Developing Entrepreneurial Rural Communities

Rural communities in the United States have diversified and their dependence on agriculture has decreased substantially. In the 1980s, rural deindustrialization occurred and rural areas continued to become more service oriented: employment opportunities declined because of shifts in the world and U.S. economies, and anti-rural public policies. In response, some rural communities have become entrepreneurial communities, whose characteristics include: healthy acceptance of controversy; a degree of economic surplus to allow for risk-taking; willingness of community to tax itself to maintain infrastructure and schools; the ability to define community broadly and to network both vertically and horizontally to obtain resources; and dispersed community leadership. Entrepreneurial behavior in the context of more favorable state and federal policies could help stabilize many rural communities. Major changes are taking place in rural America in response to the changing structure of agriculture and the restructuring of the national economy. These changes will have enormous impacts on the structure and vitality of rural communities. However, the future of rural communities is not foreordained. If communities and community development professionals can mobilize and modify local organizations and institutions to take advantage of the changing circumstances, rural communities can offer a viable option to Americans in terms of lifestyle and livelihood. But if communities and the individuals within them An earlier version of this article appeared in Rural Development News (1988b).