The report proposes a conceptual framework for researching key issues relating to rural public facility policy affecting such services as fire protection, water systems, roads, wastewater treatment, hospitals, and others, and identifies important research needs in this area. Major components of the framework are sources of financing (private and…

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…

This paper analyzes the considerations that lead policy makers to undertake extension investments as a key public responsibility, as well as the complex set of factors and intra-agency incentives that explain variations in performance between different extension systems. The goals of extension include transferring knowledge from researchers to…

In August of 1978 the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) published an annotated bibliography on Education Needs Projection and Rural Development; this synthesis paper follows that bibliography and is intended to relate some of the useful applications derived from the survey of the literature. Five papers are included in the synthesis. The…

A variety of ecological, economic, and social changes are now reshaping rural America. The deterioration of the economic structures and perceived quality of social life in large metropolitan centers of the United States has stimulated the dispersal of population and economic resources throughout rural America. During the last decade almost three…