A sustainable rural?

Abstract

Rural communities and economies face unprecedented social and economic challenges and opportunities. Given the scale and nature of these changes and the inherent difficulties and capacity constraints confronting rural communities in addressing them, sustainable development at the local level seems to be a policy priority. This then is the focus of this Special Issue. It has been argued that sustainable development: ‘meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 1987: 2). Understanding which factors contribute to the valorization of rural sustainability is often rooted in ‘hard’ and ostensibly quantitative performance indicators. National, regional or sub-regional measures of performance are used to indicate the socio-economic health and prosperity of a region or sub-region. However, sustainability is also concerned with realistic and sensible social and economic activity and the ways in which the role of legal, financial, social and behavioural aspects of businesses and communities impacts on making rural economies enterprising. Sustainability is a recurrent policy theme. For example, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) launched a Strategy for Sustainable Growth in July 2010. Three strategy areas were identified as priorities for government support: