Editorial

Abstract

In this issue of Community Development readers are introduced to eight papers that together present a diverse, yet vivid illustration of the challenges, opportunities, and innovations that characterize development in rural communities. The challenges described throughout the papers largely point to the precarious balance between responding to global economic pressures while retaining clear identities and authentic senses of place. Among the opportunities highlighted in the issue is the promise of placebased enterprises and marketscapes as bridges between rurality and external consumption demands and trends that include, for example, local food and sustainable tourism. Readers, whether community development practitioners or scholars, are likely to find inspiration and guidance from the rural development innovations that emerge from the issue, whether that be a creative approach to overcoming the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic or centering place-based mystique as a tool for community identity work. Below the landscape of the issue is described in greater detail. Using the local food movement in the U.K. as an empirical setting, Curry’s paper contributes a constructive critique of the shortcomings of neoclassical economic philosophies and mechanisms on community development initiatives. In doing so, Curry proposes a set of market mechanisms and social innovations, such as inter-firm collaboration and systemic coordination, that may be useful in maximizing the positive influence of marketization on community development goals and initiatives. Such influence is particularly promising in rural communities and economies that are often confronted with stagnated market conditions and declining populations via urbanization. Currie and colleagues further address the influence of large-scale economic policy conditions, specifically neo-liberalism, on rural community development. They identify the complexities as well as reveal the potential power of including diverse stakeholder groups in initiating and enacting community-centered resiliency planning. Petric and Gibson further underscore these economic-based challenges in their study of community investment fund strategies within rural Canadian regions and the associated reliance on government investments in public awareness campaigns and engagement strategies. Indeed, rural community member engagement in innovative development strategies is a notable challenge. Theodori, Willits, and Fortunato aptly illustrate this reality in their examination of the influence of mystique on rural community attachment and engagement. Their findings reveal the nuance of rural community identity with subjects positively associating mystique with community attachment, community satisfaction, and community decision-making. Yet, they find such association is not statistically associated with community-oriented action. Given recent upticks in cravings for nostalgia, especially via consumption choices, Theodori, et al.’s findings point to the potential, yet largely untapped power of strategically engaging cultural and societal trends in ways that bolster community development, engagement, and transformation. Next, Sanders, Lamm, and COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 2023, VOL. 54, NO. 2, 155–156 https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330.2023.2195695