Photo By: Paul Cory

Andrew A. Zekeri Dept. of Sociology 203 Washington Hall Tuskegee University Tuskegee, Alabama 36088-1699

INTRODUCTION

An understanding of the prospects for residents of rural communities in the south as the 20th century comes to a close requires that we take stock of the current situation and venture into the realm of futurism - a formidable agenda for a sociological case study. Neither the current situation nor the future are transparent, and there is no assurance that even a thorough-going appraisal of either will reveal the secrets we seek. Still, questions about the future of rural communities are compelling to those of us who study and care about the well being of people in the changing countryside. What are the forces of social change that are molding the future for the residents of small settlements in predominantly rural areas in the south? Moreover, from a practical standpoint, to what degree are the needs of rural villages and villagers addressed by local officials and what new policy directions are needed to address their needs as we approach the 21st century? A search for answers, tentative though the answers might have to be, is what we must undertake if, working in the footsteps of my mentor and friend, Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology, late Kenneth P. Wilkinson and other founders of the applied science of Rural Sociology, we would seek to contribute to the solution of rural community problems. Using the field theory of the community, a distinctive analytical framework pioneered by Harold Kaufman and later developed extensively by Professor Wilkinson, I examined the relative importance of past activeness (community action in the past) in explaining local economic development efforts in a rural community in Alabama, to which a fictitious name of Forestville has been given. The assumption in my research is that communities with past actions usually have opportunities for local associations, able leadership, and the habit of working together for community ends. This capacity should enable groups and local officials in such communities to carry out economic development projects in later years. Past activeness not only adds to the information base of the community but also builds the confidence of groups and local officials, since they have available reality-tested guides to action (Garkovich 1989). This research is possible because of what I learnt from Wilkinson as one of his Ph.D. students, as a colleague and as a friend. Professor Wilkinson was all any serious student could wish a major advisor and a chairman of a thesis committee to be. His black pen frequently turned my awkward sentences to elegance. Further, he was always thoughtful and understanding when I needed his aid. Professor Wilkinson gave me warm encouragement and showed me kindness, beside teaching me a good part of what I know about rural sociology. The study reported here was undertaken because as Wilkinson and I contended from our previous work (see Zekeri and Wilkinson 1990), local action and initiatives have become important components of U.S. rural and community development policy in recent decades.