Abstract
In the age of COVID, the regaining of economies appears mostly imperative, and rural areas could play a crucial role in this framework. The question of inhabitants’ dispersion and low density, and the exodus of rural people to bigger urban centers have determined an adverse effect on rural development. Rural isolation rises to be a higher order good, delivering a higher degree of security in the pandemic context for those seeking refuge from gatherings of cities. Rural areas provide food, natural environments, and resources that help occupations, development, and wealth trends and preserve cultural heritage. Consequently, rural spaces are vital for several motives and thus it is essential to focus on issue of rural development, especially since lacking rural development does not allow dialoging about development in a regional and/or national perspective. This paper investigates the stakeholders’ impact on rural development, by considering the increasing role of stakeholders as well as the specificity of the diverse objectives pursued by these groups. As there are several stakeholder groups, attention was sweeping, defining them in a sectoral way to corporate, sciences, public administrations, and society. Where there was a need to distinguish among these sectors groups of stakeholders in a more detailed way, such identification took place, for example, in relation to social leaders. The analysis of the results of the questionnaire survey performed in 2020 aimed to accomplish the identified purposes of the paper. The online survey using the CAWI method was conducted in southeastern Poland among people representing all stakeholder groups. The outcomes of the investigation indicate the great prominence of business in the development of rural areas being able to generate added value and influence the increase of entity potential.
Highlights
From European perspective, but especially from the Polish one, have been for a long time characterized by high fragmentation and this situation still remains in many regions after the accession to the EU [1]
It is possible to notice a gradual change in the usefulness of these areas, which are transformed from the formula of agricultural producers to the formula of agro-tourism, regions providing recreational services
Microenterprises were considered as the most active entities operating in rural areas (Figures 1 and 2)
Summary
From European perspective, but especially from the Polish one, have been for a long time characterized by high fragmentation and this situation still remains in many regions after the accession to the EU [1]. This is due to rural households’ß engagement in agricultural production for their own use, with lower external sales purposes, which is affected by decreasing prices offered to small producers. The changes affecting European rural areas are to a further extent of a demographic nature, namely a dynamically decreasing population of people in these areas due to the migration to cities and overall decrease in fertility [3]
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