Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
2015
Among the activities of vital importance for any economy, an important place is held by the knowledge, research and identification of alternatives for rural area development, a complexity derived both from the rural area size and from the share of the population employed in productive activities of services, social-cultural and habitat, etc. Although rural development is an issue that can be considered as perennial as the agricultural activity, as it has quasi-permanently accompanied agriculture development, this emerged as a problematic domain, at least in the European area, mainly in the 1990s. The share of the rural population and of the rural space contributed to the national and international importance of the rural area development and planning, on the one hand; on the other hand, the importance of rural life was also a core issue, up to the level to which, in many European countries, in the European Council and the European Union, rural development became a basic pillar of th...
2012
Rural areas cover most of the European Union and are inhabited by nearly half of its population. They provide living space and a means of livelihood for millions of people, is the source of much of the food, provide a number of basic raw materials for the industry as well as they represent a category of recreation space, attractive to visitors. The specific character of rural areas within the European Union is determined by their social and cultural identity. Each of the rural areas has a unique geographical location, natural resources, history, ethnic structure of the population, religion and traditions, urban network, and economic potential. They are characterized by a distinctive way of life, closer relationships between people, direct contact with nature, which is a symbol of healthy living environment. Understanding their nature goes beyond the narrow framework of agriculture and includes contemporary views on multifunctional agriculture, economic diversification of the farm fo...
Land Degradation & Development, 1990
Based on the findings from the research project: ‘Alternative Uses for Land and the New Farmworker—Segregation versus Integration’, this paper analyses broad lines of development and available options for rural areas in the European Community. Taking into account various limitations on agricultural, forestry, and nature conservation activities, the emergence of three agro-structural regional types is likely to occur: —rural areas with intensive agriculture;—rural areas constituting mainly agrarian-touristic peripheries, which exploit their endogenous development potentials on the basis of quasi-tourism—less-favoured areas with a tendency towards depopulation, which may serve as ecological balance areas.—rural areas with intensive agriculture;—rural areas constituting mainly agrarian-touristic peripheries, which exploit their endogenous development potentials on the basis of quasi-tourism—less-favoured areas with a tendency towards depopulation, which may serve as ecological balance areas.
Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic …, 2010
Knowing, researching into and developing the rural space are activities of utmost importance for a country, both by the dimension of the rural space, expressed by the surface as such, and by the dimension of the demographic component (of the rural population). Referring to Romanian rural space, this is dominant, representing almost 94% of Romania's total surface (93.7%). In what concerns the demographic component (population), as it is known, this confers a particular dynamics to the rural space, generating a series of quantitative and qualitative aspects. At present the share of the rural population reaches 47% out of the total of Romania's population. Generally speaking, we can assert that the village and generally the Romanian village remains further on the main propeller of life. Thus the share of the rural population, besides the whole range of socio-demographic indicators, which can outline the degree of stability or instability of the rural space, as well as other basic indicators, such as the share of the rural population occupied in productive activities, socio-cultural services, tourism activities, etc., enhance the importance of the rural life from one country or another, reason for which the development of the rural space remains a problem of a national and international level. Consequently, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has raised the issue of the rural space at the level of European and Community policy.
After the Industrial Revolution, the precarious equilibrium which regulated the co-evolutionary process between man and nature, has decidedly leaned in favor of a society which is continuously in search of new spaces to be explored and inhabited. According to the data in the Inventario dell'uso delle terre in Italia (Inventory of land use in Italyiuti), from 1990 to 2008 land take is estimated at 500,000 hectares; 75% of the time, this occurs to the detriment of farmland. The ability to evaluate and monitor said phenomenon is essential, first of all, in order to provide the decision makers with valid instruments and, secondly, to lay the basis for a new culture which, placing agriculture at the center of a new, regenerative view of the landscape, is able to outline new ways of organizing the territory which take into account the connections between that which is anthropic and the matrix in which it is inserted, in full respect of the principles of sustainable development.
Paesaggio, conoscenza tacita e sviluppo locale. Landscape, Tacit Knowledge, and Local Development, 2014
La situazione delle aree rurali in Spagna rappresenta un enorme problema, rimasto a lungo sottotraccia, che affligge la maggior parte del paese dal momento che il 90% del suo territorio è rurale ed ospita circa il 20% della popolazione. Il paese è caratterizzato da notevoli differenze territoriali, principalmente tra l’interno e la costa e tra le areerurali e quelle urbane. Circa metà del paese viene utilizzato a scopi agricoli, con circa 11 milioni di ettari di foreste (Commissione europea, Sviluppo rurale, 2008). Il problema è così profondo e in continuo e costante avanzamento da molto tempo che molti non se ne ricordano e in alcune zone remote il declino è già avvenuto con un processo irreversibile. Questa situazione ha ripercussioni non solo sulle comunità rurali ma anche sul loro patrimonio culturale e paesaggistico. Nelle aree rurali della Spagna si trova circa l’80% del patrimonio architettonico-culturale e dei paesaggi protetti del paese, inclusa la maggioranza dei 44 siti Patrimonio dell’Umanità riconosciuti dall’UNESCO. Il patrimonio culturale e paesaggistico rende queste comunità assolutamente uniche, crea un senso di appartenenza e le lega al loro passato. The rural situation in Spain is an enormous slow moving affliction that impacts most of Spain as 90% of the country is rural and is home to about 20% of the population. The country is characterized by important territorial discrepancies, mainly between the interior vs. coastal and rural vs. urban. About half of the country is utilized for agriculture with almost 11 million hectare of forests (EC Rural Development, 2008). The affliction is so big and has been moving slowly for so long that many are oblivious and irreversible decline has already occurred in some remote areas. Stopping or reversing rural depopulation is the biggest challenge. This situation has not only affected the rural communities but also their cultural heritage and landscapes. Rural Spain contains approximately 80% of the recognized architectural culture heritage and protected landscapes, including a majority of the 44 UNESCO World Heritage sites. The cultural heritage and landscapes makes these communities unique, creates a sense of home, and links them to their past. It can also be a powerful economic driver by serving as a venue for cultural activities and attracting tourism.
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues
Rural areas as a necessary component of living space for the population is an increasing focus both in official documents of various EU institutions and in research investigations. Both the documents and the research papers stress the necessity to enhance and maintain the viability of rural areas. The viability of rural areas is ensured by employment opportunities and the readiness of residents for active and innovative economic activity. The authors' research focuses on an analysis of vertical and horizontal changes in entrepreneurship in the period 2009-2015 and their effects on changes in the living space in the territories analysed, which primarily involves the country's regions, but a special focus is placed on the mentioned processes in territorial units of the regionsmunicipalities-, as the life of residents is influenced not only by national policies but also by ongoing processes in the administrative territories of local governments. Zemgale region was chosen for an in-depth analysis of these processes. LURSOFT data for the period 2009-2015 and Central Statistical Bureau data for the period 2013-2015 were used as information sources. The data were processed by quantitative (growth) and qualitative (structural change) statistical analysis methods. The Eurostat methodology and a methodology developed by the authors for classification of industries were employed for the analysis of structural changes in the national economy. The development level-rate matrix method was employed for an in-depth examination of the research results. The research results showed that regardless of the global economic crisis, both vertical growth and positive horizontal change processes took place in the national economy in all five regions of Latvia, nine cities of national significance as well as in all 110 municipalities that composed the rural areas of Latvia. The analysis of the information allows concluding that, first, performance trends were observed in the rural space, which contributed to economic growth; second, there was no direct causal relationship between the population density of rural territories and economic activity in the rural territories; however, third, it leads to an opinion that the economic growth in the rural territories was greatly affected by the quality of local governance and local community residents' readiness for active, innovative and inclusive action.
Monografie Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Geografii I Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Im Stanislawa Leszczyckiego, 2012
In the article an analysis of the situation in the Slovene Rural Areas are presented. The comparative analysis, based on typology of rural areas in Slovenia made by The Institute of Agricultural Economics on Biotechnical Faculty, shows that the Slovene countryside is not homogeneous. Present situation and the possibilities of development and the attraction of individual rural areas depend on the demographic situation, on the level of economic and social development, on natural conditions etc. Present situation is analysed from the viewpoint of sustainable rural development: advantages, weaknesses and some possibilities for improvement are presented.
Review on Agriculture and Rural Development, 2018
The rural area is an extremely varied area, agricultural area, the area occupied by forests and grazing the surface of non-agricultural lands (Riviera sea, etc.) and rural agglomerations is a separate entity from the urban areas characterized by a high demographic concentration and vertical and horizontal structures. Being often under the impact of old production systems, characterized by accelerated development and irrational of industry, the countryside has been subject to economic transformation, social and environmental, which mostly resulted in exodus and impoverishment of the rural population. Given this situation, are downright remarkable efforts of developed countries and not only to balance rural-urban ratio, reconciliation and revival of rural areas is kept of unique material and spiritual values. Rural areas are the result of interactions between man and nature, between interdependencies relations, who are specific to diversity of social actions and their natural environm...
2013
UDC 911.3 : 711.4 : 658.155 (497.12188.1) Problems of the transformation of rural areas in the transition to the market economy the Prekmurje example Since the independence of Slovenia, intensive socioeconomic changes are under way. The agriculture is facing the accomodation to contemporary market principles. The article deals with the structural problems of Slovene agriculture and of its countryside with the emphasis on the Prekmurje region and, particularly on the Lendava commune. We have developed a model which makes possible to evaluate the present situation from the point of view of the plans envisaged. It provides an overview of the necessary measures and spatial interventions, as well as a complex view of the future concept of the countryside. Izvleček UDK911.3 : 711.4 : 658.155 (497.12 188.1) Problemi preobrazbe podeželja na prehodu v tržno gospodarstvo primer Prekmurja Z osamosvojitvijo Slovenije smo se v kmetijstvu znašli pred prilagajanjem sodobnim tržnim načelom, s čimer...
The text is a chapter of the volume The Sustainability of Rural Systems (2013) edited by Cawley, M., Bicalho, A. M. de S. M., Laurens, L., a a result of the colloquium organized by the Commission of Sustainable Rural Systems of International Geographic Union; the volume was published at Whitaker Institute NUI Galway (Ireland). This chapter present the evolution of the social, economic and territorial components of the Romania rural space, apprehended through selected indicators, based on systemic paradigm and illustrated by case-studies of different types of sub-systems. Romanian rural space. The conclusion is that the transition generated by the fall of the Communist regime determined contrasting changes in Romanian rural space. Negative changes refer to: demographic decline, ageing of the population, the critical situation of labor resources, sub–use of agricultural resources, and decline in educational levels and living standards. Positive changes refer to: improvement of technical utilities, recovery of some traditional activities, rebirth of interest in the touristic capitalization of the rural cultural patrimony, the growing concern for planning which has materialized in acts such as the National Plan for Rural Development which aims to reshape rural–urban complementarities. Although there are sufficient planning strategies for the recovery of Romanian rural space, the achievement of a real synergy between all the decisional layers, from the governmental to the local one, seems to be difficult to accomplish.
Studies in Agricultural Economics, 2014
The article is focused on the introduction and categorization of various approaches to rurality, and the identification and delimitation of rural areas in Visegrad countries. Three substantively different groups of conceptualizations and definitions of rural and rurality are described as follows: functional definitions, rural as locality (political-economic approaches), and social representation. Latter, basic sorts of methods and approaches to the delimitation of rural areas in V4 countries are introduced emphasizing its historical development, differences in spatial level and criteria of delimitation in current research. Due to different nature of rural areas and even local administrative units (the basic units usually used for delimitation of rural areas), it is not possible to reach sufficient and reliable identification of rural areas for whole V4 area using any of criteria or definitions applied in the research at national levels. Therefore, the average population density of entire V4 area was used as a main criterion for distinguishing between urban and rural LAU 2 at the whole Visegrad area level. Such approach is also affected by generalization but it captures various conditions in each country relatively well and moreover, it is comparable with the OECD and European Union methods to some extent.
This paper aims to present the interactions that occur between urban and rural, realizing a strict separation of these two areas, their populations and their activities here. This thing is being reflected in the division of policies on spatial and sectorial criteria, urban planners usually concentrating on the importance of urban centers as commerce and transportation nods in the regional policy giving little attention to agricultural or rural-led development. It is based on statistical data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development and by the National Statistics Institute and on direct observation executed in the North – East region of Romania. The data has been processed into the following indicators: aging indicator, average number of rural inhabitants, active occupied population, infant mortality, the average index of poverty and others. This paper represents an overview of how the strategies of urban and rural are intertwined. It ends with some recommendations on how the planners and decision makers can take these issues into consideration.
2015
Depuis sa recente independance, la Slovenie tente d'integrer de nouvelles structures et institutions economiques et politiques. Le passage d'une economie planifiee a une economie de marche a provoque d'importants changements structurels. Les espaces ruraux ont ete particulierement touches. L'article discute des specificites des espaces ruraux slovenes, analyse la conception nationale du developpement rural et evalue les possibilites pour un developpement rural durable.
E3S Web of Conferences, 2014
The critical waste of the primary resource soil in Europe, is mainly due to the current paradigm of population and activities settlement, strongly dominated since XIX century by a "metropolisation" process: the city is the place where the majority of people want to live, where migrant's flows are directed to, where each new inhabitant would like to find a home, a job, a better life than they had in their place of origin. The cities today house 50% of the world population and use 75% of the resources of the whole planet: and these percentages are continuously growing. Over 70% of Europe's population is now living in urban areas, and these in turn have grown by almost 80% over the last fifty years. 1 Rural areas include not only agricultural areas but areas covered by forests, parks, lawns, protected natural zones as well.
Rural Development - Contemporary Issues and Practices, 2012
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.