Calling study-service a kind of nonformal education with potential to generate other kinds of nonformal education, the author describes Nepal's National Development Service to explain this scheme in developing countries. All degree-level university students must complete a year of community development service in rural areas before their final…

Draws on evidence concerning rural population, families, schools, churches, and communities to conclude that the conceptualization of rural as "different from urban" has no contemporary empirical support and that differences among rural areas are greater than rural-urban differences. Offers suggestions for refocusing social work practice on the…