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€),...

The paper looks first at the geographical conditions, specifically the economic, socio-cultural, demographic, and environmental, including local conditions as the vital factor underlying the course of transformation in mountainous rural areas. Next, the paper considers the results of the case...

The state of rural social infrastructure and its impact on the quality of life and functioning of rural communities are traditionally seen as marginal to the “mainstream†development activities. The low quality of social infrastructure is, however, an important factor in the...

LEADER axis presents a novelty in the Slovenian agricultural policy. The main object of the current paper is to describe the implementation process of the 4th axis of Rural Development Programme of Slovenia in the period 2007-2013 and analysis of the Annual Implementation Plans for the year 2008...

High concentration of jobs in cities and towns is accompanied by labour commuting from the rural (urban) hinterlands. It is the phenomenon that generates functional regions characterized by the relationship between an urban centre and its rural hinterland. The inverse relationship is if a rural...

At the beginning we delimited agricultural areas. Then we compared the picture obtained with the spatial diversity of human capital. The analysis of human capital was based on three groups of measures. They are related to investments on human capital, its resources and effectiveness of its...

In this paper agricultural knowledge and economic activity of farms are analysed from different perspectives. The research on the role of knowledge in stimulating agricultural and rural development was conducted with the main focus on the EU agricultural rural policies. The authors provide a...

The main objective of the research is to evaluate the significance of gmina local government in the field of agriculture and non-agricultural activity development in rural areas. To achieve this, questionnaires were designed and rural areas inhabitants were interviewed. The interviewees were...

The common West European problems are the following: population ageing and proportional (and often also absolute) decline of the labour force. These deficits are partially covered by the East-West migration flows for work, but these labour force movements generate similar problems on the labour...

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...