Rural district development in a Danish municipality is the subject of this thesis. Through analysis of empirical findings from interviews, recommendations for future action are made. The key theoretical concepts used are: shrinkage, network management and local strategic capacity. The strategy, organization and cooperation between the political/administrative level and the organization of the local population are understood through the theories of government/governance and top-down/bottom-up. It is recommended that the aforementioned cooperation is made a priority by the political system by means of allocating substantial economic resources and a project manager to, primarily, support the different levels of the collaborative organization in order to develop a local strategic capacity. These are the most necessary components for the strategic development of rural districts.