Rural crisis, good practice and community development responses

Abstract

Reflecting on the complexities of rural communities, it is clear that community development has played a valuable part in their regeneration and in social exclusion policies. However, the inequalities within British rural communities are still hidden behind a multifaceted jewel of scenery, outdated ideas of status and hierarchies, prejudice and even racism. In recent years the European Union has dominated the direction of policy with the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and the deployment of the European Structural Funds for rural regeneration and EU Community Initiatives such as LEADER, and EU Objective Status 5b (where, in the UK, enormous amounts of funding went unspent). Farm incomes have dropped dramatically and farmers are working longer hours as few can afford to employ farm workers. Relevant also is the impact of more recent national emergencies of BSE in cattle, scares about scrapies in sheep, and foot and mouth disease. Policy has been made in an atmosphere of crisis or within a plethora of government reorganizations and refocusing only to the extent that it is felt that the British Government has abandoned a farmer-led agricultural economy.