During the mid-1980s, development planners realised that people's participation was imperative for the success of any development project. These projects were addressed to the people who had to be the main actors of their own development. An Integrated Rural Water Supply and Environment Sanitation Project (IRWS & ES), sponsored by the World Bank, was one such programme that laid heavy emphasis ...

Small farms and smallholder farming systems play crucial roles in agricultural development in many developing countries. From the various rural development programs designed to support such farming systems, agricultural extension services are of at most importance. However, the benefit that farmers obtain from these services and the resulting impact depends, to a great extent, by their direct a...

Rural tourism is becoming increasingly embedded in the livestock animal management in rural areas. Drawing on a multi-methods approach, this exploratory research shows how to construct the livestock animal displacement actor-networks. As is found, human actors (local governments, tourists, and local residents), non-human animal (livestock) and quasi-object (human dwellings) construct an interac...

Our previous analysis of 2015 Health Insurance Marketplace (HIM) data on plan availability and premiums in comparison to 2014 showed only modest premium increases in many rural areas and increased firm participation in most areas. To determine whether HIM enrollment also shows a positive trend, we analyzed county-level HIM enrollment data for 2015 by geographic categories, population density, p...

Disclaimer: This research paper does not necessarily reflect the policy position of the Commonwealth Government. Adam Graycar Director While it may appear intuitive that participation in community-oriented activities corresponds to lower rates of violent and property crime, this paper seeks to test the proposition with hard data. Local data on community participation are not available in Austra...