Assigned readings

• Randy Stoecker. 2013. Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-Based Approach. Los Angeles: Sage (chapter 1). (what is the rationale for the book? How does research offer promise to rural communities?)
• Lewis Mumford. 1961. The City in History. NY: Harcourt (chapter 1, ‘Sanctuary, village and stronghold‘). In Canvas. (what lessons does history hold about communities and their functions?)
• James Howard Kunstler. 2016. The future of the city. Oct 14, com. (and what are some of the trends we can expect in this century for older cities, ‘newer’ cities, rural areas?)
• Randy Stoecker. 2013. Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-Based Approach. Los Angeles: Sage (chapter 2). (he begins talking some specifics about the importance of participation, and how it can manifest on the ground)
• Malcom Gladwell. 2008. Outliers: The Story of Success. NY: Little, Brown and Company (chapter 1, ‘The Roseto Mystery’). In Canvas. (what did researchers discover about Roseto that left them flummoxed? Does it have any implications for community life?)
• Eduardo Porter. 2018. The hard truths of trying to ‘save’ the rural economy. December 12, New York Times. In Canvas. (does his take differ markedly from Kunstler’s?)
• Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. NY: Harper & Row (Chapter 7, ‘Getting Involved‘). In Canvas. (much in here about change, about different kinds of individuals and means of participation in community life)
• Robert Chambers. 1983. Rural Development: Putting the Last First. London: Longman (Chp 1, ‘Rural poverty unperceived’). In Canvas. (unperceived, perhaps invisible. How? What does Chambers suggest?)
• Bill Grigsby. 2001. Community Vitality: Some conceptual considerations. Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Working Paper no. 6, October
  • mainly pay attention to the big picture concepts, and how they change over time, and
  • measures of vitality or resilience near the end of the document–starting on page 9 of the pdf (they’re identified, cited, and explained).
• Definitions of community resilience (why is resilience an important topic? Does a town like La Grande, county like Union, have an advantage because of EOU?)
• What is smart growth?
• Projects: Guidance and orientation

Class-based inquiry

• Resources page (you won’t be expected to know things we haven’t discussed in class, but you will be expected to be familiar with these topics and concepts for your term projects)
• A ‘ladder’ of citizen participation
• Community development and social capital
• You’ll be expected to have a pretty good idea of what kinds of questions to ask, and what sources of information/data/statistics might exist, and what data would be good to have (that you could identify and collect, but that would be too difficult for agencies to document)
• Stoecker’s chapter 2 discusses the ‘project-based research cycle‘ (pg 2)–know what it is, and how you might use it in your own project. He also emphasizes three important elements of participatory action research–producing useful information, using diverse methods of inquiry, and emphasizing collaboration. Be able to apply his insights to your project or another example.

Concepts

• Community vitality and resilience–what do they mean, why are they important?
• Community agency (Stoecker, Bellah, Wilkinson, Grigsby)
• Participatory research (Stoecker, Chambers, Arnstein, etc.)
• Various kinds of capital (social, human, organizational, physical, natural . . . . )
  • Each of those can be broken down (e.g., organizations vary by size, ownership, source of revenue)
• Smart growth — looking to see that you understand what it means, how it can be applied (and there are some examples for La Grande on that page)
• Role(s) of government in rural communities
  • For instance, what are some of the importance agencies/organizations/expenses,
  • at what level (federal, state, county, local)
  • From where does funding come (very broadly, what are main sources of revenue)?
• Economic diversification (we talked about how a rural community’s economy can be dependent on a few large employers and their commitment to a region)
• Stakeholders (and demographics)
  • What does this mean? Quite a few readings getting at this (Stoecker, Chambers, Bellah et al., Arnstein …)
  • What is the relationship between stakeholders and power?
• Power and decision making, and how this affects communities, development
• Social capital

The lone question (I received):

(question) I’m going over the study guide and I’m wondering if I got the right interpretation of the 3 faces of power.

1. Power is used as a resource available to a broad range of individuals and groups. City council meetings is an example of using power to be the leader in what is interesting to the public but full information is not always given out.
2. Power is done all the time but we cannot always see it nor how to even notice it’s happening. Hidden people and corporations that are in the backgrounds of campaigns can be altering the advertisements. Urban renewals as said in this face is used to advocate for the people higher up in society not the minorities.
3. There is always a structural view of power. Society works in favor of others while working against others’ interests. People, not knowingly, buy into the system of society and how it works.

(answer) Yeah, I’d say that captures it. The first face is easy to see, but it may not represent true power structures, but just what’s easy to see (like a city council vote). The second face is observable, but not always directly–some people don’t have to be there when decisions are made, some people, more invisible, are rarely invited. In the third face, yes, sometimes things seem natural, or for instance rural areas are less likely to trust or like government. But in fact rural areas are more dependent on government funding and services–they may have views that work against their own self-interests (and those anti-government views often come from industry that seeks to limit government’s authority to regulate them).

New questions (Sp 23…more of a dialogue, really)

What is the rationale for the book? How does research offer promise to rural communities?)

The book focuses on how to identify problems in a community, find the local resources for a possible solution, and build power within the community. They focus on the importance of participation from community members.

Research promises inspection within communities.

What lessons does history hold about communities and their functions?

Communities swung between settlement and movement. They focused on Food resources and domestication, tool creations and usage, unions, and creating hunters. Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures joined. Communities domesticate and build unions within their peopl e. Modern communities seem to lose the attachments to land/resources that past communities had. More focused on economics. 

There’s the economic reasons and the social reasons, exchange, trade, protection, etc. But also an attachment to land that seems to get lost in capitalist settings (where land and resources are commodities to be bought and sold).

What are some of the trends we can expect in this century for older cities, ‘newer’ cities, and rural areas?

It is fundamental to understand that the root cause for the sputtering of economic growth is that the primary resource needed for creating it (oil) has exceeded our ability to pay for it. Hence, we’ve been borrowing from the future (piling up debt) to keep the vast complex systems of advanced civilization running.

I would introduce the perhaps jarring idea that the locus of settlement in the USA is headed for an even more striking change, namely that the action is going to shift to the small cities and the small towns, especially places that exist in a meaningful relationship to   food production.

Kunstler also discusses how older cities (often established along waterways for navigation, and also the flooding that deposits silt and enriches soil) are probably unsustainable, skyscrapers an outdated mode of building, and we’re seeing growth in the west (e.g., Denver, Salt Lake, Arizona, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle), where some cities may fare better than others (especially considering access to water). Interesting stuff in there, and there is a movement toward living more ‘local.’ But there are entrenched cultural and economic interests in cities.

Essentially, cities are unsustainable and their buildings are out of date. They are being grown in areas that cannot maintain the communities.

Not just buildings out of date, but it’s the system required to maintain the building (which can house more people than La Grande …)

He begins talking some specifics about the importance of participation, and how it can manifest on the ground)

Research should be useful, have diverse methodology, and focus on collaboration.

What did researchers discover about Roseto that left them flummoxed? Does it have any implications for community life?)

The community members did not die from health conditions/did not have heart disease. Most died from old age. They found that it was attributed to the community dynamics and  how close the community was.

And possibly alludes to the role of stress in health and longevity. We did discuss that historical transition from the countryside to the cities, and all those people, bringing different backgrounds, probably reduces the likelihood of a Roseto outcome. : (

does his take differ markedly from Kunstler’s?)

Rural America is not doing well economically, Agglomeration. People choose to stay in these areas. Big companies go to big cities.  Porter says that the rural USA is dying and that they shouldn’t have to get big to stay alive. Kunstler is saying that rural America is going to boom again due to its food production/ag.

Resolution? Can they both be partly right?

much in here about change, about different kinds of individuals and means of participation in community life)

Bellah speaks on the town father/ ‘independent’ citizen,  car dealer/personal dealer/knowing your customers, lawyer/focused on town values/issues, the concerned citizen/sacrificing to be concerned, the civic minded professional/looks at issues as difference, not evil, professional activist/more extreme than civics

Conflict/disagreement, more likely in a larger city, but speaks to change, for sure, and how communities or individuals react to it. If diversity is indeed an asset in a changing world, those communities who learn to encourage voice and participation (as Stoecker advocates) are in a better spot to respond effectively (to change).

Rural poverty is unperceived, perhaps invisible. How? What does Chambers suggest?)

Distance away from cities, outsiders more focused on themselves, beliefs that the impoverished are just used to living like that,  project/person/seasonal/political/professional bias.

All of which merit some elaboration (e.g., middle class professionals may not understand the constraints to participation of the marginalized, and likely have some of the traits of the majority ‘ruling’ class).

Why is resilience an important topic? Does a town like La Grande, a country like Union, have an advantage because of EOU?)

Resilience measures the ability of a community to maintain despite adversity. EOU provides the community with people who do community-focused projects, workers for jobs, and people for homes. Overall, I think  EOU help with the economy/maintenance of La Grande.

EOU also can turn its curricula toward problem-solving in the region, which would–given a receptive community (and that’s never a guarantee between small town and college)–be an asset.

Resilience – the ability to maintain despite adversity

          If one resource ends, how does the community fair?

Vitality – endurance/vigor of the community

          Community opportunities that allow people to stay and flourish

Types of capital – natural (land, water resources), human (economics), organization (federal, state government)

Smart growth –  good.sustainable design, quality of building/items, land use / open space

Stakeholders – people who have an impact and/or can be impacted by the choice of a business/organization/etc.( Essentially have power/influence in an organization)

                   Churches funding certain things within school districts

Power – legitimacy of an authority, rational/legal/law (Charisma plus tradition)

Social Capital – services for the community, allows development for better. A network of agencies/organizations/institutions.

          Neon? EOU?

Community agency – Capacity for collective action/community entrepreneurship

Participatory resource – rural/local people and researchers are partners within research project.

Three faces of power – 1. easy access to info, can directly reach people, 2. need more work to access info, can be hard to reach people, 3. Feel systematic, no chaice in decisions. A lot of things/choices happen behind the scenes, must dig to find info and people.

Ladder of participation – Demonstrates level of involvement/participation in decision-making.

(Worst) Non-participation, using youth for an event that is actually for adult motives, no actual disucssions made with youth. (manipulation)

(Mid) Tokenism, asking for people’s comments and then not doing any change based on their words.

(Best) Citizen Power, Community members play an active role in decision making with researchers.

Project-based research cycle – useful info, diverse methods of inquiry, collaboration with community

• See where there are gaps in available infor/research with teen pregancy/sex ed, Speak to parents, school board, churches, teachers, etc, ask them for their ideas of places that need chance. Collaborate with those who are interested in change.

Economic diversification – dependent on what resources?

Elgin – Coal Mining? It is good to not rely on a single resource for economy/community livelihood. Reduces vulnerability to change (in the case of coal, what happens if emission regulations make power generation unfeasible? For mining communities, places where power plants operate, rail industry, etc.), and the capacity to respond to it (change).

(some notes and copying and pasting from here on)

• Role(s) of government in rural communities
  • For instance, what are some of the important agencies/organizations/expenses,
  • at what level (federal, state, county, local)
  • From where does funding come (very broadly, what are main sources of revenue)?

• Social capital–What organizations, individuals, institutions, have a stake and some role to play?
• Sustainability–In part a product of identifying and cultivating a network of social capital;
• Research–How do you propose to inform your proposal with existing research/information, and identification of gaps in knowledge (and methods of inquiry to fill them)?
• Participation–Do stakeholders have a voice, meaningful outlets for participation, reasons to believe they have an ‘ownership’ stake in the process, outcome, and ongoing evaluation (refer to Arnstein’s ladder of participation, the difference between non-participation, tokenism, and [citizen] participation)?
• Money–What are the funding streams? Public (federal/state/regional/county/local/other)? NGOs (non-governmental organizations)? Tax revenue? User fees? How diversified is funding? How dependent on business cycles? Many questions to explore and seek to answer …
• Change–It happens, people may not always have a firm grasp on what it is, what causes it, and how to respond (hence the concept of resilience), but you’ll need to find ways to examine how communities and your own areas of focus have changed over time (methods of inquiry–could be secondary data sources, could be interviews with people who have extensive experience and knowledge, etc.).
• Power–Who makes decisions? How much transparency exists? Who are the ‘leaders’, either those who have authority through their official titles and credentials, those with some other form (longevity, respect, so-called ‘opinion leaders’, influentials, interest or pressure groups, the press, etc.)? Do decision makers seek broad input and open dialogue? Do they make efforts to ‘put the last first‘?

There’s the economic reasons and the social reasons, exchange, trade, protection, etc. But also an attachment to land that seems to get lost in capitalist settings (where land and resources are commodities to be bought and sold).
Kunstler also discusses how older cities (often established along waterways for navigation, and also the flooding that deposits silt and enriches soil) are probably unsustainable, skyscrapers an outdated mode of building, and we’re seeing growth in the west (e.g., Denver, Salt Lake, Arizona, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle), where some cities may fare better than others (especially considering access to water). Interesting stuff in there, and there is a movement toward living more ‘local.’ But there are entrenched cultural and economic interests in cities.
Not just buildings out of date, but it’s the system required to maintain the building (which can house more people than La Grande …)
And possibly alludes to the role of stress in health and longevity.
Resolution? Can they both be partly right?
Conflict/disagreement, more likely in a larger city, but speaks to change, for sure, and how communities or individuals react to it. If diversity is indeed an asset in a changing world, those communities who learn to encourage voice and participation (as Stoecker advocates) are in a better spot to respond effectively (to change).
All of which merit some elaboration (e.g., middle class professionals may not understand the constraints to participation of the marginalized, and likely have some of the traits of the majority ‘ruling’ class).
EOU also can turn its curricula toward problem-solving in the region, which would–given a receptive community (and that’s never a guarantee between small town and college)–be an asset.

Need to look into…