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Rural Development Institute

LibGuide for Rural Development students at BU!

Welcome to the Rural Development Institute Guide

This guide is intended to help you find resources for Rural Development Institute and information from

  • Research works on RDI's five strategic research directions
  • Print and electronic books and publications
  • Journals, reports, presentations and sample e-books
  • Theses, webinars and research briefs
  • Trustworthy internet sites and web resources

Use the tabs on the side to navigate through the pages of the guide.

Featured Research Briefs

Episode 1 of The Research Center Series

The Rural Development Institute
Presenter: William Ashton

Featured books on Rural Development

Rural Development: Knowledge & Expertise in Governance

This book offers a unique perspective on rural development, by discussing various influential perspectives and making their risks and benefits understandable. The authors do not present a magical formula to solve all issues, or to show the best possible future. Rather, they give students, researchers, community leaders, politicians, concerned citizens and development organizations the conceptual tools to understand how things are organized now, which development path has already been taken, and how things could possibly move in a different direction. Van Assche and Hornidge pay special attention to the different roles of knowledge in rural development, both expert knowledge in various guises and local knowledge. Crafting development strategies requires understanding how new knowledge can fit in and work out in governance. Players in governance bring their own realities to the table, their own ideas on the knowledge necessary for development. Drawing on various theories and on projects and experiences on five continents, the book shows how ways to organize governance, approaches to development, and rural development perspectives, are inextricably tied. A community is much better placed to choose direction, when it understands these ties.