Issues Affecting Rural Communities. Proceedings of an International Conference Held by the Rural Education Research and Development Centre (Townsville, Queensland, Australia, July 10-15, 1994).

This proceedings contains approximately 100 conference papers and workshop summaries on rural health, education, and community development. The majority of the papers are concerned with conditions in rural Australia; about 20 examine rural issues in the United States; while a smaller number cover Canada, New Zealand, and European countries. A basic assumption of the conference was that rural education, health, and community and economic development can come together as a new area of study, creating new models for collaborative work on human issues in rural communities. Rural areas in both the developed and developing worlds are receiving more attention and funding than ever before. However, despite the varied and numerous programs in place in a number of countries, sparse collaboration across disciplines, cultures, and international boundaries fragments and limits the results of rural efforts. This conference was a necessary step toward collaboration and provided a thematic framework to begin to coalesce discipline-based presentations on rural issues. Such issues are related to education, health, culture, law and public policy, science and technology, social and environmental justice, communications and information equity, women's concerns, and sustainability and distance learning. A conference overview points out three major conference themes: creating community, the necessity of ethical and moral foundations, and the need for new forms of professional training and practice. The proceedings includes a list of delegates. (SV)