Rural Resilience Research Articles

The Synergistic Effect of Urban and Rural Ecological Resilience: Dynamic Trends and Drivers in Yunnan

With the rapid development of the world economy, pollution of urban and rural ecological environments and the decline in anti-risk capabilities are becoming more serious. In order to promote sustainable improvement of urban and rural ecological resilience, based on previous independent research on urban and rural resilience, this paper combines the two to carry out collaborative development research. The dynamic evolution and driving force heterogeneity in the coordinated development level of urban and rural ecological resilience in Yunnan Province in China from 2013 to 2022 were studied using the coordination degree model of composite system and geographical detector. The results show the following: (1) The urban and rural ecological resilience levels in Yunnan Province increased annually, but urban ecological resilience (0.178) lagged behind that of rural areas (0.376). Compared to rural areas, the overall spatial difference in urban ecological resilience level is significant. (2) The overall level of urban–rural ecological resilience synergy in Yunnan Province has been increasing annually, from “no synergy” to “primary synergy”. However, there are great differences between prefectures and cities. (3) The combination of urban and rural driving factors is more conducive to improving urban–rural ecological resilience. The interaction between the per capita water supply and fertilizer consumption is the primary and critical driving factor. In the future, we will continue to take the coordinated development of urban and rural ecological resilience as the theme, further expand the research field, and carry out future development trend prediction research. This study provides new ideas for the construction of ecological resilience in similar countries and regions worldwide.

Rural B&B entrepreneurs’ lifestyle pursuits and rural resilience

This paper explores how rural entrepreneurial activities can bring sustainable solutions to rural villages based on entrepreneurs’ lifestyle pursuits in their business activities. It further examines the relationship between lifestyle pursuits and their impacts on sustainable rural development. Scholars have discussed “lifestyle entrepreneurs” who hold rural areas’ quality of life as a priority, distinguishing these individuals from more business-oriented entrepreneurs who focus on economic profits. This study argues that all rural entrepreneurs in fact favor lifestyle pursuits to a certain extent in terms of rural businesses. In addition, different types of lifestyles shape entrepreneurs’ contributions to rural resilience. Constructivist grounded theory was applied to conduct three rounds of in-depth interviews with 28 rural bed-and-breakfast entrepreneurs in Zhejiang, China, between 2020 and 2022. The resultant framework outlines six types of lifestyles characteristic of these rural entrepreneurs. Findings indicate that “gregarious” and “hedonistic” lifestyles can optimally contribute to both rural resilience and business sustainability.

Study on Rural Classification and Resilience Evaluation Based on PSR Model: A Case Study of Lvshunkou District, Dalian City, China

When implementing a rural revitalization strategy, it is of great significance to understand how to identify potential risks in different types of villages and how to achieve resilience governance. In this paper, a rural classification evaluation method is proposed from the perspective of resilience. The stress–state–response model and the TOPSIS method were used to analyze the resilience risks in different types of villages in Lvshunkou District. The results showed that the comprehensive resilience of rural areas in Lvshunkou District has the spatial distribution characteristics of “high center and low wings”, and the spatial differences of each resilience subsystem are different: the pressure resilience subsystem shows a trend of “increasing step by step” from the coast to the inland, the state resilience subsystem shows a trend of “decreasing step by step from the center to the two wings”, and the response resilience subsystem shows a trend of “blocky aggregation and balanced distribution”. This paper further proposes systematic reconstruction strategies for rural resilience related to the four aspects of rural space, industry, ecology, and governance, providing development ideas for measuring rural resilience indicators in Lvshunkou District and realizing long-term governance in different types of villages.

Contemporary interventions tackling complex issues: Exploring pathways from online mental health forums to personal resilience

This paper identifies and examines pathways in which online mental health forums assist in building personal resilience and address the mental ill-health of rural residents. We use a resilience theory to develop a Theoretical Resilience Framework and apply it to empirical qualitative data deriving from three of Australia's online mental health forums as well as interviews with forum users. Using thematic analysis and an abductive approach to generating new knowledge, we develop a logic model illustrating links between factors influencing personal resilience, factors acting upon resilience, and intermediate and long-term outcomes that online mental health forums have on their users. Our study demonstrates that online forums can provide ongoing and timely services to those in need, and they support the adaptive capacity of individuals to cope with stressors and a variety of challenges they face. Embedded in a rural setting, the paper adds understanding to the role of technology and online forums in addressing geographical isolation. Ultimately, our work helps to develop new sources of knowledge about rural resilience and supporting mental health service provision in rural places.

Toward the identification of laggard rural areas: an evolutionary resilience approach

ABSTRACT Based on the evolutionary resilience approach and using Principal Component Analysis, this paper proposes a composite weighted index to measure levels of rural resilience and, in addition, to unravel why some rural areas are less resilient than others. Taking the region of Cantabria (northern Spain) at the municipal level as a sort of ‘laboratory’, the overall results unveil poor levels of resilience and suggest that the main factors limiting resilience are related to cultural interest, rural potential, natural endowment, and connectivity. Our findings also reveal considerable spatial heterogeneity across the different domains of resilience. As a specific contribution, the study brings together rural resilience levels and population growth (as population decline is the first direct consequence of a lack of resilience) in order to define different categories of rural territories, among which laggard rural areas are singled out as areas to be targeted for political intervention. When focusing on such areas, a crucial finding of the paper is that some municipalities that are lagging behind have not been included by the Regional Government as being at severe risk of depopulation, meaning that they cannot benefit from close public monitoring and fiscal support.

Rural Network Resilience: A New Tool for Exploring the Mechanisms and Pathways of Rural Sustainable Development

Enhancing rural resilience is crucial due to the significant vulnerabilities faced by rural areas, such as weak economic foundations, scarce resources, and deficient infrastructure. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of rural network resilience (RNR) to underscore its importance in understanding the mechanisms and pathways of rural sustainable development. To establish the theoretical foundations of RNR, we trace the evolution of resilience concepts and their applications across disciplines. The proposed analytical framework integrates evaluation methods from network science to assess RNR’s structural characteristics and outlines simulation techniques for predicting resilience under various risk scenarios. Furthermore, the paper examines the key influencing factors that shape RNR within complex rural regional systems, exploring the intricate evolutionary mechanisms involved. To bridge existing research gaps, a synergistic development perspective is introduced, emphasizing the interconnected, multi-layered nature of rural networks across societal, economic, and ecological domains. Additionally, a county-level analytical framework tailored for county-level rural resilience analysis is presented to offer strategic guidance for enhancing RNR and driving sustainable rural revitalization. This transdisciplinary synthesis propels RNR as an emerging field with significant policy implications.

Factors behind the resilience of rural startups

Rural areas are characterized by sparse population, low population density, remoteness, and population aging, which can discourage startups and undermine their financial performance, as the theory of urban agglomeration economies suggests. However, many studies have shown that companies created in rural areas survive longer than those created in urban areas, which seems contradictory. This paper aims to identify the factors that explain this rural resilience. We analyzed all of the startups founded in Spain over 10 years. We used statistical matching methods to test for the effect of the location while controlling for founding conditions and environmental factors. Our study confirmed that few startups are created in rural areas and they grow less, but their survival rate is slightly higher than those established in urban areas. We found that high subsidies, low operating costs, high labor intensity, a slow but low-risk growth pattern, and other foundational conditions and external factors contribute to explaining rural resilience. Nonetheless, additional factors, including the traits of rural entrepreneurs and the lack of alternatives to bankruptcy, as proposed by the entrepreneurial opportunity theory, also matter.

Unlocking rural resilience: Exploring innovative digital saving solutions for farming households in Mali

AbstractFinancial savings at the household level are vital for poverty alleviation, yet they face social, psychological and institutional obstacles. Over recent years, mobile phones have proven effective in enhancing financial inclusion. However, when individuals decide how to save, their preferences remain unclear. This study investigates the preferences of 421 Malian smallholder farmers for a hypothetical mobile savings application using a discrete choice experiment. Apart from standard savings account features such as transaction charges, interest amount and minimum deposit requirements, it assesses preferences for two innovative features designed to address deviations from rational decision‐making. The first feature allows multiple users to pool their savings, utilising social dynamics and peer pressure to encourage responsible savings behaviour and enhance commitment. The second feature offers users the ability to manage their finances more effectively by dividing them into purpose‐specific sub‐accounts. The findings reveal a strong overall preference for saving via the application rather than keeping cash on hand. As anticipated, farmers favour lower costs and deposits and higher interest amounts. Generally, individual saving is preferred over group saving, and the option to compartmentalise is valued, albeit not statistically significantly so. However, the analysis of underlying heterogeneity reveals substantial differences in respondents' preferences for these commitment‐enhancing features. These findings underscore the need for customised approaches that align with farmers' unique preferences and constraints. Such approaches can inform the development of bespoke mobile savings solutions for farming households, thereby boosting their resilience and financial well‐being.

Rural Area Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic as Exemplified by Urban–Rural Communes in Poland

The purpose of the paper is to characterize the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic for farms and resilience activities performed by farmers in response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of building rural area resilience. Research was carried out in all 87 urban–rural communes in Poland and focused on special determinants of rural resilience such as connections between small cities and rural areas, as well as the location of the territorial unit (peripheral versus non-peripheral). The purpose of the survey was to poll local government representatives on the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic for farms and identify resilience activities performed by farmers in response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical research was performed from September to October 2021. The results emphasize the significance of the diversification of farms and networks for strategies for coping with the COVID-19 crisis. The research revealed processes wherein farms adapted, even if to a small extent, to crisis conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges, at the same time stimulating innovative responses in communities and businesses in rural areas. This study also confirms the role of ITC solutions in the process of adaptation to the crisis and implies a need to strengthen local links between the rural area and the city, especially those relevant to peripheral areas. Local government authorities play a crucial role in this process.

A qualitative exploration of online forums to support resilience of rural young people in Australia.

Prevention and early intervention are crucial strategies for improving young people's mental health and well-being. Building resilience is a key component of these strategies, especially among young individuals in rural areas who face well-documented mental health disparities. This study aimed to investigate how online mental health forums can contribute to enhancing individual resilience in young rural users. A sample of forum posts (n = 1,000) made by Australian rural users (18-25 years) on an online peer support mental health forum were qualitatively analyzed. The analysis was guided by themes derived from the literature on indicators of rural resilience. Analysis of forum posts showed evidence of rural resilience in forum users. Online peer support forums offered a virtual space for individuals to establish social connections, experience a sense of belonging, share information, acquire knowledge, and offer mutual support. There were indications of increased self-efficacy among forum users, as they demonstrated their ability to implement strategies for better managing their mental health. These findings significantly contribute to our understanding of how online forums can enhance resilience factors that are beneficial for young people living in rural communities. In the context of prevention and early intervention, this study illustrates the intricate connections between forum design and user activity with resilience outcomes, providing valuable insights into the underlying causal mechanisms. Consequently, it emphasizes the importance of incorporating such digital interventions as integral components of mental health service ecosystems.

Socio-digital Rural Resilience: An Exploration of Information Infrastructures Within and Across Rural Villages During Covid-19

Access to the internet and digital technology are reported determinants and enablers of social capital and community resilience. However, despite rural areas facing ecological, social, and economic uncertainties across the world, communication technologies and the design of civic technologies in HCI are not designed with the rural in mind. In this paper, we explore information infrastructures within and across rural villages in the UK focusing on the interplay between human, social, and technical infrastructures. We report on the existing communication practices, underlining the impacts of transitioning to digital communication technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings point to the fragility of information infrastructure, the "civic duty" of bridging information and skills gaps, and the role of technology as a threat to social norms and disrupter of the 'politics of the rural'. The work presented here has implications for Rural HCI researchers and designers interested in design from the rural.

“County residents take the fight”

Celebrations of local volunteering as a way to cope with cutbacks are frequent. Not least are such celebrations apparent within the media, where descriptions of local initiatives are sometimes seen as the solutions to downward spiralling trends in Swedish rural areas. The paper explores the media production of meaning around rural resilience as they covered initiatives where rural populations mobilised to ‘save’ threatened local service for their supposed public interest. Using the concepts of ‘patchy resilience’ and ‘cruel optimism’, the paper points at how the representations attach rural areas and identities to a stereotypical rural imagery while also representing a resilience ideal that risks glorifying neoliberal responsibilisation.

Spatial-temporal evolution and driving factors of rural resilience in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China.

How to maintain the balanced stability and resilient development of rural systems is an important issue that needs urgent attention in the field of sustainable rural development at present. In this paper, the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation model, and Geodetector were used to explore the rural resilience level, spatial distribution characteristics, and driving factors of 31 cities in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR), and to put forward corresponding policy suggestions. The results are as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2020, rural resilience in the UAMRYR showed an upward trend with an average annual growth rate of 8.26%. The ranking of the three major urban agglomerations is Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomerations > Wuhan urban agglomerations > Poyang Lake urban agglomerations. (2) During the study period, the spatial distribution of rural resilience gradually developed from a negative correlation to a strong positive correlation and generally showed the characteristics of high in the west and low in the east. (3) The urbanization rate, the size and structure of the economy, the difference in consumption and income between urban and rural areas, the local fiscal revenue, and the number of village committees are the key factors affecting the level of rural resilience. On this basis, we proposed policy recommendations to improve the economic, social, and ecological resilience of rural areas in the UAMRYR. The findings of this paper are expected to provide insights into the policy formulation of China's rural revitalization strategy.

When Rural Resilience Came to the City: Libanios on Villagers Moving through Fourth-Century Antioch

In the fourth century AD, the relation between the city of Antioch and its hinterland underwent significant change. In response both to environmental transformation and the consequences of human intervention, resilient rural communities in the Amuq plain north-east of the city took on new political, economic, and religious significance. From a distinctively urban perspective, the sophist Libanios criticized and deplored this development, most famously in his oration 47 from around the year 390 with regard to the emerging political and judicial independence of larger villages in the Antiochene. The same phenomenon was addressed roughly 50 years later by the Christian author Theodoret of Kyrrhos, who, however, appreciated the new rural self-confidence as a religious revival spearheaded by holy men. But just as the late antique realities of villagers and city-dwellers rarely met, neither physically nor intellectually or culturally, also the contrasting perspectives represented by Libanios and Theodoret remained largely disconnected. In one instance, however, Libanios related an account of hinterland representatives that moved through Antioch’s urban space, confronted the city with a specifically Antiochene type of rural resilience, and challenged, according to Libanios, much of what Antioch stood for. As such, this episode highlights the importance of mobility in city-hinterland relations and, pointedly, its significance for the study of rural resilience in late antiquity.

The Role of Entrepreneurial Leadership to Rural Development and Resilience in Indonesia

Rural regions are vital for the Indonesian economy as they contributed 13.7% of the national gross domestic product in mid-2021. However, the contribution made by rural areas requires the role of qualified village leaders. Poor governance, lack of entrepreneurial-leadership role models, and sociocultural issues inhibit rural resilience. This research explored best-practice villages using a qualitative approach and identified four fundamental concepts for achieving resilience. This study obtained data from 17 informants with various backgrounds, including village-owned enterprises management, regional government, central government, rural researchers, academia and rural activists. Rural leaders must govern with an entrepreneurial and stewardship orientation, good political capacity and assertiveness to establish rural resilience. Stewardship and assertiveness encourage receptive and wise leadership while focusing on accomplishing local rights and peace with other parties. This study indicates that rural leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset, stewardship compliance and assertiveness can promote political capacity in communities and increase community engagement and rural resiliency.

Rural Resilience: A Comprehensive Study on Water Supply, Sanitation, Disease Patterns, and Hygiene Practices in Munshiganj, Bangladesh

Rural Resilience: A Comprehensive Study on Water Supply, Sanitation, Disease Patterns, and Hygiene Practices in Munshiganj, Bangladesh

Quantifying community resilience to riverine hazards in Bangladesh

Every year, 30–70% of Bangladesh is inundated with flood waters, which combined with erosion, affect between 10 and 70 million people annually. Rural riverine communities in Bangladesh have long been identified as some of the poorest populations, most vulnerable to riverine hazards. However, these communities have, for generations, also developed resilience strategies – considered as the combination of absorptive, adaptive, and transformative approaches – to manage significant flooding and erosion. It is not clear whether such existing strategies are sufficient to generate resilience in the face of increasing hazards and growing pressures for land. In this study, we quantify community resilience to flooding and erosion of 35 of the most poverty-stricken and exposed communities in riverine Bangladesh by applying the systematic resilience measurement framework provided by the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities tool. The low levels of resilience observed in the riverine communities, as well as their continued focus on enhancing absorptive capacities are alarming, especially in the face of growing climate threats and continued population growth. Innovative transformative responses are urgently required in riverine Bangladesh, which align with and complement ongoing community-centred efforts to enhance rural resilience to riverine hazards.

Unlocking the potential of knowledge economy for rural resilience: The role of digital platforms

Due to urban-centric development paradigms, actors in the rural business ecosystem and related interaction spaces have become adrift, resulting in the fragility of the rural knowledge economy (K. E.) and rural decline. Diverse organizations, including not-for-profits, civil societies, private agencies, and cooperatives, have taken cognizance of this significant issue and have promoted platform-based enterprises. While the literature emphasizes the role of digital platforms in strengthening rural resilience, it does not elaborate on the underlying mechanism. Consequently, the relationship between the K. E. spaces topologically mapped on the platform, contributing to increased actor interaction and rural resilience, remains underexplored. This motivates us to pose a fundamental question: Can digital platforms operating in rural areas function as K.E. spaces and foster actor interactions to strengthen rural resilience? Theoretically grounded in network externality theory, the triple-helix model, and the Resilience Assessment Benchmarking and Impact Toolkit framework, this study adopts a multiple case study approach utilizing literature synthesis, archival sources, and primary data from key informants of selected platform organizations operational in rural areas. The findings show that K. E. spaces enrich the rural knowledge economy by onboarding missing actors and augmenting proximity. This leads to increased actor interactions and enhanced rural resilience. This study proposes an emergent framework expositing a nexus between digital platforms, K. E. spaces, and rural resilience attributes and contributes to the growing body of rural resilience literature.

The role of municipal digital services in advancing rural resilience

Community resilience refers to collective efforts to help improve response and recovery for the entire community in response to disasters. Municipalities that provide information and services to residents through digital platforms have more options for meeting citizen needs during crises. In this study, we examine the provision of digital services by rural municipalities in Maine, USA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on an inventory of 100 municipal websites and interviews with 20 municipal officials, we assessed the prevalence of 20 digital services, associations between municipality characteristics and digital services, and factors that spur changes in digital services. We discovered that many rural communities use digital platforms, and provide digital information, digital transactions and opportunities for digital democracy. While we found positive associations between greater levels of digital services, larger community populations, and more representative forms of government, we learned that a range of technological and cultural barriers also determine the degree to which a municipality engages with and adapts their digital services. Our findings establish a link between municipal digital services and rural resilience, confirm prior trends observed in larger and more urban local governments, and encourage future work on relatively under-studied rural areas.

A rural resilience development indicator system oriented to common prosperity: The case of a coastal village in Zhejiang Province

China’s coastal village is a typical synthesis of material and intangible culture, such as natural landscape, marine pasture, and belief in the sea god. Simultaneously, it is also a valuable resource that can be universally utilized for the development of innovative industries such as the marine industry and leisure fisheries. However, with the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the coastal village has not received much attention and the eco-environment has been damaged to some extent. Rural resilience development becomes the future trend of humanistic ecological wellbeing communities, while being able to circumvent rural vulnerability to varying degrees in a wave of global rural revitalization. Thus, establishing an evaluation system for resilience development of coastal rural eco-environment can provide a baseline for rural revitalization for sustainability. This article constructs an evaluation system for the rural resilience development based on the DPSER (driver, pressure, state, effect, and response) model. 29 indicators and corresponding weights of drivers, pressures, states, effects, and responses are evaluated using the objective and subjective weighting methods. Thereby, the study ascertained the conditions and dilemmas of resilience development of coastal rural eco-environment, and revealed that the response indicators have the greatest influence. This evaluation system can not only contribute to quantify the qualitative assessment or take the qualitative social assessment of resilience to a quantitative level, but it can also provide guidance and apply to the issues of well-being sharing and social equity in resilience development of rural areas.