Linking rural assets to market demand: Wealth creation value chains in rural America

Abstract

Rural regions across the United States have struggled to implement economic development strategies that build local assets and create wealth that contributes to sustained prosperity. This article describes a systems framework that enables rural areas to build multiple forms of wealth and provides expanded demand-driven opportunities for economically isolated individuals, businesses and communities. The characteristics of wealth creation value chains and the early results from the implementation of the framework in two regions in the United States are shared.

Keywords

economic development prosperity rural systems framework wealth creation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (2013) Clean and lean: Building wealth … efficiently! Available at: www.wealthworks.org/sites/default/files/storypdfs/KYEE10-29-13d.pdf (accessed 9 January 2014).

Boyd DR (2004) Sustainability Within a Generation: A New Vision for Canada. Vancouver: David Suzuki Foundation. Available at: www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2004/DSF-GG-En-Final.pdf (accessed 9 January 2014).

Davison P (2013) The Deep South Wealth Creation Network, Mississippi and Alabama. In: Citizen-Led Sustainable Change: Innovations in North American Community Development, Antigonish, Canada, 23–23 June 2013. Antigonish: St. Francis Xavier University Extension Department and the Coady International Institute. Available at: www.coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/assets/file/North%20American%20Case%20Studies/deep_south.pdf (accessed 9 January 2014).

Easterling D (2013) Getting to collective impact: How funders can contribute over the life course of the work. The Foundation Review 5(2): 67–83. Available at: www.scholarworks.gvsu.edu/tfr/vol5/iss2/7/ (accessed 9 January 2014).

Emery

Flora

(2006) Spiraling-up: Mapping community transformation with community capitals framework. Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society 37(1): 19–35.

Kretzmann

McKnight

(1993) Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications.

Mathie A (2013) From the fringe to the mainstream: Rural Action’s pursuit of a sustainable economy in Central Appalachia. In: Citizen-Led Sustainable Change: Innovations in North American Community Development, Antigonish, Canada, 23–23 June 2013. Antigonish: St. Francis Xavier University Extension Department and the Coady International Institute. Available at: www.coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/assets/file/North%20American%20Case%20Studies/rural_action.pdf (accessed 9 January 2014).

Meadows D (1999) Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Hartland, VT: Sustainability Institute. Available at: www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf (accessed 9 January 2014).

Pender J, Marré A and Reeder R (2012) Rural wealth creation: Concepts, strategies, and measures. Report, US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Economic Research Report Number 131, March. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture. Available at: www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err131.aspx (accessed 9 January 2014).

10.

Porter

(1985) The Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press.

11.

World Bank (2006) Where Is the Wealth of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available at: www:worldbank.org/2QTH26ULQ0 (accessed 9 January 2014).