In the past few years, developing small cities, by promoting villages to towns for instance, has been considered as one of the main policies for improving the Quality of Life(QoL) in the rural regions of Iran and with this aim in the last few decades, a large number of rural centers have been promoted to towns. The purpose of this research is to…

The study explores and unfolds the purpose of education in general, its value and the role it plays in helping development of the people in rural areas especially at Thabaneng Village in Lesotho. It reveals that education is the key to development and functions to equip the rural population in Lesotho with knowledge, training and worthwhile skills…

Dominating strands within the research literature on second homes explain social conflicts between rural hosting and visiting second home populations by describing their differing perspectives on rural development. Such presentations suggest that locals are likely to welcome new developments in order to enhance the economic viability of their…

Training is a key tool for community development processes in rural areas. This training is made difficult by the characteristics of the rural areas and their population. Furthermore, the methods used by traditional training bodies are not adapted to the peculiarities of these areas. This article analyses the training methodology used by the…

Research on rural youth in Russia shows that keeping qualified and ambitious young people in the rural economy will require creating conditions for young people to exercise initiative in the rural economy and diminishing the gap in quality of life between rural and urban environments. Only in this way can the pessimism of rural youth be overcome.

Regions as well as their identities and borders are social and discursive constructs that are produced and removed in contested, historically contingent and context-bound processes of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization. This article studies the deinstitutionalization of regions in the context of municipality amalgamations and the…

In response to demands to restructure and diversify their economies, many rural communities have welcomed the expanding phenomenon of second homes. However, while the second home owners bring new resources to the host communities, the literature also suggests that large second home populations in rural communities provide fertile ground for a…

Indigenous peoples and other rural or remote populations often bear the social and environmental cost of extractive industries while obtaining little of the wealth they generate. Recent developments including national and international recognition of Indigenous rights, and the growth of "corporate social responsibility" initiatives among…

This study pursues a Habermasian analysis of citizen discussions and of the local public sphere to shed light on renewable energy futures in rural east-central Canada. Using data from group discussions, it pursues an investigation of utterances, validity claims and of discourses. The analysis is supplemented by participant observation of publicly…

In recent years rural studies have focused on the analysis of different notions of "the rural" and how they are constructed in expert discourses as well as in everyday life. Dealing empirically with such patterns of meaning, poses special challenges to social science. In this article I want to explore Q-methodology that approaches…

The importance of social capital as a resource for rural development, especially in the context of projects involving joint participation of state and civil society, is widely recognized today. This paper analyzes the obstacles confronted by local players--small farmers and government organizations--in the development of an irrigation area through…

This paper explores emerging policymaking and research into rural creative industries, drawing on a case study from the county of Shropshire in the UK. It begins with a critique of existing creative industries policy, which is argued to focus almost exclusively on the urban as the site of creative work. The paper highlights an emerging body of…

Within Australia's tropical savanna zone, the northernmost frontier regions have experienced the swiftest transition towards multifunctional occupance, as a formerly flimsy productivist mode is readily displaced by more complex modes, with greater prominence given to consumption, protection and Indigenous values. Of these frontier regions, Cape…

This paper examines community attitudes and distinctive practices that shape local responses to integrated rural tourism (IRT) development in the lagging rural region of the English/Welsh border area. The focus is on how actors acquire attributes as a result of their relations with others and how these assumed identities are performed in, by and…

State is often involved in the challenging process of judicious allocation and apportioning of resources for an inclusive growth through creating infrastructure and ensuring accessibility- the "ability of the people to reach and engage in opportunities and activities". The issue at the heart of the debate concerns with the…