Today, the time has come to transfer the driving force from outside of rural communities to within them and raise their awareness, clarify the aims of their work and give them the right to choose. Instead of telling rural communities what needs to be done in the economic, social, ecological, etc. spheres and how and when they should go about it, we must raise their awareness so that they can solve their own problems and decide for themselves, be in self-control and have self-meaning etc., have increased self-confidence, take responsibility for planning and management of rural development, and the government’s role should be limited to a facilitating one. Today, the organization of rural people and communities and the use of their own abilities, talents and creativities, is considered a necessity for rural sustainable development. This type of thinking stems from sustainable development and its new definitions which are explained in the capacity building theory and is realized through the mechanisms of capacity building and empowerment, and the emphasis on rural empowerment, irrespective of whether the rural community is at risk of poverty, is not materially impoverished but has nevertheless been deprived of development or has not even been enlisted into the development process, has been the subject of debates on development and rural communities in the last two decades. Therefore, the empowerment of rural communities is one of the necessary preconditions for achieving rural sustainable development. This book may be the first of its kind in this field and is composed of 5 chapters. In Chapter 1, the definitions of empowerment, the dimensions of rural empowerment, the aims of empowerment, the necessity and importance of empowerment, and the management of knowledge, teaching and empowerment are discussed. In Chapter 2, the approaches, theories, strategies and models of empowerment are analyzed. Chapter 3 focuses on experience with empowerment strategies in Iran and the wider world. Chapter 4 deals with the localization of rural empowerment in Iran. In Chapter 5, the final discussion, the theoretical and practical achievements of empowerment in Iran and the wider world are explained. This book has been published by Tarbiat Modares University Press and has 330 pages. This book is aimed at lecturers, students, planners, managers, researchers and scholar’s in the field of participation, empowerment, capacity building and facilitation, rural development and planning, logistics, tourism planning, agricultural promotion, agricultural economics and cooperation at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. This book uses the latest theoretical and practical achievements of influential writers in this field from Iran and the wider world, including those of the authors. More than two hundred references are used and a glossary and index are also included.

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