Controversy between two opposing factions have confused rural development policy formulation. Infrastructure advocates believe that the improvement of highways and sewer systems, as well as the provision of industrial park sites and industrial recruitment, are the keys to successful rural economic growth. Human resource development advocates…

This report identifies factors that influence a rural area's economic success or failure, and evaluates whether federal programs efficiently address rural economic problems. Data collection included a review of federal programs that provide funding to rural areas, and interviews with federal and state agency officials involved with rural…

While the adoption of new mechanical and biological-chemical technology has brought revolutionary changes in agricultural production, these changes have also contributed to a decline in employment in many rural industries. There are, however, a number of new technologies, likely to impact on rural areas in the 1980s and beyond, that should level…

Social capital helps communities respond positively to change. Research into managing change through learning in communities and in small businesses, particularly farm businesses, has highlighted the importance of relationships between people and the formal and informal structure of communities to the quality of outcomes experienced by…

Monumental social and economic problems confront the rural communities of the South. Diversification of the rural economy is the key to revitalizing the rural South, but new industries, anticipating the need for a more highly skilled work force, find the region's human capital resources to be deficient. Vibrant economies are not sustainable in a…

This workshop collection contains four case studies regarding particular relationships between specific resources and clientele or user groups, and three discussions based on those four papers and/or conference discussions. The first paper discusses urban land use origins and compares urban policies with rural policies suggesting that future rural…

Diverse aspects of rural problems and the social organization of Mexican labor are explored in this summary of Mexican rural history. Achnowledging Mexico's rich, unexhausted, and unexplored natural resources, Mexico is described as a poverty-stricken, hungry nation, with high degrees of malnutrition, deprivation, and illiteracy heavily…

The future of rural America depends on the abilities of diverse interest groups and leaders to piece together educational and economic resources in creative ways, fitted to the needs of their respective regions and communities. It has become essential that rural persons be plugged into national and international production, marketing, and…

Although women are a crucial element in national rural development, their role continues to be neglected in plans and programs for change--especially in Third World countries. In addition to the burden faced by rural people generally in developing countries, women carry a double burden because of their low social status, high illiteracy rate, lack…

Before social welfare programs can be successfully designed and administered, the problems of the needy must be known. Research literature appearing from 1969 through mid-1977 reveals that: most welfare recipients are dramatically inferior in their ability to compete in the labor market; poverty is a multiproblematic chain which has not been…

This book provides an overview of existing human resource conditions in rural America; examines key economic, social, and technological forces shaping the future viability of rural areas; describes human capital issues for rural women and minority groups; and outlines strategies to strengthen rural human capital resources. Chapters are: (1)…