This book seeks to provide a basis for reexamining rural development policy by presenting comprehensive and current information on the effectiveness of various rural policy approaches. An introduction that defines development terminology and discusses changing policy needs is followed by 13 chapters that represent the best recent research assessing rural development strategies. Included are such education-related issues as school-community relationship, local educational attainment and attitudes, technical assistance and training for new businesses, and training the unemployed to start businesses. The final two chapters discuss the influences of institutional and community contexts. Chapters are: (1) "Reinventing Rural Policy Research" (J. Norman Reid, David W. Sears); (2)"Building Local Economic Development Strategies" (Ron Shaffer, Glen C. Pulver); (3) "Applying Strategic Planning to Rural Economic Development" (Robert Blair, B. J. Reed); (4) "Catalyzing Bottom-Up Development with National Policies: Canada's Community Futures Programs" (David Freshwater, Philip Ehrensaft); (5) "Stimulation of Economic Development through Worker Cooperatives" (Carla Dickstein); (6) "Community Involvement in Education as a Rural Development Strategy" (Ginny Eager); (7) "Manufacturing Recruitment as a Rural Development Strategy" (Kevin T. McNamara, Warren Kriesel, Daniel V. Rainey); (8) "Volunteer Visitor Business Retention and Expansion Programs" (Scott Loveridge, Thomas R. Smith, George W. Morse); (9) "Technical Assistance Services and Rural Business Startups: A Four-State Study" (Terry F. Buss, Mark G. Popovich); (10) "The Importance of Local Airports to Rural Businesses" (Richard J. Reeder, Cory Wanek); (11) "Prisons and Rural Communities: Making the Most and Losing the Least from a Growth Industry" (Katherine A. Carlson); (12) "Mending the Circle: Peer Group Lending for Micro-Enterprise Development in Tribal Communities" (Schuyler Houser); (13) "Helping the Unemployed Start Businesses: A Potential Rural Development Strategy" (Jules H. Lichtenstein); (14) "Targeting Market Failures in Natural Resource Industries as a Rural Development Strategy: The Case of the Maine Potato Market Improvement Fund" (Stewart N. Smith); (15) "Some Communities Are Successful, Other Are Not: Toward an Institutional Framework for Understanding the Reasons Why" (George R. McDowell); and (16) "Successfully Matching Development Strategies and Tactics with Rural Communities: Two Approaches" (David W. Sears, J. Norman Reid). Contains references in each chapter, an index, and author profiles. (SV)