Future Here Now: the Future of Rural looks surprisingly like its past
Signals
This week’s Future Here Now focuses on a particular type of location: the future of rural places, especially in the U.S. Rural places have been stereotyped as backward and slow to progress for much of the last 200 years, but a closer look at history shows us that most rural places were as deeply impacted by the Industrial Era as cities were.
It’s hard to imagine a more industrial environment than a shaft ore mine, or a early iron furnace, or a modern commercial farm. And the people who moved to rural communities during their industrial height often came from the same countries and cities as the immigrants who powered the massive factories and mills that we associate with the height of the Industrial Era.
So rural people have been hardly static. Given what we know of the Fusion Economy and its demands and opportunities, what does the future of rural look like?
One thing we definitely know: it will look different from its past. Because it always has.
Signals
Rural communities, national challenges
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PxakYt9GMRhj1hvHeoH7SZ62wG2z7aN1TYIBeX_ZCFM/edit#
This conversation gives a good overview of some of the challenges I wrote about yesterday, ranging from information technology to community connections to diverse populations. It’s nice when McKinsey decides to agree with me :-)
An unexpected – and troubling – rural challenge
This article’s headline surprised me, but not as much as what it actually says:
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