Contested Needs: Shifting the Standpoint on Rural Economic Development

Economic restructuring is reshaping the lives of rural residents in the U.S. In response to these changes, small towns are attempting to generate economic development strategies that would increase their economic viability. This article contrasts perspectives on community-based economic development held by white North European-American women factory workers with members of the Economic Development Corporations in two rural towns in southwest Iowa. Drawing upon a multidimensional standpoint analysis and Nancy Fraser's ''politics of needs interpretation,'' I argue for broadening the constituency for community-based accounts of economic development in order to contest dominant interpretations of needs that typify contemporary approaches.