Planning Faculty Win Contract to Analyze Rural Development Initiative

University of Cincinnati School of Planning faculty

Beth Walter Honadle

, professor of planning; Chris Auffrey, associate professor of planning; Johanna Looye, associate professor of planning; associate professor of planning; Rainer vom Hofe, associate professor of planning; and

Marisa Zapata

, assistant professor of planning, recently wrote a winning proposal to conduct an external evaluation of the Stronger Economies Together (SET) Initiative of the United States Department of Agriculture.

In doing so, the UC team is the subcontractor to the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University.

According to Honadle who will serve as principal investigator, UC’s School of Planning was invited to apply for the $100,000 contract – the invitation serving as recognition of the school’s outstanding work.

“Basically,” she explained, “we will be evaluating federal programs that seek to build economic development capacity and development in rural areas throughout the United States. We’ll be seeking to answer the question: Does regionalism really work? We’ll be looking at outcomes and outputs to date, and our analysis will be used to guide future efforts.”

The UC evaluation will consist of site visits to rural areas and surveys as well as analysis of social networks, economics and institutions within these regions, looking for best practices and possible areas for improvement. The team will complete its work by December 2012.