شبکه دهکده ™: مشارکت و همکاری برای کاهش فقر در بازار امرار معاش

The Village Network is a unique model of poverty alleviation involving the collaboration of a host subsistence market community and a nonprofit organization, typically a university, with a multidisciplinary academic module. All parties in this partnership stand to gain from collaboration. The subsistence market benefits from the skill set and labor provided by the university. The university benefits by placing their students in a position to apply theory guided by the social and economic development experience and insights of the indigenous village leadership. The coordinating organization improves relationships and fosters growth in developing communities. The discussion then focuses on insights about subsistence marketplaces that emerge from this initiative.

An elementary student in rural Belize not only eats her own garden peppers but also sells them to the local hot sauce manufacturer. She is aided in this effort by students from the University of Arkansas, who are there with the Peacework Village Network. The peppers were grown with the assistance of engineering students who guided her in the development of an irrigation system, education students who taught her key terminology to bring her product to market, and marketing students who collaborated with her to negotiate the contract. The Village Network is a model of learning and catalyst for development in a subsistence market environment. Offering a comprehensive, integrated approach to community and student development, the Village Network program creates partnerships for faculty and students across disciplines with an entire developing community. A learning institution can create an essential development resource for alleviating poverty as well as a valuable opportunity for students and faculty to explore their role in the global economy by applying business theory in emerging subsistence economies (Andrews, 2007). This learning model draws from theory and uses the fundamentals of business skill development to benefit both the developing community and the academic participants involved. Peacework, a nonprofit development organization that provides cultural expertise and facilitates local relationships as well as infrastructure and logistical aid, implements this program. Peacework's effective and sustainable projects help to alleviate poverty and economic disparity through the partnering of a subsistence community with an academic, corporate, or community entity that has the necessary resources and expertise, such as a university, and where local community leaders have the capacity and commitment to implement a shared vision. These innovative partnerships promote the strategic application of educational, financial, professional, technical, and human resources across cultures. Helping to alleviate poverty, these partnerships also build bridges across international barriers and foster equality and human rights. The sections that follow discuss the Peacework organization, the Village Network concept, the pilot research program with the University of Arkansas in Belize, insights about the value of working beyond the traditional classroom in subsistence marketplaces, strengths and weaknesses of the pilot program, recommendations, and concluding remarks.

The Village Network model takes theory beyond conceptual limitations. Students and faculty apply their science or craft in subsistence marketplaces while learning from local citizenry. The focus is thereby shifted from a paternalistic helping-hands approach with limited sustainability to a shared experience by all parties with synergistic, strategic outcomes. The key components are the multidisciplinary involvement of a university and an integrated strategy to create programs in a developing community that address problems of poverty and disparity. This integrative approach is a leap beyond traditional academic service models by engaging the citizenry of subsistence markets and with university students in strategic planning and leadership. Working in a cross-cultural environment in which they feel empowered to truly effect social change, students take ownership in their activities and realize the importance of their efforts. This has inspired a level of energy and passion that faculty rarely witness. Students putting their skills into action make a difference in a developing community, and the skill sets developed in this type of environment may grow more effective cross-national market leaders. And through partnerships with leaders and citizens in a developing community, students enrich their own lives as they are enriching the lives of others. The proud smile of the little girl from Pomona who sells her school garden's peppers to the local hot sauce manufacturer exemplifies the Belize experience for each university participant. Improving, replicating, and expanding programs like the UA Peacework Village Network Pomona pepper garden has the potential to promote relationships, improve living standards, and advance international learning in subsistence marketplaces and campuses around the world.