Journal of Rural and Community Development
Not a member yet
598 research outputs found
Sort by
Working with Indigenous Women on Multifunctionality and Sustainable Rural Tourism in Western Mexico
Get PDFCurrently, globalization is recognized as a process that has many negative effects on the Mexican countryside. These effects include the disconnection of peasants and indigenous people from the national and international economies, poverty, deterioration of natural resources and agrodiversity, loss of local knowledge and traditions, and cultural transformations.
Although globalization has many negative effects, increasing numbers of peasants and indigenous people are looking for alternative livelihood strategies. These strategies aim to make better use of local resources while also allowing relatively autonomous production methods. The activities of these actors fall within different links of the productive chain; these links are production, transformation, commercialization, and consumption. The responses of the local actors could be considered to represent a new emergent rurality. The responses also have in common a revalorization of the multifunctional character of the Mexican countryside.
This article describes the experiences of a group of indigenous women farmers with rural tourism. This group, called "Color de Tierra" (Color of the Earth), has been working on ecological agriculture since 1995. Since 2005, this group has incorporated new activities to regulate the increasing number of tourists that have been visiting the community. The experiences of the group occur in those rural development alternatives that aim at strengthening the multifunctionality of the Mexican countryside. This group incorporates its experiences from the specific local context where it develops its activities, which is also an example of the generation of new alternatives that allow re–localization of the rural life conditions that are threatened by the forces of globalization.
Keywords: Rural tourism, multifunctionality, Mexico, endogenous rural developmen
Russia's Long-Distance Commuters in the Oil and Gas Industry: Social Mobility and Current Developments - an Ethnographic Perspective from the Republic of Bashkortostan
Get PDFLong-distance commuting (LDC) to the oil and gas fields in the Russian north has become a visible social development in today's Russia. This sector provides people in rural communities with employment, high salaries, and the opportunity to increase their social mobility. In the Republic of Bashkortostan, both oil extraction, as well as LDC to Western Siberia, have a long tradition. A recent development, however, is that increasing numbers of people from rural villages without such ties to oil extraction are now entering the oil and gas sector.
This article provides examples of why these people are commuting and what is behind this turn of events. Besides economics, both local developments as well as developments within the oil and gas sector (the most thriving industrial sector in Russia) are contributing factors. People from rural regions see employment in this wealthy sector as a chance to better themselves. Even though some working conditions have been condemned as inhumane, the sector is able to provide a wide variety of employment possibilities. The oil and gas sector is seen as the most stable and most profitable sector in Russia from a local perspective.
Keywords: LDC, oil and gas industry, rural Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, social mobilit
Charting a Future Course for Development: Natural Resources, Conservation, and Community Character in Coastal Alaska
Get PDFDramatic social changes are occurring across rural America as traditional natural resource-based industries such as fishing and forestry decline, and amenity-driven development attracts new residents and visitors. These changes are altering not only the economies and cultural identities of rural communities, but also entire regions where seemingly similar towns respond to these social and economic shifts in distinct ways. Using survey data from 1,541 residents of Southeast Alaska, we examine individual views regarding the role of fishing, forestry, and tourism in this region's economic future.We also assess beliefs about the importance of conserving natural resources and the preservation of the area's cultural character within new development efforts. Findings show that social factors such as age, education, political party affiliation, and individuals' economic well-being, along with place of residence explain diverging views. Given the changing demographics and the shifting interconnections between different communities within rural regions, these results illustrate the importance of designing investigations that capture broad regional trends while also highlighting the key place-specific factors that shape beliefs about natural resource-related industries and the priorities for future rural development activities.
Keywords: Rural development, natural resource management, conservation, social change, coastal Alask
Indigenous Rural Renewal in the Inland Pacific Northwest: The Emergence of American Indian Tribes in Regional Economic Development
Get PDFThe marginalization of Indigenous Peoples in the Inland Pacific Northwest
destroyed successful salmon-based tribal economies, while failed federal policies
for sustainable economic development on reservations and lack of tribal autonomy
led to poverty for American Indians. Federal policies eventually recognized tribal
self-government, but it took the legalization of tribal gaming to produce significant
economic change. Extremely successful tribal gaming operations produced a rapidly
expanding sophistication for tribal investment and a new tribal economy. By 2000
median American Indian /Alaskan Native incomes were higher than non-Indians in
most rural counties, and American Indian tribal governments were the largest
employers with the most discretionary revenues for investment in many rural
counties. A new rural that incorporates tribal governmental and business success has
emerged with dramatic new Indigenous rural futures.
Keywords: American Indian; Native American; economic growth; Indigenous
economies; resilient communitie
How to Revitalize a Small Rural Town? An Empirical Study of Factors for Success. University-Community Collaboration with a Small Historic Rural Tourism Town
Get PDFSince the 2008 downturn in the economy many small rural towns and their business owners have struggled to survive, especially if tourism has been their key economic driver. As a result, many communities are engaged in revitalization efforts to renew and restore their town to its former prominence as a viable community economically. This article examines the strategies and benefits of the formation of a university-community partnership formed to assist a small historic rural tourism town in the southern Appalachian region of the United States that has suffered significantly since the 2008 recession, and the collaboration efforts undertaken to assist town officials in revitalizing their community. The article also discusses revitalization efforts being taken by the town.
Keywords: rural towns, small towns, rural tourism towns, rural development, universities-community partnershi
MAPPing Residents' Perceptions of Health-Related Quality of Life and Community Needs in Southwest Virginia: An Exploratory Study
Get PDFPurpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in relation to community characteristics among rural residents of six areas in Southwest Virginia (N = 90). Furthermore, the aim of the current study was to determine how various community characteristics (e.g., safety, access to health services) may impact residents' perception of HRQL. Methods: Utilizing an exploratory study approach, one of four assessments – the Community Themes and Strengths Assessment (CTSA) – of the health needs assessment tool, 'Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships' (MAPP), was implemented to provide insight into challenges and opportunities in the community. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were the main source of data collection. Coding was performed via Atlas.ti, a qualitative data analysis software. Findings: Interviewees perceived a largely positive HRQL (e.g., ample green space, safe neighborhoods, good school system), with an urgent need for health care reform, affordable insurance premiums and co-payments, and transportation, particularly for after-hours medical care. Conclusions: The present study provides insight to the perceptions of HRQL and community characteristics among residents residing in six separate rural communities within one health district (New River Valley, Virginia). The findings suggest that community residents still perceive a good HRQL in their community, despite evidence of crime, lack of transportation, and inaccessible health care services. Lessons learned are also provided to help maximize community residents' HRQL.
Keywords: health-related quality of life; community health; health assessment; rural health, qualitative researc
Bringing Municipalities into Rural Community and Economic Development: Cases from Atlantic Canada
Get PDFIn rural development literature, subsidiarity and the merits of local community participation are increasingly extolled. Targeted, nationally-derived sectoral (e.g., agricultural) policies and subsidies are increasingly rejected for a more inclusive, place-based, partnership-driven, community-led, and investment-oriented approach to rural development. This shift can be seen across OECD countries and has been lauded by the organization as 'a new paradigm for rural development.' As such, rural development is conceptualized as a process that emanates from the local level, involving a variety of stakeholders in decision making, such that policy development is viewed as more participatory, reflective of and responsive to community needs. Given this, what role (and capacity) might there be for municipalities to meaningfully engage in rural development activities? This paper examines this question through a case study of two rural Atlantic Canadian communities. In doing so, it finds that these two rural municipalities are institutionally constrained from engaging in rural development initiatives and that provincial and federal funders are focused on economic, rather than community, development. It is argued that municipal capacity needs to be greatly enhanced through institutionalized mechanisms in order for them to become meaningful partners in the development process.
Keywords: Atlantic Canada; rural municipalities; new regionalism; community economic development; endogenous developmen
Rebuilding a Sense of Community through Reconnection: The Impact of a Rural School's Closure on Individuals without School-Aged Children
Get PDFThrough the use of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 22 residents of Limerick, Saskatchewan, in this paper I examine the impact of a rural school's closure on the lives of residents without school-aged children. The findings show that the school's closure decreased participants' sense of community and instilled a sense of fear for the community's future. These feelings resulted in residents without school-aged children utilizing existing and new community institutions and organizations to re-connect residents and to motivate them to work towards their community's future. This paper makes a novel contribution to the literature by demonstrating the profound effects a rural school's closure had on a segment of the population that is often marginalized in research pertaining to school closures: residents without school-aged children.
Keywords: school closure, rural, sense of community, community organizations, older adult
Agri-tourism in Recession: Evidence from North East England
Get PDFFarms are increasingly diverse business entities. The recent recession provides a stimulus to explore the strategies employed by farmers and farm households and the resilience of their farm businesses. Depth interviews with the owners and/or managers of five diversified farm businesses before and after the recession provide insights into their decision making processes and motivations. Approaches to different elements of entrepreneurial behaviour including risk-taking, opportunity evaluation, networking, innovation and strategies to attract new customers are examined. While the skills needs of diversified farmers have been widely explored in the literature, the longitudinal approach of this study across a period of economic recession enables the findings to add further to this body of literature.
The results identify specific strategies and entrepreneurial characteristics that have been employed to enhance the resilience of diversified farms. The research considers the implications of combining the production of necessity goods (conventional agriculture) with luxury goods (tourism and value-added food produce) to position a business that can perform well confronting diverse economic conditions. In particular, this allows decisions to focus resources in different areas of the business to be analysed in relation to the wider economic environment.
Keywords: farm diversification, rural tourism, agri-tourism, entrepreneurship, Rural Developmen
From Boom and Bust to Regional Waves: Development Patterns in the Peace River Region, British Columbia
Get PDFMany studies of rural and remote resource region development focus upon the stresses associated with economic booms or busts. But what happens in regions where, over time, the pattern has become one of on-going and alternating up- and down-swings in economic activity? Rather than coping with the pressures of growth or contraction at various times, communities must adapt to a perpetual state of readiness to react and plan within a much more compressed timeline. We use the concept of "regional waves" to describe this new pattern of economic development and impact on remote rural regions. To explore this phenomenon, we draw upon the Peace River region of northeastern British Columbia, Canada, where the oil and gas industry has been well established for decades. We begin with a review of Staples Theory, and the challenges for local and regional economies associated with staples dependency and the staples trap. This is followed by the introduction of regional economic waves that are set against a context in which communities, as a result of neoliberal policies, are increasingly left on their own to react to the pressures of change. The paper goes on to examine how communities with limited capacities and service resources are reacting through innovative responses to the regional wave pattern. We review community innovation in response to four issues: infrastructure deficit, human and social service provision, services to industry, and housing. The discussion then highlights how this oil and gas frontier region has experienced rapid and alternating cycles of economic up- and down-swings; how these connect with the role of the private sector; the consequences of a neoliberal approach to development policy; and the demand for a new model of resource town development that addresses the need for ongoing readiness.
Keywords: oil and gas development, regional development, boom-bust, regional development wave