provided by Research Papers in Economics
SOCIOECONOMIC TRENDS CHANGING
RURAL AMERICA
Kenneth P. Wilkinson
Pennsylvania State University
Three propositions summarize the winds of change now sweeping
across rural America.
1. The trends of the times, consistent with dominant historical pat-
terns in this society, are altering the economic and social structures
of rural communities.
2. In the wake of these trends there is little question about the
overall consequences for rural well-being. Rural America is in seri-
ous trouble.
3. In rural policy, we, as a society and through our governments,
need to put people first in rural development.
Socioeconomic Trends
A changing rural America has been the call to arms for the applied
rural social sciences in this country for nearly a century and a fact of
life for nearly five centuries. Tb be sure, a transformation is under-
way in the American countryside in the 1980s and many rural people
are suffering. But the same could be said about rural America in the
1880s or for that matter in the 1780s.
Change and suffering are among the most enduring qualities of
rural life in America. In a general sense, the reasons for rural change
are obvious: nothing ever stays the same for long and the pace of
change in society as a whole has been continuous and fairly rapid
over virtually the entire course of American history. It can be said
without exaggerating that few things are as familiar in the Ameri-
can experience as the winds of change.
Still, today’s trends have their own features, and many observers
see in these trends a rural crisis gathering, if not already boiling—a
crisis of rural well-being demanding quick and certain steps by gov-
ernment and other actors to avoid a rural disaster (U.S. Congress).
Perspective on these trends and ideas for appropriate policy re-
sponses can be gained by considering the broad historical milieu
from which they have emerged.