Developing competence in the workforce for a changing economy is a challenge to a nations education system. This study examines what education and training systems have been made available to the workforce. For this study, in 1998, 31,736 employees were surveyed from 401 firms in 12 counties across China: four in two eastern provinces, four in two…

We used data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples to document poverty rates among native-born and foreign-born Mexicans living in the southwest and in new regions where many Mexican families have resettled. Our analysis focused on how changing patterns of employment have altered the risk of poverty among Mexican families and children.…

The prospects of world economic development are determined by the character of countries' transition to the new stage of development of productive forces: from industrial production, which was dominated by large-scale mechanized machine-driven production, to postindustrial production, which will be dominated by nonmaterial production--the sphere…

Universities and industry have a long history of collaboration and there are many benefits in forming partnerships for universities and industry alike. For universities, these partnerships can provide financial support for their educational, research and service missions; broaden the experience of their students and faculty; identify significant,…

Asian countries are charatericised by great variations in their human and economic development indices. Malaysia is no different, and before learning takes place, one has to deal with the diversity and complexity of audience and the range of environmental issues. This article aims to highlight the response of citizens towards the United Nations…

The landscape of rural America is changing. Rural areas have been described as the country's "bread basket"--feeding citizens of the United States and many countries abroad. But these areas are struggling with declining crop prices, escalating production costs, and increased competition from overseas producers. Where amber waves of…

Throughout the 1990s, Europe's rural areas increasingly embraced local action and local development solutions to face the challenge of the continued re-structuring of the agricultural industry. In parallel, in both the EU and the UK, a policy discourse has emerged which envisages a fundamental shift in support policies for rural areas from a…

The purpose of this article is to analyze, discuss, and assess some of the competing viewpoints and factors regarding the role of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) within civil society. By outlining the various actions that civil society organizations (CSOs) need to take in order to maximize the positive impacts and mitigate…

When the most recent generation of community building initiatives (CCIs) was launched in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the field wanted to invest in and learn about the effectiveness of a kind of initiative that was meant to bring together the best of what had been learned during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s about how to go about promoting change…

This paper discusses the transition from a national focus on food security during the last half of the 20th century to an emerging strategy on helping small-scale farm households increase farm income to reduce rural poverty. The basic proposition is that if extension is going to help increase farm incomes and rural employment, then it must shift…

Rural communities rely increasingly on local development organizations (LDOs) to promote economic development. The rise of LDOs has been the source of much debate. Using a national data set that links local governments with development organizations, we contrast the economic development activities, and their outcomes, of local governments and…

Community college leaders recognize that being at the center of the economic and workforce development universe brings many privileges, but there are also challenges and consistent demands for accountability. The center of such a universe can be an unstable place unless there are talented and committed individuals at the core who share the same…

With the recent emphasis on human development, development researchers are making frequent use of aggregate demographic measures in describing development experiences and more so while linking health and development. And it is often seen that comparison of these demographic aggregates across space and time is naive given their complex construct on…

Western China is vast, expansive, sparsely populated, and economically underdeveloped, but it plays an important role in economic and social development in China. While the west is a crucial base of power resources, it is also rich in fauna and flora resources and the major habitat for China's many rare wildlife species. Therefore, protecting its…

This paper provides an overview of some of the reasons for the extraordinary growth in what was traditionally seen as a peripheral economy on the Celtic fringe of North West Europe. Learning, innovation and social capital offer important clues behind the story of the "Celtic Tiger." However, there is a downside to this story: Ireland…