W3001: The Great Recession, Its Aftermath, and Patterns of Rural and Small Town Demographic Change

(Multistate Research Project)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

Project Menu

SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[06/29/2014] [08/09/2017] [08/09/2017] [07/13/2017] [11/01/2017]

Date of Annual Report: 06/29/2014

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/26/2013 - 09/28/2013
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2012 - 09/01/2013

Participants

See attached minutes

Brief Summary of Minutes

see attached file

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

In its first year, W3001 members undertook collaborative research and published extensively in line with the committee's goal to advance understanding of three critical issues: post-recession rural population change, employment dynamics, and housing market conditions (see list of publications). During its first annual meeting, the committee organized an “engagement” workshop on “Building Community Partnerships and Sharing Information” with local extension specialists. The group exchanged information and ideas revolving around four questions: 1. What are the primary demographic issues facing rural areas and small towns? 2. How has the recent recession affected rural communities? 3. What do researchers need to know more about? 4. How can we help? The committee came away with detailed information about challenges facing rural communities in New York State and new perspectives on needed scholarship, which was compiled in detail and e-mailed to group members following the meeting (see minutes). During it first year, committee members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination, including numerous presentations at international conferences and participation in organized sessions at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, the Population Association of America, the Association of American Geographers, the American Sociological Association, and several other groups. Briefings and consultations were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including U.S. Senate staffers, the USDA’s Rural Development mission area, regional Rural Development Centers, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Minnesota State Legislature, Federal Reserve of Boston, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Organization of Wildlife Planners, Leadership New Hampshire, the Housing Assistance Council, and Alaska’s Sun’aq Tribe.

Publications

Publications Attachment:

Attachment

Impact Statements

W3001 has just completed its first year and has no impact statements at this point.

Date of Annual Report: 08/09/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/05/2014 - 09/06/2014
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/30/2014

Participants

see attached minutes

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

W3001 2014 Minutes.docx

Accomplishments

During its second annual meeting, the committee organized a series of presentations by committee members related to project objectives. The goal was to generate ideas for collaboration and to assess how our collective research was contributing to the goals of W-3001 (see minutes of the annual meeting).   Members contributed 8 articles—and served as one of the co-editors for—Rural America in a Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects For the 2010s. The book provides advanced policy scholarship on rural America, specifically on the changing structure of North American agriculture, natural resources and the environment, demographics, diversity, and quality of life in rural communities. W3001 members also published 24 refereed-journal articles and several policy briefs and research reports aimed at stakeholders and policymakers (see list of publications).   Members received external funding to extend and build on project-related research:  National Science Foundation Grant, $297,000, 2014-2017, to complete the first international comparative analysis of rural gentrification; USDA-ERS Cooperative Agreement, $22,000, 2011–2014, to study the geographies of high cost lending and housing crisis in rural and nonmetropolitan regions; HUD grant of $22,000 to add a longitudinal element to the USDA project by using HUD’s American Housing Survey Data (2012-2014); The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality New Scholars Grant Program, $20,000, 2013-2014, to examine Hispanic health care access and utilization in rural and urban new and established destinations; National Science Foundation, $179,493, 2001-2012, to study local state responses to recession and socioeconomic well-being; Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Science, $208,000, 2013-2015, to study the mining industry and its relationship to community well-being; Northern Research Station of the U.S.D.A Forest Service, $149,000, 2014-2016, to study demographic transformations in the forest regions of nonmetropolitan America.   During it second year, committee members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination. In Mississippi, a workshop was conducted on the use of socio-demographic and economic data to inform community and economic development initiatives. Numerous presentations were made at international conferences at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, the Population Association of America, the Association of American Geographers, the American Sociological Association, and several other groups.   Briefings and consultations were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including Minnesota State Legislature, Michigan State University Fisheries and Wildlife Department, Michigan Tech University School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences, the Interagency Working Group on Scenarios and Interpretive Sciences, U.S, Global Change Research Program, senior staff of the U.S. Forest Service, New Hampshire Department of Education, Association of Health Care Journalists, USDA Rural Utilities Service CPA Conference, National Institute for Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas, USDA Rural Development-Cooperative Programs, U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Veterans Affairs, Offices of Congress members Elijah E. Cummings, Chris Gibson, and Barbara Mikulski, Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.   Members communicated research findings to the public with numerous interviews through many media outlets, including the New York Times, NBC News, Bloomberg News, Wisconsin Public Radio, and USDA radio.

Publications

Impact Statements

Taught rural residents, community leaders, and non-governmental organizations how to access and use population data. For example, members produced a widely-used set of detailed net migration data, maps, and charts that provided a readily-accessible, visual look at migration from county to county over the past 60 years; a seminar on Exploring the Demographic Characteristics of Rural America was presented at the Rural Health Journalism Workshop of the Association of Health Care Journalists; a meeting of the State Data Center of Mississippi focused on the use of sociodemographic and economic data to inform community and economic development initiatives

Date of Annual Report: 08/09/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/17/2015 - 09/19/2015
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2014 - 09/30/2015

Participants

see attached minutes

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

W3001Sept2015BoulderMinutes.docx

Accomplishments

During its third annual meeting, the committee organized a mini-conference on Rural Inequalities. Findings were reported on several topics covering demographic trends, income and employment, health care, and housing (see minutes of the annual meeting).   Members published 25 refereed-journal articles on topics related to project objectives. Members also published 15 policy briefs, fact sheets, and research reports aimed at providing stakeholders and policymakers with policy-relevant demographic information (see list of publications).   Members received external funding to extend and build on project-related research:  USDA Hatch Act Formula Funds, $90,398, 2015-18, to study gaining and retaining young people in Wisconsin rural communities; Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin, 2015, $30,244, to study aging and place; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $100,000, 2014–2016, to study the impact of human capital and contextual characteristics on health care access and utilization disparities among Hispanics; Minnesota AES grants to study rental housing in rural areas, recreational housing impacts in rural areas, and federal rural housing policy.   Members helped organize and moderate a workshop on Rationalizing Rural Area Classifications sponsored by the National Academies of Science.   During it second year, committee members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination. Briefings and consultations were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including National Center for Frontier Communities, National 4-H Council’s Hispanic Advisory Board, Kansas Rural Opportunities Conference, Kansas Governor's Council of Economic Advisors, State Agriculture and Rural Leaders Legislative Ag Chairs Summit, Michigan Department of Natural Resources Commission, New Hampshire State House and Senate, National Science Foundation, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Mississippi Water Resources Institute, Delta Council, Delta Leadership Institute, and the Harvard Law School.   Members communicated research findings to the public with numerous interviews through many media outlets, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and the Boston Globe.

Publications

Impact Statements

Through participation in a workshop at the National Academies of Sciences, improved policymakers’ understanding of rural data and the role of rural classifications in shaping our understanding of rural conditions and trends.

Date of Annual Report: 07/13/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/16/2016 - 09/17/2016
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2015 - 09/30/2016

Participants

see minutes for list of participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

W3001Sept2016HernandoMinutes.docx

Accomplishments

<ul> <li> Members instituted a policy brief series titled Population Trends in Post-Recession Rural America, which provides information about current trends confronting rural people and their communities in the United States. The briefs are available in an interactive format or can be downloaded as PDFs. In addition to the sponsorship and funding of W3001, members obtained additional funding to launch this series from the Applied Population Laboratory at UW-Madison, the Community and Regional Development Institute at Cornell University, and the Center for Population Studies at the University of Mississippi.   W3001 member Ken Johnson was one of 33 scholars selected as a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. He received $200,000 to fund his research on “Challenges to American Democracy: The Changing Demographic Structure of Rural America.” His proposal included arguments on the importance of studying rural demography that parallel goals of the W3001 project.   During its fourth annual meeting, the committee shared research findings and participated in two engagement sessions with several community leaders, including leaders from the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi and the Delta Center for Culture and Learning (see minutes of the annual meeting).   W3001 members published 33 refereed-journal articles on topics related to project objectives. Members also published 20 policy briefs, fact sheets, and research reports aimed at providing stakeholders and policymakers with policy-relevant demographic information. Members served as co-editor and authors for a major demographic publication, The International Handbook of Rural Studies (see list of publications).   W3001 members received external funding to extend and build on project-related research:  USDA-ERS, 2016-2017, $23,540, to study the geography of stress-related mortality in the U.S.; PA Tobacco Settlement Fund, 2016-2017, $54,211, to study rural vs. urban differences in high-risk opioid prescribing for young adult patients; Penn State University, 2015-17, $72,000, four separate grants from different Penn State institutes to fund studies of underlying causes of the opioid epidemic; Stanford University Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2016, $10,000, to study racial diversity and inequality; U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2015, $36,651, to study poverty trends among U.S. workers before and after the great recession; USDA-ERS, 2015-16, $25,000 to develop new methods for delineating U.S. labor market areas; Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, 2015-17, $182,623, to study socioeconomic change, health, and community-level responses; W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2015-16, $165,000, to introduce young adults from the Mississippi Delta region to academic enrichment, health professions, and the importance of addressing the region’s health care workforce shortage;   During its third year, committee members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination. Briefings and consultations were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including the National 4-H Council's Hispanic Advisory Committee, National Center for Frontier Communities, Housing Assistance Council, USDA’s Rural Housing Service, Mississippi Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Mississippi State Department of Health, State Data Center of Mississippi, University of Mississippi School of Law, Delta Directions Consortium, U.S. Forest Service,  and the New Hampshire State House Ways and Means Committee.   W3001 members communicated research findings to the public with numerous interviews through many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, USA today, Washington Post, Time, CNBC, Wyoming Public Media, USDA Radio, Iowa Public Radio, NPR, Wisconsin Public Radio, Penn State News, ScienceDaily, UPI, and others.   </li> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

Assessed the degree to which changes in the coal mining industry have impacted populations; helped communities experiencing changes in the old (coal) and new (shale/oil) energy industries understand impacts on poverty, income inequality, employment growth, population change, and other forms of well-being.

Date of Annual Report: 11/01/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 09/14/2017 - 09/16/2017
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2016 - 09/30/2017

Participants

see Minutes for list of participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

w3001MinutesFtCollins2017.docx

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Finally, it is important to note that the scholarship produced by members of the group have long term impact implications. One example is the International Handbook of Rural Demography, published in 2012, where the editors and many contributors were from then W2001 project. Springer Publishers measures “popularity” via a “usage” metric that counts the number of times a chapter from a Handbook is accessed on-line and downloaded. The International Handbook of Rural Demography has received 30,354 downloads over the years, attesting to the global impact made by researchers in this project.