I am an expert on community economic development (CED) and hybrid enterprise. I focus on these two areas because economic systems, the health of our democracy, and the wellbeing of everyday people are inextricably entangled. I believe that

3. Everyday people should have the essential resources and tools necessary to improve their economic livelihoods on their own terms, and;
4. The types of institutions we build and leverage for economic development should be structured to bring out the best in individuals and our communities. 

CED programming should be about enhancing democratic performance in that the programming should seek to advance institutions for collective action. Classic liberalism is based on a three legged stool of markets, state, and civil society. The role of the diversity of institutional forms are often obscured in the way they shape socio-economic outcomes. Each institutional form -whether it be the government or a corporation- structures our actions and outcomes. On issues of economic governance, it matters who controls the provision and procurement of good and services.

My work builds on one of Elinor Ostrom’s key lessons: we must look for solutions beyond just markets and just the state. If society is comprised of a three-legged stool, then it becomes evident that civil society has been widely dismissed in the public discourse, public policy, and in academia.

The inordinate attention given to big government and big business has resulted in a massive gap in our understanding of the constitution of a robust democracy by dismissing the important contributions and moderating role of civil society. Scholars in the classical liberal tradition believe strongly in the need for a robust civil society, to serve as incubators, laboratories, and classrooms of democracy and public entrepreneurship, and also as a counter to both markets run amok, and government accountability. Ostrom’s was concerned with

• Overreliance on singular institutional forms and the likelihood this “institutional monocropping” would make society susceptible to a contagion, such as a singular economic or political crisis.
• The ever-diminishing institutions for collective action (such as the descrease in school districts through consolidation), which negatively impinge
  • citizen capabilities around public entrepreneurship
  • the delivery of key public goods and services
  • the capacity for marginalized communities to break dependencies and engender self-help institutions, and even
  • the necessary collective action skills transferable to market and state institutions.

My programming takes seriously the need to go beyond the market-state dichotomy, and develop a toolbox of institutional forms. These “hybrid institutions” sit between market and state entities, and are comprised of a range of entity types: co-ops; buying groups; B-corps; Employee/Consumer Stockholder Ownership Plans (ESOPs and CSOPs); Nonprofits; Associations, and; Government-sponsored enterprise.

My research is appreciative, seeking to inspire community action developing new institutions and enhancing those organizations vital for communities to

thrive. While I leverage so-called critical studies to better understand the structural and

actor challenges facing my stakeholders, my work is solutions-oriented.

I directly engage with and leverage leaders in hybrid organizations, identifying “what works” innovations from case studies, providing innovative strategies and insights into overcoming vexing social dilemmas. While I work with all hybrid enterprise, I specialize in co-operatives, whose long enduring history and entrepreneurship provides a breadth of insights on issues of relevance to hybrid enterprise and equitable CED outcomes.

We need to integrate civil society by asking what are the supports necessary to advance civil society institutions? My CED programming extends from the UC Davis campus to the UCANR Cooperative Extension system (we call it the CED Lab), and throughout the U.S. utilizing USDA NIFA’s Regional Development Centers (RDC). This directly connects to UC Davis’s Grand Challenges, Reimagining the Land Grant System by Reimagining Cooperative Extension’s role. I am on a quest to identify

• Market and state alternatives and competitors
• Entrepreneurial support infrastructure, enabling
  • Public entrepreneurship of such enterprise, and
  • Infrastructure needed to support public entrepreneurs and their institutional development (such as policies, practices, and capital uniquely tailored to hybrids).

First, the CED Lab is leveraging UCANR’s recent growth in CED to further this unique orientation around economic development. While UCANR does not reject traditional approaches to economic development, we are instead adding tools to the CED toolbox, and disseminating them nationally through the RDCs.

Second, we work closely with hybrid institutions to understand how their usefulness in

CED, how they scaled, and what their ESI resources are, and the needs outstanding. We

then take these findings to inform the programming as a whole (one such program is with

the University of Minnesota’s Gabe Chan, called the Electric Cooperative Innovation Center or ECIC).

Third, we seek to get actively involved by working directly with public entrepreneurs in key CED areas. Toward that end, we have prioritized

• Utilities Extension, where we are bringing our work from ECIC to bear on California’s energy needs, as well as taking innovations from the electric co-ops to assist with broadband deployment.
• Workforce Extension, focusing specifically on permanently affordable workforce housing by further the concept of a public benefit company.

More recently, we have moved into a new agrifoods initiative, targeted at assisting the “Forgotten Scale” of small and medium ag and food producers through our

• Scaling Local Initiative.

These efforts are being coordinated under a startup Center we are calling The Center for Triple Bottom Line Entrepreneurship (more forthcoming).

I believe these stakeholder-oriented institutions will serve historically disadvantaged communities, and provide them with networks and resources to actively engage with markets and government. And most importantly, we believe this is a strong way to demonstrate the classic land grant’s value proposition to the state by reimagining the way the University can meaningfully engage society.

 

My Cooperative Extension educational work seeks to inspire communities to act in cultivating their individual capabilities, developing these institutions, and enhancing those organizations vital for individuals and communities to thrive. To that end, I am an expert in:

• Community Economic Development policies and practices;
• Hybrid or triple bottom line enterprise;
• The governance and management of communities and hybrid enterprise.

I call myself The Peoples’ Professor since I bring the UC’s renowned classroom experience directly to California communities and stakeholders, translating evidence-based social science to bitesize practices for everyday people. I co-create directly with stakeholders (public entrepreneurs, economic developers, and business development interests), leveraging agile approaches to strategic planning and connection to real-world resources (in the form of practitioners, knowledge, and networks) for rapid implementation.

 

I am originally from rural Central Illinois. Prior to joining U.C. Davis, I was a Research Associate at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop. I hold a Ph.D. in Human and Community Development and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Illinois and am a proud graduate of Lake Land Community College. Previously, I have worked in public policy as a Legislative Aide for a Member of Congress, consulted in business strategy and economic and international development, and engaged in board development and facilitation around strategic planning. As a first generation PhD and professor, I feel an enormous social responsibility to make social science work to empower the kinds of community I grew up in.

Hansmann, Henry, 2001. “The Ownership of Enterprise.”

Ostrom, Elinor. 2010. "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems." American Economic Review, 100 (3): 641-72.

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