CDS UpFront
Compiled by Timothy Collins, Assistant Director, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
How Twitter Proves That Place Matters
A new study, "The Geography of Twitter Networks," takes a detailed look at the geography of Twitter and what it can tell us about the nature of interaction and proximity in the Internet age.
If They Build It, Will the Chef Come?
Pocomoke, MD's municipal leaders are building a 145-seat restaurant and bar completely on spec.
Alchemy in Scottsburg, Indiana
Spurred by an insult, led by a strong mayor and grounded in volunteerism, Scottsburg, Indiana, has replenished itself as both a community and a regional economic force.
3 Ways Art Improves Small Communities
When you think of art, what do you think of? Paintings, sculptures, performances? What about community revitalization and development?
Can Hip Urban Crafts Help Revitalize Rust Belt Manufacturing?
A new culture of small, local companies could still use the Rust Belt's ingenuity and know-how, and the Rust Belt could use their energy and cachet. If they figured out how to work together, they might change the way things are made in America.
Grace Boggs: Reviving the Lost City
"Unless we make a distinction between jobs and work we are going to be like Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, appendages to a machine," Boggs says. "How do we do the kind of daily activity that grows our souls so that we don't have to make up for the indignities of our labor? Jobs are not the answer; jobs are the problem. Now we've reached a stage where creating things can be done by robots. So what we have to do is create ourselves. That's what The Next American Revolution is all about, creating better selves."
Does Local Economic Development Work?
For decades, city fathers and academics have studied economic development, searching diligently for ways to make urban economies prosper.
Does Your Local Economic Development Strategy Include Search Engines?
People looking for information about local restaurants and other businesses say they
National Rural Assembly Notes
Last year's gathering of the National Rural Assembly in St. Paul focused on building a more inclusive nation where all the people and all the places can make a difference.
Who Should Run the Countryside? Notes
More information about the event may be found on the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme website.
The International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy Notes
More than 1,600 participants from 62 countries took part in the International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy in Montréal last October.
The Extreme Future of Megacities
Like it or not, the megacity is coming. Will it be urban dystopia, or ordered, smart, green and secure? As a billion rural dwellers vote with their feet, will numbers overwhelm us?
Seasteading: Libertarians dream of creating self-ruling floating cities. But can the many obstacles, not least the engineering ones, be overcome?
Incubating Success: Incubation Best Practices That Lead to Successful New Ventures
A new study by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration confirms that business incubation contributes to entrepreneurial success, demonstrates that the most successful incubators employ best practices and shows that incubator programming and management have the greatest impact on client success.
Civil Society Engagement in the Green Economy Debate
More than just including the voices of civil society actors and coalitions, the green economy debate must take into account the diversity of understandings, interactions and values that characterize the struggle for a unified civil society response.
A Fair Green Economy? Studies of Agriculture, Energy and Waste Initiatives in Malaysia This paper looks at how the Malaysian government deals with green economy. Through case studies of agriculture, renewable energy and waste-to-wealth initiatives, the paper demonstrates that green economy in Malaysia has the most potential when it involves engagement of communities.
Realizing Local Development in the Carbon Commodity Chain
This paper provides an analysis of how local community development is connected to the global carbon economy through the creation of carbon commodities (offset credits) and the role of premium credit certification in assisting in local development. The paper shows that information on local conditions should be focused on political-economic processes and the interactions between actors to nuance the social benefits of carbon credit generation in developing country contexts.
Series Explores Income Inequality
Part 1: Overview
Part 2: The Loss of Shared Prosperity
Part 3: Widening Inequality Since the 1970s
Part 4: More on the Widening of Inequality Since the 1970s
Part 5: The Concentration of Income and Wealth
The Recession's Ongoing Impact on America's Children
Children throughout the United States continue to be negatively impacted by the lingering effects of the Great Recession, with children in some states more hard hit than others.
Rural Family Incomes Drop 2007-2010
With the recession, rural incomes have declined in seven out of ten counties. And incomes remain highest in metropolitan areas.
Generations Bookend Rural Great Plains and Midwest
A new Center for Rural Affairs report released finds that rural areas in the Great Plains and Midwest continue to lose population and are caught between "bookend generations" - the youngest and the oldest - with a demographic valley in between.
South Toward Home
After the community outpouring that followed his sister's death, a brother decides to move back to his small-town birthplace.
Rural Small Business Trends 2012
Rural and small town small business trends are always different from the general trends driving small business nationally. This year, the most dramatic difference is in the economic outlook.
How Kite Photography Can Empower Local Communities
Attach a digital camera to a balloon or kite, and what do you get? An easy tool for public participation in land use decisions.
New FAO Report Profiles World's Land and Water Resources
Widespread degradation and deepening scarcity of land and water resources have placed a number of key food production systems around the globe at risk, posing a profound challenge to the task of feeding a world population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, according to a new FAO report.
Ecosystem Services Come of Age
Ecosystems are humanity's life-support systems. And the services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, flood control, water purification, and storm protection, have tremendous value (monetary and otherwise) to people. This special issue of Solutions explores how a new generation of environmentalists, from the Pacific Northwest to South Africa, is using the ecosystem services concept to protect both nature and people.
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