Building institutional capacity in rural Northern Ireland: the role of partnership governance in the LEADER II programme

Throughout the 1990s, Europe's rural areas increasingly embraced local action and local development solutions to face the challenge of the continued re-structuring of the agricultural industry. In parallel, in both the EU and the UK, a policy discourse has emerged which envisages a fundamental shift in support policies for rural areas from a sectoral approach (essentially agriculture) to one that is territorial. At the vanguard of these developments has been the EC's LEADER Programme. From a low base of entrepreneurial activity in rural Northern Ireland, LEADER area-based local action groups have acted as beacons for developing new approaches to diversifying the rural economy—in particular stimulating a significant reappraisal of the rural resource base. This paper charts the operational terrain of LEADER local action groups in the Province, suggesting that their strengths have been in developing the institutional capacity of rural communities and brokering connections in the local economy. Examples will be considered which illustrate enhanced coordination and collaboration of local economic actors and sectoral interests, and a strong facilitator role for LEADER groups in the local arena, with an explicit rural focus. The paper argues that this multi-level collaborative activity is rooted in partnership governance, enabling a communicative process among local stakeholders.     

Regional disparities in bonding and bridging social capital: An empirical study of rural and urban Japan

This article investigates regional social capital development by focusing on disparities in bonding and bridging social capital among rural and urban areas of Japan. Rural–urban differences in social capital in Western contexts have been discussed by many studies. Their main finding is that bonding social capital is richer in rural areas and bridging social capital is richer in urban areas. However, the empirical evidence presented in this article suggests that in Japan both bridging and bonding social capital are richer in rural than urban areas, diverging from traditional thinking about these two types of social capital. This finding suggests that urbanization and depopulation in rural areas of Japan have led to changes in people's behavior and their demand for social networks, promoting the development of bridging social capital in rural areas.     

Conflicts about water: A case study of contest and power in Dutch rural policy

The Dutch countryside forms the scene for pressing problems of management and allocation of land and water. These problems underscore the need for comprehensive rural policies. For that purpose, area-based rural policy has been initiated. This new policy is part of a larger policy shift, labelled in literature as ‘new rural governance’. Area-based rural policy co-ordinates the different interests of stakeholders and establishes consensus-based solutions. In this article we question this claim. We analyse the conflicts, rationalities and interests within a Dutch rural planning project. This project displays a power struggle in which actors try to (de)construct legitimacy. This observation contrasts sharply with the consensual rationality on which area-based policies are founded. Therefore, we conclude that a tension exists between ‘what should be done’ and ‘what is actually done’ in Dutch rural policy. Area-based policy does not guarantee the establishment of consensus among rural stakeholders. Therefore, Dutch area-based policies need to be contextualised to purposefully address spatial rural problems.     

Understanding care for the poor in rural Russia

The issues surrounding care and care-provision have been key themes in social scientific research, yet the intersections between care and poverty, particularly in rural contexts, have not been sufficiently explored. This paper addresses this gap by studying care for the poor in rural Russia. It argues that isolated, disengaged and decontextualised caring interventions often ignore situated possibilities and traditions of care and overlook what matters to poor people. To overcome this problem, the paper uses 20 and 22 dwelling approach to prioritise a relational framework that focuses on care as concern, solicitude and possibilities for supportive action in the context of rural Russia. Using examples from fieldwork in two Russian villages, the paper stresses the constitutive role of non-representable practices of care which provide the ontological basis for recognising and understanding the worldviews and coping practices of the poor. It concludes with conceptual observations about alternative approaches to care, relations to others and responsibility for the rural poor.     

The restructuring of social imaginations in rural geography

This paper reviews the development of rural social geography. It argues that there has been a restructuring in the dominant social imagination expressed within rural social geography away from a ‘restricted social imagination’ which shied away from considering phenomena which were immaterial and clearly politicized. The prevalence of this social imagination within geographical studies of rural settlement, population change, access to resources and services and rural communal life is highlighted. It is argued that there have been two important directions of critique of this social geography. First, the politicization of rural social geography through Marxism is discussed with particular reference being paid to the analysis of class relations in the countryside. Second, the rise of postmodernism and the cultural turn of rural geography is discussed. Attention is drawn to the explicit politicization of this social geography and the emphasis placed within it on the immaterial. The paper outlines some of the key arguments and texts of these two lines of restructuring, and also how some earlier work trespassed beyond the dominant restrictions placed on social imaginations of the rural. The paper ends by raising the issue of whether the immaterial and the politicized have been reconciled together within the current work of rural social geographers.     

Where the wild things are: the evolving iconography of rural fauna

This paper explores the changing relationship between ‘nature’ and rurality through an examination of the shifting iconography of animals, and particularly ‘wild’ animals, in a rural setting. Drawing upon a set of examples, the paper argues that the faunistic icons of rural areas are evolving as alternative conceptions of the countryside, of nature and of the classic dichotomy between ‘wild’ and ‘domesticated’ animals are being re-constructed. The re-introduction of wild species, either through deliberate strategies or through natural migration, the diversification of husbandry to include rare and protected breeds and the increasing number of reported sightings of strange and unfamiliar animals all point to a change, or changes, in the place accorded to ‘wild’ things in countryside that have become, themselves, domesticated and gentrified.     

Strangers asking strange questions? A methodological narrative of researching belonging and identity in English rural communities

This paper emerges from a current research project that examines the relationship between contemporary English rurality and notions of identity and belonging. While this is primarily a methodological narrative we argue that this narrative speaks to an analysis of current rural relations. The paper concerns itself with two key methodological issues that have arisen during the ‘doing’ of the research. First, it examines our own relationship, as ‘outsider’, urban-based researchers, to the rural and the use and/or relevance of our biographies as resources for making ourselves seem less ‘strange’ and for accessing, and being in, rural environments. At the same time as providing us with a map into our micro rural worlds the paper draws on this biographic-research relation in order to problematize notions of homogenous rural identities and polarized rural/urban identities. The second part of the paper argues that who we were/how we were perceived had a relation to what ‘truths’ and accounts we were told by our respondents. More particularly, we show how our use of focus group interviews had a direct role in the rehearsal and presentation of these ‘truths’. Given the current contestations and tensions over what and who ‘the rural’ is, it was clear that those involved in the focus group discussions wanted to give us particular stories that often fell into a consensus pattern of either ‘rural idyll’ or ‘rural crisis’ narratives. Drawing on Simmel's notion of the stranger and focus group data we argue that for these narratives to be told we, as researchers, were ascribed by the group members to shifting positions of intimacy and remoteness.     

Town-making in rural Japan: An example from Wakayama

This article focuses on the process by which postwar Japanese villages are transformed into rural towns, taking an upland municipality in Wakayama Prefecture as a case study. Rural ‘town-making’ or machizukuri is shown to be a multi-faceted process in which the municipal state carries out a protracted social reform of its local population. It does so, however, against a background of largescale rural depopulation, and this is shown to be something which simultaneously enables and inhibits the creation of the new civic community.     

Lay discourses of the rural: Developments and implications for rural studies

Considerations of lay discourses of the rural - people's everyday interpretations of rural places and ideas of the rural - have become increasingly evident in some key articles addressing the theory and practice of academic rural studies. A major element of the retheorization of rural studies, which itself is set within the broader contexts of recent developments in social theory, considerations of lay discourses have concerned themselves with the nature and implications of everyday interpretations and constructions of the rural, and, in some cases, how academic discourses are complexly bound up with such processes. This paper sets out to review some of the key examples of how and why lay discourses are being used in academic approaches to the rural, and how some of these are also addressing the key question of the problematic relationship between lay and academic discourses. It then aims to develop these initiatives, firstly, by suggesting some clarification of what lay discourse is; how other discourses, particularly popular and professional, should be identified; and why close attention should be paid to how they link up. Secondly, drawing on qualitative case study material gathered from an academic incursion into lay discourses of a small village in south west England, it is suggested that the very different nature of lay discourses has not been fully appreciated, and this has led to only partial success in some academic attempts to assimilate them into new approaches to rural studies, particularly in the ongoing debate about definitions of the rural. It is shown that lay discourses of the rural, such as they are, can be expected to be both spatially and conceptually complex and incoherent to an extent that will make it difficult for them to be incorporated into established (modern) academic rural approaches and thus leads to conclusions that in part support Murdoch and Pratt's (1993) concept of the ‘post-rural’.     

Is There Hidden Potential for Rural Population Growth in Sweden?

Rural depopulation is a concern in many countries, and various policy initiatives have been taken to combat such trends. This article examines whether hidden potential for rural population growth can be found in Sweden. If such potential exists, it implies that the development prospects for many rural areas are not as unpromising as they may seem today. If not, rapid rural depopulation can be expected and policymakers will have to increase their focus on how to lessen problems associated with population decline. We employ a combination of survey data and register data to identify the characteristics of people who have expressed a desire to move to rural areas and compare this population with those who actually do move to these areas. The results show that more people have rural residential preferences than the actual number of migrants to rural areas suggest. The findings indicate that there is a general potential for rural population growth; however, the characteristics of these two groups are similar and we cannot discern any group as constituting this hidden potential. Nonetheless, we argue that this potential is unlikely to be realized in terms of rural population growth and we discuss the further implications of these findings.     

Women's fear of crime: A rural perspective

This paper examines women's experience of fear of crime in rural areas. It argues that much existing research on issues of gender, fear and safety have focused on urban areas and that as a result we know relatively little about women's experience of fear in a rural context. As well as arguing that we need to redress the balance and respond to the dearth of knowledge about rural women's fear, the paper asserts the importance of a rural perspective in understanding the relationship between fear and the social and cultural construction of place. The rural in particular provides an important site for such an understanding since, as is argued here, the notion of safety is central to constructions of rurality. The paper presents data on rural women's experience of fear and crime from research carried out in New Zealand and the UK. It draws on work undertaken in four rural communities and begins to identify the extent and nature of women's fears and how these relate to their experience of rurality. The paper shows how while popular constructions of the rural as friendly, safe and largely crime free endure, there is a recognition amongst rural women of the growing problems surrounding personal safety. It also demonstrates the importance of social constructions of the rural community in identifying the relevance of the ‘stranger’ and the marginalised ‘other’ to women's feelings of fear.     

Interest distribution in the process of coordination of urban and rural construction land in China

Since the onset of rapid economic development and urbanization, China’s land resources—rather than capital, technology and human resources—have become the lead limiting factor in constraining economic growth. Coordination of urban and rural construction land (CURCL) can be a very effective means for reducing conflicts between economic development and land protection. This research examines the roles of stakeholders involved in the CURCL process. The reasons why the interests of legitimated stakeholders were encroached upon are analyzed and countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders are proposed. Ambiguously defined property rights for owners of rural construction land, unclear conceptions of the public interest, and overlap of power and interest among multiple levels of authority are the reasons why legitimated stakeholders’ interests were encroached upon. Legitimizing construction land ownership clearly, better defining the multiple conceptions of public interest, opening up express channels for expression of the public interest, and clarifying governments’ functions in land interest adjustment are the countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders.     

Gardenesque imagery in the representation of regional and national identity: the Cotswold garden of stone

Research which has highlighted the symbolic power of rural landscapes to picture English national identity has tended to homogenise those rural landscapes, eliding the role of regions in the construction of national identity. This paper argues that the construction of a unique regional identity for the Cotswolds was informed by and itself informed the construction of English national identity in the first half of the 20th century. This paper examines one aspect of this relationship; the use of gardenesque imagery to construct both the nation and the region, focusing particularly on the ‘garden of stone’ metaphor which recurs in non-fictional rural writing, guide books and poetry about the Cotswolds from around 1900, reaching a peak in the interwar years. This paper examines the religious and secular symbolism of the two components of the metaphor; the garden and the stone. The paper is predicated on the notion that gardens are repositories and generators of meaning and value. Using the language of slow growth, seasonal cycles and continuity along with the motifs of composition and creation, the garden of stone describes an organic community in a reciprocal relationship between people, soil and stone. The idea of organic communities is shown to resonate within representations of both the Cotswolds and English national identity and is also explored in some depth.     

Contemporary Social Problems in Japan: A Study of the Suicide and Depopulation Problems

Abstract  Two complementary investigations were undertaken:
1. Research into the relationship between suicide and depopulation in Shimane Prefecture.
2. Research into the relationship between the perception of social problems and unwanted objective conditions, employing suicide as the example of unwanted conditions.
To summarize the most important findings:
1. The suicide rates have been notably higher in depopulated areas.
2. The partial correlation of suicide to depopulation was high, when the effect of aging of population was removed.
3. This partial correlation has increased since 1975. There has been an aggravation of the problem of suicide as a depopulation problem.
4. The correlation of suicide to aging of the population vanished, when the effect of depopulation was removed.
5. At 70 and over, the suicide rates have been notably higher in depopulated areas.
6. The correlation of the age-specific suicide rate with the depopulation rate, increases with age and the correlation of the suicide rate among old people to the depopulation rate, was notably higher.
7. These suicidal tendencies express the mores of society. Morality underlies the perception of social problems, while morality could not exist without generating suicide at a certain point. Both suicide and the perception of suicide as social problems are largely determined by morality. This is our paradoxical hypothesis.
8. Lastly, we emphasize that there are serious depopulation problems in Japan. This is particularly obvious, if suicide is employed as the indicator of depopulation severity.     

Distance as a hybrid actor in rural economies

This paper argues that the notion of distance ought to be re-conceptualized and promoted to the theoretical foreground of sociological analyses of rural economic action. Using research in rural British Columbia, Canada, I argue that current changes in rural political economy (for instance, the restructuring of industrial resource production, the promotion of local economic diversification, and advances in communications and transportation infrastructures) mean that the “performance” of connections between local and extra-local economic spaces are increasingly significant to economic relationships and exchange in rural settings. In re-conceptualizing the role of distance in a Post-Fordist rural economy, I borrow two key insights from actor-network theory: the notion of hybridity, and the strong influence that ‘hybridized’ networks have on (rural) actors. Rather than being a static fact, I argue that distance is itself a hybrid actor that ‘behaves’ differently according to the particular configuration of its natural, technological, and social dimensions. Thinking about distance in this manner makes a novel contribution to understanding rural development, as it asserts that the capacity to organize and configure distance (as opposed to simply acting ‘at a distance’) is a key source of power and variance in rural economies.     

Voluntarism, self-help and rural community development: Some current approaches

Within the last decade or so, there has developed an increased concern for the welfare of rural communities and for individuals within such communities. At the same time there has emerged a parallel concern for environmental matters, concerned with conservation of species and habitat and the protection of cherished landscapes and amenities. Both sectors of rural concern have been characterised by debate about the means of delivery of policies and programmes in their respective areas and, in particular, about the balance between state action and the activities of the private sector. A common thread running through such debates has been the role of what is loosely called the ‘voluntary sector’, that is the complicated mix of individuals and organisations, local and national, which involve themselves in effort, not for direct payment nor as a routine of work, but because of feelings of commitment, belief and ideology.This paper is concerned with just one aspect of this sector — that which involves social and community aspects of the lives of rural dwellers in the English countryside. Despite this restricted field, there is an attempt to see things within a broader socio-political context, such that rural voluntarism and rural self-help can be assessed not only against a wider picture of volunteering generally but also placed within a political framework, both national and local. Voluntarism and self-help cannot exist independently of the world around them, yet the very process of facing up to the wider political realities creates problems of accountability and control to the extent that some would dismiss the voluntary sector as ineffective at best or the tool of vested interests at worst.     

Small business development in remote rural areas: The example of mature manufacturing firms in Northern England

There is a growing interest in the potential contribution of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to rural economic development, as reflected in the Rural Development Commission's strategy for the 1990s. Using some evidence on the development of mature manufacturing SMEs in remoter rural areas during the 1980s and comparing them with similar urban based firms, the paper shows that whilst there was little difference between the rural and urban SMEs in terms of their growth performance when measured by sales turnover, the rural firms generated significantly more jobs. This indicates a different relationship between SME growth and employment generation in different geographical environments. SMEs in remote rural areas are shown to pursue rather different development paths than their urban counterparts resulting from the way in which they adjust to the opportunities and constraints afforded by their local operating environments. The main section of the paper focuses on three particular kinds of adaptation: (i) to local market conditions, and in particular on the ability of SMEs to make the transition into national and international markets; (ii) to local labour market conditions, including various qualitative characteristics of rural labour such as skill levels and functional flexibility; and (iii) to the lack of an industrial milieu, especially the limited opportunities for externalising production. The paper concludes by raising some concerns about the longer term competitiveness of SMEs in remote rural areas including low levels of labour productivity, technological backwardness and skill levels within the workforce.     

Gender relations in rural areas: the importance of women's domestic role

This paper argues the value of gender relations to the construction of theoretical perspectives in rural geography. It outlines very briefly recent developments in the study of feminist geography, drawing attention to ongoing debate concerning the nature and importance of patriarchy. In doing so it stresses the need to look beyond the economic significance of women's activities and at the interconnectivity of production and reproduction. The paper then moves on to a discussion of women's domestic role within rural society, looking specifically at the way in which this role, and women's place in the rural community, both reinforces and is reinforced by aspects of the dominant rural ideology. The conclusions reached suggest that the characteristics of rural areas, particularly their size, remoteness and lack of resources, together with the strength and orientation of the rural ideology, have a unique influence on both gender role and gender relations.     

The economic diversity of rural England: stylised fallacies and uncertain evidence

Debate about rural policy is often based on persistent presumptions about conditions in ‘rural England’, generally associated with economic decline, low incomes, and a lack of services. Such generalisations are rarely justified for rural areas as a whole and we term them as ‘stylised fallacies’. The impression of their relevance is perpetuated by the selective comparison of statistics for ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ areas. The paper reviews the evidence on a number of such fallacies: the economic impact of agriculture, depopulation, low incomes, rural labour markets, house prices and service provision. In each case, the position is far more complex than is commonly recognised in policy debate. The rural character of an area does not in itself offer a rationale for policy intervention. Rather, discussion could be supported through the characterisation of different types of local area. This might be approached either through statistical analysis or through qualitative analysis of emerging social and economic patterns of differentiation. In practice, each approach needs to be supported through the other.     

Lay discourses of the rural and stated and revealed preferences for rural living. Some evidence of the existence of a rural idyll in the Netherlands

Dutch rural areas have changed into a post-modern countryside and have become marketable commodities. The demand for rural space and rural amenities has increased, with concomitant tensions on the rural housing market, tensions which are enhanced by the restrictive spatial policy in Dutch rural areas. The demand for rural residential environments appears to be large. This paper reports the results of our research into the preferences of urban households for living in a rural residential environment. These preferences will be linked with images and representations of the countryside. It is assumed that individual images of the countryside (whether idyllic or not) affect residential preferences and these preferences have, in turn, their effect on migration behaviour. Empirical evidence suggests that perceptions, preferences and behaviour pertaining to rural residential environments are indeed interrelated. The Dutch countryside commands a very positive image and the demand for residential environments with rural characteristics is considerable. Consequently, a rural idyll can be identified in The Netherlands.