SOCIOECONOMIC TRENDS CHANGING RURAL AMERICA



Putting people first in this context would mean designating commu-
nity development as the rationale for a rural development policy and
as the justification and focus of investments in rural economic devel-
opment. It would mean helping people organize for community
action and providing development assistance with community level
impacts and processes in mind.

One justification for putting people first through rural community
development is the fragile relationship between economic develop-
ment and community development in rural areas. Far from being
synonymous or inherently linked to one another, these can be in
sharp opposition. Specifically, economic development without com-
munity development in a rural area can be exploitative and divisive,
and the result can be loss rather than gain in rural well-being. On
the other hand, economic development can support community devel-
opment; and, when it does, rural social well-being tends to increase.

I want to stop on a practical note—how best to promote community
development in rural areas. Ironically, a program designed expressly
to promote community development is not a very good means of pro-
moting community development. A much better way is to make com-
munity development a secondary objective of efforts to reach more
visible goals, such as jobs or services. This is true for national policy
and for local extension education. Community development can occur
best when people are doing other things, particularly when they are
working together for their communities

Take entrepreneurship, which was promoted widely last year as a
rural development strategy. Some critics are skeptical about how
much rural development can really be expected to come from entre-
preneurship, but others continue to promote it vigorously. Assuming
it is something to encourage as a means of rural development, there
are two ways to go about encouraging it. One way is to set up educa-
tional programs and other aids for individuals who want to become
entrepreneurs. Another way is to set up a community group or orga-
nization to encourage entrepreneurship. A small difference, but one
way promotes community development and the other does not. The
same could be said for alternative methods of teaching management
skills, planning skills and leadership skills or for providing venture
capital and other resources to support rural development projects.

The main idea is to get the community into the act. At the local
level, community action is the key—the practical key—to rural com-
munity development.

REFERENCES

Anderson, A. H. The Expanding Rural Community. Nebraska Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. No. 464, University of
Nebraska, 1961.

Beaulieu, Lionel J., ed. The Rural South in Crisis. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1987.

Bly, Carol. Letters from the Country. New York: f⅛nguin, 1981.

Browett, John. uOn the Necessity and Inevitability of Uneven Spatial Development Under Capitalism.” IntnafL

J. UrbanandReg Res.. 8(1984):155-76.

14



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