ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure (ESI), a whole ecosystem approach, building on the concept of social infrastructure, is a basis of community level innovation. ESI does not just increase income, although it can mean better distribution of resources within the community. ESI provides the context for innovation by community members individually and collectively. ESI can result in healthy local ecosystems, economic security for all community members, and social inclusion of diverse community members in horizontal and vertical networks, mobilization of resources, and legitimization of alternatives when seeking innovations to enhance the common good. ESI sees the rural community as a system, based on interactions, rather than simply the sum of the individuals and separate resources in a physical location. In this chapter, we will use Buena Vista County, Iowa, as an example of ESI in practice. The county’s population peaked at 20,622 in 2014. In 2020 its population was estimated to be 19,418. Storm Lake is Buena Vista County’s largest community and county seat, with a population of 10,166 in 2020. There are nine other cities in Buena Vista County, which are divided into 20 townships. Buena Vista is an agricultural county, with row crops and animal agriculture. It was hit hard by the 2020 drought and designated as a Primary Natural Disaster Area, with farmers with crop losses eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency emergency loans.
