ABSTRACT

Development specialists often overlook the feet that the towns of a rural region play as essential a role in the region's economy as does agriculture, and they design and implement broad strategies without due recognition of the unique and dynamic character of each individual region. Proper analysis requires consideration of the changing nature of rural regions and the principal agents of change. The contributors to this volume argue that development strategists should focus on processes rather than on products by taking the nonfarm aspects, as well as the farm aspects, of rural development into account and by recognizing that land, labor, water, and technology do not alone lead to balanced regional and agricultural development. The analytical approaches presented in this book incorporate wide-ranging variables from the urban space of rural regions—markets, towns, service industries, and organizations—that have major impacts on the rural regional economy. These methodologies aim at improving rural regional development processes.