The purpose of this study was to determine why young adults are leaving rural Mississippi towns and not returning to those areas. Research objectives were to 1) describe the characteristics of young adults who have left rural areas in the last ten years , 2) identify specific reasons why young adults choose to leave where they were raised, and 3) identify factors that would attract young people to return to rural areas in Mississippi. Findings from this study indicated young adults were leaving rural areas for better educational and job opportunities, but some were relocating to other areas within Mississippi for more social and recreational offerings. Results from this research lined up with what other researchers have found regarding young adults’ trends in other regions. Local officials /leaders in rural areas can use this research to help change local communities and something to recruit young adults back to rural Mississippi.

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Abstract I start this project as my master degree project which is the last assignment during my graduate education in Sweden. I own the bachelor degree in industrial design which is the beginning I ponder in a designer’s way. With the accumulation of my knowledge and study, I am willing to attempt different design fields in sustainable perspective, like product design, furniture design, exhibition design and service design. The working and study experiences provide valuable resources for me to recognize self. And the environment in Swedish society also is a school to acquire knowledge and know the world. The project, Lav Förening, was born in these contexts.   The main study fields: Rural depopulation was addressed as a global issues in economical, ecological, socio-political and cultural contexts in sustainability perspectives. The rural economic stagnation can be restore by government policy support. However, the disappearance of cultural landscape would cause irreversible loss. With case studies and fieldwork in Varshult, I define my study field in service design involving lichen study, farm innovation and enterprise framework for re-active rural cultural landscape. It is a proposal, through figuring out local renewable resource (lichen) and integrating stakeholders’ framework, to create an attractive community for rural part-time residents and young active citizens to participate. In order to complete the concept, there are six fields need to be study: depopulation and sustainable rural development, cultural landscape, lichen and essential oil, community agriculture and Boda Glass Factory.   The major findings of my study:  The service in this project is human centered. Through studying Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I analyze the needs of my target group. For the target group in Lav Förening, rural part-time residents and young active citizens, they have a good living conditions and enough spare time for their interests and pursuits. For the organizers and land owners, we are concerning the social phenomenon, rural depopulation, and we devote ourselves to figure out the opportunities to solve the problems and keep the rural cultural landscape alive. We pursue a higher level of psychological, belonging, esteem and self-actualization needs. There are six programs on lichen journey based on the needs study: Varshult visiting & lichen planting, bottles making, lichen collection essential oil extraction & tincture making, handmade workshop and market & exhibition. The proposal will be presented with visualizations and evidences.   The Lav Förening service proposal need to be refined continually. It shows an opportunity to oppose rural depopulation in design field. It is a practice for me to analyze a complicated framework and present it. The design process and report have recorded the development and exploration on my design study.

The number of citizens living in urban areas worldwide is predicted to increase in future decades. However, this projected increase is mainly due to the magnetic power of so-called megacities. Worldwide, many intermediate cities, especially in the most developed countries, have had considerable population losses in the past decades and this trend is expected to continue. When a city loses a high percentage of its population within a short period of time, the traces of that loss become strongly apparent. Abandonment is followed by dereliction, such that the urban fabric can become randomly punctuated with uninhabited spaces where previously present human constructions have been destroyed, and social instability can ensue. The attraction of the city to newcomers then becomes increasingly compromised, and the cycle of decline is harder to overcome. Some cities have developed strategies to redress the situation, such as restricting urban sprawl, demolitions, urban agriculture, rightsizing infrastructure or permitting biodiversity sanctuaries. However, few academic studies have focused on the ways that residents, and potential newcomers, perceive this situation and react to it. Obtaining a deeper understanding of residents¹ perceptions might allow the development of targeted strategies to promote healthier, more attractive and safer environments for these communities, as well as enhancing their potential for newcomers. The research aim, therefore, is to understand the key factors that determine the attractiveness of these urban abandoned spaces for different stakeholder groups, namely, residents of depopulating, and growing, neighbourhoods, and house searchers. Three different methods were used sequentially to explore this quest: interviews with experts, focus groups and conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis is one of the most robust methods to explore people¹s preferences, by presenting respondents with possible future change scenarios. The study was undertaken in Lisbon (PT) and Genoa (IT), two southern European cities that have experienced population decline, in some areas, in the last three decades. The results of the interviews and focus groups, for both cities, show that while people are naturally resilient to de-densification scenarios, one key concern, when discussing their neighbourhoods in this context, is related to community support. The results from the conjoint analysis corroborate the importance of having a close community for people living in depopulating environments, namely, in Lisbon. The results also show that good quality green spaces are an attraction factor for house searchers. These differences show how the provision of social support in depopulating urban environments might be a determining factor in the stabilization of these neighbourhoods and also, how the presence of good quality green spaces might enhance its attractiveness to newcomers. Social support, therefore, should be given serious consideration in any political, social, architectural intervention within depopulating contexts. Moreover, the presence of green spaces of better quality might be not only a key factor in attracting new residents, but simultaneously, play a crucial role in enhancing the physical and mental health of particularly vulnerable communities, and enhance social interaction.

The purpose of this study is to investigate municipal development activities of rural oriented areas of the west coast of Sweden. The chosen municipalities for this study are Tanum, Munkedal, Sotenäs and Orust where the aim is to give an understanding to the different municipalities work towards achieving local development and opposing depopulation. The nature of this study is primarily qualitative with a lightly deductive orientation since the presented concept of push and pulls factors of migration and the concept of governance with top down and bottom up approaches is used to understand and analyze the empirics. The empirics of this study give answer to the population situation of the municipalities, the prioritized factors for local development and methods adopted to oppose depopulation. The primary conclusion is that the problem of depopulation is handled by promoting local development through economical means in most municipalities.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Jeffrey S. Smith / In a matter of minutes, a small, western Kansas community by the name of Greensburg was over 95% destroyed by a tornado. After the storm, the community’s civic leaders decided to rebuild Green. As a result, the modified cultural landscape no longer resembled the once familiar town that was viewed as a place of attachment by its predominantly elderly population. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand how the May 4th, 2007, tornado affected the elderly’s emotional connection to Greensburg. To identify how the town’s landscape changed I used before and after photographs. In order to more fully comprehend how their attachment to the community has changed, interviews were conducted with several elderly residents who rebuilt in Greensburg, as well as those who moved away. The results suggest that the elderly experienced a significant change in their bond to the town. Typically the elderly did not embrace going Green and focused more on retaining their memories of how the town used to be. Most significant to their development and change in place attachment were the relationships they developed and maintained with fellow community members. Overall, it was the people that made Greensburg home and a place of attachment. When many of them left for good after the tornado, the elderly’s place attachment to Greensburg was forever changed.

Many rural districts are facing economic decline because of a range of factors such as demographic change, changing socio-economic development patterns, farm amalgamations, the entry of large retail businesses, the so called ‘Big Box Retailing’ (BBRs), and a decline in rural infrastructure investment. These factors in turn affect the viability of many small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the primary employers and the engines for economic growth and employment in rural districts. The combined effect of these processes is that many rural districts struggle to keep young people, maintain economic and social diversity and attract new settlers and investment. This thesis seeks to answer the question as to how large scale retail businesses, rural farm amalgamations and declining rural populations impact on the viability of SME retail businesses in rural areas. In order to answer this question, this study identifies the key factors, which affect the future viability of small-to-medium sized retail businesses in sparsely populated rural districts using the South Taranaki District as a case study. The role of economic development agencies and district councils is also examined using case studies of small towns in rural districts of Australia and the United States of America (USA). This study found a number of factors affect the future viability of small-to-medium sized retail businesses in sparsely populated rural districts. For the South Taranaki district, these factors include the arrival of large-scale supermarkets, followed by large scale retail chains such as The Warehouse. These factors, combined with changing rural population structures and economic ‘spikes’ relating to sporadic energy development, have significant implications for the long term viability of many SMEs in the district. Case studies of similar rural districts in the USA and Australia provided examples of strategies that could be used to manage these impacts. This thesis recommends policies, initiatives and strategies that may be considered by territorial local authorities, regional councils and central governments to help address the economic development challenges facing rural districts.

The Old Testament verbal expression of ‘the exile of Judah’ during the Babylonian exile has led to the perception that the land of Judah was emptied of all Judeans. This biblical expression is not necessarily contradictory to historical facts, but theologically and quality-orientated in nature. The exile of the elite from Jerusalem to Babylon, the execution of some of them and the flight of others to Egypt and other neighbouring states disrupted Jerusalem and rendered the city dysfunctional in every national sphere. The royal and religious services, which were based in Jerusalem, the capital city, were discontinued. The emptiness of Judah was signalled by the emptiness as regards the royal and religious authority wrought on Jerusalem by Babylon. Without their royalty, cult, trade, military and judiciary, Judah was indeed emptied and exiled. However, not all Judeans were exiled, for a remnant remained. There is almost no significant record of revelations by God in Judah during the exile, especially after compatriots that opted to flee to Egypt had forcefully taken Jeremiah with them. In addition to its land being emptied during the exile, Judah lost some of its land. The Judean identity in Judah disintegrated due to the influx of foreigners into the land and their subsequent influence on the remaining Judeans. Those that remained in Judah were unable to establish an exclusive Judean community and identity effectively; in any case, not before the Babylonian exiles returned early in the time of the Persian Empire. The paucity of information about the lifestyle in Judah during the exile attests to the veracity and rectitude of the theological concepts of the exile of Judah from 605 to 539 BCE. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The Old Testament verbal expression of ‘the exile of Judah’ during the Babylonian exile has led to the perception that the land of Judah was emptied of all Judeans. This biblical expression is not necessarily contradictory to historical facts, but theologically and quality-orientated in nature. The exile of the elite from Jerusalem to Babylon, the execution of some of them and the flight of others to Egypt and other neighbouring states disrupted Jerusalem and rendered the city dysfunctional in every national sphere. The royal and religious services, which were based in Jerusalem, the capital city, were discontinued. The emptiness of Judah was signalled by the emptiness as regards the royal and religious authority wrought on Jerusalem by Babylon. Without their royalty, cult, trade, military and judiciary, Judah was indeed emptied and exiled. However, not all Judeans were exiled, for a remnant remained. There is almost no significant record of revelations by God in Judah during the exile, especially after compatriots that opted to flee to Egypt had forcefully taken Jeremiah with them. In addition to its land being emptied during the exile, Judah lost some of its land. The Judean identity in Judah disintegrated due to the influx of foreigners into the land and their subsequent influence on the remaining Judeans. Those that remained in Judah were unable to establish an exclusive Judean community and identity effectively; in any case, not before the Babylonian exiles returned early in the time of the Persian Empire. The paucity of information about the lifestyle in Judah during the exile attests to the veracity and rectitude of the theological concepts of the exile of Judah from 605 to 539 BCE. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This thesis aims at analyzing why the municipality of Flen, in the eastern part of Sweden, has experienced strong depopulation for the last forty years in spite of its relative vicinity to Stockholm. The study uses current theories on regional developement, population theory and theories on regional enlargment to help explain and to evaluate the different regional factors that affect the developement of Flen on the local level. The thesis is primarily focused on the subject of regional policy and strategies to meet regional depopulation. The study also gives a presentation of the strategies of major regional institutions as well as analyzing what impact regional policy have on local policy in the municipality of Flen. Interviews with local officials, politicians and other people representing the population of Flen were carried out to achieve a better understanding of the specific challenges that the municipality faces and of the measures that are taken to meet them. Regional policy in Sweden prioritises measures that promote regional enlargment to link the housing and labour markets together with the regional infrastructure. Each region should promote and develop its own unique qualities as a way of stimulating growth. This disregards the former notion that the state should strive for regional growth to be achieved equally distributed within its boundaries. The thesis puts forward the view that this development could lead to an allowance for some regions to be neglected by the state. The findings in this study show that the measures that are put in to curb the stagnation in the municipality of Flen are made with difficulty and cannot be financed without external aid. The challenges are to a growing extent no longer managable by the municipality itself which brings me to a final conclusion that predicts that Flen could befavoured in a future municipal reform in which there are clearer connections to Stockholm and to other larger towns in the region, as well as a new delimitation that better takes the functional relationships of the population into account.