Resource Transformation Through Capitalization
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RESOURCE TRANSFORMATION THROUGH CAPITALIZATION PROCESSES IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT A DISSERTATION IN Economics & Social Sciences Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by JONATHAN DAVID RAMSE B.A., Wartburg College, 2007 M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2014 Kansas City, Missouri 2019 © 2019 JONATHAN DAVID RAMSE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED RESOURCE TRANSFORMATION THROUGH CAPITALIZATION PROCESSES IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Jonathan David Ramse, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2019 ABSTRACT This dissertation presents a critical institutionalist theory of resource transformation through capitalization processes in the context of community economic development. The arguments are presented through three articles. The first chapter is introductory and provides a synthesis of the main arguments in the articles that follow. The first article (Chapter II) provides a brief conceptual history of the term ‘capital’ and continues by articulating a capital as process. The Community Capitals Framework provides several insights that shape the conception of resources and their use in the context of community economic development. A metatheoretic framework is developed in which emergent resource capitalization processes are seen as a social relation through which agents, constrained and enabled by both resource structures and cultural systems, pursue their development agendas by utilizing those resources they have access to in order to transform them into resources they desire. iii The second article (Chapter III) seeks to identify a set of processional properties associated with capitalization processes. The eight properties are identified as: transformation capacity, temporality, cultural embeddedness, expected future yield, identifiability, flexibility, reliability, and variability/conditionality. This set of properties serve as a vocabulary by which diverse capitalization processes are analyzed and employed. Establishing a clear distinction between a community’s resources and the processes involved in capitalizing them requires non-conflationary properties associated with each. The final article (Chapter IV) serves as an application of the framework developed in the first two articles by developing a theory of resource transformation through capitalization processes in community development. This theory is evaluated by conducting a case study of the establishment of the Ithaca HOURS initiative in Ithaca, NY, during the early 1990s. This community-led initiative established a community currency, Ithaca HOURS, in order to stimulate local economic activity. iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies have examined a dissertation titled “Resource Transformation Through Capitalization Processes in Community Economic Development,” presented by Jonathan D. Ramse, candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Linwood Tauheed, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of Economics Mathew Forstater, Ph.D. Department of Economics Peter Eaton, Ph.D. Department of Economics Douglas Bowles, Ph.D. Social Science Consortium Stephen Jeanetta, Ph.D. Rural Sociology v CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................................v ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................................ ix TABLES ..............................................................................................................................x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2. THE EMERGENCE OF COMMUNITY CAPITALS ..................................................8 What is capital? ..............................................................................................................9 The Community Capitals Framework ..........................................................................22 The Emergence of Capital ...........................................................................................25 Nature and the emergence of natural resources .....................................................29 Emergence of natural capital .................................................................................33 Emergence of built resources .................................................................................34 Emergence of built capital .....................................................................................36 Emergence of social resources ...............................................................................36 Emergence of social capital ...................................................................................39 Emergence of cultural resources ............................................................................39 Emergence of cultural capital ................................................................................44 Emergence of political resources ...........................................................................44 Emergence of political capital ...............................................................................46 vi Emergence of financial resources ..........................................................................44 Emergence of financial capital...............................................................................49 Co-emergence of human capital with human resources ........................................52 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................57 3. THE PROCESSIONAL PROPERTIES OF CAPITALIZATION ..............................59 Conflationary Properties of Capital .............................................................................60 The Processional Properties of Capital ........................................................................64 Transformability ....................................................................................................67 Temporality ............................................................................................................70 Cultural embeddedness ..........................................................................................73 Expected future yield .............................................................................................75 Identifiability..........................................................................................................78 Flexibility ...............................................................................................................80 Reliability ...............................................................................................................81 Variability and conditionality ................................................................................84 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................87 4. RESOURCE TRANSFORMATION THROUGH CAPITALIZATION: AN ITHACA HOURS CASE STUDY ..............................................................................................89 Community Capitals Framework .................................................................................90 Resource transformation in participatory development ...............................................97 Case Study: Ithaca HOURS and the creation of financial resources .........................102 Conclusion .................................................................................................................117 Appendix vii A. Ithaca HOURS Transactions Table ........................................................................120 B. Five Months in the Life of an HOUR ....................................................................135 REFERENCE LIST .........................................................................................................136 VITA ................................................................................................................................146 viii ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Community Capitals ...................................................................................................... 24 2. Critical Institutionalist Model ........................................................................................ 28 3. Emergence of Natural Resources ................................................................................... 31 4. The Emergence of Natural Resources through knowledge ............................................ 33 5. Emergence of Natural Capital........................................................................................ 34 6. Emergence of Social Capital ......................................................................................... 38 7. Emergence of Cultural Resources through exchange ..................................................... 43 8. Emergence of Political Resources