This study explores the role that communications technologies can play in securing rural America's future. It develops several policy strategies and options to encourage economic development. The study was requested by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and Senators Charles E. Grassley and Orrin G. Hatch. Chapter 1 provides a summary and…

To guide future work, to provide an overall view of the program of technical cooperation in regional planning, and to form a basis for a Conference Ministerial Resolution, the report outlines the activities of the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) of the Council of Europe's Conference of Ministers Responsible for Regional Planning during…

This report addresses current economic conditions in rural America and offers recommendations about the role the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) can play in providing rural development. The Task Force identifies issues for rural policy in the 1990's focusing on economic development. Current rural programs are described and…

Structural change in the economy is causing economic stress in rural America, especially in areas with a heavy dependence on agriculture, mining and energy, and manufacturing. This contrasts sharply with the 1970s, when widespread economic growth and vitality were the dominant rural themes. Rural economies in the 1980s are characterized by slow…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the nature, scope, and implications of the rural development in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The first section of the paper deals with the forces that have caused changes in agrarian reform policies as they affected rural development in these countries. Specifically…

In April 2000, over 250 rural leaders from around the nation gathered in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss rural America's future, its challenges, and policies to meet those challenges. Conference participants agreed that the current pattern of uneven rural growth is likely to persist and that agriculture will remain a key sector in the rural…

Suggesting concrete operational procedures to stimulate discussion re: Objective B of the S-120 Regional Project (rural development), this paper focuses on key conceptual problems raised in a previous paper. The problem of cognitions or subjective worlds of actors is addressed in terms of Blumer's six features of public opinion; then, the…

The United States government has no true national rural policy toward education and rural community development. The need exists for the federal government to assume a different role in these areas from what it has traditionally played. In the past the federal education enterprise has failed to relate the design, purpose, or implementation of its…

Documenting several elements relative to regional research on community services in 10 northeastern states as experienced in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Regional Research Project NE-77 (1971), this monograph represents the NE-77 technical committee's effort to identify basic research issues re: the delivery of community services in rural…

Some 35 papers resulting from presentations made at the 1974 Conference on Rural Land-Use Policy in the Northeast constitute this report on conference proceedings. Part 1 presents papers from the general sessions which deal with generalities relative to the following four major alternatives: (1) police power, (2) transfer of development rights,…

Income has become somewhat more concentrated among upper-income families since 1967 and growth of total income has slowed since 1973. Both trends suggest a widening income gap between metro and nonmetro areas because nonmetro areas have a higher proportion of low-income families and slower income growth. (JHZ)

The overall economic well-being of U.S. rural communities is on the decline. Rural America is now dependent on a highly diversified economy, and its problems will not be resolved through improved farm income alone. Various weaknesses in rural development policies must be addressed. The narrow policy focus on attracting manufacturing industries to…

Texts of 12 research papers are presented in this proceedings of a 1985 conference specifically focusing on the interdependence of agriculture and rural communities. Titles of Session I papers providing information on the current situation and trends in agriculture and rural communities are "An Overview of the Nonmetro Economy and the Role of…

Some major dimensions of an evolutionary trend in which the rural development process has become separated from the modern agricultural development process are analyzed and the implications related to emerging opportunities of land-grant universities, government agencies, and business enterprises for broadened public service to rural…