There is a growing economic disparity between rural and urban areas. To be effective, policy aimed at improving rural employment and income must recognize the great variations that exist in local development opportunities. The objectives of a comprehensive rural economic development policy should include the concerns of both the farm and nonfarm rural economies and resource transitions–people and capital–from one economic use to another. Community development practitioners can play a critical role in helping rural volunteer leaders assess their conditions, acquire necessary knowledge from external sources, and act as catalysts and facilitators in the execution of economic development policy. This paper outlines the changing rural economic base, the factors affecting development prospects, general policy objectives, and the role of the community development practitioner.

The number of shopping centers in rural communities has increased rapidly in recent years. Downtown merchants and local government officials have been concerned about how the increased competition affects existing downtown businesses. This paper reviews the economic impact of shopping centers on downtowns of twelve rural Wisconsin communities. Three general aspects are analyzed: (1) the demand characteristics of each community; (2) change in the community's retail market behavior; and (3) direct measures of the shopping center's impact on downtown businesses.The study results show that the introduction of a shopping center does not assure that the small community will capture its retail market potential. The growth in some retail categories appears to be more a consequence of improved store management or the addition of a single store either in or out of a shopping center. With respect to existing downtown businesses, adding the shopping center seems to have limited economic effects.

The continuing need for more employment opportunities in nonmetropolitan areas, combined with the diminishing ability of manufacturing to produce the opportunities, and changing desires and attitudes with respect to growth, indicate a need for job creation strategies not geared solely to manufacturing. A suggested alternative is selected nonmanufacturing business. However, to date, little information on this economic sector exists for nonmetropolitan areas. This paper represents an initial step in providing this information. The nonmanufacturing businesses play both import substitution and export roles. Almost 27 percent of the businesses were primarily exporters. Larger, nonlocally owned businesses were more apt to be exporters. With respect to location factors, the businesses surveyed identified community, market and labor factors as the most important in determining a favorable location.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsGlen C. PulverDr. Pulver is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Community Development Specialist, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In a few short years, the United states will celebrate the year 2000. Some predict fantasies of medical miracles, cities in outer space, abundance for all—others anticipate starvation, pestilence, and death. To control their future effectively, people must first recognize clearly that they are faced with conflicting goals. Very clearly, the struggle between short-run comfort and long-run survival is going to be more a part of life. The question of the proper balance of economic development with environmental protection will plague everyone. The power structure will have to deal with more direct pressures from the people. Federal control will, of necessity, be balanced with local involvements. Private rights will be protected whenever possible, but public interest will be more clearly understood. The future will depend upon how well people understand themselves and learn to respect others.

H. G. Wells, one of the world’s foremost historians, wrote, “The History of our race and personal religious experience run so closely parallel as to ;seem to a modern observer almost the same thing; both tell of a being at first scattered and blind and utterly confused, feeling its way slowly to the serenity and salvation of an ordered and coherent purpose.” (1)