Rural government and community participation: The planning role of community councils

Since April 1996, Wales has possessed one principal tier of local government: 22 unitary authorities. Below this tier of administration, a second level exists: community and town councils. The statutory duties of these authorities are severely limited but they do perform a valuable advisory and consultative role with the principal authorities, particularly in rural areas. The recent reorganization of Welsh local government has prompted commentators to reconsider whether community councils could be afforded more statutory powers in rural governance. This paper discusses the potential for enhancing their role within one service area, namely the planning process. Planning is a function of local government where changes to responsibilities could be enacted. The paper discusses the findings of two research projects: first, a survey of senior planning officers in Wales towards awarding planning powers to community councils; and secondly, a more detailed examination of the perceptions of community councils in rural mid-Wales towards their powers and duties, their planning links with the principal authorities, and their duties within local communities to generate public involvement in rural policy-making. It argues that allocating planning responsibilities to community and town councils lacks the support of both planning professionals and community council representatives themselves. However, in the dual-push for unitary councils to operate both strategically and locally, there is further scope for a reorientation of rural policy-making and for local planning authorities to provide more extensive consultation opportunities to the councils.     

Fiscal conservatism versus local paternalism: divergent experiences of public housing decline in rural areas of England during the 1980s

This paper examines the differential response of two rural districts of England (Fenland and Waveney) to changes in council house provisioning in the 1980s. It is situated in a decade when major policy shifts in social housing policy were occurring at the national level with local governments devising new social housing strategies in response. Against a fast moving legislative background, the study examines the extent to which Stoker's categorisation of policy-making behaviour helps us to understand the diversity of policy-making influences at work in rural areas. In displaying a resentment of outside influence and a vision grounded in local considerations that offered minimal support for housing association activity, both Fenland and Waveney both exhibited attributes of what Stoker (The Politics of Local Government, second ed., 1991, Macmillan, London) called a ‘traditionalist’, Conservative stance. However, contrasts in the social housing policy of each authority over the decade revealed the limitations of this categorisation. In Fenland, pressures for housing growth led to increasing problems for those on low-incomes. Nevertheless, the District's social housing policy was dominated by fiscal conservatism and a reluctance to maintain financial support for either construction or the maintenance of council housing. By contrast, the social housing policies adopted by Waveney were characterised by a paternalistic desire to maintain a higher level of support for council housing combined with a more overtly critical attitude of central government policy. By identifying different dimensions of ‘traditionalist’ Conservative behaviour, the paper underscores the need for further studies on the role played by local leadership and key actors in policy-making processes.     

The limits of planning in China: equalizing basic education through the Internet

Planning, in its reinvented form, is an important tool for government macro-steering, but the role of the Internet in planning has been overlooked by researchers. Educational reforms are illustrative of the planning processes that characterize policy-making in China. Through a case study of educational policy in Qingbaijiang District in Chengdu, this paper examines how the Internet changes the limits of planning in educational equalization. The trial-site status of the district allows us to see how pragmatic adaptation of the new technology works on the ground, enabling an overall improvement in quality. However, at the same time, this strengthens elite schools, thus, paradoxically, creating inequality on a different level. Hence, this is a unique case to understand the limits of planning in China, and the key implication for research is that the Internet – and indeed techno-science as a social order – should be included in future analyses of planning.     

Perception and role of informal rural finance in developing countries: the example of Tanzania

Negative perceptions on the value of informal rural finance or credit which are prevalent in a number of developing countries are compounded in the case of Tanzania because of the country's Ujamaa and socialist policies. Consequently, informal rural finance has been neglected both in terms of research and policy planning. This paper attempts to fill part of the research gap on informal rural finance in Tanzania, and to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on this subject in the developing countries. The paper briefly investigates the policy and perception scenario on informal rural finance in Tanzania in the last two decades. Based on empirical data collected through village surveys in three regions of the country, the paper describes the sources of informal credit for smallholder farmers in those areas, and assesses the use, repayment, terms and conditions of such credit.     

Decentralisation and devolution to the English regions: Assessing the implications for rural policy and delivery

The White Paper Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions opened the way for reforms to regional government in England which, it asserted, will improve decision-making and deliver better quality services. In the field of rural policy, too, there are demands for decentralisation to improve service delivery and reflect the diversity of rural areas. Drawing upon a case study of rural policy making and implementation in the English West Midlands, this paper explores current institutional structures for rural policy making and how further administrative decentralisation or political devolution might enhance them. It reveals a complex set of fragmented structures and blurred accountabilities in which policy implementation is an outstanding concern. The Government's administrative reforms, together with proposals to decentralise responsibility for rural service delivery, may assist in promoting greater differentiation and co-ordination at the regional tier. Nonetheless, in the absence of the transfer of significant resources and influence to an elected regional body, efforts to establish a more distinct and coherent approach to rural policy-making and delivery will continue to be hampered.     

An evaluation of the rural development commission's redundant building grant

The Rural Development Grant operates the Redundant Building Grant which is designed to bring redundant buildings in certain areas into commercial activity. This paper outlines the results of a recent evaluation of the Grant largely based on contacts with more than 400 applicants in nine counties. This survey is used to explore five aspects of rural policy: property development; business performance; job creation; integrated rural development; and aspects of land use planning.     

Spatial Redistribution of Poverty through Migration of Poor People to Depressed Rural Communities1

Recent demographic studies document movement of poor people from both urban and rural places to depressed rural communities. Such migration redistributes poverty to rural areas and further concentrates it within them. This article presents a case study of one depressed community in New York that became a migration destination for urban poor people, causing dramatic increases in poverty rate, welfare rolls, and service needs. On-site research showed that the community's attraction was inexpensive rental housing that had become available after loss of manufacturing jobs prompted a middle-class exodus. The lack of jobs was not a deterrent for low-income inmigrants, though, because many of them had limited job skills and other employment barriers and would have had difficulty getting or holding a job anyway. Similar processes of economic decline, population loss, and poverty inmigration appear to be occurring elsewhere also. The article identifies community-level impacts and policy implications; it concludes with suggestions for further research needs.     

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”.     

Whither rural studies?

To mark the launching of Journal of Rural Studies, this paper briefly reviews the increasing importance and volume of rural studies throughout the developed world. The rise in popularity of rural environments within some disciplines of study has been due to a steady progression of concept and technique resulting in academic maturity. In other disciplines, previous bias towards urban areas and consequent patchy and sectoral study of the countryside has only been overcome, in part, through a relatively unplanned but nevertheless effective multidisciplinary perspective. Rurality has proved very difficult to define in an all-embracing manner, and indeed rural studies as a framework of study may be threatened if social science continues to espouse structuralist epistemologies with their aspatial connotations. At present the divide between the ‘environmental’ and ‘socio-economic’ element of rural studies is certainly not unbridgeable, although by the same token the existence of an integrative and commonly cherished body of subject matter which will satisfy both elements may be more apparent than real. These conceptual issues, and related questions of technique and method require further emphasis in rural studies as does the analysis of planning and policy-making, where a cross-fertilization of concepts with rural development strategies in underdeveloped nations would be beneficial.     

Attitudes and policies towards residential development in the Scottish countryside

This paper reports the results of a two-year study of attitudes towards residential development in the Scottish countryside, and how these impinge upon processes of policy formulation for land release. The research focused on two casestudy districts while also exploring processes of policy formulation at national and local levels.At a national (Scottish) level, the most potent influence on policy was found to be the professional ideologies of the civil service elite, with professional planners' opposition to housebuilding in the countryside increasingly challenged by the emergence of a housing professional community. At the local level, policies were the outcome of a struggle between individual councillors acting ‘parochially’ on behalf of their constituents (notably high-status, home-owners, landowners and farmers) and planning officials acting in accordance with dominant professional planning ideologies to oppose rural residential development.     

Turmoil in the welfare system reshapes rural Sweden

The purpose of the article is to discuss rural change and the effects of policies on the spatial distribution of welfare in Sweden. It is argued that the Swedish welfare model has had a major redistributional effect in favour of peripheral regions. The outcome is largely unintentional as the welfare system is directed to individuals rather than to regions. When recession and political change put pressure on the welfare model, a corresponding unintentional negative effect will hit the periphery. Therefore, a spatial perspective on the changing state budget is needed in order to develop a new policy for rural areas. Finally, attention is drawn to the complex pattern of rural change in Sweden. A cluster of changes are operating at different levels, giving new prospects to some regions while others will have continuing and increasing problems.     

Using concept mapping as a planning tool: Child welfare citizen review panels

Citizen Review Panels (CRPs) are groups of citizen volunteers authorized by U.S. federal law to examine state child welfare agencies. These groups inspect policies and practices related to child protection responsibilities and are tasked with making recommendations for systemic improvement. Despite the federal mandate for each state to develop a CRP and the potential of these groups to positively impact child welfare practices, there is a dearth in the literature related to CRPs. Consequently, planning and evaluation processes of these groups vary widely. This study reports on the use of concept mapping (CM) to outline a framework for planning and subsequently evaluating the CRP in one southeastern state. CM is a mixed-method research approach that uses multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses to explore an area of study. Through these analyses, the method creates visual depictions of conceptual relationships between ideas. Data yielded a seven cluster concept map that CRP members (N = 36) utilized for planning processes, and subsequently for developing an internal evaluation tool. Results from this study offer a unifying framework by which CRPs, and similar groups in other areas can utilize for planning and evaluation purposes. After a review of pertinent literature on CRPs, this article explicates CM processes utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and outlines apposite areas for future CRP research.     

Creating “Community”? Preparing for Bushfire in Rural Victoria

The term “community” has a long and contested lineage in social analysis and debate. This lineage, however, is not generally recognized in policy and public debates on community and bushfire in Australia. “Community” is thought to be central to bushfire preparedness in Australia, especially in rural areas, but what “community” actually means in this context is vague at best. There is an ever‐present tension between the use of “community” as a reference to locality, a “sense of community” as experienced by residents, and the use of “community” as a rhetorical tool by governments and state agencies. We argue that a rigorous analysis of the concept of “community” is critical to an understanding of the processes involved in preparing for the challenges associated with disaster, in this case bushfires. These broader issues are supported by research (a series of surveys, interviews, and focus groups) carried out with residents living in (predominantly rural) bushfire‐prone areas in the state of Victoria, Australia. Ultimately, we assert that social participation and social networks are likely to be the crucial aspects of community that play a central role in effective bushfire preparedness.     

Beyond the European Rural Areas: the Need for Strategic Approaches

The European Commission has paid and is paying particular attention to rural development by increasing the measures and the resources available in order to enhance the environment, the quality of life in rural areas and also provides incentives to diversify economic activities in rural areas. The current European delimitation of rural areas is the result of the application of OECD methodology. According to this methodology, the level of population density is the common and only criterion adopted. This indicator can be interpreted as a direct function of attractiveness: the higher the population, the more attractive an area and vice versa. However, the concept of rural can have different definitions, influenced by the economic, social, political needs or contexts, added to which the application of the OEDC methodology tends to flatten different situations. The most important processes of change that the methodology is not able to identify are the urbanisation trend which entices population and economic activity out of more remote rural areas into urban and accessible rural areas and the counter-urbanisation flow from urban regions into accessible rural areas. The final aim of the Chapter is to evaluate whether both current and new strategies are coherent with territorial needs and whether the inherent territorial disparities require a tailored definition and policy. Consequently, the analysis takes into consideration the different European socio-economic situation, the agricultural and forestry sectors, the levels of diversification and the quality of life and the state of the environment.     

Intimate Violence against Rural Women: The Current and Future State of Feminist Empirical and Theoretical Contributions

Rural crime in general ranks among the least studied social problems in the social sciences; however, a growing body of research shows that rural woman abuse is a major problem. The current state of progressive critical feminist social scientific knowledge enhances an empirical and theoretical understanding of intimate violence against rural women. Revealing the complexities of rural women's experiences and struggles with violent relationships reconstitutes violence against women as a public crisis that requires continued serious attention with regard research, theory, and policy. Three primary objectives of this article are as follows: (i) briefly review recent feminist social scientific literature on research, methodology, and theoretical contributions on violence against women in rural areas, (ii) suggest new directions in researching and theorizing rural women's experiences with intimate violence, and (iii) offer creative practical and policy solutions towards a broad vision of social change.     

Social work promoting participation: reflections on policy practice in Italy

One of the core dimensions of social work practice, identified since its establishment as a professional endeavour, is concerned with political action. Nonetheless, policy practice, which entails that social workers should connect their work with individuals, as in traditional casework, to wider political action, is often perceived as marginal in everyday practice. This paper connects views on social work policy practices to the context provided by the ways social policies are actually constructed in Italy. A research study on governance processes across Italy, addressing the main actors involved in social policy-making, reveals that in fact practitioners’ political action is differently represented within different frameworks, ranging from being seen as a near impossibility, to being perceived as a crucial factor in the policy-making processes. If context and cultures play such a relevant role, synergistic work at different levels and by all the different actors in the social work community is required if we want social workers to be able to express their potential fully in the political arena.     

Rethinking the changing structures of rural local government – State power,rural politics and local political strategies?

There is a notable absence in contemporary rural studies – of both a theoretical and empirical nature – concerning the changing nature of rural local government. Despite the scale and significance of successive rounds of local government reorganisation in the UK, very little has been written on this topic from a rural perspective. Instead research on local political change has tended to concentrate on local governance and local partnerships – on the extra-governmental aspects of the governance system – rather than on local government itself. In contrast, this paper draws upon strategic-relational state theory to explore the changing structures and institutions of rural local government, and analyse how these can be related to the changing state strategies of those groups which are politically powerful in rural areas. In this respect, the paper draws on current and previous rounds of local government reorganisation to illustrate how new objects of governance, new state strategies and new hegemonic projects are emerging as a consequence of such restructuring processes.     

Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives

Social innovation is attracting increasing attention in research and policy, heightened by continuing austerity across Europe. Therefore, this paper examines earlier research into community-led local development (CLLD) initiatives in rural areas of Europe to develop our understanding of the meaning and scope of rural social innovation. We draw on a Schumpeterian view where innovations emerge from new combinations of resources that bring about positive changes and create value in society. A Schumpeterian social innovation framework is derived as the basis for re-analysing data from previous evaluations of LEADER policy in five different national contexts. This elicits a clearer understanding of social innovation in a rural development context, identifying different processes and outcomes that create social value. As the CLLD agenda and the demand for innovation in Europe gather pace, our aspirations are to inform future research and other initiatives on how to integrate social innovation into the design and evaluation of new rural development policies and programmes.     

Urban-rural influences in U.S. environmental and economic development policy

Despite the fact that rural communities have the most to gain and lose in matters involving economic development and environmental preservation, they often are given the least voice in the political processes that create policies in these areas. Agendas are set, policies formulated and implemented by policy-makers, administrators, and practitioners in urban areas. These outside policies may not be consistent with how rural communities view the tradeoffs between the environment and the economy. We call for decentralization of economic and environmental policy. It is understood, however, that such an approach may involve risk. What if rural-based policy-makers and practitioners are, for instance, aggressively antienvironmental and pro-economic growth? Using results from a national sample of rural development officials, this study examines the environmental and economic development attitudes of development officials based on a population continuum. The findings suggest that rural-based development officials often have a greater appreciation of rural environmental quality of life features compared to their urban counterparts. The implications of the findings are detailed and suggestions for future research are provided.