This book provides an important set of basic materials for students of rural development. Key papers have been chosen and arranged, and the editor has provided a general introduction and passages that link the papers, alerting the student to rival theoretical interpretations and to regional parallels and contrasts.

The book’s main aim is not to say how rural development should be achieved, but to provide a basis for the analysis of the processes that make rural societies and economies what they are and substaintially determine the changes that take place within them. These papers and their framework help us to understand the nature of the phenomena with which rural development has to deal, and in doing so, to begin to evaluate the interventions of agencies and planners.

The book will be of value to students of development studies, geography, agriculture and economics, and its relevance is world-wide since it draws on material throughout the developing world, particularly Asia, Latin America and Africa.