Final answer:
The writer's thesis is that rural communities need to redefine the concept of community in response to changing social and economic landscapes. This involves understanding the complexity of community as extending beyond geography, especially within the context of the rural-to-urban shift and technological advancements.
Step-by-step explanation:
The writer's thesis in the passage can be best expressed by the statement: Rural people must redefine community to respond to new problems and opportunities. This encompasses the overarching notion that as the dynamics of rural areas change, notably through depopulation and technological evolution, the traditional idea of a community based solely on geographic proximity or similar livelihoods, such as farming, is inadequate. Instead, the passage suggests that a community is more complex, transcending geography to include shared interests, values, and the mutual reliance on one another for goods, services, and well-being, especially as economic and social forces exert influence on the population distribution between rural and urban areas. The forces like the Industrial Revolution, which improved farm technology but decreased the need for farm labor, have caused demographic shifts, prompting redefinitions of community structures and social contracts within these areas.