By Brian Dabson, Director, Rural Futures Lab Much of what passes
for policy discussion around place-based strategies tends to
emphasize the differences between urban and rural, often to the
detriment of rural people and places. To a great extent this is
the result of the unsatisfactory way urban and rural places are
defined, as described in Kathy Miller’s blog, The Quandary of
Defining Rural (September 12, 2011). It is also an outcome of a
general lack of awareness of the contribution that rural America
makes to the overall prosperity and well-being of the nation as
a whole. A potentially fruitful way of reframing the discussion
is to focus on the linkages between urban and rural people and
places to better understand the nature and strength of their
interdependence. This was one of the important topics for
discussion at the recent Rural Wealth Creation and Livelihoods
conference in Washington DC sponsored by the Economic Research
Service and the Ford Foundation. The particular mechanisms
favored by Ford for