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This paper uses a framework that goes beyond rural-urban dualism and highlights the role of small town economy in understanding structural change in a developing country. It provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of agricultural productivity in structural transformation in the labor market. The empirical work is based on a general equilibrium model that formalizes the demand and labor market linkages: the small-town draws labor away from the rural areas to produce goods and services whose demand may depend largely on rural income. The theory clarifies the role played by the income elasticity of demand and the wage elasticity with respect to productivity increase in agriculture. For productivity growth to lead to a demand effect, the wage elasticity has to be lower than a threshold. When the demand for goods and services produced in small towns comes mainly from the adjacent rural areas, the demand effect can outweigh the negative wage effect, and lead to higher employment in the town-goods sector. Using rainfall as an instrument, the empirical analysis finds a significant positive effect of agricultural productivity on rice yield and agricultural wages. Productivity shock increases wages more in the rural sample compared with the small town economy sample, but structural change in employment is more pronounced in the small-town economy. In the rural sample, it increases employment only in small-scale manufacturing and services. In contrast, a positive productivity shock has large and positive impacts on employment in construction and transport, education, health and other services, and manufacturing employment in larger scale enterprises located in small towns and cities. Agricultural productivity growth induces structural transformation within the services sector in small towns, with employment in skilled services growing at a faster pace than that of low skilled services.

Agricultural Productivity --- Dualism --- Employment Growth --- Employment In Large Firms --- Small Town Economy --- Structural Transformation

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How can small cities make an impact in a globalizing world dominated by ‘world cities’ and urban development strategies aimed at increasing agglomeration? This book addresses the challenges of smaller cities trying to put themselves on the map, attract resources and initiate development. Placemaking has become an important tool for driving urban development that is sensitive to the needs of communities. This volume examines the development of creative placemaking practices that can help to link small cities to external networks, stimulate collaboration and help them make the most of the opportunities presented by the knowledge economy. The authors argue that the adoption of more strategic, holistic placemaking strategies that engage all stakeholders can be a successful alternative to copying bigger places. Drawing on a range of examples from around the world, they analyse small city development strategies and identify key success factors. This book focuses on the case of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a small Dutch city that used cultural programming to link itself to global networks and stimulate economic, cultural, social and creative development. It advocates the use of cultural programming strategies as a more flexible alternative to traditional top-down planning approaches and as a means of avoiding copying the big city.

small town --- image --- development plan --- economic development --- artistic creation --- cultural policy --- collaborative economy --- public-private partnership --- knowledge economy --- public-private partnership. --- knowledge economy.

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This beautifully written book weaves reflections on anthropological fieldwork together with evocative meditations on a spectacular landscape as it takes us to the remote indigenous villages on the shore of Lake Titicaca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Ben Orlove brings alive the fishermen, reed cutters, boat builders, and families of this isolated region, and describes the role that Lake Titicaca has played in their culture. He describes the landscapes and rhythms of life in the Andean highlands as he considers the intrusions of modern technology and economic demands in the region. Lines in the Water tells a local version of events that are taking place around the world, but with an unusual outcome: people here have found ways to maintain their cultural autonomy and to protect their fragile mountain environment. The Peruvian highlanders have confronted the pressures of modern culture with remarkable vitality. They use improved boats and gear and sell fish to new markets but have fiercely opposed efforts to strip them of their indigenous traditions. They have retained their customary practice of limiting the amount of fishing and have continued to pass cultural knowledge from one generation to the next--practices that have prevented the ecological crises that have followed commercialization of small-scale fisheries around the world. This book--at once a memoir and an ethnography--is a personal and compelling account of a research experience as well as an elegantly written treatise on themes of global importance. Above all, Orlove reminds us that human relations with the environment, though constantly changing, can be sustainable.

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social. --- Titicaca Lake Region (Peru and Bolivia) --- Description and travel. --- Social life and customs. --- andean highlands. --- andes mountains. --- anthropology. --- cultural history. --- cultural studies. --- culture. --- economics. --- economy. --- environment. --- ethnography. --- fieldwork. --- fishing. --- geography. --- global. --- highlands. --- indigenous people. --- indigenous villages. --- lake titicaca. --- landscape. --- meditation. --- memoir. --- modern world. --- natural world. --- nature. --- peru. --- peruvian mountains. --- peruvian. --- regional. --- small town. --- sustainability. --- technology. --- true story. --- villagers.

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In this moving and insightful work, Deepak Singh chronicles his downward mobility as an immigrant to a small town in Virginia. Armed with an MBA from India, Singh can get only a minimum-wage job in an electronics store. Every day he confronts unfamiliar American mores, from strange idioms to deeply entrenched racism. Telling stories through the unique lens of an initially credulous outsider who is "fresh off the plane," Singh learns about the struggles of his colleagues: Ron, a middle-aged African-American man trying to keep his life intact despite health concerns; Jackie, a young African-American woman diligently attending school after work; and Cindy, whose matter-of-fact attitude helps Deepak adapt to his job and his new life. How May I Help You? is an incisive take on life in the United States and a reminder that the stories of low-wage employees can bring candor and humanity to debates about work, race, and immigration.

Foreign workers --- Working poor --- Immigrants --- Poor --- Working class --- Economic conditions. --- Employment --- United States --- african american. --- american history. --- black americans. --- career. --- careers. --- co workers. --- colleagues. --- community. --- culture. --- electronics. --- emotional. --- immigrant story. --- immigrant. --- immigration. --- indian culture. --- indian immigrant. --- jobs. --- low wage. --- minimum wage. --- motivational. --- new life. --- race issues. --- race. --- racism. --- racist. --- retail. --- small town. --- starting over. --- true story. --- united states. --- virginia. --- workplace issues. --- workplace.

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Twenty-five years ago Philip L. Fradkin read a book about a remote bay on the Gulf of Alaska coast. The noted environmental historian was attracted by the threads of violence woven through the natural and human histories of Lituya Bay. Could these histories be related, and if so, how? The attempt to define the power of this wild place was a tantalizing and, as it turned out, dangerous quest. This compelling and eerie memoir tells of Fradkin's odyssey through recorded human history and eventually to the bay itself, as he explores the dark and unyielding side of nature. Natural forces have always dominated Lituya Bay. Immense storms, powerful earthquakes, huge landslides, and giant waves higher than the world's tallest skyscrapers pound the whale-shaped fjord. Compelling for its deadly beauty, the bay has attracted visitors over time, but it has never been mastered by them. Its seasonal occupants throughout recorded history-Tlingit Indians, European explorers, gold miners, and coastal fishermen seeking a harbor of refuge-have drowned, gone mad, slaughtered fur-bearing animals with abandon, sifted the black sand beaches for minute particles of gold, and murdered each other. Only a hermit found peace there. Then the author and his small son visited the bay and were haunted by a grizzly bear. As an environmental writer for the Los Angeles Times and western editor of Audubon magazine, Fradkin has traveled from Tierra del Fuego to the North Slope of Alaska. But nothing prepared him for Lituya Bay, a place so powerful it turned one person's hair white. This story resonates with echoes of Melville, Poe, and Conrad as it weaves together the human and natural histories of a beautiful and wild place.

Violence --- Natural disasters --- Natural history --- History. --- Fradkin, Philip L. --- Travel --- Lituya Bay Region (Alaska) --- alaska. --- animals. --- coastal. --- environmental history. --- environmental. --- explorers. --- fishing. --- fjords. --- gold mining. --- gulf of alaska. --- historian. --- human history. --- indians. --- indigenous people. --- lituya bay. --- memoir. --- natural features. --- natural history. --- natural world. --- nature. --- northern united states. --- settlers. --- small town. --- tourism. --- tourists. --- true story. --- violence. --- visitors. --- western united states. --- world history.