Contemporary development forces in the nonmetropolitan west: new insights from rapidly growing communities.

摘要

This paper begins by discussing recent empirical studies dealing with non-metropolitan population growth in western USA in the late 1980s and 1990s. Several macrolevel factors which are important in governing non-metropolitan growth are highlighted.Results of four community case studies are then reported to provide a better understanding of economic and social change at community level. Interviews with key players in each case study community provide the empirical evidence, and the data demonstrate community development processes to be complex. Resource-dependent industrial activities remain an important component for community economies. Furthermore, extractive activity is being supplemented (not supplanted) by various combinations of factors reported in macrolevel studies including niche manufacturing, Lone Eagles, quality of life migrants, and retirees. The case studies also highlight a high degree of volatility in growing areas and potential problems with assimilation, fractioning, and planning associated with rapid growth in these small places.