In the last decade, rural development emerged as one of the prominent challenges facing the United States. Strong support for rural development is now found in both major political parties and at federal, state, and local levels. There is little doubt that the development of rural America will become even more important in the future. Despite unprecedented growth, both urban and rural areas in the United States are greatly deficient in many aspects of quality living conditions. The nation’s cities are slowly strangling themselves, jamming together people and industry while spawning pollution, transportation paralysis, housing blight, lack of privacy, and a crime-infested society. Rural areas simultaneously suffer from the other extreme: lack of sufficient employment opportunities, outmigration and depopulation, and too few people to support services and institutions. The migration from rural areas contributes to the problems of both the city and countryside depopulating rural places at the expense of overcrowded cities. This book focuses on rural development processes, problems, and solutions. Seven prominent specialists in the field, including agricultural and regional economists, demographers, and administrators, discuss the development of the open country, small towns, and smaller cities (up t fifty thousand population). They present an integrated approach to rural development problems, not a mere collection of readings. Valuable guidelines for policies to benefit both rural and urban areas are provided. Since rural development involves interdisciplinary scholarship, this book will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists working in rural areas both here and abroad. Economists, sociologists, and political scientists, as well as community leaders and planners, legislators, government officials and interested laymen, will find this volume useful in understanding the rural development effort. Chapters on the following topics are included: the Philosophy and Process of Community Development; The Emergence of Area Development; Demographic Trends of the U.S. Rural Population; The Conditions and Problems of Nonmetropolitan America; Systems Planning for rural Development; Use of Natural Resources in Community Development; and Rural Poverty and Urban Growth, An Economic Critique of Alternative Spatial Growth Patterns

Protecting land in parks is often seen as coming at the expense of rural economic development. Yet recent events such as the contentious debate over the development of Canyon Forest Village on the south rim of the Grand Canyon suggest just the opposite: healthy natural systems can be enormously valuable to rural economies.National Parks and Rural Development offers a thorough examination of the interdependent roles of national parks and the economies of rural communities in the United States. Bringing together the thinking and views of economists, historians, sociologists, recreation researchers, and park managers, the book considers how those roles can be most effectively managed, as it offers: a wide-ranging review of history and important concepts in rural development and parks management five case studies of rural development near national parks that identify lessons learned, principles applied, mistakes committed, and advances made personal essays from leaders in the parks management field For each section, the editors offer introductory discussions that provide context and highlight key points. The editors also provide a detailed conclusion which summarizes policy implications and presents specific recommendations for improving rural development and park management policies.Case studies include: Cape Cod National Seashore, Alaskan parks and wilderness areas, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, and three parks in the Pacific Northwest (Mt. Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades).ational Parks and Rural Development is a unique synthesis and guide to solving conflicts between the needs of human communities and nature near federal lands. It will be an important work for agency personnel, nongovernmental organizations, and students and scholars of rural economic development, public policy, environmental economics, and related fields.

America's rural areas have always held a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest populations. Rural Poverty in the United States examines why. What is it about the geography, demography, and history of rural communities that keeps them poor? In a comprehensive analysis that extends from the Civil War to the present, Rural Poverty in the United States looks at access to human and social capital; food security; healthcare and the environment; homelessness; gender roles and relations; racial inequalities; and immigration trends to isolate the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty. Contributors to this volume incorporate approaches from multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, demography, race and gender studies, public health, education, criminal justice, social welfare, and other social science fields. They take a hard look at current and past programs to alleviate rural poverty and use their failures to suggest alternatives that could improve the well-being of rural Americans for years to come. These essays work hard to define rural poverty's specific metrics and markers, a critical step for building better policy and practice. Considering gender, race, and immigration, the book appreciates the overlooked structural and institutional dimensions of ongoing rural poverty and its larger social consequences.

Rural Development is a textbook that critically examines economic, social and cultural aspects of rural development efforts both in the global north and in the global south. By consistently using examples from the north and the south the book highlights similarities of processes as well as differences in contexts. The authors’ knowledge of Afghanistan and Sweden respectively creates a core for the discussions which are complemented with a wide range of other empirical examples. Rural Development is divided into nine chapters, each with a thematic focus, ranging from concepts and theories through rural livelihoods and natural resources to discussions on policy and processes of change. The book sees rural development as a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-faceted subject area that needs multidisciplinary perspectives both to support it and to analyse it. Throughout the book examples of rural development interventions are discussed using analytical concepts such as power, discourse, consequences and context to grasp rural development as practices that are more than what is presented in policy documents. The book is written in a way that makes it accessible for undergraduates while at the same time caters for the kind of deeper reading used by master students and Ph.D.’s. Every chapter is linked to discussion questions as well as suggested further readings and useful websites.

Three billion people live in rural areas in developing countries. Conditions for them are worse than for their urban counterparts when measured by almost any development indicator, from extreme poverty, to child mortality and access to electricity and sanitation.

Companion volume to the authors' Small town planning handbook (1988). Presents an informative, issues-and-problems text for rural planning practice, both for teaching and practical reference. Paperback edition, $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Artful Rainwater Design has three main parts: first, the book outlines five amenity-focused goals that might be highlighted in a project: education, recreation, safety, public relations, and aesthetic appeal. Next, it focuses on techniques for ecologically sustainable stormwater management that complement the amenity goals. Finally, it features diverse case studies that show how designers around the country are implementing principles of artful rainwater design.