Module 1: Goals and objectives of rural sustainable development

Objectives

Students will be able to understand the notions of sustainable development and their origin.

Students will understand how the characteristics of rural communities.

Students will begin to think about the relevance of the concepts of sustainable development to rural communities.

Background

We begin the course by reviewing definitions of sustainable development and rural and to consider how the ideas of sustainable development may be applied to the issues that rural communities face. Sustainable development has become the dominant idea shaping policy towards the environment. We start to analyze this idea by reviewing the document generally credited with popularizing sustainable development: Our Common Future (WCED, 1987). We next shift our attention to develop an understanding of the meaning of “rural.” By way of introducing the current issues faced by rural communities in one of the North American countries, the United States, we learn how policy makers define this geographic term and we assess the results of a survey on the experiences and attitudes of inhabitants in rural communities in the United States. We finally attempt to place this detailed perspective of rural communities alongside of the more abstract notion of sustainable development.

Lecture

Following are video and slide presentations for each part of the lecture. The videos are in MPEG-4 (.mp4) files format, which can be viewed with a variety of video viewers, such as Quicktime and RealPlayer. The slides are available as pdf files.

Part 1: Introduction to the course (pdf file of Powerpoint presentation)

Part 2: Global Efforts for Sustainable Development (pdf file of Powerpoint presentation)

Part 3: Definitions, terms and concepts related to rural areas and populations

Video (33:30 minutes, 25.6 MB)

Slides (pdf file of Powerpoint presentation)

Readings

Bustillo, G., Lissette, Martínez, D., J.P. and Gallardo, L., F. (2008) Sustainable Rural Development: That Distinguished Stranger (A Review). Revista Cientifica FCV-LUZ/Vol. XVIII, No. 1, 43-50.

Cromartie, J. and Bucholtz, S. (2008) “Defining the ‘Rural’ in Rural America, Amber Waves, 6(3): 28-34.

Hamilton L., Hamilton L., Duncan C., Colocousis C. (2008) Place Matters: Challenges and Opportunities in Four Rural Americas. Carsey Institute, University of New Hampshire: Durham, New Hampshire.

Harris, J.M. (2000) Basic Principles for Sustainable Development, Global Development and Environment Institute, Working paper 00-04, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Other Resources

du Plessis, V., Beshiri, R. Bollman, R. and Clemenson, H. (2002) “Definitions of ‘Rural,” Agriculture and Rural Working Paper Series Working Paper No. 61, Statistics Canada, Agriculture Division, Ottawa, Canada.

Jamieson, D. (1998) “Sustainability and beyond,” Ecological Economics, 24:183–192.

John, Patricia La Caille, Rural Information Center (U.S.), “What is Rural?” Beltsville, MD : USDA, National Agricultural Library, Rural Information Center, [2008] http://www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/what_is_rural.shtml

Kusmin, L., Rural America at a Glance, 2009 Edition, US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, DC http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib40/

Mog, J.M. (2004) ‘Struggling with Sustainability – A Comparative Framework for Evaluating Sustainable Development Programs’, World Development 32(12): 2139–2160.

Discussion Questions

1. Are the definitions and notions of sustainable development useful?

2. What is different about rural areas when compared to urban areas?

3. What is the role of rural areas in sustainable development and vice versa?

4. Who do you consider are the main actors of change in sustainable rural development and why?

Evaluation

Students will write a three-page reflection paper on the discussion questions.

Vocabulary

sustainability

sustainable development

rural

Faculty contact(s) for Questions of Clarification

Alex Mayer (asmayer@mtu.edu)