Rural Development

One of the main outcome of the “green revolution” is the industrialisation of agriculture in much of the Third World. This very process is embedded in the ideology of development, that was, not without reason, also referred as industrialisation or modernisation. Indeed, it was a quite successful attempt to export the American model of agro-industry to the third world. Besides that the flaws of the original model were ignored, the impact of the application of this model in the underdeveloped countries, without taking in to account the different environments and settings of the recipient states, led to several unintended consequences. However, what I intend to call into question is that the concentration of land ownership and the consequent increase in the gap of wealth distribution was inherent to the very strategy applied. The initial aim of reducing poverty was, if not abandoned, at least overcome in the very process of increasing
food production.

Keywords: Green Revolution, Development, Poverty, Hunger, Land Distribution

Improving the quality of life in remote communities is directly related to the survival and enhancement of their culture, built heritage and landscapes. Conservation of these places creates a spirit of home while interlinking generations including diaspora to connect them to their past and reinforce a sense of belonging. But these unique places and their values are extremely fragile thus must be vigorously protected.

Successful rural development aids in this protection and is a process that aims to improve the quality of life through helping people set their own priorities through effective and inclusive involvement, improving local capacity, social services as well as culture.  However, rural development that does not address culture, the built environment or landscape risks damaging the community, its values and sustainability.  This publication relates the experiences of the HISTCAPE project partners and our attempt to assist rural communities and safeguard their cultural heritage and landscapes.

The publication is organized in five main parts with the first by each partner on their Good Practice. The second through the fourth part is a general summary that the partners offer to other regions in Pilot Actions, Lessons Learned and General Guidance.  Finally there is an Annex with further reading and suggested links.

Good Practice Examples - What are some approaches of rural development that incorporate the protection of culture, historic places and landscapes? How are we to improve the quality of life while simultaneously protecting cultural heritage and landscape? Through the HISTCAPE project the partners worked with communities and their representatives to identify good practice that address problems faced by rural regions. These good practice examples target some common rural issues including improving governance, adding value to agriculture, promoting responsible tourism, increasing access to education, income diversification including the services sector and information and communication technologies.  Thirteen of these good practice examples are described in this book.  They are presented here to assist other rural communities by offering ideas and experiences.

Pilot Actions – It was not sufficient to only identify good practice examples.  The HISTCAPE project also sought to affect change for the improvement of rural areas and to protect the heritage of communities.  An additional ´phase´ of the project was to implement six Pilot Actions to test the transplantation of good practice to other regions.  Six partners were chosen from among the HISTCAPE project to identify good practice from inside the team as well as outside the project then alter or adapt them for implementation and testing in their regions.  These partners included Western Macedonia, Greece; Regione Marche, Italy; Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Styria, Austria; Saaremaa Local Government Association, Estonia and the Regional Authority of Castile & Leon, Spain.  These Pilot Actions were tested, evaluated and implemented in all six regions and this chapter describes the process, methodology and their results.
Lessons Learned – During this three year project some very valuable lessons were learned including understanding that there is an intense pride of place in the small rural communities of Europe. That many of these places have innovative solutions in protecting their culture and landscape and are willing to share their solutions and eagerly take in a group of strangers.  While these communities value their uniqueness and identify themselves with their particular regions they also consider themselves European.  This chapter explains some of the lessons learned and overall conclusions.

General Guidance –This chapter goes a step beyond the Good Practice examples and Lessons Learned to summarizes HISTCAPE experiences including recommendations according to successful practice. Local and regional politicians, regional planners and decision makers are invited to benefit from the HISTCAPE results described in this section. As the challenges faced are similar in many European regions the HISTCAPE partners offer to share the outcomes of their own regional and local experiences in a way that others might benefit from in regional planning as well as on the socio-economic level.  These challenges are concentrated in three main topics: 1) Integrated planning and interdisciplinary knowledge transfer, 2) Organization of social and civic participation and 3) Support for economic valorization.

Annex – finally there was valuable information collected during the course of the project.  This includes resources for Further Reading, partner descriptions and contacts and acknowledgements.  While not all the information gathered during the project can be presented here it is available on the HISTCAPE website at www.histcape.eu 

This chapter investigates the relationship between social network structures, wealth accumulation, and dispute resolution strategies in rural China. Economic reforms after more than 30 years of collectivization have created inequalities between people as a result of opportunities to expand social relationships beyond kinship obligations and to engage in various business activities in addition to agricultural production. While formal mediation in court and adjudication are becoming increasingly available, most disputes in rural China are resolved by mediation based on the principles of reciprocity. Informal village mediation to overcome a dispute is not only a product of social relations but also focuses on the management of social relations.
Ethnographic fieldwork took place in a large village in central Hebei Province. Structured interviews with a snowball sample of 184 heads of household inquired about the social relationships of villagers with relatives, non-kingroup members, and partners in business activities. They also generated information about any past or ongoing disputes over land use or borrowed money and obtained data on the size of houses and the ownership of utility and consumer goods for each informant. Data analysis shows that villagers with higher levels of financial capital than their opponents express a stronger interest to pursue formal resolution in court in addition to local mediation. However, findings also reveal that opponents with similar levels of wealth have different access to power and influence as a result of their structural position within local and regional social networks. It follows that the likelihood of dispute occurrence and their mode of resolution is a function of both social and economic positions of villagers within their community.

Some colleagues asked me to compile the analysis I've done for Inside Indonesia over the last year. This document is comprised of seven articles on development and service issues in Papua: Living without a State; the Middle of Nowhere; Land of Ghosts; the Failure of Education; Dying for Nothing; Platitudes of Papua; and Famine and Fraud.

In an effort to address the growing income disparities between rural and urban residents in China, Chinese authorities introduced a series of rural development policies beginning in 2002 that established as a national goal a xiaokang (all around better off) society and gave top priority to the triad of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Farmers’ cooperatives, consequently, have received substantial government support since 2002 as they are viewed as an important institution for linking small-scale producers to agro-food supply chains, and particularly value-added food chains. Yet little is understood regarding how and to what extent farmers’ cooperatives have benefited members and contributed to rural development in China. Using a case study method and in-depth interviews, we evaluated three successful farmers’ cooperatives in China. Following the “deepening-broadening-regrounding” typology proposed by van der Ploeg, Long, and Banks (2002), we found that the farmers’ professional cooperatives can make important economic, social, and environmental contributions to rural development by adopting alternative strategies and activities. On the other hand, these cooperatives also face great challenges for further development, including limited access to land and capital, a massive loss of laborers, low market competitiveness, weak internal management, and limited government support, which explains why cooperatives are not more widespread in China. This paper offers new insights into the roles of farmers’ cooperatives and government in rural development.

The concept of mobility has gained considerable prominence in social theory and research in recent years, resulting in calls for a paradigm shift or ‘mobility turn‘. This chapter argues that notions of spatial mobility as largely voluntary, individualised and contingent upon large-scale infrastructure at the core of this new paradigm reveal an urban-centric perspective. This contrasts with largely implicit conceptions of rural life as predominantly immobile and rooted in place. This chapter draws on documents, policy reports and publicly available statistics from various sources to illustrate the increasingly mobile and translocal nature of rural life in Ireland. It focuses on two examples of heightened spatial mobility – car-dependent daily mobility and the emergence of ‘mobile farmers’ – to challenge prevailing stereotypical views of rural immobility and to demonstrate the significance of politics and policy for the formation of spatial mobility patterns. It is argued that a theoretical and empirical focus on spatial (im)mobilities can shed new light on the socio-political causes and consequences of the recent rapid transformation of rural-urban connections in Ireland.

The scoping study was undertaken as an investigation into possible opportunities that could channel Uganda's youth bulge towards rural development. It is intended that this will decrease youth unemployment whilst advancing the development of rural communities both infra-structurally and economically.

Proposal for a Development Corps as A catalyst for youth development and general reconstruction. The idea of a Development Corps initiated by the state, and funded by all sectors, is supported by the perceptions of youth that the state is the institution most responsible for their development. The Development Corps is thus a positive initiative which meets existing expectations. The Development Corps, as a development agency for the new South Africa can begin to deal with the unacceptably high rate of unemployment amongst school leavers, by providing not only employment but a practical education in leadership and training in a variety of skills2. Furthermore, the idea of a Development Corps as a vehicle for reconstruction was endorsed by the overwhelming majority of Northern Youth. An even larger majority (88%) affirmed that they would participate in such a Development Corps. In the recent survey (1996) of public perceptions of the public service 91% felt that people would participate in organised community projects and public works. Ninety four percent would participate in a Development Corps and 87% would participate in a Development  Corps organised by the SANDF while 75% felt that other people would participate if it was organised by the SANDF.
An institution aimed at facilitating youth development is essential.

This paper considers the different experiences for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students from rural and urban education contexts. It draws on data from three studies of GLBTIQ students conducted since 2010, including a 2010 online survey of 3,134 GLBTIQ students in which one fifth came from rural areas; a 2012 study of transgender people and a 2013 study of transgender and intersex students. The different studies repeatedly showed that GLBTIQ students from rural and remote towns experienced isolation, social discrimination and a lack of appropriate services and support. They were less likely to feel safe at school, at social occasions and on the internet than their urban peers. Many aspired to leave their rural and regional homes to become the person they wanted to be in an urban environment. The paper concludes by recommending specific training, resources and contacts to improve rural education services for these students.