[media-credit name=’Sajika Gallega/The Badger Herald’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]http://http://vimeo.com/9757422

Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure: Linking Local to Global

At the forefront of research in rural development, Cornelia Butler Flora is also past president of the Rural Sociological Society, the Community Development Society, and the Society for Agriculture, Food and Human Values. She is author and editor of a number of recent books, including Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities, Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, as well as over 175 articles and reviews. Her research focuses on community-level interventions to bring about positive, systemic change that includes healthy ecosystems, vital economies, and social inclusion.

Why do some communities thrive, while others decline?

How does the global economic situation enable or limit local community agency?

What are concrete things that communities have done to maintain economic security, ecosystem health and social equity?

What sort of balance is needed for people and firms to thrive?

In light of the recent economic crisis, Cornelia Butler Flora, a rural sociologist, urged the University of Wisconsin campus to cultivate social development through entrepreneurship.

In a situation of economic crisis such as the one facing the U.S. today, Flora said, when trust in institutions and income for governments around the world is low and unemployment is up, community members need to consider if there is hope on the local level for entrepreneurship to improve the economic prospects of a given community.

Flora spoke as part of the Changemakers@UW lecture series, a division of the Distinguished Lecture Series.

Kelly Frick, a senior at UW, said she was excited for the lecture, mainly because of her concern with social problems, but partly because of the extensive list of credentials and accomplishments Flora has.

Flora emphasized development, especially at the local level such as UW’s campus, as well as other educational institutions across the country.

A professor at Iowa State, Flora defined herself as an applied sociologist interested in the intersection of local communities and agriculture.

According to Flora, major institutions are not doing as well as they could. They need to help initiate students to broaden their views of their own local community.

A broader view of the community can help students think about how they can better promote health practices, get access to healthier food and improve the water quality by addressing runoff in local and global communities.

Additionally, Flora urged students to think of the economy in terms of social relationships instead of completely relying on the financial capital that a local community can bring in.

As opposed to relying on individual and firm entrepreneurship, community entrepreneurship matters more than ever in providing other forms of capital including natural, cultural, human, social and political capital.

When promoting social development in small communities, Flora claimed local youth involvement is the basis of entrepreneurship and is critical in supporting these other forms of capital.

Young adults play a vital role in eliciting change at a local level, Flora said, especially in making food and recreation available, filling leadership positions, building community foundations and institutions, and promoting advocacy.

Flora suggests community members channel the youth populace and encourage good ideas as opposed to putting down ideas as too ambitious.

To improve local communities, she claimed it is most important to advance the “social capital” produced.

Included under the title of “social capital” are things such as a sense of mutual trust, reciprocity and a collective identity.

These facets, prevalent on the UW campus, must be utilized to “look for other ways to respond to constant change,” especially in response to the economic crisis and its devastating effect on small and rural communities.

Flora said she shares her area of expertise with students because they need to know what the role of the local community is and how they can use that idea to bring about change within their own college community and other surrounding locales.