Symposium On Rural Labor Markets Research Issues

This volume focuses on alternatives for non-metropolitan economic development in the new international economic climate. It provides critical reviews of popular employment-generation alternatives for rural areas.

During the past two decades, many attempts have been made to refocus stratification research and the study of inequality. The contributors to this volume have a long-term concern with the importance of space and locality. Many of them belonged to a research project during the early 1980s that had as one of its main aims the analysis of labor force

Crisis in rural America is by now an all too familiar complaint, yet the problems presented by changing demographics, economic decline, and increasing poverty persist. They have not vanished with a new administration. However, with a new farm bill in the offing, now is the time for a fresh initiative to assess the difficulties facing nonurban America and to offer positive solutions. Rural Policies for the 1990s, written by some of the foremost experts on rural America, focuses on policy-relevant research. Within a carefully crafted framework, the contributors present stimulating discussions on resolving problems and improving the situation in rural areas. Looking at the crucial issues of employment, demographics, environment, technology, and the global impacts of national and international policies, they offer a broad analysis that is neither regionally based nor biased. The result is not an advocacy book, but one that effectively enhances our understanding of the problems facing rural America and presents concrete proposals for revitalizing it.

A team of anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, social workers, and sociologists examine the leading explanations for why poverty persists in rural America. Their findings discredit established theories such as the culture of poverty and suggest new explanations for rural poverty and new directions for antipoverty programs