M. Anne Visser, Ph.D.

Professor of Community and Regional Development - Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis

May 15, 2024 /

I am an interdisciplinary public policy scholar and Professor of Community and Regional Development in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis. My work centers on a single question: when major economic and technological shifts arrive, why do they so often happen to communities and regions rather than with them — and what planning and policy tools can change that?

This is the study of economic transition governance, and it shapes everything I do. Economic “shocks” — natural disasters, downturns, and waves of technological change — rarely fall evenly. They reward some workers, firms, and regions while leaving others stranded, and the difference frequently comes down to how the transition is designed and governed, as well as the adaptive capacity and innovative capacity of the region, communities, and industries they touch rather than to the shock itself. My research examines how policy choices determine which operations and communities can navigate structural change and which cannot, and how we might build economic and workforce development systems resilient enough to support recovery and transition in their wake. I have worked in many areas including post-conflict restructuring, urban regions, and international contexts. My current work  focuses primarily in rural and agricultural economies, where these dynamics are especially sharp and especially understudied.

My current projects apply this lens to AgTech, Rural Economic Development and the Digital Agricultural Revolution. Drawing on 10 years of fieldwork across West Coast specialty-crop systems and throughout US agricultural regions I’m tracing the immediate, mid-range, and long-term effects of intelligent and autonomous agricultural robotics and AI on the specialty-crop and fresh-fruit tree-crop sectors in California, Washington, and beyond. The aim is practical: to help the future farm workplace, its labor force, and the institutions that support it and those that depend upon them  prepare for these technologies in ways that improve productivity and deliver equitable outcomes for workers and regions.

Across my career, three commitments anchor this work. Rigor — building empirical, peer-reviewed knowledge in public policy, industrial relations, regional studies, and economic development. Relevance — translating that knowledge into tools policymakers and stakeholders can actually use to make sense of their circumstances and act more strategically. Reach — partnering with government and non-profit leaders to inform policy debates nationally and globally. My research appears in journals including Environmental Policy and Governance, Socio Economic Review, Rural Sociology, and the Journal of Rural Studies, and has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the USDA-NIFA, the U.S. Department of Labor, the State of California, the University of California Office of the President, the Ford Foundation, , the Norwegian Research Council, and the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

For more information on my research or teaching please refer to the Research Projects and Teaching pages.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

September 1, 2017 /

To learn more about any research project please click a link below.

LABOR AND AUTOMATION IN CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE: EQUITY, PRODUCTIVITY AND RESILIENCE

LABOR, AUTOMATION AND AgTECH: PROMOTING EQUITABLE AND PRODUCTIVE LABOR MARKET AND ECONOMIC TRAJECTORIES FOR US AGRICULTURE

ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS, JOB POLARIZATION, AND JOB QUALITY IN THE US

COMING OF AGE IN THE GREAT RECESSION: THE LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION OF OLDER YOUTH IN RURAL AMERICA 

GLOBAL LABOR IN RURAL SOCIETIES

THE DYNAMICS OF THE LOW-WAGE AND INFORMAL LABOR MARKETS IN THE UNITED STATES

THE DYNAMICS OF RURAL POVERTY, LAND USE, AND WATER SUPPLY

SYSTEMIC AND DYNAMIC CHANGE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL DISASTERS

PLATFORMS AND THE FUTURE OF WORK IN DIGITIZED AGRICULTURE

A DECADE LOST: YOUTH ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY IN THE US

POLICY ADOPTION AND DIFFUSION OF MIGRANT LABOR MARKET REGULARIZATIONS

MIGRATION AND THE INFORMAL ECONOMY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Publications

August 28, 2017 /

Refereed Journal Articles

Visser, M.A.. (2026). Economic Transformation in the San Joaquin Valley: The Role of the Circular Bioeconomy. ARE Update. 29(5): 2–4.

Visser, M.A. , J. Pantano, G. Kumetat, and J. Marhenke. 2026. When Policy Is the Hazard: Institutional Legitimacy and Climate Risk Attribution Among Farmers in Water Stressed California Forthcoming in Environmental Policy and Governance 

Visser, M.A. (2025). Pathways for Economic Inclusion?: Community based youth serving organizations, the social economy, and youth economic opportunity in rural America. Geoforum. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104374

Visser, M. A., G. Kumetat, and G. Scott. (2024). Drought, Water Management, and Agricultural Livelihoods: Understanding Human-Ecological System Management and Livelihood Strategies of Farmer’s in Rural California. Journal of Rural Studies. Volume 109,

Scott, S., T. Jakobsen, J.F. Rye, and M.A. Visser. (In Press). Labour Migration, Precarious Work, and Liminality. Forthcoming in Work in the Global Economy.

Simpson, S.A., M.A.Visser, and L. Daly. (In Press). Multi-scalar motivations for immigration politics and Policymaking in US cities . Forthcoming in Cities.

Scott, S. and M.A. Visser. (In Press). Constraining Labour: The integration dynamics of working-class horticultural migrants in rural areas of Norway, the UK and the US. Sociologia Ruralis.

Visser, M.A., J. Mullooly, and P. Campos-Melchor. (In Press). The Strength of Formal Weak Ties: The Vital Role of Formal Institutional Networks for America’s Rural Disconnected Youth. Journal of Rural Studies.

Visser, M.A.,  J. Mullooly, and P. Campos-Melchor. (2021). Diversifying, Transforming, and Last Resorts: The Utilization of Community Based Youth Serving Organizations in the Construction of Livelihood Strategies by Disconnected Youth in Rural America. Journal of Rural Studies. 80: 328-336.

Visser, M.A. and S. Simpson. (2018). Determinants of County Migrant Regularization Policymaking in the US: Understanding Temporal and Spatial Realities.Environment and Planning A. 51(1): pp. 91-111. DOI:10.1177/0308518X18797134.

Visser, M.A.(2018). Care Like Kin: Community Based Youth Organizations and the Social Reproduction of Disconnected Youth in Rural America. Forthcoming  in American Journal of Community Psychology. 61(3-4): pp. 472-287 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12244

Visser, M.A. (2018). Restructuring Opportunity: Employment Change and Job Quality in the US during the Great Recession.  Socio-Economic Review. 17(3): 545-572. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy002

Visser, M.A. (2018). The Color Gradient of Economic Opportunity: Skin Tone Labor Market Segmentation and Economic Opportunity for Puerto Ricans in the US. Forthcoming in  CENTRO Journal.

Visser, M.A. (2018). Beyond Labor Markets and Schools: Community Based Youth Organizations and the Economic Integration of Puerto Rican and Dominican Youth in New York City. CENTRO Journal 30(1): pp. 4-31.

Visser, M.A. and L.E. Guarnizo. (2017). Room for Maneuver: Rethinking the Intersections Between Migration and the Informal Economy in Post-Industrial Economies. Population, Space, and Place. 23(7). DOI: 10.1002/psp.2085

Visser, M.A. (2017). Shedding Light on Economic Opportunity: Skin Tone and Job Quality during the Great Recession. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43(9): 1562-1579.

Visser, M.A. (2016). A Floor to Exploitation? Social Economy Organizations at the Edge of a Restructuring Economy. Work Employment and Society. 31(5): 782-799. DOI:0.1177/0950017016638020.

Visser, M.A. (2016). Reshaping Migrant Labor Market Geographies: Local Regularizations and the Informal Economy. 23(7). Population, Space, and Place DOI: 10.1002/psp.2025.

Visser, M.A., N. Theodore, E.J. Melendez, and A. Valezuela, Jr. (2016). From Economic Integration to Socioeconomic Inclusion: Day Labor Worker Centers as Social Intermediaries. Urban Geography  38(2): 243-265

Melendez, M.A. Visser, N. Theodore, and A. Valenzuela. (2016). Day Laborers’ Work Related Injuries: An Assessment of Risks, Choices, and Policies. International Migration 54(3): 5-19.

Visser, M.A. and E. Melendez. (2015). Working in the New Low Wage Economy: Understanding Participation in Low Wage Employment in the Recessionary Era. WorkingUSA 18 (1): pp. 7-29.

Visser, M.A. and H.R. Cordero-Guzman. (2015). Low Wage Workers and Organizing. WorkingUSA 18(1): pp. 1-6.

Melendez, E., R. Borges-Mendez, M.A. Visser, and A. Rosofsky. (2015). The Restructured Landscape of Economic Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Workforce Development Collaborations. Economic Development Quarterly. 49(2):150-166.

Melendez, E., M.A. Visser, N. Theodore, and A. Valenzuela. (2014). Worker Centers and Day Laborers Wages. Social Science Quarterly. 95(3): 835-851.

Visser, M.A. (2014). Two Plus Two Equals Three: The Cost of the Hispanic Undercount in Government Census Surveys. American Review of Public Administration. 44(2): 233-251.

Servon, L., M.A. Visser, and R. Fairlie. (2011). Estimating the Capital Gap for Small Businesses in New York City.  Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management. 23(4): 451-477.

Visser, M.A. and LJ. Servon. (2011). Progress Hindered: The Retention and Advancement of Females in Science, Engineering and Technology Careers. Human Resources Management Journal. 21(3): 272-284.

Visser, M.A. and E. Melendez. (2011). Puerto Ricans in Low Wage Jobs and Labor Markets: The Issues, Trends and Policies. CENTRO Journal. 23(11): 3-28.

Melendez, E. and M.A. Visser. (2011). Changes in the Structure of Low-Wage Labor Markets and Skills Selectivity among Puerto Rican Migrants. CENTRO Journal. 23(11): 46-61.

Servon, L., M.A. Visser, and R. Fairlie. (2010). The Continuum of Capital for Small and Micro-businesses. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship. 15(3): 301-323.

D’Agostino, M.J. and M.A. Visser. (2010). Administrative Barriers to Youth Civic Engagement,International Public Management Review. 11(3): 88-103.

Visser, M.A. (2007). Surveillance, Infiltration, Threats of Danger: “Contra-vergences” in the Anti-Globalization Movement. Green Theory and Praxis. 3(1): 44-61

Edited Special Issues

Visser, M.A. & L.E. Guarnizo. (2017 -In Press). Migration and the Informal Economy: Interrogating the Implications for Policy and Economic Security of Developed Economies.  Population, Space, and Place: 23(8).

Visser, M.A. & H.R. Cordero-Guzman. (2015). Low Wage Workers & Organizing. WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society. 18(2).

Referred Book Chapters

Zilberman, D. M.A. Visser, and A. Hill (forthcoming). The Emerging California Bioeconomy. In D. Zilverman and J. Zysman Building the Bioeconomy: The Case for California. Nature Springer.

Harmon, T., M.A. Visser, and A. Hill (2026). California Agricultural Technology and the Bioeconomy. In D. Zilverman and J. Zysman Building the Bioeconomy: The Case for California. Nature Springer.

Sauvagerd, M., M.A. Visser, and M. Kenney. (forthcoming) The Economics and Governance of (Digital) Data in AgriFood Informatics  The Economics and Governance of (Digital) Data in Agrifood Informatics. (forthcoming).In Lange, M., E. Stellotes, and B. German (eds). AgriFood Informatics. Royal Society of Chemistry. 

Visser, M.A. & S.A. Simpson. (2018). Understanding Local Government’s Engagement in Immigrant Policymaking in the US. In  Darling, J. and H. Bauder (eds). From Nation to City: Rescaling Migration, Citizenship, and Rights. Forthcoming from Manchester University Press.

Melendez, E., M.A. Visser, & K. Birson. (2014). The Transition of Puerto Rican Youth to Adulthood. In Melendez, E. & C. Vargas-Ramos (eds.) Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium. CENTRO Press. pp. 144-163.

Working Papers

Kenney, Martin and Visser, M. Anne and Zysman, John, COVID-19’s Impact Upon Labor and Value Chains in the Agrifood System (October 24, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3949042 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3949042

Public Policy Reports & Briefs

Visser, M.A., Kumetat, G. and Scott, G. (2025). Farmers Experience Unequal Impacts of State-Level Water-Conservation Efforts. Center for Poverty and Inequality Research: University of California, Davis

Visser, M.A., Cannon, C., and L. Panyanouvong. 2021. Five Core Areas to Support and Promote Recovery to Natural Disasters: Insights from Tribal Communities in the Clear Lake Region. Center for Regional Change. University of California, Davis.

Visser, M.A. and S.A. Simpson. (2021). Growth of Local Latino Populations Linked to Increase in County-Level Immigration Policy Adoption. Center for Poverty and Inequality Research: University of California, Davis.

Visser, M.A., L. Panyanouvong and D.J Fiedler-Riddle. (2018) A Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of the Community-Based Mobile Manufacturing of Structural Masonry Using Regional Materials Project: A Report to the USDA. Research Report. United States Department of Agriculture, Small Business Research and Innovation Grant Program/Watershed Materials.

Visser, M.A. (2016).  On the Frontlines: Community Based Organizations and the Economic Integration of  Disconnected Youth in the San Joaquin Valley. Research Report. Institute of Public Anthropology. The California State University, Fresno.

Visser, M.A. (2015). School, Work, and the Transition to Adulthood of Youth in the San Joaquin Valley. Research Brief. Institute of Public Anthropology.  The California State University, Fresno.

Melendez, E., M.A. Visser, R. Plaza, and R. Segura. (2012) The Transition of Puerto Rican Youth to Adulthood. CENTRO Research Brief. Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York.

Melendez, E., A. Valenzuela, N. Theodore, M.A. Visser, and A.L. Gonzalez. (2010). Day Labor Centers and Community Outcomes. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles.

Melendez, E., A. Valenzuela, N. Theodore, M.A. Visser, and A.L. Gonzalez. (2010). Differences in the Types of Operations of Day Labor Worker Centers. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles.

Melendez, E., A. Valenzuela, N. Theodore, M.A. Visser, and A.L. Gonzalez. (2010). Worker Centers and Day Labor Market Outcomes. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles.

Popular Press

Visser, M.A. (December 2025) Turning Investment Into Impact: How California’s $80 Million Bet on Rural Innovation Can Work for Tree Nut Growers. West Coast Nut.

Visser, M.A. (March 2026). The Quiet Crisis in American Farming: Why California Must Pay Attention. Enterprise Ag Magazine.

Visser, M.A. (June 2026). A Decade Under SGMA: What 195 Farmers Taught Us. West Coast Nut.

Teaching

August 19, 2017 /

Office Hour Appointments: 

Courses Taught: CRD 162: Transformation of Work; CRD 172: Social Inequality; CRD 247: Transformation of Work; CRD 240: Community Development Theory; CRD 241: Economics of Community Development; GEO 200DN: Research Methods; CRD 1: The Community; CRD 99: Developing Resilient Regional Economies and Workforces

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

As a teacher, my objective is to perpetuate knowledge by promoting exploration and encouraging learning. More specifically, as a teacher of the social and policy sciences, I believe that my role is to create an environment where students are engaged at both a normative and empirical level with questions of power, politics, and equity in a manner that connects theoretical foundations, methodological tools, and frameworks of related subfields, disciplines, and modes of inquiry. My aim is to provide students with the methodological and theoretical foundations that enable them to engage with previous research and fundamental themes in the field, question the purpose and meaning of the social and policy sciences, analyze data, and share new knowledge with others.

In meeting these objectives, I believe successful teaching depends upon an intellectual exchange grounded in examples that are accessible to students. I utilize a flexible approach to instruction balancing lecture with applied exercises and responsive discussions to the unique nature of a given class and subject matter. I have learned that teaching in the social and policy sciences, especially in relation to the methodology of the disciplines, is similar to a foreign language. It is therefore best learned and mastered by immersion in the particular subject matter with conversational and applied exercises to extrapolate concepts to the contexts of the real world that students engage in and the professional contexts to which they aspire.

My approach to student assessment reflects these goals and objectives. I believe that an important measure of a student’s success is their capacity to critically engage the course topic from a variety of perspectives and disciplinary foundations. As such, students are expected to master the factual grasp of material and concepts as demonstrated through exams and assignments, and demonstrate familiarity with the practical application of the theoretical and methodological concepts studied in the course. In addition, research papers and culminating projects are used to assess the student’s critical thinking, research and analysis skills. I am more interested in developing a student’s capacity to question, articulate political and policy questions, argue persuasively and cogently, and disseminate new knowledge effectively rather than in the particular content of his or her conclusion. Thus, I rigorously evaluate students on these grounds.

In all aspects of my teaching I am active and deeply committed to efforts to promote diversity. This includes extensive mentoring of first-generation students and students from underrepresented groups. I am also passionately committed to promoting deeper understandings of race, ethnicity, and class as they shape opportunity structures and orient these efforts to support the facilitation of discussions on topics of social inequality and economic opportunity so as to better inform my students to become active and purposeful participants in dialogues that inform public policy, community efforts and philanthropic activity.

In the end, I believe that the goal of teaching in the social sciences is to enable students to grow as critically informed and active citizens in their communities and the world. Every student, regardless of background and level, can improve their fluency and their capacity to engage in the political and policy discourses of society. As a teacher, my goal is to increase students’ fluency in these discourses. While my passion lies in the development of methodological and analytical discourses of the social sciences specifically, my greatest source of inspiration is the opportunity to help increase a students’ capacity to influence change by developing the lenses through which they view and interpret the world around them, while at the same time helping to cultivate the tools through which they invoke change within it.

 

IN THE NEWS

August 19, 2017 /

Newspaper and Print Media

  • Growing Produce. “What Was Seen and Heard at FIRA”. Melinda Taschetta-Millane. November 7, 2025.
  • Growing Produce. “Charting the Future of AgTechnology”. Melinda Taschetta-Millane. October 23, 2025.
  • The Atlantic. “Colleges have a Guy Problem.” Derek Thompson. September 6, 2021.
  • Yes Magazine. “In California’s Drier Future, What’s the Best Investment for Securing Water”. Tara Deaton. July 15, 2021.
  • “How Can Improving Reporting Strategies Assist Rural Economic Development?”. Fresno Bee. May 2023
  • Fresno State College of Social Science Magazine. “Disconnected Youth a Problem in the San Joaquin Valley. September 7, 2021
  • How Does County-Level Immigration Policy Affect Growth of Local Latino Populations?. Los Angeles Times. May 2021.
  • The Atlantic. “Colleges have a Guy Problem.” Derek Thompson. September 6, 2021.
  • Yes Magazine. “In California’s Drier Future, What’s the Best Investment for Securing Water”. Tara Deaton. July 15, 2021.
  • The Week. “Ending DACA could royally screw up the Census. That’s a problem for the GOP”. Edward Burmilla. September 27, 2017.
  • American Academy for the Advancement of Science. “$1.6M from NSF to UC Davis to Study Water, Land Use in Disadvantaged Communities”. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/uoc–fn091417.php
  • Fresno State Magazine. “Helping The Valley’s Most Vulnerable Youth”.  Spring/Summer 2017.
  • Politico. “Evaluating the Presidential Candidates on Labor, Jobs, and Immigrant Workers”.
    September 30, 2016.
  • Workforce. “Obama’s Labor Legacy”.  September 15, 2016.
  • Fresno State News. “Community Organizations Key to Helping Disconnected Valley Youth”. Kathleen Shock. August 2, 2016.
  • Hanford Sentinel. “Many Youth Disconnected From School and Job”. Joseph Luiz. October 15, 2015.
  • Porterville Recorder. “Disconnected Youths Rampant in Valley” October 13, 2015.
  • The Business Journal. “Study: Up to 17% of Valley Youth Jobless, Out of School”. October 8, 2015.

Radio and Television

  • California Edition – National Public Radio. “Economic Opportunity After the Great Recession: A View from the Golden State”. Vanessa Rancano KQED. September 2016.
  • Valley Public Radio- National Public Radio. “New Report: 17 Percent of Valley Teens out of School and Out of Work”. Joe Moore. October 18, 2015.
  • Valley Edition. National Public Radio – KVPR. “Poverty in Fresno”. October 13, 2015.
  • All Things Considered. National Public Radio. “Florida Puerto Ricans Have a Stake in Immigration Reform”. Amy Kiel WFME. December 12, 2013.

Online Media Forums

Contact

August 19, 2017 /

 

FOR  INQUIRIES PLEASE EMAIL :

mavisser@ucdavis.edu

 

TO BE INFORMED ABOUT NEW PUBLICATIONS, FINDINGS AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENTS :

      @MAnneVisser

 

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-anne-visser-4395723/

 

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