BUILDING DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY IN NONMETROPOLITAN COMMUNITIES

How can small, nonmetropolitan communities develop the capacity to imp rove their economies and their overall quality of life? Michael McGuir e, Barry Rubin, Robert Agranoff, and Craig Richards examine the role o f community-wide strategic planning as a capacity building tool. Using a matched-pair evaluation design, the authors find that small communi ties that have engaged in a strategic planning process possess higher levels of development capacity than a group of similar communities tha t have had no previous experience with strategic planning. Such planni ng can lead to positive political changes in the community and result in a consensus about the nature of the desired development.