Abstract:
Rural communities will continue to be disproportionately shocked by
economic fluctuations. Market forces are likely to lead to the decline of
many rural communities and they will need to be economically resilient to
survive.
This thesis draws on several social sciences and the natural
sciences to develop ideas that communities can use to respond effectively
to economic shocks. Specifically, it uses concepts from Douglas North
(institutions, organizations and entrepreneurs), A. 0. Hirschman (exit, voice
and loyalty), Emery Castle (rural capital) and others to develop a definition
of economic resilience and consider how organizations in rural communities
may affect economic resilience. It provides an example of how input-output
analysis can be used to compare the impacts of a hypothetical shock under
two simulated community response scenarios.
Findings of this work include:
1) Resilience and keystone species are two of many concepts
developed by the natural sciences that can be adapted to the social
sciences to help explain and predict the dynamics of economic
change.
2) Organizations, in this simulation, significantly reinforced individual
efforts to return to equilibrium after a shock.
3) Institutions, primarily informal ones, will determine the latitude
that organizations have to build economic resilience in rural
communities.
This thesis has shown, within the context of a hypothetical shock and
simulated scenarios, that effective organizations, which take responsibility
for maintaining community resources and processes, can significantly
improve economic resilience.
