1st Edition

Towards Sustainable Rural Regions in Europe Exploring Inter-Relationships Between Rural Policies, Farming, Environment, Demographics, Regional Economies and Quality of Life Using System Dynamics

    382 Pages 66 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    404 Pages 66 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book presents the methodology and results of a three-year, eleven-country science-to-policy research project – Toward a Policy Model of Multifunctional Agriculture and Rural Development – undertaken between 2005 and 2008 and financed under the European Union's Sixth Framework program.  It deals with an important contemporary policy issue: how best to ensure that an agriculturally-based policy can contribute to the development of rural regions. It tackles this problem in a number of different but complementary ways, primarily by the development of a unique and innovative dynamic systems model, POMMARD (a Policy Model of Multifunctional Agriculture and Rural Development).

    1. A New Approach to Multifunctionality, Sustainable Rural Development, and Analysis of Policy Outcomes  John M. Bryden, Amaia Arandia, Liam Dunne and Karlheinz Knickel  2. Exploring Inter-Relationships between the Multiple Functions of Farming, the Development of Rural Regions, and Policies: Theory and Methodology  John M. Bryden, Thomas Dax, Sophia Efstratoglou, Tom Johnson and Karen Refsgaard  3. Overview of the Regions Studied: A Context Analysis  Karen Refsgaard, Atilla Jambor and Arild Spissøy  4. Multifunctionality in Agriculture and Rural Development: An Empirical Analysis Based on Survey Data from Eleven European Regions  Karlheinz Knickel, Kerstin Lehmann and Melanie Kroeger  5. Developing and Adapting the POMMARD Model  Tom Johnson, Sara Alva-Lizarraga, Karen Refsgaard, Thanassos Kampas, Demetris Psaltopoulos and Gemma Frances  6. Future Policy Scenarios  Kenneth J. Thomson, John M. Bryden and Demetris Psaltopoulos  7. Farming, Multifunctionality and Regional Development in a Remote Rural Region: Trikala, Greece  Sophia Efstratoglou, Demetris Psaltopoulos, Elias Giannakis, Athanasios Kampas and Christos Papadas  8. What Agrarian Policy for an Extensive Agricultural Area: The Case of Berguedà, Spain  Lourdes Viladomiu, Gemma Francès and Jordi Rosell  9. Multifunctionality and Development in a Typical Agricultural Region: Bács-Kiskun, Hungary  Tibor Ferenczi, Attila Jámbor and Krisztina Fodor  10. Rural Development and Multifunctionality in a Region with Unlimited Demand for Labour – The Norwegian Case Study  Karen Refsgaard and Arild Spissøy  11. The Wetteraukreis in Germany – A Metropolitan Countryside Area That Connects the Urban and the Rural  Karlheinz Knickel, Susanne von Muenchhausen, Melanie Kroeger and Holger Bergmann  12. Agriculture and Tourism in a Remote, Sparsely Populated Area – Caithness and Sutherland, Scotland, UK  Holger Bergmann and Kenneth J. Thomson  13. Comparing the Outcomes of CAP Policy Reform Scenarios: Analysis of POMMARD Results and DEA Analysis  Tibor Ferenczi, Kenneth J. Thomson and John M. Bryden  14. Implications for Policy  Kenneth J. Thomson and John M. Bryden  15. Accommodating Multifunctionality in Policy Frameworks: Implications for Research  Luca Juvančič, Thomas Dax, Karlheinz Knickel and Maria Giuseppina Eboli  16. Multifunctionality, Sustainable Territorial Development and Rural Policies in Europe – Some Concluding Reflections  John M. Bryden, Sophia Efstratoglou, Tom Johnson, Tibor Ferenczi, Karlheinz Knickel, Karen Refsgaard and Kenneth J. Thomson

    Biography

    John M. Bryden is Research Professor with the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute (NILF) in Oslo, President of the International Rural Network, and founding member of the International Comparative Rural Policy research consortium. He is Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at the University of Aberdeen where he formerly co-Directed the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research and held the Chair of Human Geography from 1995 to 2004.

    Sophia Efstratoglou is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece.

    Tibor Ferenczi was Jean Monnet Professor, and recently independent expert, at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.

    Karlheinz Knickel was Managing Director of the Institute for Rural Development Research at J W Goethe University Frankfurt and Head of the Department of Sustainable Development, Global Change and Multifunctionality of Rural Areas before joining the Information Directorate in the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment in 2008.

    Thomas G. Johnson is the Frank Miller Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He is also professor in the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs and a founding member of the International Comparative Rural Policy research consortium. 

    Karen Refsgaard is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Norway.

    Kenneth J. Thomson is Professor Emeritus, University of Aberdeen, UK and Visiting Professor, Countryside & Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK.

    "Towards Sustainable Rural Regions in Europe is a highly suggested reading for policy-makers and scholars interested in rural development and, more generally, rural areas. The authors and editors view rural development as a whole-embracing phenomenon that touches every aspect of human life."—International Journal of the Commons, Constantine Iliopoulos, Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Athens, Greece