Effective research on issues of rural development is increasingly important in a time when inequalities among people in rural areas is widening. Criteria of time-cost effectiveness, policy effectiveness for rural development, and contribution to sociology must be balanced by rural social scientists in their research design decisions. When five…

Elements essential to an adequate framework for rural development in the U.S. are a national growth and development policy which includes a rural development strategy and definition of common problems and programmatic actions required to deal with them. Many past federal rural development programs (lacking a federal rural policy focus) have failed…

The United States does not have a coherent national rural policy. The federal government has focused on a sector-based policy that has only indirect impact on rural America. State governments have failed to move beyond their traditional focus areas of education, corrections, Medicaid, and other state services. The diversity of rural America makes…

Four major concerns are currently shaping national rural development policy: (1) rural population and employment are increasingly diverse but physical isolation and low population density limit essential public services; (2) many geographically concentrated rural communities continue to have high rates of very low income; (3) rural governments are…

A distillation of hundreds of speeches, working papers, panel sessions, informal discussions, and formal resolutions, this report is derived from the First National Conference on Rural America (April 1975) and reflects emergence of a rural political platform. Attended by approximately 1,500 people from 49 States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, the…

Demographic and socioeconomic changes are reshaping the fortunes of small communities and pose policy issues. Such communities find it especialy difficult to deal with rapid growth or decline, or a switch from one to the other. Small communities now enjoy greater autonomy, but at the cost of reduced federal aid. Freed from federal mandates, each…

Using multiple regression analysis for each county and a case study of selected services in Johnson County, Iowa, the study estimated the impacts of rural non-farm development in Iowa on the demand for local public services, on the cost of providing these services, and on the distribution of service benefits and tax burdens among population…

Emphasizing developmental problems caused by the rapid population and employment growth in rural America during the 1970's, this document describes social, economic, and governmental trends in rural America and suggests some federal policy choices that might be made in support of rural development. Problem areas and policy suggestions are…

The result of extensive research by the Southern Rural Development Center Functional Network on Citizen Participation in Rural Development, this bibliography contains 2,310 citations on citizen participation, 530 of which carry an annotation or abstract. Materials come from computerized information services, published bibliographies, and books or…

Participants in a symposium on economic development in rural New York State analyzed existing strengths and weaknesses of the state's rural areas and made policy suggestions relating to three broad goals: (1) ease government constraints on rural businesses in order to encourage growth and development; (2) build on and strengthen the positive…

The major participants in the formation of policy and programs for rural areas include agricultural interest groups, nonfarm groups, certain legislators, and--less directly--the media. Policy is developed in many institutional arenas: the local community and state governments, the Department of Agriculture, the White House, and the Congress and…

There is no present consensus regarding long-term consequences of rural industrialization on society. Since 1950, smaller rural communities in the South and Southwestern United States have gained in industrialization due to their generally low-wage non-union labor supply and lower tax structure, both attractive to industry seeking greater profits.…