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Minnesota is confronting change. There is more diversity of
income, race, ethnicity, and religion than ever before in the
state’s history. Communities need to draw upon the
resources that diversity affords. Even though diversity
sometimes brings more polarization, resilient communities
should be able to capitalize on their differences in a way
that improves living conditions for everyone in the
community.
Sustainability is a long-term process, requiring attention to
equity, ecosystem, and the economy. For sustainability to
thrive, all three issues must be addressed equally.
Sustainability depends on how communities of interest and
place use their resources. Resources can be consumed and
therefore unavailable to generations of today or tomorrow,
stored and potentially available for future generations, or
invested, which can provide new resources for meeting present
and future needs of all people. When resources are invested
to create new resources, they can be termed "capital."
Sustainability means investing in various forms of capital in
ways that do not deplete other resources.
As we see in the papers in this publication, there are
different forms of capital that resilient communities can
draw upon, and ways of utilizing these forms of capital that
sustain the communities’ resources. Specifically, there
are four forms of capital that seem most essential to the
well-being of healthy communities and people. The papers show
how different forms of capital can be used to enhance - or
deplete - each other.
Forms of Capital
Human capital consists of such individual resources as
education, skills, health, values, and leadership.
Communities see human capital as being sustainable when there
is increasing use of the skills, talents, and knowledge of
local citizens. Investing in human capital includes
identifying local skills, talents, and knowledge, enhancing
them, and recombining and using them in the community
context. Investing in one type of human capital - early
literacy training for teachers and parents - can increase
both the human capital of the next generation and the
financial capital of the community, as Ginsburg-Block and
Casey demonstrate.
Social capital consists of mutual trust, reciprocity, a sense
of a shared future, and collective action. Social capital, as
I use it, is a property of communities of interest and place.
Our research with communities found two major areas of
sustainability that are related to social capital:
strengthened relationships and communication, and improved
community initiative, responsibility, and adaptability.
Strengthened relationships and communications include
increased interactions among unlikely groups within the
community, increased interactions among unlikely groups
outside the community, and increased availability of
information and knowledge. Ziebarth and Hwang show that when
these groups do not come together, housing development can
focus only on maintaining an ideal middle-class community
appearance, and cause real hardship on low-income individuals
who form a vital part of the community economy. Davidoff et
al. show how attention to human capital of excluded groups
within the population - in this case, Latinos - can increase
social capital and community financial capital.
Improved community initiative, responsibility, and
adaptability includes a shared vision, building first on
internal resources, looking for alternative ways to respond
to constant changes, and loss of the "victim" mentality.
Fennelly et al. stress the importance of coordination and
partnerships among agencies and local communities (social
capital) to integrate new immigrants in Minnesota communities
by building human capital and financial capital.
A critical aspect of social capital for sustainable
communities is the increased sense of personal ways of
effecting change, which is related to quality of life.
Instead of the traditional response to change of "If only
someone would...", communities with high levels of social
capital are much more likely to say "We can...".
Masten’s discussion of children at risk shows how
social capital can contribute to human capital to instill
resilience in children at risk. She also shows the importance
of the multiple forms of human and social capital to enhance
each other.
Natural capital consists of air quality, water quality and
quantity, soil quality and quantity, biodiversity, landscape,
and ecological knowledge. A healthy ecosystem with multiple
community benefits is critical to community sustainability.
We operationalize sustainable, healthy ecosystems with
multiple community benefits through three major general sets
of indicators:
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Human communities plan and act in concert with natural
systems;
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Ecosystems are used for multiple community benefits;
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Those with alternative uses of the ecosystems seek common
ground.
Peters et al. show how the Regional Agriculture and Natural
Resources Sustainable Development Partnerships build social
capital to enhance natural capital and how the public work
resulting from social capital enhances financial, built, and
human capital. Financial capital includes debt capital,
investment capital, taxes (and tax relief), and grants.
Financial capital is important for sustainability because it
allows for the creation of built capital. Built capital
includes such things as barns, sewer systems, factories,
housing, farm machinery, and chemical inputs.
Financial capital is sustainable when localities have an
appropriately diverse and healthy economy. Four aspects and
ways to measure them include: reduced poverty, increased firm
efficiency, increased firm diversity, and increased assets of
community members. Kriz et al. present an important mechanism
of using social capital to generate equity financial capital
to increase the business sustainability of rural Minnesota.
Stone et al. demonstrate the importance of social capital in
impacting positively community human capital and financial
capital through youth run enterprises.
Working toward community resiliency and sustainability
requires a collective vision of the future. Peters et al.
explain how the Sustainable Development Partnerships increase
and sharpen a vision of sustainability. By providing a venue
in which all citizens can participate, social capital can
enhance all forms of capital in Minnesota communities.
Yet social capital is not always considered part of the
equation when making public policy. The new transaction cost
economics suggest how important it can be to make firms
competitive. And local participation has been shown to be
critical in environmental protection. Schools in communities
with high levels of social capital have higher graduation
rates than schools with a similar socioeconomic mix with low
levels of social capital.
The secret of resilient communities, as with resilient
children, is to understand that there is no single way to
success and sustainability. The rapid changes of
globalization require strong communities. Investment in all
community capitals - and understanding the balance and
trade-offs among them - is critical. These investments need
not be large, but should be balanced. The challenge for
Minnesota in the face of change is to maintain and enhance
social capital so that all the other forms of capital can be
enhanced.
Cornelia Butler Flora
Director
North Central Regional Center for
Rural Development, Iowa State University
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