Restructuring in Marginal Rural Areas

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Restructuring in Marginal Rural Areas

• The Role of Social Capital in Rural Development

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Introduction

• The EU-funded RESTRIM project ran from 2001 to
  2004. It was coordinated by the Arkleton Centre,
  University of Aberdeen, and also involved
  partners from Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and
  Sweden.
• RESTRIM project set up to explore the role of
  social capital in rural development.

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Social Capital

• Social Capital is in vogue, but what does it
  mean? Can it help to explain differences in rural
  development performance?
• Researchers now tend to explain such differences
  less in terms of hard factors, such as raw
  materials and infrastructure and instead in terms
  of soft factors, like tacit knowledge, mutual
  trust and collective capacity-building.

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Social Capital Networks

• These latter factors are often summarised as
  social capital, and assumed to be (re)produced
  through networks (social actors, and flows of
  information and resources)
• But the concept of social capital is poorly
  theorised and widely misused
• In RESTRIM we therefore focused on networks
  themselves and how they support rural development

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Social Capital, Rurality and Development

• Networks articulating the flows of information
  and resources that produce rural development
  also linking a place to different scales of
  economy and society.
• Rurality many different ruralities exist,
  reflecting a variety of discourses practices.
  Post-productivism?
• Development diversification? upward
  progression? People have very different meanings
  of development and especially for quality of
  life. Local priorities?

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Our Study Areas

• Sotkamo
• Leksand-Rättvik
• Røros
• Skye Lochalsh
• Irish Lake District
• Maremma

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Governance and Democracy

• A strong municipality the case of Sotkamo
• Strong participative democracy
• Strong public-private networks
• Willingness to take risks
• Collective learning from failures
• A new role for local government in the context of
  changing governance?

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Development From Networks

• Existing networks contribute to rural
  development. People have a clear sense of the
  activities and identities which give meaning to
  their area. Need for change to build on this
  continuity with the past.
• Leksand-Rättvik networks of sport and music
  social capital, but highly gendered and
  power-laden.
• Skye Lochalsh crofting agriculture crofting
  networks vital for diversification. Production
  endures.
• The importance of the embeddedness of economic
  activity within social relationships. But unequal
  access to resources and benefits through any
  network.

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Networks for Development

• Often new networks are founded to promote rural
  development. Two examples
• Norway the Mountain Regional Council.
• Ireland Lake District Enterprise.
• Highly variable in effectiveness, depending on
• Stability of funding and membership
• Pre-existing context
• Strength of local democracy
• Local availability of education and training

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Visibility Rural Development Identities

• Rural areas lacking material benefits of urban
  living, or essences of culture and nature? Need
  for change and development, or continuity and
  conservation?
• Skye Lochalsh proposals for a wind farm.
• Rural development is always being challenged,
  negotiated and re-worked between people operating
  in networks, often with very different ideas of
  rurality.
• Another more general process is the marketing or
  branding of rural localities. Attempts to create
  a unique territorial identity to sell local
  products, attract resources, and create a strong
  sense of identity.

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Networks of branding and commodification
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Conclusions

• The importance of non-tangible factors in rural
  development soft rural development.
• The heterogeneity and inclusiveness of networks
  are key criteria for successful development.
• Social capital as enabling collective use of
  resources.
• While local identity can form a basis for forging
  networks, development will depend on resources,
  skills and power deployed through these
  structures.
• Continuity is as important as the changes that
  are often central to development models.