The real narrative around rural is vital to economic development

Brian Depew, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs, starts with a joke.

“My joke is that when you ask somebody what rural is, it’s a place smaller than where they live,” he says. “So literally, I’ve been in New York City and people are like, ‘I want to do more rural work like that work we did in Lincoln, Nebraska,’ which is a community of like 250,000. Or, if you’re in Lincoln, Nebraska, rural is Fremont, which is a town of 20,000. If you’re in Fremont and you ask somebody, what rural is, they say, well, that’s communities like Lyons, a town of 900 people. And honest to God, it, if you go into the bar in Lyons, Nebraska, and you ask what rural is, they’re like, ‘Oh, well, those are the people that live outside of town.’”

While most folks will likely define “rural” as a place that is smaller than where they live, the Center for Rural Affairs generally defines it as communities with a population of 50,000 or less, that are not part of a Metro area.

These “small” communities are vital to the rural economy and their vibrancy is essential to the larger American economy overall. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation brought together experts in the field of rural entrepreneurship to put a spotlight on this very issue, with an emphasis on the role entrepreneurship plays at the heart of crucial rural economic development.

“In rural Arkansas, rural Tennessee, and in a couple areas of rural Mississippi, we’re seeing where folks who are returning home for opportunities to start businesses,” says Cynthia Norwood Terry, director of entrepreneurship at Communities Unlimited.

At the same time, rural communities are also providing opportunities for new residents. Depew says for more than a decade that’s been driven by employment opportunities in meat packing, construction, and hospitality, but now, it’s expanded well beyond that. Immigrants have found employment and community in rural America, while also contributing to the startup rate. Kauffman Foundation research shows that immigrants are twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born Americans.

Rural America today is likely different than the archetype some people might expect. That also means that what rural economies and communities need is different as well. Understanding around that is vitally important for federal, state, and local policy – especially as it grapples with perceptions around a rural/urban divide.

Matt Dunne, founder and executive director of the Center on Rural Innovation, says the first thing any policymaker should do is talk with rural leaders – who are keenly aware of the narrative around rural America.

“I think some of the distrust that’s emerged in our country has been the cognitive dissonance between what largely urban media sources are saying are going on and what people in rural America are seeing as a reality in their day-to-day lives,” Dunne says. “The economic divide is a real one. This is why we emphasize doing the intensive research that we do.”

Data can help people see the divide. He says the jobs that pay the best and provide greatest economic mobility opportunities are not present in most rural places. Dunne says data also helps in communicating the impact of entrepreneurship.

“We used the research that Kauffman did several years ago about how rural America had seen a particularly steep decline in entrepreneurship in the 30 years before 2008,” he says. “We bring the data, and we bring the information, and we work hard in making sure that we’re partnering with others to get that message out there. There is a divide, it’s addressable, and there are rural leaders ready to take it on if they are given the chance.”

Depew isn’t a fan of the urban/rural divide narrative. He feels it often generalizes or distracts from an important conversation. He feels it can get it the way in the policymaking space.

“If we’re thinking about an economic divide or communities that are left behind, the type of investments and actions that we need from policymakers are strikingly similar for communities that are left behind whether those are urban communities that are left behind or rural communities that are left behind and finding those commonalities in the policymaking process could be one potential way to get through that question.”