Rural Well-Being and Ingenuity

Rural Well-Being and Ingenuity: Claiming Our Rural Future shows that rural people across America are facing rapid, disruptive change driven by economic restructuring, climate change, and technological advances, from factory and hospital closures to diminishing water supply and threats to public health. They are meeting that change with creativity, resilience, and determination. They do not accept that their future is predetermined; they have agency over it.

The book offers a broad framework for rural well-being, covering economic, environmental, health, and community life, and shows how regional collaboration and civic entrepreneurship, for example, can yield real, long-term benefits. It shows that rural outcomes are shaped not only by markets and public policy but also by power (who controls decisions), institutions (which rules and organizations hold sway), investment (where capital flows), and communities' capacity to act on their own behalf. The experiences and hard-won successes of rural people and organizations highlight what is possible and what is needed to achieve rural well-being. 

The central theme of this book is rural ingenuity: the ability to spot opportunities, solve problems, mobilize local assets, and build new forms of cooperation, as when small towns join forces to secure broadband, revive a local food economy, or pool resources to keep a rural hospital open. Four enabling factors-regional collaboration, conflict resolution, entrepreneurship and placemaking, and resilience-form the foundation for action.

Building on these themes, the book is written for rural leaders, policymakers, funders, practitioners, and citizens, asking each to recognize rural America's essential role in the nation and to act on it, whether by investing, advocating, or simply showing up. It proposes that governments, philanthropy, and rural-based institutions invest in the financial and technical support that strengthens the capacity of rural communities and regions to determine their own futures.