This landscape report explores the impact of earning micro-credentials on the social mobility of rural learners. Through four in-depth case studies, we show how earning micro-credentials may lead to credential attainment, workforce entry, promotions, and/or economic improvements (e.g., salary increase, prioritizing learners impacted by poverty),…

A case study of a self-termed "rural business" is used to deconstruct the concept of a rural business and shed light on specific features of "operating in a rural area" and "serving a rural population". Alongside "selling a rural product", the paper claims that these make up three parameters for categorising rural businesses. Highlighting these…

About 60% of Nigerians live in rural areas with poor access roads and health facilities, near-absent communication media, unemployment, alienation and disempowerment by the political leadership. This scenario has excluded the rural Nigerian from meaningful participation in development action. A bottom-up participatory approach to…

Retiree recruitment is a burgeoning economic development strategy among rural communities despite uncertainty over whether later-life migrants will bring with them "Gray Gold" in the form of economic development or "Gray Peril" in the form of a reduced willingness to support the provision of local public services such as…

In five Great Plains states, more counties have fewer than six persons per square mile (once a definition of "frontier") than in 1920. Forces of nature and technology have produced fewer farms, resulting in fewer residents and loss of local businesses and schools. Carrington, North Dakota, worked hard to attract a pasta plant, but it may…

Analysis of annual county-level migration estimates indicates that in recent decades, migrants to the rural South have persistently favored areas with specific attractions: urban access, high-tech jobs, and favorable climates. As migrants are younger and better educated than the overall population, such patterns exacerbate rural development…

A study of a small town in the Mississippi Delta, Madison, Arkansas, questions the myth that poverty means resignation. The study concluded that the major deterrents to getting and holding jobs were lack of transportation and unsatisfactory work environments. (Author/JB)

This study examines the unique experiences of low-income rural participants in an asset building program--the Individual Development Account. Using data from the American Dream Demonstration, this study addresses three main questions: (1) What are the individual characteristics associated with saving outcomes among rural IDA participants? (2) What…

Written to help communities boost their economies by attracting new industries best suited for local workers, this guide discusses the kinds of employees used by different kinds of industry and highlights specific industry hiring preferences, attributes of various industries, and worker characteristics. (JHZ)

Written by some of the foremost experts on rural America, this book focuses on policy-relevant research on the problems of rural areas. In each chapter, rural policy needs are identified by examining the flow of events and rural sociology of the 1980s. Chapters are: (1) "Critical Times for Rural America: The Challenge for Rural Policy in the…

The purposes of the National Rural Studies Committee (NRSC) are to develop a comprehensive and coherent framework for viewing rural area problems, and to provide legitimacy for rural studies as an academic field of specialization. This first NRSC meeting focused on the picture of rural America drawn in American literature, the nature of employment…

This report is a blend or summary of six reports that dealt with rural development, especially labor adjustment, in the Ozark and Delta regions of Arkansas. The studies were initiated mainly at the request of policy makers in the Delta and Ozarks areas of Arkansas. Several writers have suggested that "culture of poverty" is a major…

Examines linkages between adult continuing education and rural economic development strategies. Categorizes educational program responses to human capital investment needs of adults, and indicates the economic impact in rural areas of such responses. Discusses social roles as a motivator for educational participation. Contains 29 references. (SV)

Lying within the Cumberland Plateau of Appalachia, the Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD) comprises eight rural Kentucky counties: Breathitt, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Owsley, Perry, and Wolfe. This report reviews regional history of economic development and examines socioeconomic indicators, including education, poverty, and the…

The trend reversing the massive nonmetropolitan-to-metropolitan migration of the past several decades is documented in this volume which is divided into three parts. Part I provides insights into several aspects of the new migration trend in the North Central Region of the U.S. The primary emphasis is on metropolitan origin migrants. Survey…