The conventional picture of gender relations in rural places is that of a traditional, masculine social fabric. In this article, we challenge this understanding of the rural. Using three ...methodological approaches (quantitative, discursive and narrative), we test the hypothesis that there is an ongoing femininization of the rural, which is concealed by society's focus on the masculine rural. We conclude that each method can give important, but not necessarily sufficient, information to answer such a process-orientated question. This methodological triangulation demonstrates the complexity of gendered rural spaces. The quantitative (map-based) analysis shows a gendered geography, the media analysis unpacks how gender is spatialized and the interviews show how space is gendered. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Agricultural production is on a larger scale than ever before. With fewer holdings, current agricultural production leaves former farm buildings (FFBs) unused and available for new economic ...functions. This has consequences for traffic on minor rural roads and may conflict with a new societal demand for recreational activities in today's multifunctional rural space. Considering this, we explore the ability of the rural road network to absorb the newly generated traffic flows from FFBs. To do this, we investigate four underlying questions: (1) what are in practice the new economic functions of FFBs; (2) how can their traffic generation be estimated; (3) what is the capacity of the network of minor rural roads; and (4) how does spatial planning operate in this field? Specific statistical data are lacking, but research in Belgium and the Netherlands shows that redundant farm buildings have been changed to a residential or a non-agrarian activity, mostly belonging to the service sector of the economy. For most of these functions general trip rates are available. The new traffic generation strongly depends on the type of function. Commercial functions tend to considerably increase local traffic flows, including freight. Spatial planning should be alert for this. The capacity limits for minor rural roads must be respected to avoid damage to road and/or verge - prevention is better than cure! //ABSTRACT IN DUTCH: Door schaalvergroting in de landbouw daalt het aantal bedrijven en komen voormalige boerderijen vrij voor nieuwe economische functies. Dit leidt tot nieuw verkeer op plattelandswegen. Dat kan conflicteren met de huidige maatschappelijke behoefte aan recreatieve activiteiten in het multi-functionele buitengebied. Tegen deze achtergrond onderzoeken wij of het netwerk van plattelandswegen in staat is om het nieuw gegenereerde verkeer op te vangen. Daartoe wordt ingegaan op 4 achterliggende vragen: (1) wat zijn de nieuwe functies; (2) hoe kan de verkeersgeneratie worden bepaald; (3) wat is de capaciteit van plattelandswegen; (4) welke rol speelt ruimtelijke ordening hierbij. Er blijken geen systematische statistische gegevens te zijn, maar onderzoek in Nederland en Vlaanderen laat zien dat voormalige boerderijen een woonfunctie hebben gekregen of worden gebruikt voor niet-agrarische activiteiten, meestal uit de dienstensector van de economie. Voor de meeste functies zijn algemene kengetallen voor de verkeersgeneratie gepubliceerd. Commerciële functies kunnen de plaatselijke verkeersstromen sterk verhogen, ook die van vrachtverkeer. Dit punt verdient aandacht vanuit de ruimtelijke planning. De capaciteit van plattelandswegen moet in acht worden genomen om bermschade en schade aan de weg zelf te voorkomen - voorkomen is beter dan repareren!
Europe witnessed massive migration away from rural areas throughout the 20th century. Spain was no exception to the rule, albeit with differences in timing and pace, and the population in Cantabria ...constitutes a paradigmatic case. Here, the rural exodus began early – before the mid-20th century – in some mountainous districts, but reached a peak in the 1960s and continued throughout the following decades. Since the 1990s, population levels in rural municipalities have fallen at a slower rate, while the population of the region as a whole has increased slightly. Disturbingly, the rural population has continued to decline in the early 21
century, in an overall context of almost zero population growth. The demographic trends analyzed here are not only different in time, but also in space. With the partial exception of regional capitals and their neighbouring communities, municipalities in mountain districts have witnessed such a substantial decline in their populations that they have experienced a genuine process of depopulation. This case does not explain the all-similar cases in rural Europe as a whole, but it can help in interpreting other comparable processes in different regions of southern Europe where depopulation reached its maximum in the second half of the 20th century and still continues today.
This study evaluates the policies developed in Spain to address depopulation and explains the reasons for their low effectiveness. We consider that the low impact of these policies is due to an ...incorrect diagnosis and design in terms of their content and governance. Therefore, we propose that depopulation policies should have the objective of enabling citizens to reside where they wish and obtain the best possible quality of life. These policies should be implemented within a new governance framework in which the foundations on which they are based and the way in which they are implemented are renewed. With the support of the European Union, such action could be carried out more efficiently and could constitute a reference of successful territorial cohesion contributing to erasing the populist opinion in places that believe that they do not matter.
Digitalization and social innovation are often discussed separately and without any spatial reference or in relation to cities, although newer works show the importance of social innovation also for ...rural areas. Existing digitalization projects illustrate the potential of digital technologies for rural development. Current debates on smart villages refer to both digitalization and social innovation but still in a rather unsystematic way. The paper seeks to think together digitalization and social innovation in rural areas more systemically and proposes to conceptually connect them with the help of sensitizing concepts, which are developed out of debates on social and digital social innovation. Along these concepts, the paper explores rural digitalization projects in Germany. On the one hand, this highlights the spectrum of these initiatives and, on the other hand, provides a framework under which digitalization and social innovation can be analyzed and smart villages may be supported systematically.
Ukraine, as a large Central European country, because of its available natural resources, has stable traditions of agriculture. However, the unsatisfactory state of the rural socio-spatial ...environment, the low standard of living of the rural population do not correspond to the country's achievements in the field of agricultural production. The reform of decentralization of public power and management, launched in 2015, created prerequisites for solving not only the problems of rural development but also overcoming spatial disparities, inequality in the incomes of the rural and urban population. The article presents a view of United Territorial Communities and new districts as rural-urban agglomeration formations that differ from urban agglomerations in terms of population, resources and functions. The inclusive capacity, sectoral and socio-spatial focus, development trends of these agglomerations based on inclusiveness are determined. These processes have many common features and characteristics that are characteristic of similar socio-spatial formations of other countries, which gives the investigated problems international significance. Solving the problems formulated and solved in the article will contribute to the successful post-war reconstruction of Ukraine on an inclusive basis.
The European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved over the years, and climate change mitigation and sustainability were recently added as objectives to the policy. This
policy includes ...subsidies for farmers. The success of EU policies relies on positive public perception. This study aimed to investigate Europeans' perception of EU
subsidies. This analysis was complemented by evaluating citizens’ attitudes towards agriculture and climate change and socio-economic variables. Overall, EU citizens support CAP and
practices. Our findings reveal that EU citizens strongly in favour of this support tend to be older, more educated, politically left-wing, from higher social classes, residing in smaller communities, and optimistic about the EU's future. Additionally, these citizens hold strong environmental concerns and support innovative practices to benefit sustainable agriculture.
The article compares the community functions of schools and the support to schools from the municipality representatives and community depending on the location of the school – in peripheral or ...semi-peripheral rural areas, rural small towns, outer suburbs and also in towns, i.e., at various distances from the town. It is based on controlled interviews with school headmasters and mayors of the respective municipalities and on the collection of information from annual school reports and school inspection reports. A total of 57 schools of two districts in the south-west of Czechia were evaluated. The assumption that complete rural schools in peripheries have the greatest community functions was confirmed; but complete rural schools in semi-peripheries also received similar assessment. However, a fully functioning rural "community school" was not found in the case study area. Schools in towns show weak community functions, because community functions in towns are provided by other institutions and facilities.
In global research, food hubs are evaluated as a suitable tool for the development of alternative food networks and the transformation of the agri-food system towards sustainability. However, in ...Europe, research conclusions in recent years point to a lack of knowledge about operating food hubs. Expanding information about how food hubs work is crucial for improving their operational effectiveness and establishing support from the public sector. Therefore, this exploratory research aims to discover examples of food hubs in Czechia where the term "food hub" is not used and no appropriate equivalent has been developed. This leads to the task of determining the criteria under which it is possible to define existing entities as food hubs. Using several examples supported by qualitative research, the article opens a discussion about the acceptability of the hybridization of alternative food networks. Our findings contribute to the debate about the potential of food hubs to develop local and regional food markets, especially in the context of post-socialist countries, where the conditions are different from the Western states.
Public elementary schools in rural municipalities represent key institutional amenities for the communities they serve, and their administrations are part of the broader municipal political ...structure. This article focuses on the views of Czech mayors regarding the role schools play for municipalities and a consideration of how school operation practice can produce positive outcomes for school and community. Schools have proven to be important local institutions with many social functions for which municipalities have various support tools and strategies. We argue that the good functioning of the school strongly depends on the local political representation’s support. The rural school incorporates both an investment in the physical environment of the municipality and a strategic investment in the human capital for the future generations, and sustainable development of municipalities.
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