Communities within communities: Changing ‘residential’ areas at Cultus Lake,British Columbia

Research focusing upon rural Canada continues to highlight the complex outcomes arising from rural-urban interactions within particular geographic settings. In the ‘city's countryside’, amenity landscapes located near the urban fringe are developed as the domain of vacation- and recreation-seeking urban residents. Yet, these recreation amenity sites are also set within an existing rural landscape. The land uses and social patterns found within this setting represent an outcome of the interactions between these competing landscapes. This paper examines residential change within the rural-recreational areas around Cultus Lake, British Columbia. Comparison of the local population to those living permanently within the cottaging areas is made across selected socio-economic characteristics and household activity patterns. These comparisons are extended to the group level by examining social and spatial constructions of local community ‘institutions’. Together, these comparisons suggest a ‘shared but separate’ geographic space.     

Rural development and urban migration: can we keep them down on the farm?

This study tests the hypothesis that rural development projects and programs reduce rural-urban migration. The author presents various factors in the social theories of migration, including those relating to origin and destination, intervening obstacles such as distance, and personal factors. 3 economic models of migration are the human capital or cost-benefit approach, the expected income model, and the intersectoral linkage model. Empirical studies of migration indicate that: 1) rural areas with high rates of out-migration tend to have high population densities or high ratios of labor to arable land, 2) distance inhibits migration, 3) rural-urban migration is positively correlated with family income level, and 4) selectivity differences in socioeconomic status between migrants and nonmigrants often are grouped into development packages which might include irrigation, new varieties of seed, subsidized credit, increased extension, and improved marketing arrangements. The migration impacts of some of these efforts are described: 1) land reform usually is expected to slow rural out-migration because it normally increases labor utilization in rural areas, but this is a limited effect, 2) migration effects of the Green Revolution technology are mainly in rural-rural migration, and 3) agricultural mechanization may stimulate rural-urban migration in the long run. Development of rural social services migh have various effects on rural-urban migration. Better rural education, which improves the chances of urban employment, will stimulate rural-urban migration, while successful rural family planning programs will have a negative effect in the long run as there will be reduced population pressure on arable land. Better rural health services might reduce the incentive for rural-urban migration as well. It is suggested that governments reconsider policies which rely on rural development to curb rural-urban migration and alleviate problems of urban poverty and underemployment.     

House-lot gardens in Santarém,Pará, Brazil: Linking rural with urban

The division between rural and urban sectors of the landscape in many parts of the world is increasingly blurred. House-lot or homegardens offer a perspective on understanding rural-urban linkages since they are frequently a landscape feature in both settings and the exchanges of their products link the two. House-lot gardens are an under-researched component of the agricultural repertoires of smallholders in many parts of the world. Urban house-lot gardens in particular, have until recently not received much attention despite their critical importance to urban livelihoods. This paper presents findings from research on house-lot gardens in rural and urban zones of Santarém, Pará, Brazil, one of Amazonia's largest municipalities. The research demonstrates that garden products are important for household subsistence, but even more importantly product exchanges between rural and urban kin households help sustain critical social networks that subsidize urban life. Gardens are a link between urban and rural settings as products, germplasm, and household members move between the two. People are urban and rural at the same time which demonstrates that households can be multi-local.     

Changing ruralities, changing landscapes: exploring social recomposition using a multi-scale approach

Changes in agricultural practices have led to declines in the farming population and significant changes within the landscape. Paradoxically, many rural areas are recording significant demographic growth. Given the extent of rural areas experiencing these changes, little attention has been devoted to the relationship between rural migration processes and landscape developments. Therefore, the various rural dynamics resulting from these phenomena merit closer investigation. Moreover, we should explore these complex processes at scales where they are most evident. Through the multi-scale research approach used in this study, these processes are investigated in their regional, local, and domestic contexts.As shown by regional typological outlines, the great diversity of the rural areas indicates an increasing dissociation between the agricultural and socio-demographic trajectories. From our local-scale study, changes in lot occupation revealed new residential settlement patterns induced by an influx of in-migrants. Specific landscape characteristics seem to be a determining force shaping these population flows. At the same time, these population movements have dissimilar influences on evolving landscape dynamics. With the exception of isolated agricultural abandonment trajectories, migrant relocation does not seem to affect specific local-scale land use development. However, it is significantly associated with individual domestic practices. These practices are indicative of the migrant's identity in the rural landscape; further, they suggest specific values for the landscape's qualitative dimensions. These emerging urban and non-farming interests in rural landscapes challenge planning policies to guide the landscape's evolution for the benefit of its “producers” and “consumers”.     

The politics of marginality in Wallowa County,Oregon: Contesting the production of landscapes of consumption

The state of Oregon’s (USA) land use planning framework has long been characterized by tensions between state and local authority, between traditionally-defined “urban” and “rural” concerns, and between the competing interests of various landowners. An examination of Wallowa County, Oregon’s implementation of House Bill 3326, a 2001 law giving counties the power to define certain agricultural lands as “marginal,” and therefore exempt from restrictions on subdivision and development, illustrates the ways in which these tensions become magnified as rural communities attempt to govern private land use in the context of rural restructuring. Implementation of HB3326 highlighted the tensions between landowners interested in capitalizing on development opportunities afforded by HB3326, neighboring producers concerned about interference from future amenity migrants, and existing amenity migrants with interests in protecting their rural idyll. Contestations over nonfarm development took place in the context of a strong agricultural community identity, concerns about the effects of economic restructuring on producers, and local resistance to the rural gentrification process. The process of defining marginality came to encompass not only technical issues of land productivity, but also broader community contestations over the continuation of traditional land uses and the legitimacy of various actors to govern private land.     

Reconstructing rurality and community: plantation forestry in Victoria, Australia

Changes in land use are a common response to deterioration in the economic viability of farming. While diversification into other agricultural land uses apparently takes place with little consternation or resistance, the development of plantation forestry on agricultural land is often accompanied by concern and controversy. What sets plantation forestry apart from agriculture is that it often involves new forms of ownership and control, it is accompanied by changes in population, and it transforms the production landscape. The development of plantation forestry has become increasingly commonplace in many parts of rural Australia, and it has been met with mixed reactions from rural communities. Our interest was to explore the outlook and perspectives on forestry within a rural locality—Branxholme in the State of Victoria—that is experiencing relatively rapid land-use change into planted forests. We provide a synopsis of community reactions to land-use change. The social construction of change is reported at one level in relation to well-established elements—population, service provision, and employment. Underlying our analysis, though, is an attempt to understand the social construction of change in relation to the higher-order concepts of rurality and community.     

Rural land use bifurcation in the urban-rural gradient

The classic urban-rural gradient concept assumes a decline in land use intensity from an intensively developed urban core outward to residential suburbs, culminating in lightly developed rural areas. The concept provides a common framework directing urban socio-ecological research. Given that rural land use includes woodlands and croplands, and croplands appear as ecologically depauperate as urban lands, we investigated land-use patterns along urban-rural gradients for 30 large metropolitan areas in the eastern United States. We predicted a bifurcation at the rural end of the gradient between woodland and cropland land use that does not correspond with human population density (expected to be relatively low in rural areas regardless of land use type). Our data indicated that ‘rural’ was a poor substitute for ‘natural’ as the rural end of the gradients bifurcated at the rural end between woodland and cropland – croplands being demonstratively poor ecological habitats. Indeed, we found that when defined by habitat quality, the habitat known to be biotically homogenized (urban and cropland) remained steady along the urban-rural gradient. Our results do not undermine the utility of the urban-rural gradient framework, but do suggest that the gradient and/or human population density do not necessarily indicate shifts in habitat quality.     

The influence of land use type and municipal context on urban tree species diversity

Recent research has focused on the ways urban forest patterns vary in relation to level of urbanization and socioeconomic characteristics, with most studies limited to one urban land use type or multiple non-differentiate land uses. Additionally, the majority of studies examining urban forest patterns focus on canopy cover extent, with less attention given to patterns of species diversity. This study explores how tree species diversity varies across different urban land uses and municipal boundaries to better understand the role of land use types in shaping urban forest patterns. The goal is addressed through an exploration of plot-level tree data in the urban municipalities of Peel Region located in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, Canada). Species composition and standard diversity metrics are calculated for eight land use types and four municipalities. Our results show that differences in diversity metrics and species composition are greater between urban land uses than municipalities. Moreover, Peel’s urban forest has relatively high alpha diversity but many species are present on only one land use type. The results suggest that different causal processes are associated with each land use type, and that urban forest managers should adopt land use-specific strategies to meet species composition goals within the urban forest.     

Locational factors and the urban fringe land market

The rural-urban fringe land market is a complex interaction of behavioral, institutional and locational economic factors. These factors are analysed in relation to transactional sales prices for undeveloped fringe land. The resultant models estimate the role of several of these factors in the demand for fringe land. Parcel size, access to peripheral urban centers, zoning, land use and the interactions of location and specific land uses are the primary determinants of the transactional sale prices. Understanding the composition of the demand function within the fringe land market context will assist in comprehending the complexity of the fringe land market and the land conversion process.     

Experiencing landscape: Orkney hill land and farming

This paper is about how rural landscape is experienced according to combinations of practical engagements with land and the ways meaning is made in relation to it. It presents the case of the ambiguous position of the Orkney Islands within categorisations of Highland and Lowland landscapes in Scotland. Through a discussion of the physical and highly visible boundary between heather and grass in Orkney farms, the paper unpacks notions of what landscape means and how it fits with socio-economic processes of continuity and change. It uses the history of hill reclamation in 20th century farming to explore how economic, moral and aesthetic judgements are made about land. Current engagements with hill land are then examined, showing how a fragmentation of hill into different uses and meanings is taking place. Amongst these are agri-environment schemes which revalue the hill. The paper ends with a discussion of hill land and farm land in Orkney in relation to the wider construction of Highland and Lowland. In Orkney opportunities to construct new ‘Highland’ identities and forms of rural development now exist.     

Biodiversity conservation implications of landscape change in an urbanizing desert of Southwestern Peru

Internal migration from the Peruvian highlands and rural areas has burdened urban areas with rapid growth. Urban expansion is threatening the desert habitat and unique vegetation communities surrounding Arequipa, one of Peru's largest cities. A 511 ha tract contiguous to the city of Arequipa has been informally designated an ecological park. Analysis of Landsat satellite imagery over a 16-year interval indicates that urban expansion is occurring in the direction of the park. The land use/land cover change analysis revealed other landscape patterns and processes, such as agricultural expansion, which are relevant to the study area. These dynamics, plus principles of landscape ecology, suggest that the park's size and shape may not be the most suitable. Conservation alternatives include the expansion of the park, the spatial connection to another nature reserve, or the design of co-management strategies. Given local historical events and the paucity of regional conservation efforts, social actors in Arequipa and in national governmental institutions will need to find practical ways to collaborate.     

城乡结合部城市化进程的难点及对策研究——以上海市X镇为例

城乡结合部是农村向城市过渡的边缘地带,也是农村社会向城市社会转型的前沿地带。城乡结合部是其自身模仿、融入城市,以及城市扩散辐射效应嵌入的双向互动过程。本文以上海市x镇为例,探讨近年来城乡一体化过程中的难点及对策。     

The effect of fragmentation on the threatened plant community Coastal Moonah Woodland in Victoria,Australia

Coastal vegetation is under increasing pressure with the expansion of urban developments, tourism, population and changing climates. This study sought to examine the effects of fragmentation on the threatened plant community, Coastal Moonah Woodland, in southern Victoria, Australia. We examined the effects on community composition of surrounding land use (urban, rural, native vegetation), remnant size and environmental attributes at three spatial scales. At larger scales, geographic and environmental attributes, such as annual rainfall and temperature, were important drivers of community composition. At finer scales, remnant size, disturbance, weed invasion, connectivity, and immediate surrounding land use impacted more on community composition. At these scales, increasing native vegetation cover in the landscape, remnant connectivity and size positively influenced community composition. If coastal development continues at the current rate, all but a few remnants of this community will be surrounded by the urban landscape. Thus, planning for the integration of these remnants in the urban landscape through long-term management plans and community involvement is essential for the survival of these remnants.     

Return of the gentleman farmer?: Conceptualising gentrification in UK agriculture

In this paper, processes of gentrification are assessed in relation to non-commercial farming: the production of agricultural commodities without the intent of earning a living. The author argues that due to the connection between residence and productive assets (particularly land) inherent in farming, agricultural gentrification represents a special case, distinct from rural and urban gentrification, where gentrification is possible from within the existing farm household. Pluriactivity of the farm household enables both economic capital accumulation and alterations in the cultural capital held. Similar to rural and urban gentrification processes, agricultural gentrification leads to landscape change. Both non-commercial farming and gentrification processes are found to have been encouraged by the state, through post-productivist polices and laws aimed at commercial agricultural producers. The author argues for further research on farmers as consumers of rural amenities, and raises questions about the environmental impacts of ‘non-commercial farming’ and the acquisition of farm land by the wealthy elite.     

人文都市里的社会生态学

人文都市是概括和推进当代城市嵌合体中环境质量与社会质量的大标题。作为覆盖广泛、相互联系的社会生态体系,城市、郊区以及城市远郊的繁华地区凸显出不少负面特征。因此,人文都市发现了一个战略,可以对抗这些城市病并向城市系统逐步灌输更多积极的、可持续的特征。由于人文都市这个项目主要是在社会力量的推动下出现的,因此我们可以更清楚具体地表达科学在解决人文都市项目的问题以及评估其成就中的作用。人文都市可归纳为1）保护与保存城市与郊区的生态服务,2）提升居民的身体素质、心理健康与安全水平,3）保护能源、物质、水资源与时间以提高效率,4）以包容性促进公平以及社会和环境的公正性、合理性,5）保留社区感与场所感。我们将科学视为社会项目的促成因素,指出了推动科学的社会价值以及科学知识和科学隐喻在联系人文都市与社会项目中所扮演的角色。我们进一步指出社会生态研究在实现人文都市目标方面所扮演的角色,运用了环保历史、河涌的功能与复原、环境公平性、巴尔的摩生态系统和长期生态研究项目等行动案例。作为一个社会项目,人文都市得益于科学的投入：1）揭示城市体系中隐含的生态进程,2）创造知识,将普通人和一般机构与生物物理环境联系起来,3）为公民对话做出贡献,4）将科学价值观引入优化与平衡人文都市的目标当中。     

Farmers and Pawns: The Role of Migrants in Agrarian Conflicts and Rural Resistance in Sumatra,Indonesia

Land grabbing in relation to boom-crop production or nature conservation triggers displacement and dispossession of local communities as well as rural resistance often culminating in violent conflicts over land. In Indonesia, company-initiated oil palm production on debatable territories also stimulates migration into these contested rural areas by individual farmers who seek to become part of the boom-crop economy. Based on discussions on land grabbing and land rights this article deals with the appropriation of land by independent migrant farmers and their role as another new party in conflicts over land. The role of rural migrants in land conflicts in Jambi Province, Sumatra is shown through two case studies. The case studies highlight the importance of customary local elites and their strategic employment of social identity and political authority to facilitate land seekers’ access to contested land. The local elites transcend conceptual boundaries to generate a profitable counter-business with a set of individual stakeholders and brokers who profit from the dispossession of the masses. The case studies reveal that the migrants’ presence is essential to rural resistance and a contested resource of economic and political benefit to various stakeholders at the same time.     

The role of the Conservation Reserve Program in controlling rural residential development

Rural population growth in the form of residential development frequently results in the loss of agricultural productive land as well as loss of adjacent open space that often characterizes rural communities. A land-use prediction model was used to determine what influence the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) may have on urban sprawl and rural community sustainability. The model demonstrated that the projected mean rural residential growth rate was almost half the growth rate with CRP as compared to without CRP in the local land management mix. In addition, ecosystem integrity on the land surrounding a rural community was sharply increased with the introduction of CRP. However, community economics and subsequent social character of the community may have been significantly impacted by CRP. In order to partially mitigate CRP-induced community impacts we propose future CRP guidelines support the establishment of within-production field scale ecological refuges. These refuges would satisfy the conservation requirements of the program, return a level of traditional agricultural production to the land management mix, and provide the adjacent community with aesthetic and recreational amenities that are frequently associated with modern rural economies.     

Social-ecological science in the humane metropolis

The Humane metropolis is a rubric to summarize and promote environmental and social quality in contemporary urban mosaics. Because cities, suburbs, and exurbs, as spatially extensive and connected socio-ecological systems, exhibit many negative features, the humane metropolis identifies a strategy to combat the ills and instill more positive and sustainable features and processes in urban systems. Because the humane metropolis as a program has arisen primarily from social motivations, there is the opportunity to articulate more explicitly the role that science can play in addressing the humane metropolis program and evaluating its success. A humane metropolis can be summarized as one that 1) protects and restores ecological services in cities and suburbs, 2) promotes physical and mental health and safety of residents, 3) enhances efficiency by conserving energy, matter, water, and time, 4) facilitates equity by being inclusive, as well as socially and environmentally just, and 5) maintains a sense of community and a sense of place. We clarify the nature of science as a contributor to the social program, pointing out the social values motivating science, and the role that scientific knowledge and metaphor play in linking science with the social program of the humane metropolis. We further identify roles that socio-ecological research can play in meeting the goals of the humane metropolis. We use examples of environmental history, watershed function and restoration, and environmental justice research and action from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, Long-Term Ecological Research program. The humane metropolis as a social program benefits from scientific contributions that 1) expose hidden ecological processes in urban systems, 2) generate knowledge connecting people and institutions to the biophysical environment, 3) contribute to the civic dialog, and 4) bring scientific values to the prioritization and balancing of the goals of the humane metropolis.     

Aging women in Minnesota: Rural—non-rural differences in life-history text

Much of the literature on rurality attempts to identify a point on a ‘size-of-place’ continuum at which the social organization of a given place begins to take on attributes defined as ‘rural’. The size of place which exhibits characteristically rural features has declined in our increasingly urbanized society. In looking at rural-urban differences of the elderly and the aging experience then, we ought to focus on even smaller places to detect the differences that a rural-non-rural gradient makes. The present study focuses on the more rural end of the rural-urban continuum and makes comparisons within a single region. The present discussion is based on life histories collected from a sample of thirty older rural women in a four-county area in central Minnesota during the summer and fall of 1986.Several themes are attributed to rural residents more than those living in non-rural settings. If these themes are important, life-orienting themes, they can be expected to structure individual accounts of life histories. The thirty subjects were grouped according to two classifications of rurality. A self-identification classification system is used throughout the discussion which groups the women into ‘rural’, ‘mixed’ and ‘non-rural’ groups.The life history texts were analyzed using the Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis program (MCCA), which scored meanings in the life history texts in two ways. Differences between scores of the three groups are discussed, along with the orienting themes contained in these life histories. Our conclusion is that the rural-non-rural segment of the rural-urban continuum is somewhat more complex than a single gradient.     

Aging in a rural place: the elusive source of well-being

The overall purpose of this study was to provide more insight into the explanation of the rural-urban paradox of perceived life condition through objective and subjective measures of rural within-group disparities. The objectives of the study were: (1) compare the general life condition and subjective well-being of four subgroups of the elderly: white males, white females, black males and black females; (2) determine the similarity of correlates of subjective well-being among the groups; and (3) determine qualitatively, some of the more elusive sources of well-being among the rural elderly as a group. Quantitative data on the life situation and morale of 365 rural by-passed elderly 65 years and older, and qualitative information on 30 corresponding adults were analyzed. The results from the quantitative analyses showed within-group socioeconomic differences among the rural elderly yet no differences in their morale. This finding paralleled that usually observed for rural-urban groups. This phenomena appeared to be explained qualitatively in part through associationistic theory or the extent to which older adults made positive associations with their rural environment. Several factors, elusive in nature, appeared to diminish differences in subjective well-being and they included: a strong sense of friend and neighbor network; a sense of personal space; and the ability to maintain a strong value system as seen through continued activities (gardening, visiting, helping), friend network exchange and religious participation. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.