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What's the role of small communities in shaping our New Economy?

Recent conferences in Louisville and Lexington focused on the new economy – defined by its dependence on brainpower and the highly-educated and technically-trained workers who will drive the economic engine.

Some conversations focused on the “high” end of the high tech world we’re all struggling to create, the emphasis being on moving the state’s universities closer to the cutting edge of research and technological development. Other sessions had an air of front-line practicality, sharing insights with local officials on how to build business incubators in rural communities. Still others explored linking good ideas for new businesses with the venture capital needed to grow them.

Tying it all together in a single statewide agenda is proving to be a challenging task, to say the least.

Meanwhile, as Kentucky conferees pondered a revved-up future, the out-of-town experts were delivering some mixed reviews. A Washington think tank gave Kentucky’s economy low marks – lower even than last year’s dismal measurements. A murmured message in the report was that the state’s “unsuccessful” places continue to pull down its hotter growth areas. (There was no direct analogy drawn to the struggles of bright kids who have to put up with the less-talented students in the classroom. Still, coming quickly to mind were the mega-success stories that were eventually written by those less-talented kids.)

Yes, despite the positive high-tech buzz in Louisville, much of Kentucky continues to struggle to find its place in this new world. And the target keeps moving, keeps changing. It was the new economy, then the new, new economy, and now the new, old economy is returning with strange new configurations. It’s as though some things never change while things are changing in fundamental ways. Ironies and paradoxes abound.

What is the lesson for Kentucky – or, for that matter, cities located in the nation’s heartland that are neither mega-sized nor located close to a huge population center?

If nothing else, we should learn this: The so-called new economy is very much in its infancy and anyone claiming the ability to predict its course is either blowing smoke or smoking something other than a legal cash crop.

The challenge will be to move steadily forward toward prosperity without veering to and fro as the shifts start to resemble an economic pinball game. At least we have some experience in not acting too quickly. One example comes quickly to mind: our clinging to the tobacco plant as representative of the agrarian way of life we value so highly when the crop’s economic demise so clearly threatens that lifestyle.

And then, moving as a state to industrialization and holding tightly to the notion that the number of jobs is more important than the quality of jobs. True and untrue at the same time, it is a reality that threatens to quash local initiative even as its provides much-needed work for so many people.

Perhaps it is healthy that the global economy is now being viewed with the suspicion that it is just a modern version of the absentee-owner, extraction-based economy that has shaped Kentucky’s history.
Could the future hold the revelation that those places written off as unsuccessful today will actually become the centers of tomorrow’s progress?

Clearly we need to listen to outsiders more, as well as to smart insiders, but we’re not required to nod our heads in ready agreement in the face of so-called expert opinion. Can’t we develop a uniquely Kentucky way to enter this brave new world with an agenda that allows the success of one place to fuel the success of another? Shouldn’t there be hope for smaller places?

There are many other “happening” places in Kentucky – Harlan, a community that has started redefining what it wants to be in the 21st century; Bowling Green, bursting at the seams with activity under the leadership of a bright new mayor; Russellville and Todd and Logan counties, leading the way with regional planning on water needs. The list goes on.

Increasingly, successful places are characterized by strong elected and civic leadership that recognizes the value of regional thinking. The foundation is here, waiting for us to build on it. Just take a look around!

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