Reverse Migration and the Rural Community Development Problem

The thesis of the paper is that the more pro- found impacts of the recent population turnaround center on the qualitative aspects of community in rural America. That is, the nature of community life will be determined by the relationships that evolve through newcomer and oldtimer interaction in providing needed goods and services. Inherent in the movement of people to the countryside is the potential for a wide range of human interaction relationships. As newcomers arrive in the rural community, they may choose isolation from others except for the social contact necessary to meet their personal needs for exchange of goods and services. Alternatively, newcomers may find oldtimers isolated from each other, as farmers have little contact with general townspeople who, in turn,have little contact with the professional group in the community. Should newcomer and oldtimer interaction become more intense, the potential exists for creation of a hostile encounter in which conflict, self-interest and competitive use of power dominate. Alternatively, the potential exists for a mutually enhancing experience in which people share meanings, thereby developing trust and com- mitment to the community as the basis for action in meeting individual and collective needs. Currently, we can only speculate on the range of relationships