Rural Studies is a network initiative between ten Finnish universities. This paper discusses Rural Studies as an innovative approach for pulling together the limited national resources of academic rural expertise. There are many background factors for the establishment of Rural Studies network,...

LEADER started as a Community Initiative in the European Union in 1991 and has had positive results in rural development in the EU-15, especially on social capital. It is important to emphasise that rural development plans must be prepared at the local level, and LEADER funds are available only...

In this paper an institutional policy approach is outlined that interprets rural development as a problem of public goods provision. It is argued that rural development policy should focus on the establishment of institutional arrangements that provide rural public goods effectively. Incentive...

This paper visualizes and analyses demographic and socio-economic changes in a local labour market perspective. The territorial context is a part of the sparsely populated northern coastal area of Sweden, representing a wide range of differences in conditions and development patterns. The area...

The aim of this study is to analyze the theoretical fundaments of the social networks and to present some existing rural development networks in the North-Eastern Development Region in Romania. A successful rural development depends to a very large extent on the partnerships. The existence in...

The report presents the results from the analysis of the population of Polish rural municipalities. The analysis was related to broadly conceived “sustained developmentâ€. An essential aspect was also associated with “comparison†(yielding “development qualityâ€),...

Since the beginning of transition, rural economies in Central and Eastern Europe have undergone a strong restructuring with increasing urban-rural disparities. The analysis of the rural situation on the basis of GDP p.c., investments, unemployment and sectoral structures leads to the question on...

The collapse of the communist regime in Romania, in December 1989, determined, at a very short period of time, the disappearance of the co-operative sector of Bolshevik type, once Law 18 (Land Law) was enforced in February 1991, which initiated the land ownership reform. The causes of the...

The strategy for rural development provides a differentiated approach to each type of rural areas. Particularly "sensitive " areas for rural development in Poland are remote rural areas, which are dominated by small farms with small economic strength. In many cases further agricultural...

A scientific approach referring to the reseach network development with the following objectives: • improvement of the degree of integration/involvent of the research-develop-ment-innovation (RD1') units in Romania with concerns in the field of rural development into the European research...