Rural Development: Intentions and Consequences.

The paper describes a frame of reference for rural development research with an emphasis on identification and assessment of consequences for people and communities of programs and policies undertaken in the name of rural development. It is suggested that rural development research is not an academic specialty in the traditional sense and that a tendency to regard it as such should be avoided. Development is political and concerned with values, and rural development research must be cognizant of those features. It is contended in the paper chat many of the features of a the prevailing ideology of development have produced outcomes which cannot be regarded as developmental: for example, vulnerability, excessive dependency, social costs associated with an emphasis on efficiency, inequality, excessive centralization of decision-making and control, and so on. Attention is also directed to the nature of knowledge produced by rural sociologists with an emphasis on the need for greater integration of knowledge around major policy and development issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]