Category Archives: Rural Development

Rural regional learning in ‘Upper Lusatia’ (Oberlausitz), Germany

Posted on by

Following my visit to Alytus County, Lithuania in October, I travelled to Leipzig, Germany to visit our DERREG project partners Michael Kriszan, Robert Nadler and Joachim Burdack (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) in their case study area ’Upper Lusatia’. In this blog, Michael, Robert, Joachim and I would like to share some of our experiences.

We first discovered that the case study regions Westerkwartier and Upper Lusatia are very different in their geographical and demographical characteristics. The LEADER region Westerkwartier in Groningen province comprises four municipalities on an area of 374km² and has a population density of 173.4 inhabitants/km² (as of 2007). In 2006, its GDP per capita was estimated at 55,400 Euro and the area has recently witnessed a population increase due to its popularity amongst young families who work in the city of Groningen and value the countryside as their residential area. The Southern part of the Westerkwartier is thus characterized by a high population density and a number of conflicting interests regarding the use of the countryside while the North of the Westerkwartier is primarily used for agriculture.

Upper Lusatia consists of the two Saxon districts Landkreis Görlitz and Landkreis Bautzen that have only been established in 2008 in the process of a reform of the administration units in Saxony. The case study region has an area of about 4,500 km² and has a population density of 135 inhabitants/km². It comprises 122 municipalities- of which 30 are urban centers- and had a GDP per capita of 18,329 Euro (district Görlitz) respectively 19,396 (district Bautzen) in the year 2007 . The region is divided into ten rural development areas, six ILE regions and four LEADER regions. In contrast to the Westerkwartier, the population of Upper Lusatia is shrinking rapidly. Young inhabitants are leaving the area due to a lack of employment opportunities, leaving the elder people behind. Rural development in this region is therefore not only affected by an aging population but also by a shrinking human capital available for development purposes. Through the reform of administrative units altogether four previously distinct districts (Landkreise) and two cities (kreisfreie Städte) have been incorporated into the two “new” districts of Görlitz and Bautzen. The previous Landkreise, however, are very distinct in their physical appearance. The former district Niederschlesien-Oberlausitz for example is characterized by a low population density and shaped through past and present coal mining activities while the hilly district Löbau-Zittau is recognized as a touristic area and winter sport resort. Due to the lack of a common history and the physical distinctiveness, there is no regional identity of the population within both districts.

To evaluate the support and facilitation available for learning and innovation within local grassroots development initiatives in Upper Lusatia, Robert, Michael and Joachim organized a workshop for regional stakeholders.

Workshop in Upper Lusatia, Germany

Continue reading →

Kempen international conference day, Nov.19th, Oud-Turnhout, Belgium

Posted on by

De Kempenconferentie was organized by the Dutch Rural Network (Netwerk Platteland) in cooperation with Belgium partners. The second international day workshops on several rural themes were held such as entrepreneurship, new markets, public services, governance, strategic networks and knowledge. Hereby some of my own observations. More information can be found the website of the Dutch Rural network.

New alternative food networks can bridge the gap between cities and rural hinterlands and function as an interface between producers and consumers. The challenge is to develop not only new products for existing markets or existing products for new markets, but really new products for new markets.

Private entrepreneurs can play a role as inspiring leaders in rural development, contributing to social networks, mobilizing and inspiring people, introducing new agendas and innovations and bridging the gap with institutions. Social networking and inspiring others are important competences of these entrepreneurs. Needs of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs are: public leadership and administrators who are less afraid administrative failure. There is also a need for coalitions, which means informal networks which are inspiring and productive and create capacity to act.

The workshop on public services described the new markets approach and a case on small-scale energy production in the province of North-Holland. The cases showed that the variety of stakeholders in regional co-operation is broadened, citizens, companies, businesses and governments are involved. Public/private networks in territorial development can be effective. Conditions for effective territorial development are:

  1. Innovative entrepreneurs, ‘nested’ in social capital.
  2. A pulling, objective actor which can function as an intermediate organization and facilitator. Help in building business cases is an important task.
  3. Regional storylines, which can help to connect these initiatives, mobilize new actors and create a basis for joint marketing. Ownership is important, and a relation with private interests.

‘Territorial Metabolism’ is an attempt to reconnect products and services to the region. It is about closed loops of energy, food on the territorial level. This can lead to a re-coupling to places, socially, economically and ecologically.

The workshop on strategic networks showed  that there is often a tension between short term private interests and long term. Important for strategic networks is:

  • The availability of bricks (networking), cement (involvement) and sand  ( communication). 
  • A sense of urgency, such as unemployment in a region.
  • Exchange & learning, e.g. with organisations abroad. The Rural House Plays a role in the connection of networks and up-scaling to other regions.
  • The role of new social media which create new networks. It is the instrument for civil society (social movements). Twitter makes knowledge direct and explicit and democrats it. Weblogs such as food log, create new social networks, function as a discussion arena and put new issues on the agenda . E.g. AGCHAT, agricultural chatting, is in a way a decentralized organization in the form of a community.

The plenary, concluding session at the end was a discussion on European policy. The conference showed that there is a large diversity in European, rural regions. Regions are more than economic entities. The challenge is a re-connection of activities to space and place in European regions.

Rural regional learning in Alytus County, Lithuania

Posted on by

Last week (October 21-22, 2010), I was given the opportunity to visit our DERREG project partner Emilija Kairyte (Institute NeVork) in her case study area of Alytus County in the South of Lithuania. In this blog, Emilija and I would like to share our experiences.

Like the Dutch DERREG case study region Westerkwartier in the province of Groningen, Alytus County comprises four rural municipalities. In terms of demography and economy, both areas are very different from each other. For example, the Westerkwartier has a population density of 173.4 inhabitants/ km², whereas the population density of Alytus County is estimated as 32.6 inhabitants/ km². While the Westerkwartier has witnessed an increase in citizens over the last years, amongst them a large number of young families, rural development in Alytus County is strongly affected by an increasing out-migration and an aging population. Living standards differ considerably. In the Westerkwartier, the GDP per capita was estimated as 55.400 Euro in 2006 while the GDP in Alytus County was estimated as 19.100 Litai in 2007 (equals 5.531,74 Euro, October 2010). Also in geographical terms the two regions are very different. The Westerkwartier is characterized by open grasslands in the North and small fields with framing hedgerows in the South. Alytus County is renowned for its vast forests and lakes.

During my visit to Alytus County, I accompanied Emilija to two workshops, one for the LAG and other public administration authorities on the 21st of October and one for rural initators and actors on the 22nd of October, which she organized in order to evaluate existing arrangements for support and facilitation of joint learning-by-doing activities within rural development initiatives. At these workshops, I presented supportive arrangements and benefiting rural development initiatives that we found during our investigations in the Westerkwartier and which we evaluated together with local stakeholders at a workshop organized by the Rural Sociology Group in the Westerkwartier on the 18th of October.

Meeting with rural development initiative supporters in Alytus District LAG office, Alytus

To my surprise, both regional learning supporters (including the LAG) and rural initiators did not see striking differences between the existing arrangements and support given to rural development initiatives in Alytus County and the Westerkwartier. Emilija and I however learned that there are some basic differences in the foundation and operation of the Countryside House (Plattelandshuis) in Westerkwartier and Seniūnija (NUTS5) in Alytus County. Continue reading →

Rural regional learning in the Westerkwartier (NL)

Posted on by

The Westerkwartier is a predominantly rural area in the province of Groningen (NL), situated between the cities of Leeuwarden and Groningen. The Westerkwartier is one of the case-study areas in the research project DERREG funded by the European Commission (see www.DERREG.eu for more info). Capacity building and governance of regional learning and innovation is one the four research task (see also previous posts on DERREG).

Last Monday, October 18, Rural Sociology Group facilitated a group discussion in the Westerkwartier. The discussion focussed on: a) how the support rural regional learning and innovation is actually arranged in the area and b) how beneficiaries evaluate the quality of the support.

DERREG Group discussion at the Hayema Heerd

17 representatives from collective (grassroot) development initiatives in the area, from local and regional government and from knowledge institutes participated in the discussion.

Sleeping in straw beds at Hayema Heerd

The workshop was organised at an inspiring location: the barn of the former farm Hayema Heerd in Oldehove (see www.hayemaheerd.nl), now offering citizens the special countryside experiences to sleep on straw beds. In addition Hayema Heerd also offers to learn more about real-life farming at nearby farms. this has been set up jointly with local farmers and is called In-Boeren, what refers to learning about being a farmer.

Mapping the governance of rural regional learning and innovation (Source: Wellbrock and Roep, 2010)

Other collective initiatives represented in the workshop were Wichterwest, a group of women entrepreneurs setting up their own business, and the regional Agricultural Nature Association. The collaboration and joint learning-by-doing in these networks is supported by several arrangements. These arrangements can be mapped as operational interfaces between grassroot development activities in the region, supporting public policies and learning and innovation supporting facilities in the framework of what we call a learning region (see the figure), reflecting thus a map of how the support of joint rural regional learning is actually arranged (see picture).

Mapping the arrangements and personal roles of the participants

Examples of arrangements operational in the Westerkwartier are:

  • The Local Action Group (Leader);
  • The Countryside House (Plattelandshuis) serving amongst others as a window for entrepreneurs and citizens with new ideas and development initiatives;
  • An Atelier, which is under construction building on previous experiences with the aim to get public funded education and research engaged on a structural base in the support of development activities in the region;
  • Three Touristic catalysts, supporting indivudual and collective initiatives of recreational entrepreneurs in the area.

The discussion made clear that these arrangements are important to channel the various types of support to individual and collective development activities: information, financial suport, expertise, feedback, maneuvring within (public) regulations, etc. Especially the Countryside House serves well as an entry to support as it lowers the threshold for initiators, a place were people from the area can meet and find themselves someone who coaches them and get them known in the unknown, complex world of numerous subsidies, regulations and networks. Continue reading →

Een toekomstbestendig platteland – samenwerkingsverband van 10 plattelandsgemeenten die kampen met krimp en vergrijzing

Posted on by

P-10 is een nieuw samenwerkingsverband van de 10 grootste plattelandsgemeenten die te kampen hebben met vergrijzing en krimp. Ze willen zoveel mogelijk kansen creëren en benutten voor de mensen die nu en in de toekomst wonen in plattelandsgemeenten. De P10-gemeenten beslaan met hun gezamenlijke oppervlakte van 280.000 ha (evenveel als de provincie Zuid-Holland) het grootste aantal vierkante kilometers aan oppervlakte van ons land (zie www.p-10.nl). De P10-gemeenten zijn: Aa en Hunze, Berkelland, Borger-Odoorn, Bronckhorst, Hulst, Ooststellingwerf, Opsterland, Schouwen-Duiveland, Sluis en Westerveld.

Op 7 oktober hebben de P-10 gemeenten een congres gehouden waar een handreiking voor het versterken van de leefbaarheid op het platteland is gepresenteerd, getiteld ‘Zomer in Nederland: open oog voor toekomstbestendig platteland‘  (te downloaden vanaf homepage P-10). Uit de vooraankondiging:

Bij een krapper geworden economie en een krimpende bevolking met daarbinnen een relatief grote groep ouderen, zijn traditionele waarden en beelden niet meer toereikend voor de duurzame leefbaarheid van het platteland. Er zijn nieuwe impulsen nodig om mensen op het platteland een adequate leefomgeving te bieden, met geschikte en rendabele voorzieningen en mogelijkheden tot werk en andere ontplooiing.

De P10, het samenwerkingsverband van de tien grootste plattelandsgemeenten van Nederland, stelt zich samen met het Ministerie van BZK, provincies en gemeenten tot doel de media, bestuurders en ambtelijke en private beleidsmakers te overtuigen van de noodzaak tot een gezamenlijke aanpak. Kennis en reële mogelijkheden, nieuwe technologieën en nieuwe samenwerkingsmogelijkheden moeten de plaats innemen van aannames, emoties en belemmerende tradities. Sinds begin dit jaar werkt de P10 gestructureerd aan de concrete lading van het begrip leefbaarheid op het platteland. Er zijn praktische methodieken en modellen ontwikkeld om tot afspraken en voorzieningen te komen voor een maximale samenlevingsparticipatie van plattelandsbewoners, voor de benutting van het platteland door bewoners van stedelijke gebieden, voor passende mobiliteit, voor winkel- en recreatievoorzieningen, voor een evenwichtige relatie tussen de mens en zijn omgeving, voor de bevordering van bedrijvigheid en werkgelegenheid en voor een duurzaam gebruik van ruimte, energie en materialen.