Addressing the Issues of Today

through Multi-faceted Research

As an interdisciplinary social science department, CLD focuses its multifaceted research on a wide variety of contemporary social issues. However, the Department has identified seven general strands or foci of CLD research and this discussion is organized around them. They include (1) Community/Organizational Development, (2) Social Inequalities, (3) Agri-Food Systems, (4) Community Communication, (5) Youth Leadership, (6) Teacher Preparation and Mentoring, and (7) Issues in Higher Education. 

It is important to note that the faculty are particularly adept at employing innovative approaches to research through community-based research, public scholarship (research for action), collaborative research (multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, community partners), and engaging graduate and undergraduate students in the process of research (statewide survey).   

Community/Organizational Development 

Dr. Garkovich’s research is in two primary areas - farm family/community change and community-based action research. Farm family/community change explores the nature, causes and consequences of change within farm families and farm-dependent communities. Most recently, she has been involved in a longitudinal study of the persistence of work among older farmers. This study highlights how farmers define “healthy enough to farm” and their perceptions of retirement and their opportunities to retire. The persistence of farm work, including tobacco production, is important for defining the character of Kentucky’s agricultural future. 

Community-based action research produces research-based information that can be incorporated into community change efforts. These are initiated by groups within the community and require considerable community participation in the formulation of the research process, the collection of the data and the implementation of action recommendations. As a result of this approach, community members gain skills as facilitators, gain an understanding of the research process, and strengthen their leadership skills. Examples include: a survey of rural and urban property owners in Shelby County as to their perspectives on agricultural land preservation; a survey of property owners in Garrard County on issues confronting the community and action options; and 12 (planned or completed) county visioning processes. 

Focusing on the key role that entrepreneurship has in community development, Dr. Hustedde’s work directing the Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute has provided the infrastructure for research on current trends, practices and policies relating to entrepreneurial efforts in Northeastern Kentucky.  He is currently developing case studies about 10 team initiatives which have arisen from the Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute.  These studies focus on lessons learned and applications for other rural areas of the country.  Dr. Hustedde is also publishing and refining his insights about theory in the areas of entrepreneurial culture and community development.   

In 2006 Dr. Dyk, as the new Director of the Center for Leadership Development, initiated a line of research focusing on leadership development programs to investigate the extent to which they enhance individual, social or community capital.  This study of Kentucky directors and alumni of community-based leadership programs is being designed to address the question:  How are individual leadership characteristics, civic engagement and/or community development enhanced by participation in small group leadership development programs?  Results will provide insights into the benefits and impacts of participation to individuals, groups, and communities as well as the extent to which participants are better prepared to lead in a global society.  The Ohio State University’s LEAD evaluation documents will be utilized through collaboration with the OSU Leadership Center.  Findings will be used to guide future programming efforts in the Commonwealth through the Center for Leadership Development. 

Notably, faculty within the department often engage in applied research projects that are responsive to particular needs within the state. As an example, for the UK College of Agriculture Equine Initiative Dr. Garkovich conducted seven focus group listening sessions around the state to gain information on how people view the University’s equine-related programs and what they identified as critical issues that the University needs to address.  She is also currently managing “In Kentucky, Horses Count!” a collaborative effort to develop a method for a more comprehensive count through survey data of the number of horses in Kentucky by county. 

In addition, Dr. Maurer’s research related activity falls into the category of community/organizational development.  All of his research is applied and is part of his extension program.  These research activities include the Business Retention and Expansion Program, extension program evaluation studies, and survey consultation.                       

The Business Retention and Expansion Program is a community-based research project in which community or county volunteers survey existing businesses about what it’s like to do business locally.  Along with Dr. Gae Broadwater, Kentucky State University, Dr. Maurer helps organize a local committee and a project plan, train volunteer interviewers, analyze survey results, and write a final report that includes recommendations for action.  He often helps extension agents and specialists, and other agency personnel, collect data and write reports for program evaluation.  Recent examples are the county extension fine arts program in Pike County and an evaluation of the Kentucky Purchase of Agriculture Easements program.  He assists many organizations and agencies with developing survey instruments, planning survey data collection, and writing reports of survey results. In 2006 alone he helped with surveys by the Central Kentucky Ag/Expo Center and the City of Liberty, the Bell County Animal Control Program and Friends of the Animal Shelter, and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and UK Regulatory Services. 

Social Inequalities 

Cutting across both categories of community/organizational development and social inequalities, since 2005 Dr. Harris has been the principal investigator on the project “Universities, Community Based Organizations and Community People Working for Change in the Southern U.S. Black Belt Region.”   This project investigates partnerships between universities and community-based groups in the Black Belt South that have shaped policy to address persistent poverty.  She is also involved in an examination of academic discourses on the Black Belt South from 1950 to the present.  This study is designed to examine the conceptual roadmaps that scholars have used to interpret and explain the dynamics of both change and stagnation, activism and agency within the Black Belt south since the 1950s.  It will focuses on critically examining theoretical explanations about persistent poverty, grassroots mobilizations, and policy debates as they have been applied to the region.

Since 2000 Dr. Dyk has been an integral member (Kentucky PI) of the NC-1011 multi-state, multi-disciplinary project on rural low-income families that has become nationally recognized as a key qualitative/quantitative study of this population. The research team of 45 scholars from 18 states interviewed over 470 rural families to track over time their well-being and ability to participate in the workforce.  With the completion of family interviews in 2003, Dr. Dyk’s work the past two years has focused on data analyses of the interactions between welfare policy, community infrastructure, individual and family circumstances, functioning, and well-being that affect the ability of families to participate in the workforce.

Building on two previous books with Olaf F. Larson (Cornell University), Dr. Zimmerman is researching the unique role of rural sociology in documenting the lives of rural women in the early decades of the 1900s.  In particular, this book examines the process by which the inclusion of farm women in early rural sociological research came about.  Using concepts from feminist theory, the analysis examines the impact of gendered notions of work as they encountered the contradiction posed by the gap between an urban middle class ideal and the realities of rural women's lives, as well as the concomitant rise of home economics as the ‘intellectual home' for the study of women's work.   

Dr. Zimmerman research activities include partnering with Cooperative Extension Service agents.  The Rural Price Project examines geographic differences in the cost of living using local prices for a commonly-used market basket of goods and services that is comparable with a widely-used national market basket (ACCRA) and contextual factors such as distance and access.  Specifically, the project examines the question: If a resident made the same purchases in an urban and a rural area, would they encounter the same prices? 

Dr. Burmeister’s research focuses on many of the external forces buffeting the rural/agricultural sectors in the U.S. and abroad that stem from globalization dynamics (e.g., changes in the international trade regime, increased volume and volatility of international capital flows, international labor migration). Current research projects focusing on U.S. and East Asian rural/agricultural sector restructuring and policy adjustment deal directly or indirectly with globalization dynamics.  

Dr. Tanaka's concern has been how scientific knowledge is used to establish and implement governmental policy, regulations, and programs. Over the last six years, through partnerships with scholars and leaders of diverse organizations, she has established viable research programs in food safety, sustainability, and biotechnology. She has received $419,431 from external grants and $11,372 in internal grants as Principal Investigator (PI), Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI), Principal Supervisor, or Team Member to support her research and outreach activities including those from the NSF and USDA. Dr. Tanaka conducted Lexington Community Food Assessment with her colleague and graduate students in Sociology. Their research report reveals that food access is unevenly distributed in Lexington-Fayette. In particular, that low-income neighborhoods lack access to quality food. Community Food Assessment Report 2004-2007.

Her research program in sustainability facilitated the recent effort by the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program to increase support for social science research. Her expertise in the social dimension of biotechnology is used to enrich the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service 4-H Youth Development Program in biotechnology education. Results of her research program in food safety are published both in English and Japanese. 

Over the past four years, Dr. King’s research focused on the SARE training grants.  Much of this work evolved around value-added alternative agricultural opportunities in economically challenged audiences and agricultural regions.  Projects included helping to establish over twelve community kitchen incubators for creating value-added fruit and vegetable products, niche products in small ruminant animals and new ways to promote agricultural products. Her interests also included women and small business owners and women in agriculture and their context in the community setting.  During 2006, while on sabbatical leave and prior to her death, she examined the “culture of community” in sustainable agriculture. 

Since joining the faculty in 2006, Dr. Nah’s research activities have focused on three projects. The first project examines how community structural features and social capital can influence the adoption and use of new communication technologies by community organizations such as farmers’ markets in the U.S. The second project explores how the Internet contributes to citizen journalism in Kentucky, by which citizens become reporters to cover community issues and problems through their perspectives and experiences. (Dr. Nah is the PI on a proposal currently under consideration by the Knight Foundation 21^st Century News Challenge which would fund the Kentucky Citizen Media Project.) The third project investigates how community structural pluralism and organizational features of news organizations lead to community newspapers’ use of interactive features and discussion functions through their news Websites in Kentucky, which will be expanded into national level in the future. 

These research activities at the macro and meso levels will enrich the previous studies regarding how local community structure can influence the use of new communication technologies by community organizations which include, but are not limited to, news media organizations and farmers’ markets. As such, these research programs will contribute to understanding the roles of media in community processes not only in the Commonwealth but also in the U. S. 

Dr. Nah is currently involved in the 2007 Kentucky Communities Survey initiated by CLD. Through the survey, he will examine citizens’ news media uses and their effects on social capital formation such as trust and civic engagement in Kentucky. Furthermore, he will investigate the geographical gap between urban and rural communities in terms of civic media infrastructure. 

Dr.Weckman’s research activities also include working on the omnibus state survey.  One section of this survey addresses the influence of mass media usage on individual beliefs about the level of social capital in their community. This data will be made available to graduate students for use in their theses.  Dr. Weckman is also working with a graduate student who is addressing the question: who is allowed to speak for agriculture in the elite media. (Elite media include those media of national stature that tend to set tone, direction and amount of discussion of a topic at regional and local media. Elite media include New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc.) 

Dr. Witham’s research efforts have been focused on images of farm safety in the media. She collaborated with a colleague in the College of Nursing on a grant from the National Children’s Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.

Finally, Dr. Hansen is engaged in research which examines how community media, particularly newspapers, contribute to community reflection, understanding, and progress. In addition, he has collaborated with faculty from the College of Communication and Information Systems on an NIMH-funded project which examined how prevention messages can be tailored to rural youth who are high sensation seekers and impulsive decision makers as well as the effects of a computer-based prevention intervention. He also is using the case of media coverage of a 2006 study of music videos and teen sexual behavior to examine how media frame social science work to conform to the on-going “culture war” between cultural modernists and traditionalists.  

Dr. Jones’s research employs quantitative and qualitative methods that aim to address specific issues affecting youth-serving practitioners. His research interests focus on youth in community-based leadership roles, which includes assessing youth-adult relationships within community contexts, understanding the role of youth-adult partnerships in nurturing youth leadership, positive youth development, and theoretical approaches to community youth development.  To further his investigations he has received funding from USDA for the “Engaging Youth, Serving Communities Initiative.” This project examines the experiences of youth and adults working together to promote community change; Assessing the changes in attitudes (of youth and adults) toward youth leadership and adult support.  He is also involved with the “Youth In Governance Initiative,” a national collaboration with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin investigating the influence of youth civic engagement and youth social networks within local communities.  

In collaboration with LeaderNext (The Rutherford Learning Group) and Kenton County School District, Dr. Dyk has launched the “LeaderNext Youth Leadership Development” study.  This project examines how enhancing high school students’ leadership skills develops youth as individuals and impacts their school and community involvement. Through school-based surveys as well as focus groups with youth, parents, and community stakeholders, this research will examine youth-adult partnerships and youth community engagement. Dr. Jones’ expertise will play a significant role in the project as well. 

Drs. Horstmeier, Nall and Rennekamp (left UK in 2005) have been investigating leadership for rural youth in a national study funded by National FFA.  The research project described the leadership activities of rural FFA members, the role of youth-adult interactions in those activities and the context of the activity as it develops leadership skills.  This project has impacted National FFA staff, State FFA leaders and school educators as they design and implement a leadership program for members of the FFA organization.