1st Edition

Rural Wealth Creation as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy

Edited By Shanna Ratner, Deborah Markley Copyright 2016
    120 Pages
    by Routledge

    120 Pages
    by Routledge

    Many rural areas in the United States find themselves struggling to build local assets and create wealth, and, when this wealth is created, they often struggle to hold on it. Previous approaches to community and economic development have been inadequate in attempting to reverse these trends. Shifting to a new way of enabling economic development requires supporting innovative community leaders as they explore new ways of approaching the task at hand. It also requires thinking anew about the role of rural areas, based on valuing multiple forms of wealth – natural, social, and human. There is a real need for an approach that can help stem the potential loss of existing wealth, and attract new investment that will allow rural areas to become valued partners in regional economies.

    This book provides an important insight into rural wealth creation as a sustainable economic development strategy. At the same time, a number of compelling issues are raised that merit future research effort and discussion. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

    Introduction: Rural wealth creation as a sustainable economic development strategy Shanna Ratner and Deborah Markley

    1. Facilitating community wealth building: understanding the roles played and capacities needed by coordinating institutions Thomas S. Lyons and Barbara Wyckoff

    2. Socioeconomic development in an ultra-peripheral European region: the role of a food regulatory council as a social anchor Abel Duarte Alonso

    3. Community forests as a wealth creation strategy for rural communities Martha West Lyman, Curt Grimm and Julie Renaud Evans

    4. Community development and other extra-religious functions of Islamic schools: a contemporary perspective from the voices of stakeholders in two madrassas in Pakistan Omer Aijazi and Leonora C. Angeles

    5. International amenity migration: implications for integrated community development opportunities Gerardo Cortes, David Matarrita-Cascante and Maria Fernanda Rodriguez

    6. A story about storytelling: enhancement of community participation through catalytic storytelling Mikulas Pstross, Craig A. Talmage and Richard C. Knopf

    Biography

    Shanna Ratner is the founder of Yellow Wood Associates, a woman-owned small business, based in St. Alban’s City, VT, USA, which specializes in community economic development in rural America.

    Deborah Markley is the co-founder of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, a national non-profit based in Lincoln, NE, USA, which works with communities across North America to create and implement entrepreneurship development strategies.