Rural Development

History of the concept

The conceptualization of rural development is closely associated with the emergence of the “rural” as a social and geographical category in the early 20th century. In the beginning, such development was closely linked to a nascent rural geography, and until the 1960s, it was difficult to differentiate between the two. Practitioners constructed the rural as an abstract space that could be manipulated to stimulate development (typically framed through the discourse of “modernization”) in areas where demographics indicated a dispersed population and extensive land use. Issues, staffs, and programs were organized largely along the sectoral lines of state bureaucracies such that rural development itself became a highly fragmented enterprise involving multiple agencies concerned with agriculture, labor management, entrepreneurship and small business, environment and resources, and social services.

The 1970s saw the rise of an “integrated” approach to rural development premised on the coordination of the environmental, economic, technological, and policy aspects of agricultural production. Beginning in the 1980s, rural development experienced a marked shift in conceptualization and implementation as scholars and practitioners alike began to retheorize the concept of rurality itself. In practical terms, this led to an increased focus on cultivating local human and natural capital in rural communities through participatory and collaborative initiatives that featured the direct involvement of multiple groups of stakeholders. Collectively, these new, regenerative approaches are referred to as “endogenous” development. Contemporary rural development approaches such as these have emerged in a political-economic climate characterized by state devolution of environmental and social management authority to local communities and organizations.

Central Questions

The history of rural development, and by extension its various approaches and schools of thought, can be interpreted as responses to a pair of fundamental questions.