Rural people and communities continue to play important social, economic and environmental roles at a time in which societies are rapidly urbanizing, and the identities of local places are increasingly subsumed by flows of people, information and economic activity across global spaces. However, while the organization of rural life has been fundamentally transformed by institutional and social changes that have occurred since the mid-twentieth century, rural people and communities have proved resilient in the face of these transformations. This book examines the causes and consequences of major social and economic changes affecting rural communities and populations during the first decades of the twenty-first century, and explores policies developed to ameliorate problems or enhance opportunities. Primarily focused on the U.S. context, while also providing international comparative discussion, the book is organized into five sections each of which explores both socio-demographic and political economic aspects of rural transformation. It features an accessible and up-to-date blend of theory and empirical analysis, with each chapter's discussion grounded in real-life situations through the use of empirical case-study materials. Rural People and Communities in the 21st Century is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in rural sociology, community sociology, rural and/or population geography, community development, and population studies.

This book is concerned with the question of how people in developing countries survive, and how their lives have been affected by the great changes since the Second World War. Throughout large parts of the developing world rural livelihoods are in crisis. Even in those parts of the third world where there has been growth of food output, that growth has rarely been translated into a commensurate expansion of livelihoods. Frequently, both economic stagnation and economic growth are translated into suffering for those who live in the countryside. Many people are aware that there is a crisis of livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, but the understanding of that crisis rarely transcends simple conceptions of food or environmental crisis or the inadequacy of states: the ubiquity of crisis is rarely comprehended. This book addresses the pressing question of rural poverty. It examines the diverse human implications of rural change, the various crises of rural livelihoods which arise from change, and the survival strategies of individuals and households. It describes the great processes of agrarian transformation which have fundamentally altered rural livelihoods in developing countries and identifies some of the dilemmas for public action which arise from agrarian transformation and the crises of rural livelihoods. The contributors draw upon a range of disciplinary approaches to the subject, including anthropology, sociology, economics, political economy, agricultural science, and development studies.

Based on new evidence from in-depth field surveys, this book addresses the unique situation of countries that remain deeply engaged in agriculture, and proposes a set of policy orientations which could facilitate the process of rural change.

This ground-breaking book deals with the effects of the transformation towards a market economy on the rural societies of Central and Eastern Europe. Within the framework of the overall situation of rural communities, special attention is given to the consequences of the break-up of socialist patterns of agriculture and the prospects for private farming. Rural societies in Central and Eastern Europe are suffering a three-pronged attack from marketization: loss of local non-agricultural jobs, loss of agricultural jobs and loss of urban jobs for commuting workers. The choices that confront the rural population are stark. Either they succeed as family farmers, self-employed craftsmen or in small businesses, or they fail and retreat to subsistence agriculture. Only a minority will find employment in large industrial or service companies. Rural Transformation in Central Europe considers how these choices are made, who makes which choices, why some succeed and others fail, what interest groups are formed, and how political interests are articulated. Based on background papers on the economic, legal, political, and social context of rural transformations and on interviews conducted in villages in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, this highly original study should appeal to all those interested in the problems of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe.