2025 CDS Annual Conference

Overview/Description
Rural America has faced numerous shocks (global pandemic, natural disasters, overdose crisis) and long-term stressors (population aging, globalization, industrial transformation, infrastructure decay, climate change). These experiences have implications for rural population change (fertility, health and mortality, migration), wellbeing, and vitality. Understanding these patterns will be critical for informing community development practice and policy for the future. This panel brings together select authors contributing to a forthcoming book, bringing together insights relevant to community development. The session begins with an overview of the project and how the work can help inform community development practice. This is followed with thematic panel presentations.

How the academic panel relates to the Theme and Tracks
This proposed academic panel relates to the Community Development Society conference theme in that it provides a summative research-based assessment of major characteristics and trends influencing rural America coupled with the implications for shaping policy and practice. Major sectors of importance to household and community wellbeing are addressed, including rural industries and livelihoods, housing, and digital infrastructure and use. Further attention is directed to local government responses to the shocks, stressors, and opportunities confronting rural communities. With insights from these presentations and subsequent discussion, session attendees will be able to conceptualize innovative approaches to community development, especially concerning place-based cross-sectoral collaboration.

(Note that there is an organizer/moderator for this session. There was not a place in the online form to place that information.)

Academic Panel Papers

Rural Industries and Livelihoods
A sizable rural-urban economic divide has developed since the 2000s, and it will likely continue through the 2020s. One can summarize the rural economy as a tale of “the west and the rest”. The rural west faces challenges of rapid economic growth, while the rest of rural America faces stagnation.

Rural Housing Landscapes
This presentation explores the ways in which demographic, economic, and climatic forces stress rural housing landscapes. With case examples focusing on the Wildland Urban Interface, population aging, and the financialization of rural housing, the contribution highlights spatial variations as well as differences across scale.

Digital Infrastructure and Use
The concept of the digital divide has been in place since the mid-1990s. It has evolved over time, given complexity and nuance. This presentation provides a brief history of the term, several indicators to define it, and its implications for rural communities. Particular attention is given to digital parity.

Local Governments and Policy Responses
This presentation highlights rural local governments and their policies in the context of stressors, shocks, and opportunities. A conceptual framework is advanced on the role of local governments in influencing spatial inequality and areas for future research and open questions about the role of rural local governments are identified.