Ronald J. Hustedde

An Evaluation of the National Issues Forum Methodology for Stimulating Deliberation in Rural Kentucky.

Deliberation is implicit in the community development literature. Yet it is seldom addressed as a topic in its own right. Deliberation is defined as the weighing of policy choices by the public. It involves critical thinking and open dialogue that creates a sense of the public and the movement towards a common ground. This article address the problems associated with deliberation: 1) hyperindividualism; 2) a culture of limited public dialogue; and 3) the increased hegemony of science and technology. The National Issues Forum (NIF) methodology was employed as a tool to overcome these problems of deliberation in rural Kentucky. A naturalistic evaluation model was used to critique the application of NIF in rural settings. The ten lessons learned contain insights about the problems, successes and the limitations associated with the NIF methodology for stimulating deliberation.

A communicative approach to community development: the effect of neighborhood storytelling network on civic participation

Abstract This study draws upon communication infrastructure theory to investigate how communication networks stimulate civic participation within a community development context. According to the communication infrastructure theory (CIT), local communication resources enable citizens to engage in collective action for the common good. The CIT proposes neighborhood storytelling networks (NSNs) as core communication assets: interpersonal discussion, connection to community organizations, and connection to local media, including traditional mass media and the Internet. To examine the relationship between NSN and civic participation, data were collected from a probabilistic, representative sample through a mail survey in a southeastern state (N = 1154) in the US. Analysis reveals that individual sociodemographic characteristics and community context factors predicted connections to the NSN in a distinct way and such connections yielded positive relationships with civic participation. These results carry important theoretical, practical, and policy-related implications.

Towards a robust democracy: the core competencies critical to community developers

Community developers must possess specialized skills and knowledge to effectively promote democratic practice. The training literature indicates strong agreement on the values of the profession, including inclusion, broad participation, and empowerment. Only rarely in the literature are these values translated into a comprehensive set of core competencies. Following a research synthesis approach, we identify seven specific competencies: (1) listening, (2) emotional awareness, (3) cultural awareness and humility, (4) public deliberation, (5) facilitation, (6) appreciative inquiry, and (7) empowerment. We propose this initial framework to spur a robust discussion and debate among practitioners, scholars, and educators. We believe that the field of community development will be strengthened if there is a widely accepted set of competencies for those who seek to build just and democratic communities.

Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Rural America

Economic development and employment in rural areas include barriers such as geographical limitations, lack of contemporary skills for the workforce, stereotypes, and disincentives of fringe benefits for workers. Employment growth lags behind metropolitan areas. To understand and address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by people with disabilities living in rural communities requires an awareness of what drives economic development and workforce initiatives. Entrepreneurship offers one possible approach to unemployment in rural communities. This chapter presents an overview of employment trends, challenges, and solutions in rural America, particularly for those with disabilities.

Constructing a multi-dimensional measure of local entrepreneurial culture

This article proposes a scale that measures the local entrepreneurial culture of a place based on residents’ perceptions. The initial 36-item pool was developed through semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in Kentucky (USA) and then reviewed by a focus group composed of entrepreneurship coaches. These items were included in an extensive survey of rural and urban Kentuckians. Factor analysis resulted in a 17-item scale with four major components. To ascertain the predictive validity of the subscales, a series of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models evaluated their correlations with county-level rates of entrepreneurship obtained from an independent data set. The analysis confirmed that perceptions of the local entrepreneurial culture do correlate with entrepreneurial activity. In line with the theoretical model presented in this article, the ANCOVAs also controlled for the modulating effect of important individual-level characteristics and regional factors. The proposed scale is recommended for use by entrepreneurship support programs that provide one-on-one assistance for small businesses, yet seldom assess nor consider how they might improve the entrepreneurial culture of the place where these businesses operate. Furthermore, this measure is an important contribution to entrepreneurship research. Existing measures of entrepreneurial culture focus mostly on the regional and national levels, overlooking the role of local cultural characteristics; they also tend to focus on general cultural attributes rather than on residents’ perceptions of the entrepreneurial climate. This entrepreneurship culture scale opens the door to new directions in research.

In Memoriam: Bold Community Development Visionary, Scholar, Activist, Educator, Mentor, Colleague, and Friend

Ted K. Bradshaw, Ph.D. Editor: Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society October 28, 1942-August 5, 2006 The hyphen between Ted Bradshaws birth and death is filled with an incredible richness and legacy that is difficult to grasp. Ted Bradshaw was born in Ely, Nevada, and died unexpectedly while running on a trail near his home in Oakland, California. He is survived by his spouse, Betty Lou, and sons, Niels and Liam, his father, two brothers, a sister and other family members. Ted Bradshaw was a community development scholar, practitioner and educator. His professional accomplishments are sterling: a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974; Fulbright Research Scholar in Sweden; an author of four books and over 70 scholarly articles and reports on community and economic development, rural and regional development, alternative technology, the organization of the electrical system, and Californias development as a high technology society. He was chair and professor in the Department of Human and Community Development, University of California-Davis. Ted was elected to the Community Development Society Board of Directors and served in that role from 1997-1999. He became editor of the Journal of the Community Development Society in 2001 and worked with the editorial board and the Societys board of directors to implement a bold vision to make the journal the premier community development publication in the field. It led to a significant increase in manuscript submissions and quality; the journal shifted from a biannual publication to quarterly. He inaugurated special issues on community development theory, social capital, entrepreneurship, child care, information technology, and this special issue on disabilities within the context of our field. Guest editors are lined up to deal with other aspects of community development such as poverty, public participation, sustainability, and a range of other issues. It was renamed Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society in 2005 with a fresh new look to draw attention to our field and to reflect the growing interest in community development programs in the world. A new size brought the journal in line with other relevant social science publications. The journal is part of Teds legacy to us. Ted was a superb community development educator. His students worked in urban and rural settings as part of class assignments. …