Exogenous Model of Rural Development Postwar

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Neo-Endogenous Development, Territory and Rural
Innovation Philip Lowe
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Introduction

• Rural development in Europe has been informed
  by
• a movement from exogenous to endogenous
• models of development
• The presentation discusses these models and
  the
• criticisms each has attracted, before
  settling on a
• hybrid model, termed neo-endogenous
  development,
• whose focus is on the animation of
  territories
• Finally the paper reflects on the
  conceptualisation of
• innovation within neo-endogenous strategies

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Exogenous Model of Rural Development (Post-war)
Key principle - economies of scale and
concentration Dynamic force - urban growth
poles The main forces of development conceived as
emanating from outside rural areas Function of
rural areas - food and other primary production
for the expanding urban economy Major rural
development problems - low productivity and
peripherality Focus of rural development
- agricultural industrialisation and
specialisation - encouragement of labour and
capital mobility
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Exogenous Model of Rural Development (Post-war)
Typical Measures

• Agricultural Industrialisation and Specialisation
• supported commodity prices
• applied research and extension to improve
  agricultural
• productivity through the promotion of
  mechanical and
• chemical technologies and plant and animal
  breeding
• training of young farmers and technical
  advice and assistance
• aimed at expanding and progressive farmers
• investment in farmland infrastructure
  machinery, buildings,
• land drainage, irrigation, land
  consolidation, and storage and
• processing facilities

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Exogenous Model of Rural Development (Post-war)
Typical Measures

• Labour and Capital Mobility
• inducements to smaller and older farmers to
  leave the industry
• improvements in transport connections to
  rural areas and
• regions, promotion of rural settlement
  concentration (key
• settlement policies)
• construction of advance factories and
  inducements to firms to
• relocate to rural areas
• development of tourism facilities and
  infrastructure in
• peripheral rural areas with natural
  attractions

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Criticisms of Exogenous Approaches to Rural
Development

• dependent development, reliant on continued
  subsidies and the policy decisions of distant
  agencies or boardrooms
• distorted development, which boosted single
  sectors, selected settlements and certain types
  of business (e.g. progressive farmers) but left
  others behind and neglected the non-economic
  aspects of rural life
• destructive development, that erased the cultural
  and environmental differences of rural areas
• dictated development devised by external experts
  and planners

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Social and Economic Decline of Rural Areas in
Post-War Europe

• Relentless decline in primary sector employment
• Loss of other traditional rural industries (e.g.
  food, leather and wood processing, textiles)
• Loss of local services
• Selective depopulation of younger and
  economically active age groups
• Abandonment of certain isolated and peripheral
  areas (e.g. islands and mountainous areas)

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New Roles for Rural Areas

• From the economic restructuring of the 1980s, new
  roles for rural areas began to emerge based on
  the following characteristics
• a relatively low-wage and non-unionised
  workforce
• reduction in migration flows from rural to urban
  areas, as a result of both the high urban
  unemployment of the 1980s and better rural
  accessibility, helping to stabilise rural labour
  supply
• a small-scale business structure and a culture of
  entrepreneurship which provide conditions for
  rapid economic adjustment

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New Roles for Rural Areas

• state support for agriculture, which has been
  capitalised in land values, giving rural
  landowners sources of collateral to invest in new
  businesses, and which provides support systems
  designed to encourage farmers and rural
  landowners to diversify
• greater accessibility for rural areas as a result
  of improvements in telecommunications and
  transportation systems
• the favouring of rural locations by some of the
  new wave technologies, particularly biotechnology
  and information technology
• the high priority given to non-material and
  positional goods by influential and affluent
  sections of society, who place increasing value
  on the opportunities rural areas provide for
  living space, recreation, the enjoyment of
  amenity and wildlife, and a wholesome and
  pleasant environment.

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Endogenous development
Endogenous development ideas drew on four
separate sources - The recognition that out of
the economic restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s
certain rural regions, with previously
unrecognised internal dynamism, had emerged as
leading economic regions - Regionalist movements
and agencies seeking to overcome previous policy
failures and to promote forms of local
development less dependent on external capital -
From the debate about rural sustainability -
From notions of self-reliance promoted by two
groups - radical greens and development activists
working with particularly marginalised groups,
e.g. ethnic minorities, indigenous people,
travellers, the rural poor, rural women
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Endogenous Approaches to Rural Development
(1980s ?)
Key principle - the specific resources of an area
(natural, human and cultural) hold the key to its
sustainable development Dynamic force - local
initiative and enterprise Function of rural
areas - diverse service economies Major rural
development problems - the limited capacity of
areas and social groups to participate in
economic and development activity Focus of rural
development - capacity-building (skills,
institutions, local networks and
infrastructure) - overcoming social exclusion
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Critique of Endogenous Development Ideas

• The notion of local rural areas pursuing
  socio-economic development autonomously of
  outside influences (whether globalisation,
  external trade or governmental or EU action) may
  be an ideal but is not a practical proposition in
  contemporary Europe.
• Any locality will include exogenous and
  endogenous forces. The local level must interact
  with the extra-local.
• The critical point is how to enhance the capacity
  of local areas to steer these larger processes
  and actions to their benefit. This is the notion
  of neo-endogenous development.
• The focus then is on the dynamic interactions
  between local areas and their wider political,
  institutional, trading and natural environments,
  and how these interactions are mediated or
  regulated.

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Neo-Endogenous Development

• Within the local territory
• Development is re-oriented so as to valorise and
  exploit local territorial resources physical
  and socio-cultural with the objective of
  retaining as much as possible of the resultant
  benefit within the area concerned
• Development is defined by the needs, capacities
  and perspectives of local actors popular
  participation is a key principle and modus
  operandi
• Development should be tackled in a holistic
  manner, dealing directly with the
  interrelationships between economic,
  socio-cultural and physical wellbeing

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Neo-Endogenous Development

• Mediating local/extra-local connections
• The neo-endogenous approach to rural development
  entails the decentralisation of intervention. The
  units of intervention switch from individual
  sectors and socio-economic groups to territories
  of need and potential
• Local territorial partnerships (comprising actors
  from the public, private enterprise and voluntary
  sectors) assume responsibility for the design and
  implementation of development initiatives.
• Dense local networks are important for local
  cohesion, minimising transaction costs, and
  building up and retaining territorial capital
• Strategic extralocal connections are important in
  positioning the territory to its best advantage
  (politically, economically, symbolically)

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Neo-Endogenous Development

• Development based on local resources and local
  participation can be animated from three possible
  directions within the local area from the
  intermediate level and from above-
• Endogenous units households, private enterprise,
  community organisations, producer cooperatives,
  informal local networks
• Neo-Endogenous units Area-based partnerships,
  LEADER, business support agencies, Protected
  Food Names Scheme, Local Government, Voluntary
  Organisations
• Local/Global actors (neo-endogenous gatekeepers)
  Local elites and notables, regional development
  agencies, NGOs, national and international
  companies, public agencies, trans-local
  alliances, the mass media.

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Innovation in the Exogenous Model

• Post-war policy makers, scientists and economists
  adhered to a model of agricultural innovation in
  which the dynamic of technological advance was
  seen to lie outside of farming, in the
  laboratories of the supply companies, the
  universities and agricultural research
  institutes.
• Farmers were seen to have little influence over
  the process or its consequences, other than the
  rate at which they chose to take up the
  technologies available (the so-called diffusion
  of innovation).
• Even in this regard competitive pressures made
  them very susceptible to new techniques that
  lowered production costs and enhanced
  productivity. The term widely used to
  characterise this dependency was the
  technological treadmill.

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Rural Innovation in the Endogenous Model

• Extracts from the Budapest Declaration on Rural
  Innovation April 2002
• Rural areas are seen as spaces for
  experimentation terrains on which
• people have a certain freedom, and also a
  certain necessity, to innovate,
• invent new solutions and institutional
  arrangements
• Innovation cannot therefore be reduced to
  economic progress or to
• technological improvements
• Emphasises in particular institutional
  innovations within civil society
• which are the intended or unintended
  outcomes of efforts by social
• actors (rural households, voluntary
  organisations, social movements)
• to create new or alternative
  organisational models
• Innovation implies that policies take into
  account the diversity of rural
• regions and cultures and the diversity of
  paths towards integration into
• Europe.

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Ambivalence towards Rural Innovation in the
Endogenous Model

• Extracts from the Budapest Declaration on Rural
  Innovation April 2002
• Innovation is not an aim in itself and it
  cannot be reduced to a tool
• A critical approach to the concept of
  innovation as a component of
• rural development is to determine the
  conditions under which it is
• beneficial for rural communities or creates
  disadvantage among
• specific rural groups
• The sharp distinction which is often made
  between traditional and
• innovatory behaviour can generate a
  disrespect for or disinterest in
• further developing what are seen as
  traditional livelihood practices in
• the countryside. Innovation should include
  the creative rediscovery of
• rural heterogeneity
• An over-emphasis on economic innovation as
  the solution to marginal
• rural areas may create the belief that
  competition is the only legitimate
• way of achieving societal change

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Innovation in the Neo-Endogenous Model

• Two additional sources
• The alternative technology model, which
  recognises that technological change may be
  exogenously initiated, but that technological
  change involves an active process of selection
  and adaptation by producers (rather than mere
  adoption)
• The creation of new sources of value through the
  reflexive (ethical) commodification of local
  resources and practices

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Adaptation of technologies (examples)

• We find that craft and protected-origin
  producers who emphasise the traditional
• nature of their products are, in fact, open
  to process-oriented innovations that
• help them reduce costs, or enhance the
  quality of their products, or help ensure
• key consumer values (such as product
  safety, or keeping qualities), i.e. they
• selectively adapt technologies while
  maintaining the quality-image of their
• products
• The role of farmers as environmental managers
  likewise emphasise their
• responsibility to carefully adapt the
  technologies they use to respect
• environmental variability. The farmers
  operational knowledge therefore must
• not just be derivative of the agricultural
  scientist and technologists but must
• also draw upon an intimate understanding of
  the farm environment and its
• physical, ecological and meteorological
  variability. Farm-based strategies for
• environmental management must thus combine
  scientific and indigenous
• knowledge.
• The intrinsic adaptability of some of the new
  types of technology such as
• information technology should help in this
  process of devolving choice and

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Reflexive Commodification of Local Resources and
Practices

• Producer/Consumer Relations and Territorial
  Identities
• Industrial capitalism alienates the consumer from
  the producer. Consumption is driven by the value
  solely placed in the product, rather than by an
  awareness of the personal contribution and needs
  of the producers.
• Neo-endogenous development seeks to reinvigorate
  local social economies by defetishising
  territorial products and services.
• This involves the cultivation of their symbolic
  component so that products come to be identified
  with the specific territory of origin. The
  relationship between producer and consumer is
  thus invested with an element of symbolic
  exchange.
• On the producer side, this involves territorial
  resources being seen as a cluster of cultural
  symbols (rather than being defined solely by
  socio-economic variables or primary production).
  On the consumer side this involves notions of the
  moral economy (e.g. ethical consumerism or
  ethnotourism). The interaction between these two
  processes creates the consumption countryside
  as a set of ethical territories.

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Reflexive Commodification of Local Resources and
Practices

• This facilitates in a socially acceptable and
  communally-regulated fashion the commodification
  of domestic and community resources and practices
• It also harnesses the interest of consumers in
  meaningful and responsible consumption
• The consequence is a set of paradoxical exchanges
  that release value and allow for
  territorially-based accumulation strategies, e.g.
  green consumption, farming as a service sector,
  community enterprise, public goods, the
  environmental economy, stewardship payments,
  hospitality provision and home-made products

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Enlarging the Scope of Local Resources used in
Neo-Endogenous Strategies

• The debate in Europe is very much focussed on
  agriculture and food-related products
• Also need to focus on the environment as a source
  of value
• Also need to consider the full potential range of
  endogenous human skills and resources

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The Environment and Rural Development

• Increasing public concern for the environment
  not only constrains
• rural development but also creates new
  opportunities for forms of
• development that conserve or enhance the
  environment
• The effects of agricultural intensification
  are curbed, but farmers can
• be rewarded for their management of the
  rural environment and for the
• environmental services they provide
• New forms of sustainable primary production
  are encouraged,
• including organics, local and regional
  foods, energy crops and
• biomass production
• The environment provides the basis for new
  economic activities in
• tourism and leisure
• The distinctiveness of the local environment
  is an important
• differentiator of local products and places

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Cultural and Human Skills for Endogenous
Development the Example of Rural Japan

• The resources for endogenous rural development
  include an array of traditional skills and
  cultural assets, including
• Meditative arts, ranging from zen to garden
  design
• Decorative arts, ranging from calligraphy to
  flower arranging
• Craft skills, ranging from washi (paper making)
  to ceramics
• Martial arts, ranging from judo to archery
• Performing arts, ranging from traditional music
  to kabusi
• Hospitality skills, ranging from local festivals
  to the tea ceremony
• Naturalist skills, ranging from mountain guides
  to wild mushroom specialists