A recent trend in American economic life has been the location of industrial complexes in traditionally rural areas. When this occurs, there are often accompanying rapid and sometimes traumatic changes in the rural community. These changes, in part, result from investment of new and massive amounts of capital, new employment opportunities, in-migration of new workers, and demands for new and more services. New values, attitudes, and patterns of behavior are introduced, and the established patterns of community life are disrupted. The basic trends of development in the social system of an experimental and control area are being studied in terms of the Jones-Laughlin Steel Corporation (J&L), which in 1965 began the development of a major production complex in the Hennepin area of Putnam County, Illinois. The impact of the J&L installation is being explored by an interdisciplinary team of social scientists at the University of Illinois. The study project, known as the Rural Industrial Development Project, will investigate the impact of the installation in adjacent counties as well. The document includes an explanation of the theoretical framework of the study and 59 tables. (EJ)