785 research outputs found
Reversing the Retreat from Rural: Mobilizing Knowledge and Influencing Policy within the Rural Policy Learning Commons (RPLC)
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to examine the efforts of a seven-year partnership project, the Rural Policy Learning Commons (RPLC), to raise the profile of rural development policy in Canada. Substantive and effective rural policy has long been a challenging prospect. Issues of distance and density, which define the rural condition, present barriers to galvanizing policy attention, understanding rural issues, and designing appropriate interventions. The RPLC project experienced several policy impact successes related to specific policy windows. The project also experienced capacity challenges—at all levels of the rural policy process—and offers insights related to complex systems and the challenges associated with seeking to elevate the role of evidence within policy processes.
Keywords: rural policy, rural development, capacity building
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Inverser le recul du rural: Mobiliser les connaissances et influencer les politiques au sein de la communauté d’apprentissage des politiques rurales (CAPR)
RésuméLe but de cet article est d'examiner les efforts d'un projet de partenariat de sept ans, la communauté d’apprentissage des politiques rurales (CAPR), pour rehausser le profil de la politique de développement rural au Canada. Une politique rurale substantielle et efficace a longtemps été une perspective difficile. Les problèmes de distance et de densité, qui définissent la condition rurale, présentent des obstacles à la galvanisation de l'attention politique, à la compréhension des problèmes ruraux et à la conception d'interventions appropriées. Le projet CAPR a connu plusieurs succès d'impact politique liés à des fenêtres politiques spécifiques. Le projet a également rencontré des problèmes de capacité - à tous les niveaux du processus de politique rurale - et offre des informations sur les systèmes complexes et les défis associés à la recherche d'un rôle accru des données probantes dans les processus politiques.
Mots clés : politique rurale, développement rural, renforcement des capacité
Life long learning in rural areas: a report to the Countryside Agency
No full textLifelong Learning is a broad umbrella term which includes many different kinds of provision and different forms of learning. At its heart is formal learning, often classroom based, or involving paper and electronic media, undertaken within educational institutions such as colleges and universities. It may or may not lead to an award and it includes learning undertaken for vocational reasons as well as for general interest. It encompasses what are sometimes also known as adult education, continuing education, continuing professional development (cpd), vocational training and the acquisition of basic skills. It may also include work-based learning, and may overlap with post compulsory (post 16) education, i.e. with further education and higher education, but normally applies to all ‘adult learning’ i.e. by people over the age of 19, in particular those who are returning to study after completing their initial education.
From the perspective of the individual learner, however, non-formal learning (organised, systematic study carried on outside the framework of the formal system) is also important. This forms a continuum with informal learning that occurs frequently in the process of daily living, sometimes coincidentally for example through information media or through interpretive provision (such as at museums or heritage sites ).
This report focuses on those aspects of adult learning which are directly affected by government policies, and thus of prime concern for rural proofing
The Rural Policy Learning Commons: building rural policy through international comparative analysis
No full textDesigning and implementing policy for rural and northern regions has long been a contentious issue, particularly since the challenges are variable and complex. The remote locations, smaller populations, and place-based identities of these regions create unique challenges when compared with urban centres. While rural regions and urban centres remain interdependent through their labour needs, food production, resource development, energy demands, and pressures of climate change, too often urban-based policy decision-makers ignore or misconstrue rural challenges, conditions, opportunities, and aspirations. In effect, the prosperity of urban centres and the potential of rural and northern regions are reduced by policies insensitive to the social and economic well-being of the latter. This is even more important as the North grows in strategic importance.
Some studies have addressed this tension, yet much more is required to ensure that policy-makers are cognizant of the characteristics of rural and northern places. The Rural Policy Learning Commons (RPLC) is designed to meet this challenge by networking international scholars with policy-makers and citizens in a manner that will nurture future generations of policy analysts and practitioners. We will add to existing research knowledge, increase opportunities for partners to exchange insights, build a cohort of highly qualified policy analysts, mobilize this knowledge to the wider population, and increase our capacity to develop appropriate policy for rural and northern conditions.
Our partnership rests on many years of collaboration among researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and citizens within the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF), the Rural Development Institute (RDI), and the International Comparative Rural Policy Studies program (ICRPS). CRRF has been holding annual conferences and workshops since 1988, initiating research, and engaging with policy-makers regarding the conditions in rural and northern Canada (http://crrf.ca). In concert with CRRF, RDI has been conducting community-focused research, meeting with regional leaders, and publishing rural-relevant materials (http://www.brandonu.ca/rdi/). ICRPS has organized annual two-week Institutes since 2004 – where about 30 graduate students and practitioners meet with about 20 faculty members from 12 trans-Atlantic partner institutions to study the challenges of rural policy and explore options for improvement (http://icrps.org).
The RPLC builds on these activities by adding research, exchanges, institutes, policy fora, distance learning activities, publications, a digital information hub, and social media (e.g. webinars, blogs) to generate new policy insights and strengthen comparative research collaboration among faculty, students, practitioners, and policy-makers. Research and policy activities within the RPLC will be guided by critically examining and advancing comparative policy analyses as applied to pressing rural and northern policy challenges and opportunities such as human capital and migration, natural resource development, governance, and infrastructure and services.
The RPLC incorporates an iterative and cumulative design where lessons learned regarding rural policy insights, methods, design, and implementation are opened to further scrutiny. It integrates academic participants with rural policy practitioners and community stakeholders to exchange expertise and experiences that cross disciplinary, organizational, and sectoral lines. Adopting an “active policy entrepreneurship” approach (Stone 2001) we use collaboration to critically evaluate policy alternatives, expand the tools available to policy-analysts, and prepare policy-makers for a world where rural-urban interdependence is the norm
Identifying Competencies for Rural Policy Practitioners
No full textOne of the key deliverables for the Rural Policy Learning Commons is a graduate certificate in rural policy. As a foundation for this certificate, a research project was undertaken in 2015 and 2016 with the goal to identify subject areas that are essential for attaining competency in rural policy. This workshop has two key components: (1) a report on the project’s research findings, and (2) a group discussion among the workshop participants guided by a series of open-ended questions pertinent to identifying competencies for rural policy practitioners.1. The research project involved a comparative analysis of 22 Canadian Masters of Public Policy (MPP) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs and the learning outcomes presented at the 2015 International Comparative Rural Policy Studies (ICRPS) summer institute. The scan of 22 MPP/MPA programs revealed a marked absence of policy training focused on rural issues and yet an important congruence in the learning offered in the MPP/MPA programs and the summer institute. The analysis showed that training in analytical tools and socio-political contexts is foundational for policy design and implementation. However, acquiring competency in rural policy also requires coursework centred on rural policy sectors. 2. The capacity building focus of the workshop is a self-reflexive exercise, asking participants to discuss and report on a set of questions:a. What knowledge sets, skills, and attitudes are expected of rural policy practitioners?b. What gaps in knowledge, skills, and attitudes appear to be evident among rural policy practitioners?c. What organization and/or institutions offer training in these areas?d. Are rural and public policy conceptually, politically, or practicably distinct
Integrated rural development - do we need a new approach?
No full textRural development was traditionally associated with agriculture. The policy shift towards integrated rural development reflects the complex linkages and interactions within the system of overall rural development. Putting too much emphasis on agriculture and ignoring its linkages to the rest of the economy could result in analytical bias. Rural development provides an alternative to agriculture as a source of incomes and livelihoods. Rural diversification is a process aimed at reducing the price risks of agricultural production and is a logical consequence of the policy shift away from direct agricultural price support. This shift represents a fundamental change in policy objectives and frameworks towards a more holistic approach to rurality and implies new tools of analysis. Conventional economic models are based on an instrumentalist methodology which links means to ends with little interest in the underlying structure. We argue here for a synergy approach to rural development. This approach incorporates both traditional network and institutional analysis and focuses on working mechanisms and processes rather than ends. Substituting a holistic vision of rurality for the old instumentalist and deterministic approach leads to understanding the need for fostering co-operation between public and private actors to achieve sustainable development.
On Rural Agendas
No full textThis diverse panel will explore how different jurisdictions bring attention to rural within their policy making processes. With renewed interest in reviving rural lenses at the Federal level in Canada, this is a very timely discussion. This session will be hosted by the Rural Governance Network of the Rural Policy Learning Commons. Topics to be discussed include multi-level collaborative governance in rural Canada; putting rural on the agenda in Scotland; the politics of rural in Prince Edward Island; and understanding the role of food in rural development in Italy. A robust discussion will follow the presentations
The Perfect Storm: The Political Economy of the Fischler Reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy. CEPS Paperbacks. September 2008
No full textFor decades, the Common Agricultural Policy came in for a significant amount of criticism for consuming a disproportionate share of the EU budget, introducing market distortions, wasting government funds and contributing to rural inequities. Nevertheless, it survived many attempts to abolish it, and acquired a reputation for being virtually impossible to reform in any meaningful way. However, during the tenure of Franz Fischler as European Commissioner for Agriculture from 1995 to 2004, the most radical reform in the history of the CAP was implemented.
This book is the first to review the reforms that were implemented, to analyse how they came about and to explain which forces made them possible. It brings together perspectives from inside and outside the policy community, including from those closely involved in the policy debates, and an interdisciplinary perspective from economists and political scientists. The authors are senior policy-makers and well-respected academics. The book gives some fascinating insights into what made the reforms possible, offers useful conclusions on what this implies for future attempts at reform and finally, addresses the question of whether the Fischler reforms ‘scrapped the CAP’ or saved it
Cultivate or rent out ? Land security in rural Thailand
No full textIn the 1980s the Thai government tried to legalize squatters by issuing special titles that restricted the sale and rental of the land. Using data from 2,874 farming households collected in 1997, the author finds that in places where these government titles where issued, leased plots are more likely to be titled than those that are self-cultivated. For these areas, he uses a model to estimate a 6 percent risk premium in the rental rate for untitled plots. In other areas, however, land rights play no role in the decision to lease land and the rental rate of untitled plots does not include a risk premium. The results indicate that this policy distorted the land rental market by triggering a sense of insecurity among landowners.Wetlands,Forestry,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction,Land Use and Policies,Municipal Housing and Land
Putting Rural on the Agenda in Scotland
No full textThis diverse panel will explore how different jurisdictions bring attention to rural within their policy making processes. With renewed interest in reviving rural lenses at the Federal level in Canada, this is a very timely discussion. This session will be hosted by the Rural Governance Network of the Rural Policy Learning Commons. Topics to be discussed include multi-level collaborative governance in rural Canada; putting rural on the agenda in Scotland; the politics of rural in Prince Edward Island; and understanding the role of food in rural development in Italy. A robust discussion will follow the presentations
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