Assessing Community Using the
Seven Capitals
RCCI Conference, April 2006
Kathy Tweeten, Director, NDSU Extension
Center for Community Vitality
Margaret Tweten, Northeast District Director,
NDSU Extension Service
Goals
• To provide an overview of a community
assessment process used in three North
Dakota communities.
• To propose a way to connect institutions of
higher education and their students to local
communities and to each other.
Assessment Framework
• Two pilot communities
• Watford City – 1,400 population
• Devils Lake – 7,200 population
• One connecting two universities and the
community
• Hillsboro – 1,500 population
Process
• On-line survey – social capital
(SurveyMonkey)
• Leadership interviews
• Leadership meetings
• Secondary research• Review of past planning reports
• Review of 3 months on news papers
• Review of Census and other data
Reporting
Watford City
(see resource notebook for sample
report)
By: Dr. Cornelia Flora, NCRCRD
Arion Thiboumery, graduate student
Findings and Use
• Watford City
• Affirming
• Good balance of capital
• Used in next planning effort
• Devils Lake
• Affirmed
• Questioned
• Planned to be used with Chamber
Observations & Questions
• Both communities have great resources:
• Difference –
• investment of resources
• broad based empowered leadership
• resident interest
Questions:
• Does community size make a difference?
• What factors/characteristics do progressive
communities have in common?
Dissertation Proposal
• Enhancing the
Socio/economic Success of
Rural Communities in North
Dakota
The Yellow Brick Road
Statement of Purpose
• The purpose of this study is to
investigate the relationship between
development of community capitals
and socio/economic success of rural
communities in North Dakota
Problem Overview
•
•
The future of rural America depends on decisions
made by citizens, businesses, county
governments, state legislatures, and Congress.
While much of the activity is local, many of the
challenges in rural areas are common across the
United States.
In addition, rural leaders are seeking to
understand how to revitalize their economies and
are looking for models that will help them decide
what investments are most effective in improving
rural quality of life and economic well-being.
Problem Overview

Rural America leads the nation in:

Families living in poverty.

Rate of unemployment/underemployment.

Functionally illiterate adults.

Many college-educated rural residents move
to urban communities.

Brain drain remains significant in rural areas.
Discussion of Significance
• Rural leaders and policymakers can use
the results of this research to design
strategies for strengthening the quality of
life within their communities and
assessing their economies by examining
and comparing their community assets
against the community capitals model.
Critics of Rural Development
• Should we continue to invest resources in
depopulated states or follow the
suggestions of the Popper’s (1987) in the
Buffalo Commons Movement?
• Rural residents portray as:
• Destroying the land through soil erosion
• Corporate farms polluting rivers
• Farmers utilizing migrant workers for cheap
farm laborers living in substandard housing
• Rural companies that pay low wages
•
(Freshwater, 1999).
Literature Fields
• Intangible Capitals
• 1. Cultural capital
• (Bourdieu, 1986; Kohn, 1963; Lareau, 2002;
Vidich & Bensman, 1968)
• 2. Human capital
• (Becker, 2002; Flora, 1999; Schultz, 1961)
• 3. Political capital
• (Hunter, 1953; Mills, 1956; Polsby, 1960)
Literature Fields
• Intangible Capitals
• 4. Social capital
• (Coleman, 1988; Kaufman, 1959; Putman, 1993,
Toqueville, [1835] 1956)
•
•
A. Bonding Social Capital
B. Bridging Social Capital
Literature Review
• Tangible Capitals
• 1. Built capital
• (Weber, 1968)
• 2. Financial capital
• (Weber, 1978)
• 3. Natural capital
• (Lewontin, 2000)
• The difference between a community
that is not losing population, increasing
jobs, increasing assets and wealth, can
be explained by which capitals they
mobilize and how they invest them.
Proposed Method - Qualitative
• Select two communities in North Dakota to
compare or contrast (case study)
• Constant
•
•
Population – 1,000+
Socioeconomic Indicators
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local newspaper
Health care facility
Maintaining or growing population
Financial services
Retail services
Completed community planning process
Hillsboro, North Dakota
Proposed Methods
•
Conduct community capacity assessment mapping via e-survey
(web-monkey)
• Cultural Capital
• “Our community sees itself as part of a greater region
and considers the needs of all communities within that
region in our planning”
•
Source: Flora
Proposed Methods
• Focus Group Interview – (10-15)
• Selection – utilize snowball effect
• Interview of decision makers
• Case study comparison/contrast
• Mix methods of qualitative and quantitative
Just a cup of coffee away
Connecting to Others – Goal 2
• Model for other institutions
• Critical Pieces
• Connections between institutions
• Funding ????
• Connections in local community
Challenges
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
IRB’s
Funding
Faculty buy-in
Student involvement
Time constraints
Change in leadership
Research bias
Reporting back to local audience
Information Known
Information Unknown
Positively Regarded
Type 1
Already known
(trivial – questionable)
Type 3
Unknown by community
and important to
interspersed with
potentially negative
information in report
Negatively Regarded
Type 2
Negative information some
know (avoid)
Type 4
Unknown by community
and would be negatively
regarded – excluded from
report
Erickson - Handbook of Research Teaching in M.C. Wittrock
Thank You!
Margaret Tweten -- margaret.tweten@ndsu.edu
(701)780-8229
Kathleen Tweeten – kathleen.tweeten@ndsu.edu
(701)328-9718