Rural Futures : Inclusive rural development in times of urbanisation

Poverty and Social Exclusion in Diversified Rural Contexts

“…In the economically more developed countries, advanced urbanisation processes changed the nature of rural labour markets in terms of an intensive interconnection with cities, thus expanding heavily rural opportunity structures. As Bock () reminds, this process affected most strongly city‐adjacent rural areas, leaving often remote areas behind. The other papers in this issue offer in‐depth probes into the situation in different countries.…”

Guest editorial: Changing villages; what about people?

“…Although processes of regional restructuring and local differentiation continue, the context will strongly differ from that of the changing villages in the last century (Woods, 2007;McCarthy, 2008). It can now be stated that the urban will be defining the rural, and that the faith of rural areas will increasingly depend upon the urban needs they can serve (Bock, 2018). An important result of the new wave of urbanisation is a growing territorial inequality between central and peripheral regions within nations, between affluent and rich villages and between affluent and poor people within villages with different levels of mobility.…”

“…An important result of the new wave of urbanisation is a growing territorial inequality between central and peripheral regions within nations, between affluent and rich villages and between affluent and poor people within villages with different levels of mobility. The resulting increase in "interdependence and interpenetration of space" (Brown and Shucksmith, 2017; as cited by Bock, 2018) makes the distinction between rural and urban less dependent of geographical characteristics and makes the content of rural concepts, like the village, even more the result of socio-cultural construction, based on experiences and perceptions of urbanised people.…”

“…Even more than today, villages will be distinguished based on perceived distances to urban centres of activity or relative positions in settlement networks and on the perceptions of local qualities; qualities measured against urban life styles, and reflecting national social divisions and urban power (Bock, 2018). Villages that are seen as 'peripheral' and 'unattractive' risk to lose out in the globalizing competition for wealthy and healthy residents able to 'fend for themselves'.…”

Place-Based Policies for Sustainability and Rural Development: The Case of a Portuguese Village “Spun” in Traditional Linen

“…Yet place-based policies also come with their own critiques, challenges, and limitations (Bentley and Pugalis 2014;Celata and Coletti 2014;European Commission 2015;Mendez 2011;and Pugalis and Bentley 2014b). Most importantly, there is no single model for place-based strategies, as they should stem from the analysis of local assets and capabilities (Bentley and Pugalis 2014;European Commission 2015;Pugalis and Gray 2016), which can lead to "neo-liberal" appropriation and policy capture toward one dominating mode (Celata and Coletti 2014;Pugalis and Gray 2016) and a withdrawal of state responsibilities for public engagement (Bock 2018). Furthermore, the greater the differentiation of place-based policies, the more challenging it will be to make consistent regional policy (OECD 2009).…”