The monographs in this packet were written by black scholars from the various disciplines for the Joint Educational Development (JED) Black Church Education Project Team. A basic assumption of the team is that viable educational experiences for black people in our churches involve releasing the potential power of our black scholars and making that…

Massive social changes are bound to occur with the extension of mass information utilities: the fundamental question is how shall this massive reconstruction of social information power be designed for the best interest of people. This book grew out of an American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) conference, and is organized…

This report is one of four describing a project which investigated the impact of Head Start parent participation on the program's quality, on institutional changes in the community, on the Head Start children, and on the Head Start parents themselves. Two types of parent participation were investigated: (1) parents in decision-making roles, and…

The scope, objectives, and some of the findings of urban geography are discussed in this paper. Curriculum development in urban geography at the high-school level is also briefly described. The first of six articles, "Aspects and Trends of Urban Geography," explains the urban geographer's interest in internal city structure, interaction of static…

The prediction, planning and management of the social development of a rural region presupposed typologization of its communities. This study aimed to: build an overall social typology of the rural communities in Siberia; elucidate the role of employment structure among other type-forming factors of social differentiation; build a special typology…

Households and businesses in neighborhoods where an elementary school had been closed and in similar neighborhoods where the school remained open were surveyed to determine community attitudes toward school closings. Respondents were asked to address a variety of questions covering such subjects as their satisfaction with their neighborhood, their…

Reviews socioeconomic impacts of rapid growth on rural areas in the western United States. Concludes that costs of development exceed benefits for some groups. Calls for research and policy initiatives to identify appropriate strategies to manage the growth and decline which are characteristic of changing rural areas. (LFL)

This guide is designed to involve people in study circles in discussing and taking action on community changes caused by immigration. A foreword introduces immigration and race relations, education, language differences, and job opportunities and defines study circles. Session 1 gives individuals the opportunity to share their personal…

Recent growth of rural communities and economies will change the role that community developers play. Based on the survey responses of 533 new migrants to five types of California rural communities, data indicate that the major role of community developers will be to coordinate and facilitate organizations in rural areas. (Author/SSH)

Describes materials, objectives and procedures for building a multi-cultural community, playing a game designed to demonstrate how our societal structure works in practice, mapping the history of a community, holding a town meeting, creating a myth, and making musical instruments. (LC)

Studies economic problems threatening prospects for development in rural communities. Examines "key foundations" required for economic growth, job creation, and issues of human resource development. Concludes global and technological factors forcing traditional rural economies into decline. Suggests nonmetropolitan communities invest in…

This case study of Wakayama Prefecture focuses on the postwar Japanese government's efforts to facilitate administration of rural areas via "town-making." School consolidation is among the means used to fabricate a new sense of social cohesion from a patchwork of depopulated and aging villages. The goal is to promote a national modern…

Argues that genetics, as popularized in "The Bell Curve" (Herrnstein and Murray, 1994), does not affect educational attainment and personal development, but environmental upheavals do. The environmental changes that effect educational and personal development are highlighted. It cautions that works involving pseudoscience, like "The…

In a reborn rural community populated by former urbanites, a small private school established by newcomers provides a place where upper-middle-class newcomer families negotiate their sense of rural place and contest that sense with working-class long-time residents' concept of rurality. Former urbanites' conception of rural community emerges as…

Bordering on North Carolina, the Dan River region of Southside Virginia is a largely rural area south of the state capitol, Richmond, and 135 miles east of Virginia Tech's main residential campus in Blacksburg. The structural problems evident today in this expanse of wooded areas, fields, small cities, and towns were born, in large measure, of the…