| Appalachia has been characterized as “a region apart.” Various development models were proposed and implemented, beginning in 1960, in order to integrate the region into the U.S. economy at large. Development efforts in the Appalachian region drew on the theoretical framework of international development theory. This research provides an intellectual history of international models, and four development models in the Appalachian region. Models that mainly stress allocative efficiency for rapid capital accumulation and economic growth are inherently less distribution favorable than development models that suggest immediate redistributive efforts. These built in assumptions about income distribution are explored in two proposed and two implemented development models in the Appalachian region. The connection between specific theoretical constructs, development models, and social action, the resulting development policies, is examined. As an analytic device, the Piagetian concept of conservation and closure is used to explain the stability of distribution assumptions inherent in mainstream, Western development models.; An empirical context for the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the Appalachian development models is given by a focus on the Eastern Kentucky segment of the Appalachian region. To explore whether development efforts were successful in integrating the Appalachian portion into the Kentucky economy at large, measures of income convergence and income inequality, namely sigma convergence, Gini coefficients, and Theil indices were constructed for all Kentucky counties and Area Development Districts. In order to assess the status of human development in the region, Human Development Indicators measuring education, longevity, and income were calculated for all Kentucky counties.; This study finds that after a period of convergence until 1976, incomes essentially diverge. This divergence is most pronounced between Kentucky metro and non-metro counties, and Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties. Income inequality, after a period of reduction, similarly reverses its course in the early eighties, with income inequalities becoming more pronounced, exceeding initial 1969 values. Human Development Indicators displayed a pronounced urban- and non-Appalachian bias, with extreme, low scores in rural and Appalachian Kentucky counties. A strategy of labor substitutions and primary sector projects is suggested to reverse these unfavorable trends. |
