Rural Areas in Transition: Meeting Challenges & Making Opportunities

This volume explores new opportunities to reshape local economies in rural areas during the next decade by exploring successful efforts already underway.

While reported population declines can paint a bleak picture for rural areas, a different story can be told in looking at the numbers of households, employment, and housing markets. In fact, many rural areas have had steady employment and healthy housing markets. Rural attractions often include proximity to natural recreation areas, personal safety, social interaction, less expensive housing, and high-quality education. This book shows that rural areas are in a major long-term transition and that local leaders who take advantage of these opportunities in their community and economic development strategies can create a very positive future for residents.

Students and policymakers in local economic development, sociology of population change, business finance, political economy, and geography will find this a useful resource.

Norman Walzer, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Western Illinois University where he founded the statewide Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs in 1989 and retired as director in 2015. He has served as president of the Community Development Society, the Midwest Section of the Regional Science Association, and has held leadership positions in other professional organizations. He has published extensively with 27 authored, co-authored, or edited books and numerous articles on Collective Impact, local public finance, community and economic development, strategic planning, community owned businesses, and related issues. He co-edits Local Development and Society, an international community and economic development journal and is on the Editorial Board of Community Development.

Christopher Merrett, Ph.D., is Professor of Geography, director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, and graduate coordinator of the master’s degree in Community and Economic Development at Western Illinois University. His research focus is on regional development, international trade, and cooperatives as they relate to community development. He co-edited (with Norman Walzer) two books on this topic and he has also published on these issues in a wide range of academic and policy outlets.