Integrated rural development: Issues arising from the Scottish experience

Migration: Pre-requisite for rural economic regeneration?

“…Towards a Development Strategy for Rural Scotland (Scottish Office, 1997) and Rural Scotland: A New Approach (Scottish Executive, 2000) are characterised by local population and agency partnership, community involvement, facilitation and local capacity building. Scottish development agencies are enthusiastic of such an approach (Slee, 1994), even though some authors (Danson et al, 1989;Shortall and Shucksmith, 1998;Wright, 1990) highlight implementation problems.…”

“…Endogenous development is a self-centred and conservative process of growth that utilises local experience and knowledge (van der Ploeg, 1992) and assumes that the natural, human and cultural resources of an area hold the key to its sustainable development (Francis and Henderson, 1994). Endogenous development provides an opportunity for rural communities to become increasingly involved in their own futures and is concerned with releasing the potential within (Kearney et al, 1994;Shortall and Shucksmith, 1998). Coffey and Pole`se (1984) proposed a four-stage model of endogenous growth that incorporated the emergence of local entrepreneurship and businesses; expansion of local firms beyond the region; emergence of a local control structure and establishment of a strong locally controlled economic sector.…”

Problems of functioning of Polish local action groups from the perspective of the social capital concept

“…is type of development assumes involvement of local communities in rural development, and the use of resources which they have. According to Chevalier and Maurel: "It is characterised by a priori faith in the potential of rural communities and their ability to discover what best suits their environment, culture and tradition" (Chevalier andMaurel 2010: 30, see also Shortall andShucksmith 1998;Dargan and Shucksmith 2008). us, using the concept of social capital in the analyses of the LEADER approach allows to take into account the wider context of change in rural areas.…”

Rural development policy and community data needs in Scotland

“…This is visible at EU level, where since 1996 the European Commission committed itself to ''revitalising rural economies through the adoption of policies designed to promote the development of rural areas taking account of the changing aspirations and priorities of their citizens''. 1 Shortall and Shucksmith (1998) suggest that the Europeanisation of rural policies is evident in member states. Issues relating to community empowerment and rural development are arising in many member states each with their own approaches and supporting data infrastructure; as such this research by focusing on the current position in Scotland will be of broad interest to many practitioners and policy makers across Europe.…”