The rural economy has performed badly during the 1980s. While the recession of the early 1980s was responsible for much of the trouble, the slow rural recovery demonstrates the fundamental hurdles facing the rural economy. Central among these are economic disadvantages, including remote locations isolating rural producers from their markets, low…

Economic status determined the effects of declining public revenues and a tighter economy on residents of Farmville, Virginia, a small, conservative, rural, Southern community with underdeveloped social services, whose class relations still reflect racial segregation, whose concern for local autonomy is so great that external funding sources are…

In 1979 a stratified random sampling of 541 families in 4 rural Virginia counties were interviewed about major occupations, secondary occupations, travel to work, and whether the division of labor within the county allowed for a complete exchange system. Data, compared to 1940 census statistics, indicated that a significant change in occupational…