Area-based partnerships in rural Poland: The post-accession experience

The paper examines the characteristics of area-based partnerships in rural Poland. It is based on the study of partnerships created after the accession to the European Union in 2004. Partnership structures have been rapidly adopted in rural Poland due to opportunities provided by the LEADER+ Pilot Programme. However, the research showed that partnerships are frequently subject to elite domination by local authorities and hence fail to fully engage a range of community and private sector actors. Funding rules for LEADER, most notably the condition that money will only be paid on the completion of projects, has been particularly significant in perpetuating the domination of partnerships by organisations with existing access to financial and human capital. Hence funding arrangements can undermine the ability of Polish partnerships to operate in ways which harness the endogenous capacities of local communities. To date power differentials between notional ‘partners’ have been experienced to a greater extent than in advanced liberal democracies. The research found that overt domination of partnership structures by state agencies limited the possibilities for community led development initiative in rural Poland.     

Empowering communities through evaluation: some lessons from rural Spain

The practice of evaluation has generated a culture that hasbecome part of the implementation and management of public policiesin Europe. Rural areas, with little tradition of evaluation,have been most challenged by its introduction. This paper analysesthe influence of evaluation activities in three local programsand partnerships created in the rural areas of Madrid underthe European LEADER initiative, whose aim is to encourage ruraldevelopment at the local level. The results show the capacityof evaluation to foster community empowerment. The expansionof evaluation culture at the local level can translate intoone of continuous improvement that supports empowerment andcommunity development.     

The place of pluriactivity in Brazil's agrarian reform institutions

Livelihood diversification by Brazil's peasantry has intensified as rural areas have become more integrated with the country's urban fabric and as landlessness and poverty have increased. Despite the growing awareness of pluriactivity by rural households, key agrarian institutions have not addressed this key feature of life of the people they intend to help or mobilize. This review looks at how two main agrarian institutions – the government agrarian reform institute (INCRA) and the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) – avoid or are even hostile to notions of pluriactivity in their affiliated rural settlements. The paper concludes by suggesting that agrarian institutions adopt a territorial rather than sectoral approach to rural livelihoods.     

Environmental co-operatives as instruments for delivering across-farm environmental and rural policy objectives: Lessons for the UK

This paper assesses the potential of environmental co-operatives (EC) to deliver environmental benefits and an integrated and strengthened rural economy in the UK. It is based on research into Dutch EC, which have about 10,000 members, of which a quarter are non-farmers. The paper details the benefits EC have delivered to their members, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, the environment and the rural economy using evidence drawn from interviews with farmer and non-farmer members, farmer non-members, policy makers and academics connected with seven EC. It pays particular attention to the benefits and disadvantages of allowing non-farmer membership. It is argued that EC would be a valuable additional instrument to help deliver landscape-scale environmental, regional and rural policy objectives. However, Dutch EC have received important political and, particularly in their start-up stage, financial support, and similar support would be needed in the UK—it is argued this may be more readily available if UK EC will offer non-farmer membership. Appropriate support could be provided through developments to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme's higher level tier, by safeguarding and extending the spirit of the LEADER plus programme (which explicitly supports collective action) to the delivery of environmental benefits, and/or by encouraging the development of locally based social enterprises.     

Issues of Integration,Participation and Empowerment in Rural Development: The Case of LEADER in the Republic of Ireland

Currently, within the European Union increasing emphasis is being placed on devising innovative development strategies for rural areas. Considerable stress is laid on integration, participation and empowerment. Integration implies a need for cross-sectoral harmonisation of developmental objectives as well as increased co-ordination between agencies involved in the developmental process. Participation implies consultation with those most directly affected, namely rural dwellers, hence increasing the level of involvement of local people in the development process. Empowerment suggests a greater degree of influence being wielded by local residents and, thus, some shift in the power balance between ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ and between ‘professionals’ and ‘amateurs’. In practise, this has resulted in a plethora of initiatives which, to a greater or lesser extent, espouse the idea of a more locally attuned ‘bottom-up’ approach to rural development stressing the importance of involving local communities. This approach is seen as a more appropriate mechanism than traditional ‘top-down’ strategies. Within Ireland, a number of programmes have been in operation since the late 1980s. This paper presents some evidence from on-going research on LEADER II in Ireland suggesting that there are a number of issues which need to be teased out with regard to current initiatives. Power relationships at both national and local levels need to be explored. While there may well be beneficial outcomes, the nature and extent of participation is quite variable. It may well be more valid to view current developments in terms of a process of incorporation rather than a move to a ‘bottom-up’ participatory model. While current strategies may represent a positive move, there is a need to ensure that the rhetoric being employed is translated into reality.     

Constructions of local culture and impacts on domestic violence in an Australian rural community

Studies of domestic violence in rural areas have predominantly focused on barriers that keep women trapped in abusive relationships. The literature has frequently suggested that rural culture influences the incidence of domestic violence, the forms it takes, and how it is experienced. Yet there is surprisingly little research on how rural culture plays out in relationships between women and men who experience domestic violence. The study described in this paper explored local culture in a South Australian rural community and how it affected women's experiences of, and men's perpetration of, domestic violence. It found several local cultural discourses that bore on the issue, including self-reliance, pride, privacy, belonging and closeness, family, and Christianity. The power and influence of these discourses made it difficult to name and challenge domestic violence. The paper concludes with the argument that it is important to acknowledge and understand the values and beliefs of rural women and men when developing effective and appropriate responses to rural domestic violence. There is a need to move away from universal understandings of a rural culture to acknowledge discourses that have power and strength within a community so that we can sensitively challenge discourses that silence domestic violence.     

Building evaluation capacity in Spain: a case study of rural development and empowerment in the European Union

The development of European Community administrative authority has greatly influenced the development of an evaluation culture among the southern and central member states of the European Union. The present case study from Spain provides an example of this diffusion through the use of an empowerment evaluation approach to build evaluation capacity within the context of rural development. The study focuses on the evaluation process over a 10-year period of three local development programs run by three local partnerships created in the rural areas of the Madrid region through the European LEADER initiative. Critical components of empowerment evaluation are discussed, as well as the impact, limitations, difficulties, and applicability of the approach to rural development in the European Union. Conclusions are presented concerning evaluation capacity building and the development of an evaluation culture.     

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.     

Territory,structures and interpretation — Two case studies of the European Union's LEADER I programme

This paper reflects on the nature of the EU LEADER I local (participative) rural development programme using two empirical case studies. The two initiatives are analysed temporally as they moved from the construction of a territorial rationale, through the establishment of local structures of participation and finally into a philosophy and modus operandi in the implementation phase. The central argument of the paper is that this style of approach reflects the basic principles of the local, territorial policy approach and that evaluation methods need to evolve to be able to focus on process, structures and interpretation/learning rather than on the measurement of concrete activity.     

Village Facilities and Social Place Attachment in the Rural Netherlands

Economies of scale and increased mobility have led to the closure of many village facilities. Most residents do not rely on locally available facilities anymore for their primary function. However, facilities are also meeting places. A decline in facilities may therefore negatively influence residents' social place attachment. This article examines which facilities impact residents' social place attachment. It also explores whether different facilities impact the social place attachment of different groups of residents differently. In our analyses, we make a distinction between rural areas near and away from urban areas. Based on structural equation modeling, we conclude that in rural areas, both near and away from cities, cafés and supermarkets may well matter for residents' social attachment. In contrast to common expectations, community centers, primary schools, and sports facilities were not shown to enhance social place attachment. Considering the increasing self‐reliance of local communities, these findings raise doubts about the use of public services to revitalize local communities.     

Masculinity,Gender, and Rural Policy*

Abstract This paper explores the operation of gender relations in the context of rural policy. Framed by debates on new rural governance, it considers how both the content and the culture of recent rural regeneration policy reflect highly masculine values and the maintenance of traditional power relations. New forms of decision making in rural areas promote a style of policy making that values and grants priority to male networks in the construction of elite groups and styles of management, and devalues community participation. We use examples from the United Kingdom to demonstrate the implications of shifts in the mechanisms and practice of policy making and implementation for men's and women's differential involvement and experience with rural regeneration. We go on to show how gender relations are also reflected in the content of contemporary rural regeneration policy. Decisions concerning the most appropriate types of initiative are predicated on a male‐oriented view of previous economic activity and local labor markets, and represent a highly masculinist approach to regeneration.     

Inscribing Gender in Rural Development: Industrial Homework in Two Midwestern Communities1

Abstract A resurgence of informal economic work, such as home-working, occurred in some rural areas during the 1970s and the 1980s. In two midwestern communities, an employer of industrial homeworkers was recruited in an effort to boost the local economy with new jobs. In these communities, ideas about women's roles in households and the labor market are crucial to the states' ability to couple industrial homeworking with rural community development. Industrial homeworking as development in the United States shows how development goals support and maintain the sexual division of labor in households and in the local labor market. Personal interviews and archival documents form the basis of the case study data. These data are content-analyzed for themes about the process of development and the relationship of the local states and industrial firms.     

Can Capitalism Solve Its Own Rural Problems? Japanese Lessons for the World Bank's Vision of Rural-Led Development

Recent research and policy advice by international development organizations have, by their own account, sought to reverse a prior neglect of conditions in agriculture and rural areas. In pursuit of this, they have developed a vision of dynamic but incremental development in rural areas, anchored in a smallholder-based and economically diversified market economy. This vision, articulated in the World Bank's 2008 World Development Report and continuing to animate research and policy advice today, presents itself as a solution to persistent poverty in the world's least developed countries. This paper adopts a historical sociological lens to use the case of Japan, in the period from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the opening decades of the twentieth, to assess how realistic this vision is. This analysis shows that the lessons of Japan's experience are chastening for this vision of rural development. The mechanisms of growth in Japan were remarkably similar to those advertised by the World Bank's vision. However, its rural economic dynamism was based on deep socioeconomic inequalities and brought improved material conditions and greater economic security to agricultural households only with excruciating slowness, if at all. Rather than demonstrating the potential of incremental, market-oriented rural development to offer a path towards widespread poverty reduction, Japan instead serves as a warning of this development model's limitations.     

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.     

Rural development and the regional state: Denying multifunctional agriculture in the UK

Under the emerging rural development paradigm, we argue that to be multifunctional an activity must add income to agriculture, it must contribute to the construction of a new agricultural sector that corresponds to the needs of the wider society and it must reconfigure rural resources in ways that lead to wider rural development benefits. By evaluating UK rural policies on the basis of whether or not they attempt to meet these conditions, this paper shows that an implicit recognition of agriculture's multifunctional character has occurred recently through the shift from a sectoral to a regional and territorial perspective that reintegrates farming into rural development. However, in practice, and especially in England, the UK government has been unable to turn multifunctional activities into a real rural development option. In fact, by continuing to support agri-industrial/retailer interests on the one hand, and post-productivist— environmental and amenity— interests on the other, the State is governing mostly by setting up competitively organized ‘projects’ and schemes that continue to justify the concentration (and limitation) of resources allocated to agriculture. Based upon a critique of policy developments over the past decade, this paper emphasizes the need for more innovative forms of state innovation that provide opportunities for new, creative and more spatially embedded forms of supply and demand management in agri-food. In the conclusions, the paper also argues that more critical research is needed to uncover the existing and potential role of both governments and producer networks in progressing sustainable rural development through agricultural multifunctionality.     

Local Identity, Cultural Commodities, and Development in Rural Japan: The Potential as Viewed by Cultural Producers and Local Residents

Abstract:  This paper considers the development potential of rural and highly peripheral areas of Japan, focusing on local factors of development, together with local identity and cultural commodities, as these are incorporated into what has been called the culture economy. Based on a survey of informed local residents and another of local cultural commodities producers, the paper alludes to what constitutes a culture economy for rural settings and identifies several key aspects related to the process of such a cultural commodities-based approach to development. While confirming the importance of identity and cultural commodities in the local development profile of rural settings, the paper sets the groundwork for further research concerning the complex process for how such development can be achieved. The main themes identified for further research include both the nature and role of residents' solidarity together with the combinative nature of government support and local entrepreneurship in the local culture economy on the one hand, and the character of the advertising and media representation by which cultural commodities are created and maintained on the other.     

Rural small firms’ use of the internet: From global to local

Reporting on a study of internet portals in rural Scotland, the paper examines the discrepancy between the much theorised use of the internet to afford external market reach to small rural firms, and the consistent and prevailing evidence that the rural economy is sustained by locally-oriented trade. The study combines data from portal operators and rural firms that use portals and finds from both that greater importance is placed on maintaining local interest to facilitate local trade than fostering external market orientation. However, both suppliers and users of portals identify that local orientation of the portal also increases the effectiveness of externally-oriented marketing. Thus, rather than a focus on attracting external markets, a balance of local and external orientation is best placed to foster value-adding business activity. From a theoretical perspective the importance of the local when applied to rural small firms’ internet use is largely neglected, but its importance, as observed in the current study, suggests a rationale for developing theory that better explains the role of the internet for rural firms.     

Deprivation,poverty and marginalization in rural lifestyles in England and Wales

Research studies of the problems of rural life in Britain have often been based on concepts such as ‘deprivation’ or ‘disadvantage’. In this paper we explore the basis of these conceptualizations and note claims that they have been appropriated by government at local and central levels, suggesting that criticism of such appropriation should not lead to a neglect of material privation of opportunities caused by changes to the structure of rural life, brought about by economic restructuring, social recomposition and the political-economy of deregulation. Rather, we draw on studies of rural poverty to suggest that the changing material base of rural life has been accompanied by a range of discursive strategies which obscure rural problems and even filter them out altogether in the various constructions of idyll-ized rural life as the spatial expression of self-supporting, self-sufficient, happy, healthy and problem-free existence in a market place economy. Using some of the findings from the Rural Lifestyles research programme in England and Wales we discuss some of the different experiences of opportunity privation in rural areas, and some of the different ways in which cultural constructions of rural life can lead to a range of expectations from imagined rural geographies which are variously met and not met in day-to-day rural lifestyles. We suggest that rural problems are associated with a wide range of experiences of marginalization — economic, political, social, cultural — which cannot be mapped out according to normative or cultural expectations, but which occur differently at the intersection of material and experiential elements of rural lifestyles.     

SECTORAL COMPOSITION OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND MACROECONOMIC (IN)STABILITY

This article examines the quantitative interrelations between sectoral composition of public spending and equilibrium (in)determinacy in a two‐sector real business cycle model with positive productive externalities in investment. When government purchases of consumption and investment goods are set as constant fractions of their respective sectoral output, we show that the public‐consumption share plays no role in the model's local dynamics, and that a sufficiently high public‐investment share can stabilize the economy against endogenous belief‐driven cyclical fluctuations. When each type of government spending is postulated as a constant proportion of the economy's total output, we find that there exists a trade‐off between public consumption versus investment expenditures to yield saddle‐path stability and equilibrium uniqueness. (JEL E32, E62, O41)     

The State Connection in China's Rural‐Urban Migration1

This study explores the role of China's rural local state‐owned and urban state‐owned units in its rural‐urban migration process. Most studies on Chinese migration have focused on migrants moving from rural to urban areas through informal mechanisms outside of the state's control. They therefore treat the Chinese state as an obstructionist force and dismiss its facilitative role in the migration process. By documenting rural local states' “labor export” strategies and urban state units' employment of millions of peasants, this article provides a corrective to the existing literature. It highlights and explains the state connection in China's rural‐urban migration.

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