The Isoya Rural Development Project appears to have enhanced Nigerian women's multiple roles (maternal, occupational, conjugal, domestic, kin, community, and individual). Limitations of the project include poor rural infrastructure, male-oriented cultural norms, and lack of direct access to land by women. (SK)

A survey of 23 chairpersons of town unions (rural sociocultural organizations) in Nigeria indicated that self-help projects in education and rural development were concentrated in areas lacking infrastructure. Recommendations were made for an organizing framework, leadership training, government assistance, and efforts to encourage active…

Progress toward rural development has been hampered by flawed views of rural America; serious limitations to existing social and economic data on sparsely populated areas; treatment of rural America as a geographical entity unconnected to the larger U.S. economy and society; perceived lack of feasible political solution to rural problems; and…

The Institute for Integrated Rural Development in the Maharashtra State of India seeks to break the cycle of poverty through sustainable rural development. It works closely with rural women on health and nutrition education and in other community partnerships based on horizontal structures. (SK)

Classified, selected bibliography for Appalachian Studies includes over 400 entries: books, journal articles, government documents, and dissertations published 1996-97. Contains 25 categories including agriculture; Appalachian Studies; architecture, historic sites; arts, crafts; Civil War; coal, industry, labor; description, travel; economic…

A nonprofit community action agency, BusinesStart, provides business training and small loans to entrepreneurs in 18 rural counties in southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. The entrepreneurs, many with no previous business experience, cite the agency's basic business training as key to their success. (SV)

Focusing on the concept of "commodity chains" within the food industry, this paper analyses the term's widespread and variable usage in both academic and policy-orientated work. Despite recent criticisms, the concept has retained its popular appeal alongside competing metaphors such as networks, circuits and assemblages. Examining the…

The direction, complexity and pace of rural change in affluent, western societies can be conceptualized as a multifunctional transition, in which a variable mix of consumption and protection values has emerged, contesting the former dominance of production values, and leading to greater complexity and heterogeneity in rural occupance at all…

The rural educational socium represents the foundation of individual and social educational resources. Among the key provisions of the strategy for modernizing the rural educational socium, the authors list the following: the creation of an integral system of continuous education in the immediate vicinity of the place where youngsters and adults…

If economic recovery occurs, land development and construction will revive simultaneously with land-use controls. Already the Federal government has affected land use by passing the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Clean Air Act. The states have also initiated land-use regulations concerning community planning and environmental quality. (MR)

Suggests that the mass media could contribute more to rural development in Jordan if information on agricultural issues were disseminated. (RB)

The relationship between a state's metro and nonmetro economic performance is a key consideration in determining whether a special rural development policy is appropriate for that state. This report compares the economic performance of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in 49 states, 1979-86. On average, metropolitan areas enjoyed higher…

This discussion of the cultural aspects of mass media in Indonesia covers the following topics: (1) PALAPA, the Indonesian communications satellite; (2) cultural, demographic, and economic characteristics of Indonesia; (3) television policies and programming; (4) the number of government- and privately-owned radio stations; (5) a longitudinal…