Given the recent economic crisis and the accompanying funding cuts across social service programs, it is helpful to observe the geographic distribution of demographic characteristics and economic conditions that together create a human service needs profile. The authors provide a conceptual framework for a systematic analysis of county…

Thanet suffers from severe deprivation, mainly driven by socio-economic factors. Efforts to remediate this through economic regeneration plans have largely been unsuccessful, while a combination of selective and denominational education creates and maintains a gradient of disadvantage that mainly impacts upon already-deprived young people. Some of…

Examines economic, social, and fiscal indicators available from federal data sources that can be used in classification systems for rural school districts. Compares the strengths and weaknesses of the various indicators. Recommends that researchers use multiple indicators or alternative data sources to mitigate potential problems of unintentional…

This report describes residents' efforts to generate urban change and arrest the decline of their community, Edgewater, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The report also examines how events in Edgewater affected and were affected by developments in Uptown (the adjoining predominantly commercial district) and in the Winthrop-Kenmore Corridor that…

Participants in a symposium on education in rural New York analyzed strengths and weaknesses and made policy suggestions relating to three broad goals: (1) create parity of access to lifelong educational and cultural opportunities for residents and institutions in rural areas; (2) enhance the quality of lifelong educational and cultural…

In this award winning project for incorporating economics study into the curriculum, a fifth grade class studied economic interdependence as it applied to their community (Barling, Arkansas). Class readings of several books dealing with the development of an economic community preceded the students' creation of a mini-Barling with elected…

Participants in a symposium on economic development in rural New York State analyzed existing strengths and weaknesses of the state's rural areas and made policy suggestions relating to three broad goals: (1) ease government constraints on rural businesses in order to encourage growth and development; (2) build on and strengthen the positive…

Explains that the marginal position of Chinese in Mississippi, neither white nor black, played a vital role in the development of their identity. Discusses the social, economic, and cultural influences that produced a Chinese American community in the south markedly different from the one in California. (MJP)