Political leaders like to put forward guiding ideas or themes which pull their individual decisions into a broader narrative. For John Major it was Back to Basics, for Tony Blair it was the Third Way and for David Cameron it is the Big Society. While Mr. Blair relied on Lord Giddens to add intellectual weight to his idea, Mr. Cameron's legacy idea…

Hardly anyone can have failed to pick up on the recent flurry of stories in the national press about the Big Society, sparked off by Dame Elisabeth Hoodless's remarks that funds for volunteers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is undermining the very idea of a "Big Society". At the same time, under the government's…

The familiar advertising slogan, "Up here it's different," used to attract visitors to the rugged beauty of County Donegal, was correct in highlighting that things are different in Donegal, although not for the reasons one might connect with tourism. For many, Donegal evokes nostalgic images of old, rural Ireland such as close community…

Criticisms of rational synoptic planning are that it is elitist, simplistic, and supportive of existing power relationships. An alternative, people-centered community planning, views the population to be studied as ideological and historical beings, uses knowledge of and by the people as a base, requires interpersonal as well as analytical skills,…

Disengagement, the final phase in the community development process, receives little attention in the literature. Many community development practitioners make decisions regarding disengagement intuitively. This exploratory study of disengagement from community units was based on interviews with eleven University of Missouri Extension Community…

Presents the social indicators approach (which infers needs from currently existing descriptive data) and the key informants technique (which secures information from individuals with insight into community needs) as alternatives to the community needs assessment survey. Considers both approaches more cost-effective and successful for diagnosing…

Although the economic expansion of the 1990s was felt even in small towns and rural areas, events in recent months point out that the economic health of rural America remains fragile. Rural manufacturing has suffered sizable employment declines in recent months and only modest expansion has occurred in the service sector--the lifeblood of rural…

This article presents a case in which age was isolated as a highly significant factor affecting reported community satisfaction. Authors explain the findings as the result of four factors: (1) selective migration, (2) influence of length of residence, (3) acceptance of one's surroundings as one ages, and (4) rising expectations among the younger…