty, affordable housing, sprawl, and a lack of recreational opportunities. Southeastern Kentuckians’ views regarding how environmental resources should be used have also changed. As the demand for jobs has increased, Harlan and Letcher county residents are more likely to believe that natural resources should be used for economic development rather than conserved for the future. Optimism about the future is unchanged despite growing financial instability during the recession. Author Jessica Ulrich concludes that as local, state, and federal government program budgets are cut, and poverty and unemployment rates rise, southeastern Kentuckians will need to increasingly rely on the support of other community members. She adds, “If communities keep faith that they can work together to solve pressing problems and obtain the social, human, and economic resources that they desperately need, then perhaps Harlan and Letcher counties can begin to escape from the persistent poverty that has been plaguing them for decades.”
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Community, Economic Development, Housing, Poverty, Public Opinion Publication
Stretching Ties: Social Capital in the Rebranding of Coös County, New Hampshire
Place rebranding is gaining in popularity as cities and rural communities alike attempt to expand their revenue streams through innovative marketing strategies that seek to revitalize or create tourism destinations. These efforts tend to come about as part of an economic development strategy pursued by communities that have borne steep economic losses resulting from global economic restructuring and the decline in traditional manufacturing, agriculture, and natural-resource extraction. Author Michele Dillon explores the role of social capital in rural wealth generation by focusing on how it was used to advance place rebranding in Coös County in northern New Hampshire. In Coös, as is also likely the case in other rural counties, there is a far greater number of local than regional institutions and organizations, and culturally, leaders and residents alike are more prone to think locally than regionally. Nonetheless, these local community organizations can still play an important role in regionalization efforts; their infrastructural resources (including leaders and others with a history of working together on local issues) can be strategically incorporated as in Coös to forge and strengthen regionalized bridging connections. Her case study indicates that local community social capital can be expanded and stretched to achieve inter-community, county-wide regional cooperation. In particular, the Coös Branding Project, which she examines at length, illustrates the productive value of bridging social capital in rural economic development. As Coös moves forward and continues to develop its tourism sector, ongoing community support and inter-community cooperation will be crucial to translating its newly branded place identity into a place that will attract tourism and further investment.
 New Hampshire Community Development, Economic Development, New Hampshire Publication
The Local Agricultural Community Exchange: Outcomes and Lessons Learned from a Public-Private Initiative to Revitalize a Downtown Community
This brief describes a revitalization project in Barre, Vermont, led by a public-private partnership involving the Agricultural Community Exchange, the Central Vermont Community Action Council, and the private businesses that operated out of the storefront.
 Community, Environment, and Climate Change Community, Economic Development, New England Publication
The State of Coös County: Local Perspectives on Community and Change
Coös County residents are largely optimistic about their future despite significant economic challenges, especially in the Berlin/Gorham area. As part of a three-pronged effort to understand the ongoing changes in New Hampshire's North Country and surrounding counties, researchers at the Carsey Institute have surveyed more than 1,700 adult residents of Coös County, New Hampshire, and Oxford County, Maine.
 New Hampshire Community, Community Development, Coös Youth Study, Economic Development, New Hampshire, Public Opinion Publication
The State of Working New Hampshire 2007
The author of this annual update on the state's workforce finds that wage growth in the state has not kept up with the rising cost of living in New Hampshire. This negative impact exists despite the state's low unemployment rates and high labor force participation rates. This brief was prepared in cooperation with the Economic Policy Institute.
New Hampshire Economic Development, Employment, New Hampshire, Wages Publication
“My Advice…Is Get Out of Town”
In this brief, we use interview and focus group data to explore how residents view the economic opportunities in two rural Northern New England counties and how these opportunities are related to migration patterns.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Economic Development, Employment, Income, New England Publication