Rural Vitality Research Articles

Fostering resilient agro-food futures through a social-ecological systems framework: Public–private partnerships for delivering ecosystem services in Europe

In recent decades, various public policies have targeted agriculture and forestry’s relationship with environmental protection and management. Among environmental policy communities the approach is increasingly framed through the theoretical concepts of ecosystem services (ES) or public goods (PG). Both offer useful perspectives to enhance understanding, but each only partially reflects the complex inter-linkages between productive land management and multiple environmental and social assets (biodiversity, landscapes, water, soil and air quality, rural vitality, culture and heritage), constraining their capacity for effective policy development. The Social-Ecological-Systems framework (SES), considering both natural and socio-economic elements in complex systems and interrogating these joint production relationships, offers added value in this context. The PEGASUS project11The authors gratefully acknowledge project funding from the EU H2020 RTD programme, grant agreement 633814. applied an adapted SES framework to identify the potential complementary and synergistic roles of policy, private and community actors in promoting socially beneficial outcomes, strengthening ecosystem services and sustainability. Two case studies illustrate the analytical process and its ability to connect top-down and bottom-up perspectives. This generated an expanded range of options focused on social processes and market development facilitated by an enabling, responsive policy framework. Lessons for governance and practice, as well as international relevance, are briefly considered.

Filmic Gendered Discourses in Rural Contexts: The Case of the Camino de Santiago (Spain)

Rural areas have turned into multifunctional areas. They satisfy different economic and social requirements; among these, they are consolidating their position as film production locations. Becoming a film location ensures visibility and provides new forms to access sustainable economic trajectories to promoting rural areas and rural vitality. In some cases, filmic discourses present unequal gender treatment that may be associated with their locations. Considering this, the aim of this research was to explore cinematic discourses based on the symmetry or asymmetry in gendered cinematic representations that mainly occur in the rural space of the Camino de Santiago (Spain). This First European Cultural route crosses urban and rural centers that have benefited in different ways from its international recognition. By combining both the linguistic and visual codes, I engaged in a qualitative film discourse analysis concerning female pilgrims along the route. Despite of the feminization of the Camino, the results prove the permanence of gendered norms and societal roles in audio-visual productions based on a common latent ideology. The conclusions introduce the concept of social and relational sustainability as a way to achieve equal gender treatment when creating media discourses.

New Assessment of Development Status among the People Living in Rural Areas: an Alternative Approach for Rural Vitality

New Assessment of Development Status among the People Living in Rural Areas: an Alternative Approach for Rural Vitality

New Assessment of Development Status among the People Living in Rural Areas: an Alternative Approach for Rural Vitality

In the process of development, the rural areas meet a wide range of economic, environmental and social challenges. This study theoretically discusses the concept of rural development and attempts to evaluate the development status among the people living in rural areas. In this scope, we propose the personal rural development index (PRDI), which is composed to, on one hand, an individual dimension and, on the other hand, a community one, related to different aspects of rural vitality. In this regard, three socio-economic components, namely economy, education – including a sub-dimension regarding culture, and health – with an environment sub-dimension were considered. These dimensions are influenced by the rural activities, especially the agricultural ones, that generates, nearby the economic results, as main objective for the individual or economic agent, also a set of economic, social or environmental externalities, from the category of public goods and of which both the stable and transitional residents of the area benefit. So, the complexity of the personal rural development index is high, aiming to put into light both individual and public components. The data used was obtained through a survey applied in seven rural communities from the North-East Region of Romania.

Exploring the Link between Rural Schools and Community Vitality

This project focused on the connection between a community and its schools, and the role that schools play in rural community vitality. It investigated both community members and former student experience with small schools in one rural area of Ontario, Canada. Community responses indicate that rural schools play a considerable role in the well-being of community members; former student responses indicate similar themes. Results indicated a strong link between local schools and components of the Canadian Index of Well-being. Discussion focuses on the gap between the role of schools in rural communities and the provincial policies on school closures, and how the findings suggest that new approaches to the challenges of small rural schools are in the best interests of both students and communities.

Native and agricultural forests at risk to a changing climate in the Northern Plains

Native and agricultural forests in the Northern Plains provide ecosystem services that benefit human society—diversified agricultural systems, forest-based products, and rural vitality. The impacts of recent trends in temperature and disturbances are impairing the delivery of these services. Climate change projections identify future stressors of greater impact, placing at risk crops, soils, livestock, biodiversity, and agricultural and forest-based livelihoods. While these native and agricultural forests are also a viable option for providing mitigation and adaptation services to the Northern Plains, they themselves must be managed in terms of climate change risks. Because agricultural forests are planted systems, the primary approaches for reducing risks are through design, plant selection and management. For native forests, management, natural disturbances, and collaboration of multiple ownerships will be needed to address key risks.

Assessing multiple goods and services derived from livestock farming on a nation-wide gradient

Livestock farming is an essential activity in many rural areas, where it contributes to the maintenance of soil fertility and farmland biodiversity, as well as to a set of social public goods including food security, rural vitality and culture. However, livestock sustainability assessments tend to focus primarily on environmental and economic dimensions; therefore, these valuations might be limited because they do not consider the complete set of associated goods and services (GS). Hence, a need exists to recognise the multiple contributions provided by livestock to human well-being and society. The objective of this study was to analyse the provision of multiple GS derived from livestock across regions in France and empirically demonstrate sets of GS that repeatedly appeared together. We designated these multiple GS provided by livestock as contributions to productive, environmental, rural vitality and cultural benefits that human populations derive directly or indirectly from livestock agroecosystems. First, we combined expert knowledge with results of a literature review to define a bundle of GS provided by livestock. We then described indicators that quantified each good or service and screened national databases to determine the availability of supporting data. Finally, we assessed the GS and their relationships (synergies or trade-offs) on a nation-wide gradient in France at the department level (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 3). Four main categories of GS were considered: provisioning (e.g. food quantity and quality), environmental quality (e.g. biodiversity, landscape heterogeneity, water quality), rural vitality (e.g. employment, rural dynamism) and culture (e.g. gastronomy and landscape heritage). Four major types of GS bundles were identified, which suggested strong contrasts among French rural areas in terms of the nature of the GS that occurred together and their levels of provision. GS bundles in France had a non-random spatial distribution. This study represents an initial step towards developing a methodology to consider GS bundles provided by livestock. Nonetheless, further research is needed to understand socio-economic, environmental, political and geographic determinants of the composition of GS bundles.

Toward a rural community vitality measurement practice

Despite the increased interest among community development practitioners and the public in indicators of concepts like community vitality, resilience, or wellbeing, little research has been done to identify indicators that truly measure those concepts. In addition, there has been increased use of indices to describe social and economic conditions. This article uses a case to illuminate the methodological challenges of developing an index of community vitality and presents a possible practice solution. Factor analysis was piloted as a method that could be used to determine if a suite of 29 variables covering community capacity, social, economic, and environmental outcomes could be used as indicators of an underlying latent construct of community vitality. Use of this method in the case of Oregon counties and Siskiyou County, California, suggested that the variables capture a variety of community outcome dimensions, but do not correspond to a unitary concept of community vitality.

Local Food Systems and Rural Development in Bulgaria

Recently there has been a renewed interest in alternatives to shorten the food supply chain, allowing more direct links between producers and consumers and localizing food systems. This paper examines alternative local food chains as part of rural development and how to encourage and facilitate their growth in order to contribute to rural vitality and sustainable agriculture. It focuses on some research findings of the Bulgarian team in the project entitled “Farming transitions: Pathways towards regional sustainability of agriculture in Europe” (FarmPath), financed by the 7th FP of the EC. The innovative initiatives that define development of new alternative forms of agricultural local food supply chains, combined with nature-friendly production practices, rural tourism, traditional food production and development of the territory of three rural areas are presented and analysed. The sustainability dimensions that the alternative supply chains may lead up to in the rural regions were also drawn.

Determinants of population trends in rural areas

In recent decades the continuous decline of the rural population permanently raise concerns about the rural vitality – rural traditions, values and way of life of the rural population, which need to be supported. This is treated as a public good. Rural population is vital factor. Numerous scientific studies are devoted for investigating the ways and incentives how to encourage them to stay. The scientific problem of the study was to identify the factors behind the population variation trends in the same municipality while in some wards it increased and decreased in others. The study experts were executives of rural wards, who ranks the factors in order of importance in determining of the population trends. The results showed that executives consider population decline due to the changed geopolitical situation in Lithuania related to the accession to the EU, while the growth is caused by ward’s proximity to the central municipal city, favorable environment and availability of community gardens, where citizens are moving.

Investigation of the demand of public services of rural areas

Declining rural population increases distances to public services, they become more expensive. Therefore, provision of public services is a growing challenge in rural areas not only in Lithuania but also in Europe. Public services are one of the aspects of rural vitality, which is widely debated by both scientists and politicians. Demand aspects are debated, new, innovative ways of provision of public services discussed, new service models combining private, public sectors and community resources are sought. The aim of the study was to identify public services, the demand for which is the greatest in rural areas. To achieve the aim, the questionnaire for elders of Lithuanian rural wards was prepared. The questionnaires were sent to all Lithuanian rural wards – 450 and 352 elders’ answers were received. The results showed that the best served are public services as information accessibility, school-age children education and social services. The public services where a lot of changes must be done are such as primary health care and all types of utilities (water, sewerage, waste), public transport.

The development of rural residents social portrait in 2001–2011

The concept of rural vitality often used to describe the rural areas as specific areas that are of particular significance not only for the region but also the country as a whole. Depending on the objectives investigated there are different indicators used to evaluate the vitality – one of them – rural residents social portrait. Purpose of the research is to identify the impact of changes of social portrait of rural residents on rural vitality. In this study, the indicators of general censuses of 2001 and 2011 were used to assess the social portrait of rural residents. The results showed that changes of social portrait of rural residents had both positive and negative trends on rural vitality. As positive trends should be mentioned rising higher grade educated, multilingual population, a rapidly improving life and living conditions in the rural areas compared with the townspeople. The trends adversely affected the vitality of rural areas are: depopulation, the growing share of elderly in the structure of the rural population, declining rural population’s entrepreneurship, decline of number of income sources and continued growth in the share of persons living of wage labor.

Changes in quality of life of Lithuanian elderly rural population in 2001–2011

The aging of the population is the most striking demographic process in Lithuania and other Western world countries. Elderly rural residents, which are the consumers of the public goods and the providers of them at the same time, become increasingly important element of rural vitality. That’s the reason the scientific community pays more and more attention on various aspects of life of older people in rural areas: the quality of life, social services, sociality and others. The purpose of this article is to analyze one dimension of the life quality of older rural residents – the changes in living conditions, which were registered in 2001 and 2011 during Population and housing census in Lithuania. Indicators of quality of life were measured – the type of dwelling, accommodation of dwellings: hot water, bath and shower,.sewerage, flush toilet, the type of heating systems, the type of water supply. The result showed that although the living conditions of rural and especially of elderly rural population are rapidly increasing, they are still lower compared to the urban population's living conditions.

Impact of demographic factors to rural vitality

Rural vitality is an important public good which is needed to be constantly maintained by appropriate rural policy decisions and which is supported by a number of factors, one of which is infrastructure and services provided. This article covers only one of the elements of the infrastructure - transportation infrastructure – which provides movement services to people in space (public, individual transport, its availability, roads density, quality, etc.). The paper aimed to establish the relationship between the region's vitality and communication infrastructure elements and their trends The study was carried out for three groups of Lithuanian municipalities in which they have been divided by internal migration rate: viable (lowest emigration), non-viable (maximum) and mid-viable. The results showed that while non-viable regions are fading more rapidly (faster population decline and aging) than viable, it's transportation infrastructure are scrambling to maintain at a level that the regional aging population suffer the least possible inconvenience.

Local Initiatives for Rural Vitality and Social Inclusion: Some Experiences from Serbia

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify the main problems related to the sustainable development of rural communities, as well as the possible solutions to overcome them. This paper uses an analytical and synthetic approach, method of comparison and analogy, and descriptive analysis. The starting point of the research is actually a brief overview of the current situation in rural Serbia, while the central part of the paper presents an analysis concerning the development of the rural economy in the representative villages of Grabovica and Ribare in the Republic of Serbia. Research results are given in the form of specific guidelines for a new approach to local rural development and strengthening the role and responsibilities of local government in the development process. The main conclusion that follows from the results of the research is that continued and constant work is needed in order to empower local communities to take responsibility for their own development, as well as to support local initiatives to this end.

ANALYSING THE RURAL VITALITY ARGUMENT FOR RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT: LINKING DISCOURSES AND ACTUAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENTS

ABSTRACTIn the heated debate on new residential development in the countryside, rural vitality is used in three different discourses: the agri‐rural, utilitarian and hedonist. Discussions on the future of the Dutch countryside in general and a designated National Landscape north of Amsterdam in particular illustrate how the term rural vitality, depending on the discourse, is used to either support or oppose residential development. As in the region studied, the utilitarian discourse is increasingly important and its consequences – residential development in a highly valued landscape – are most controversial, we chose to evaluate its validity. This quantitative evaluation makes use of a geographical information system (GIS) and highly detailed spatial data. The results show no clear relationship between the construction of houses and different indicators of rural vitality such as employment and facility levels. Therefore, we question the validity of the utilitarian discourses' argument for supporting residential development.

Books Launch—Eason Lee's “Encounters”

The Book Launch of Easton Lee's Encounters, Kingston, Jamaica, 8/12/2003, by REX NETTLEFORD Good morning gentleman good morning sar how can I be of assistance how can I help you sar oh, you looking for rector. No sar, him is not here right now Tek the missis to the doctor Yes, sar, feeling sick, every morning Nothing too serious In the fambly way... And so the character goes on in a tonally piping monologue anticipating questions, volunteering answers before those questions are asked, and chatting her boss's business to a visitor who would probably be better off not knowing. But before the visitor could decline audience he finds himself the subject of diagnosis and the recipient of a prescription for the flu he is assumed to have - a prescription complete with such homegrown remedies as ginger, garlic and ganja. And on the story goes in a breathless stream of unsolicited data that are at once amusing, amazing, and with much to contemplate as well as even to disturb as Easton Lee, the author, in his Preface prepares us to expect. The protagonist in what I read is the Cleaner from the poem of that name. It is appropriately placed at the very beginning of the collection for it captures a great many of the brightest and best features of this latest collection of aptly entitled Encounters. This first encounter between his Cleaner and the visiting gentleman who comes to see the rector, her employer, speaks a great deal to Easton Lee's own keen Jamaican eye and ear, his highly nuanced sense and sensibility honed in the myriad encounters he himself has experienced throughout a life which is itself the result of one of many and myriad encounters. Such are the encounters which together make his native Jamaica the textured, diverse, unpredictable, kalaediscopic entity it is, and produce the likes of us all who demand from each other the constant exercise of the creative imagination in order to cope with characters like that cleaner and all the others who emerge, poem after poem, in this quite fascinating collection. The pieces are all mediated by the social reality of this aggregation of souls we call Jamaica and reflect the tapestry with its variety of threads interweaving their way into patterns that make sense and speak to sanity. Easton Lee is himself a perfect example of this feature. The collection has two subtitles - one, voices and echoes, the other, poems from a Chinese Jamaican experience. They both prepare us for the range of offerings with each echo driving us back to the original sound whether in the lilt of the language used by a particular persona or the theme ferreted out of the deep-structured cultural veins of precious material which original encounters helped to shape. So we are led to feel both the orthodox Christian and syncretic energies that drive our people to baptismal waters of a Bedward or that have Sister Ann and the flock labour body and soul in prayer and fasting/ singing and chanting/ down on the ground the faithful! fall and writhe/ catching the spirit/ groaning moaning, trumping, to hoarseness and rapture... Call it a generational thing but it is in like these that someone like myself catches the spirit of a Jamaica whose rural vitality once bolstered the sturdy independence of our peasant folk and provided sustenance for a life beyond the bush that would stave off urban blight and conserve, preserve the richness of inheritances from wherever all of our ancestors might have previously come. And here the photographs by Owen Minott, Dave Reid and the poet himself not just add to the text but bring into bold relief the images on the printed page. It is that rural setting from which the best of our values and attitudes presumably came that Easton Lee, I suspect, draws so much of his inspiration to give us so many of the gems in Encounters waiting for the orality of our tradition of elocution and the sonority of the echoes to the voicings. …

Developing Vitality Indices with Housing Variables: Comparing Non-Metropolitan Utah and Idaho Counties

The focus of this exploratory study was to develop and test rural community vitality indices that incorporate measures of housing. Specifically, its purposes were (I) to examine the relationships between housing, employment, and demographics with community vitality indices for non-metropolitan counties in Idaho and Utah, and (2) to develop and compare two rural community vitality indices. The two indices were (I) a three-variable index and (2) a five-variable index. For each index, regression analyses were perjionned on the Idaho and Utah non-metropolitan counties, using 1980 and 1990 U. S. Census Data. Significant predictors for one or both rural vitality indices included: Total labor force, the proportion of vacant housing units (a negative predictor), and the median value of owner-occupied housing (the most signzjicant predictor).

Increasing Older Populations and Rural Community Vitality: The Role of Housing

Many rural communities are experiencing an increasing proportion of older residents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between theproportion of older and younger residents to county and rural community vitality; and toproject implications for housing policy. Dataffom the non-metropolitan counties in the 12 North Central states were analyzed using the USA Counties 1996 CD-ROM. The findings indicate that counties with larger proportions of older residents do well on some measures of community vitality (i.e., higher per capita income; higher percent of people above poverty level) and poorly on other measures (i.e., have fewer human capital resources). Rural communities would appear to benefit from having a combination of residents in different age groups. To accommodate both older persons and younger families, rural communities will need to find creative solutions to provide appropriate affoordaable housing stock.

Housing as an Indicator of Rural Vitality: The Methodology

Housing as an Indicator of Rural Vitality: The Methodology