NC1100: Rural Development, Work and Poverty in the North Central Region
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.
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