ABSTRACT
This book addresses a basic development problem: how to promote widespread economic growth in ways that will allow a large majority of people living in rural areas and in economically lagging regions to participate more effectively in productive activities and to obtain greater benefits from the development process. It offers an approach to spatial analysis and regional planning that focuses on building the productive and service capacity of settlements of different sizes and functional characteristics—rural service centers, market towns, intermediate-sized cities and regional centers—to provide the services, facilities and economic activities that can promote rural and regional development. It seeks to describe the locational dimension of regional and rural development planning and to offer guidelines for improving the capacity of settlements to offer an appropriate range of services, facilities, infrastructure and economic activities for their own residents and those of surrounding rural areas.
