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Rural-Urban Communication and Relationships A
Capitals Approach
Jan L. Flora Professor of Sociology and Extension
Community and Agricultural Sociologist,
ISU floraj_at_iastate.edu
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Capital

• Resources invested to create new resources over a
  long time horizon

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Built Capital
Financial Capital
Natural Capital
Political Capital
Vital economy Healthy ecosystem Social equity
Cultural Capital
Social Capital
Human Capital
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Convertibility of Capitals

• To a degree, one capital can be invested to
  create another. For instance,
• Social capital can be used to create political
  capital the organization of an advocacy group
  can result in a member of that group running for
  political office
• Financial capital can be used to build human
  capital, as all of us who have financed our
  childrens college can attestor at least hope.

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Human Capital

• education
• skills
• health
• self-esteem, self-efficacy

•   The characteristics and potentials of
  individuals that are determined by the
  intersection of nature (genetics) and nurture
  (determined by social interactions and
  environment)

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Source L. Eathington, SETA, 2006
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Human Capital Goal Increased use of the skills,
knowledge and abilities of all local people

• Identify capacities
• Enhance capacities
• Recombine capacities

Community Voices, Columbus Junction
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Race/Hispanic Origin Iowa Change
19902000
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White Population Pyramid 2000Iowa
One race only
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Hispanic Population Pyramid, 2000Iowa
Of any race
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Natural Capital

• Air
• Water
• Soil
• Biodiversity
• Landscape

• Natural capital provides possibilities and limits
  to human action.

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Sustainable, healthy ecosystems with multiple and
equitable community benefits

• Human communities plan and act in concert with
  natural systems
• Ecosystems are used for multiple community
  benefits for all
• Those with alternative uses of the ecosystem seek
  common ground
• All residents have access to natural amenities

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Rural-urban collaboration to preserve and enhance
natural capital

• Andirondacks-NYC collaboration on water quality
• Women, Land, and LegacyWomen landlords in Iowa

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Results from the Women, Land and
LegacySMListening Sessions
Corrie Bregendahl, NCRCRD Carol Smith, NCRLC
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Participants

• 804 women participated
• Representing 22 Iowa counties
• Resident farmland owners versus absentee
  landowners
• Cass County study 19 live a considerable
  distance from the land

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Results
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Results

• Human capital, knowledge and health
• Farming is a source of good health but also poses
  health risks.
• Women view knowledge and learning as a way to
  achieve independence.
• Women support new farmers, young farmers, and
  many farmers on the land.
• Shared sense of identity (cultural capital)
• Farming is the source of identify for women. It
  is home, heritage, spirituality, legacy.
• Women value the family farm and spurn
  industrial control and ownership.

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Results

• Environmental issues (natural capital)
• Women care about the environment and support
  policies that promote conservation through better
  farming practices.
• Social relationships (social capital)
• Women want to connect with other women and
  improve their support networks.
• .

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Cultural Capital

• Cultural capital determines how we see the world,
  what we take for granted, what we value, and what
  things we think possible to change.

• Cosmovision
• Symbols
• Ways of knowing
• Language
• Ways of acting
• Definition of what is problematic

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Cultural CapitalDifferent heritages are
maintained and valued

• Cultural differences are recognized and valued.
• Mechanisms to maintain ancestral languages and
  customs are in place
• Communities are willing to take the time to
  understand and build on different ways of knowing
  and doing.

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Rural-urban collaboration to preserve and enhance
cultural capital

• We should look to new immigrants as potential new
  farmers.

• Agritourism
• Harrisdale in Cass County

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Social Capital

• The interactions among individuals that occur
  with a degree of frequency and comfort. Bonding
  social capital consists of interactions among
  like-minded people and bridging social capital
  consists of interactions among different kinds of
  social groups.

• mutual trust
• reciprocity
• groups (organizations and associations)
• collective identity
• sense of shared future
• working together for institutional change

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Social Capital

• Bonding
• Tight, exclusive networks
• Strong distinction between insiders and outsiders
• Single answer focus

• Bridging
• Open and flexible networks
• Permeable and open boundaries
• Legitimization of alternatives

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Improved community initiative, responsibility,
and adaptability

• Shared vision that is developed by all community
  members
• Building first on internal resources, including
  those of excluded groups
• Looking for alternative, inclusive ways to
  respond to constant changes
• Reaching out to others with different experience
  and knowledge
• Asset-based change
• Loss of the victim mentality

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Percent Lacking Convenient Access to a
Supermarket or Supercenter in U.S. Counties, 2000
Starved for Access Life in Rural Americas Food
Deserts By Lois Wright Morton and Troy C.
Blanchard
(Hmong farmer selling to urbanite, farmers
market, Milwaukee, WI)
Central cities and many rural areas share the
common designation of local food deserts.
Building links between farmers and urban dwellers
through farmers markets and other direct food
programs can strengthen bridging social capital
and provide nutritious food to urban and rural
people.
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PoliticAL Capital

• Political capital is the ability of a group
  to influence standards, regulations and
  enforcement of those regulations that determine
  the distribution of resources and the ways they
  are used.

• Organization
• Connections
• Voice
• Power

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Political CapitalGoal Increased voice and
influence

• People are organized and work together
• Excluded people come to know and feel comfortable
  around powerful people
• The issues of excluded people are accepted as
  part of the political agenda

Community Voices, Sioux City
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Rural-urban collaboration using political
capital to improve human capital

• Woodbury County developed a program whereby
• Farmers were provided subsidies to make the
  transition to organic
• Public institutions such as schools and
  hospitals are required to buy locally whenever
  feasible
• This should improve the diet of school
  children, nursing home residents, and hospital
  patients, and perhaps reduce obesity.
• Is there a role for extension?

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Financial Capital

• savings
• debt capital
• investment capital
• tax revenues
• tax abatements
• grants

• Forms of currency used to increase capacity
  of the unit that accesses it. Financial capital
  is often privileged because it is easy to
  measure, and there is a tendency to put other
  capitals into financial capital terms.

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Appropriately diverse and healthy economies

• Low rates of poverty, including good jobs with
  benefits
• Increased business efficiency with the surplus
  generated reinvested in human and built capital
• Increased business diversity, including new
  enterprises by excluded people
• Increase in the assets of rural and urban
  residents

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Rural-urban collaboration in building a sound
economy while we combat global warming

• Political capitalsending appropriate signals to
  the market and encouraging locally-controlled
  energy firms. Requires rural-urban
  collaboration.
• Natural capitalmaintaining soil and water
  quality while we build an energy-based
  agriculture.
• Human and social (institutional)
  capitalstraining scientists and conducting
  research that leads to positive economic
  outcomes. Encouraging entrepreneurship for new
  energy-saving technologies and applications.

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Built capital

• Sewers and water systems
• Buildings
• Machinery
• Roads
• Electronic communication

• Human-constructed infrastructure used as
  tools for production of other capitals

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BUILT CAPITAL

• Physical infrastructure that enhances other
  community capitals because
• It serves multiple users
• It links local people together equitably
• It links local people, institutions and
  businesses to the outside
• It can be locally maintained and improved
• It is energy efficient. We need building codes
  that encourage/reward construction of green
  buildings.

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Built capital Housing Trust Funds
Alternative to urban sprawl
The rehabilitation of this house in Redfield was
completed through a partnership between Dallas
County Local Housing Trust Fund and Region XII
Council of Governments.
or this?
This?
(Photo West Des Moines Comm. Dev. Department.)
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Built Capital
Financial Capital
Natural Capital
Political Capital
Healthy Ecosystem Vital Economy Social Equity
Cultural Capital
Social Capital
Human Capital