This book initiates a fresh discussion of affordability in rural housing set in the context of the rapidly shifting balance between rural and urban populations. It conceptualises affordability in rural housing along a spectrum that is interlaced with cultural and social values integral to rural livelihoods at both personal and community level. Developed around four intersecting themes: explaining houses and housing in rural settings; exploring affordability in the context of aspirations and vulnerability; rural development agendas involving housing and communities; and construction for resilience in rural communities, the book provides an overview of some of the little understood and sometimes counter-intuitive best practices on rural affordability and affordable housing that have emerged in developing economies over the last thirty years. Drawing on practice-based evidence this book presents innovative ideas for harnessing rural potential, and empowering rural communities with added affordability and progressive development in the context of housing and improved living standards. For a student aspiring to work in rural areas in developing countries it is an introduction to and map of some key solutions around the critical area of affordable housing For the rural development professional, it provides a map of a territory they rarely see because they are absorbed in a particular rural area or project For the academic looking to expand their activities into rural areas, especially in rural housing, it provides a handy introduction to a body of knowledge serving 47% of the world's population, and how this differs from urban practice For the policy makers, it provides a map for understanding the dynamics around rural affordability, growth potential and community aspirations helping them to devise appropriate intervention programs on rural housing and development

What agency can landscape architects and garden designers have in conserving or restoring wildlife diversity? This book gathers essays by designers, scientists, and historians to explore how they might better collaborate to promote zoological biodiversity and how scientific ambitions might be expressed in culturally significant and historically informed design.

This book meets the needs of teachers and students of agriculture and rural development project and programme planning, planners employed by governments in developing countries and by external financing agencies. Project planners must understand the aspirations of rural families and their local leaders, the national development and sector planning goals and policies of their governments and the development goals and policy priorities perceived by external financing agencies in relation to their countries. These areas are not always consistent and trade-offs may be required. However it is recognised that poor project planning is a major constraint to the sustainable realization of project and programme objectives and sector goals. Illustrated with case studies and logical framework matrices, this book presents well-established and relatively new practices followed in the context of agriculture and rural development project and programme planning. Although based on experiences gained in Africa, the issues described are relevant to planning problems encountered in other developing regions of the world. It addresses the main factors which affect the success of planning such as a government's ability to guarantee macro-economic stability and sound sector development policies; the shift from 'top-down', bureaucratic to 'bottom-up', participatory planning approaches and the roles played by external financing agencies. It explains key technical, financial, economic, environmental, socio-cultural, equity, gender and institutional-strengthening issues concerning planning in rural areas and reviews the planning tools and approaches available. The procurement of goods and services, the disbursement of funds and monitoring and evaluation requirements are examined in detail.

Planning Practice: Critical Perspectives from the UK provides the only comprehensive overview of contemporary planning practice in the UK. Drawing on contributions from leading researchers in the field, it examines the tools, contexts and outcomes of planning practice. Part I examines planning processes and tools, and the extent to which theory and practice diverge, covering plan-making, Development Management, planning gain, public engagement and place-making. Part II examines the changing contexts within which planning practice takes place, including privatisation and deregulation, devolution and multi-level governance, increased ethnic and social diversity, growing environmental concerns and the changing nature of commercial real estate. Part III focuses on how planning practice produces outcomes for the built environment in relation to housing, infrastructure, economic progress, public transport and regeneration. The book considers what it means to be a reflective practitioner in the modern planning system, the constraints and opportunities that planners face in their daily work, and the ethical and political challenges they must confront.

Land represents an important resource for the economic life of a majority of people in the world. The way people handle and use land resources impacts their social and economic well-being as well as the sustained quality of land resources. Land use planning is also integral to water resources development and management for agriculture, industry, drinking water, and power generation. This valuable work brings to the forefront the state of practice of land use planning in India, highlighting governmental programs and research with wide-ranging chapters on important topics. Covering various agro-ecosystem, including irrigated, rainfed, coastal, semi-arid, arid (drylands), and hill and mountain (temperate) regions, this volume discusses a variety of issues related to sustainable agriculture and rural development. Chapters address the following questions: *What are the sources, scales, and quality of land resources and land use data for efficient planning * Which are the agroecological systems hot spots that are have been degraded? How can these areas be rejuvenated in terms of quality? * What should be the unit of planning for a holistic approach for the conservation and efficient use of natural resources at different administrative levels and domains? * What are the roles of state land use boards and district planning committees? * How can various programs be integrated and implemented by central and state agencies? * What are the technologies, new policies, and support systems required to address sustainable land use? * What are the legal issues? * What should be the role of communities in planning for poverty alleviation and integrated planning for sustainable agriculture based livelihoods? * What is the role GIS in sustainable agriculture and rural development? With high population growth, endemic poverty, and weak existing institutional capacity for land management, India (and other regions of the world) require strong scientific and strategically important land use policies and methods for sustainable development. This book helps to show the way. This volume is being published in association with the Centre for Agrarian Studies and Disaster Mitigation of the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD and PR).

In celebration of cooperatives' contributions to community development processes and outcomes worldwide, the United Nations designated 2012 as the Year of the Cooperative. Today, as in the past, cooperatives have proved effective in bringing people and organizations together to accomplish a broad array of goals related to fostering social and economic innovation, protecting communities against poor living and working conditions, and promoting a better quality of life. Analytically, as both a movement and as a business model, cooperatives hold much potential for generating the types of synergies, collaboration, and productive and social processes that enable community development to thrive in a variety of local, regional and global contexts. This collection of articles chronicles new developments in the ways in which cooperatives are used in a diverse array of community contexts. They offer insight as to what these changes mean, both empirically and theoretically, for community development in the decades to come. This book is a compilation of articles published in the journal Community Development.

For at least half a century since the emergence of Country Parks and Forest Parks, countryside services have provided leisure, tourism, conservation, restoration and regeneration across Britain. Yet these services are currently being decimated as public services are sacrificed to the new era of austerity. The role and importance of countryside management have been barely documented, and the consequences and ramifications of cuts to these services are overlooked and misunderstood. This volume rigorously examines the issues surrounding countryside management in Britain. The author brings together the results of stakeholder workshops and interviews, and in-depth individual case studies, as well as a major study for the Countryside Agency which assessed and evaluated every countryside service provision in England. A full and extensive literature review traces the ideas of countryside management back to their origins, and the author considers the wider relationships and ramifications with countryside and ranger provisions around the world, including North America and Europe. The book provides a critical overview of the history and importance of countryside management, detailing the achievements of a largely forgotten sector and highlighting its pivotal yet often underappreciated role in the wellbeing of people and communities. It serves as a challenge to students, planners, politicians, conservationists, environmentalists, and land managers, in a diversity of disciplines that work with or have interests in countryside, leisure and tourism, community issues, education, and nature conservation.

Agricultural Landscapes: Seeing Rural Through Design follows on from the author's previous books, Rural Design and Architecture and Agriculture, to encourage using design thinking to provide greater meaning and understanding of places where humans live and work with the rural landscape. Rural areas around the world are often viewed as special places with cultural, historical and natural significance for people. Dewey Thorbeck emphasizes the importance of these rural sites and their connections to urban areas through full-color case studies of these places with particular emphasis on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), as identified by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, to document and explore personal experiences, lessons learned, and implications for the future. Rural landscapes are part of everyone's heritage, and the book shows these connections and the unique GIAHS land use systems and landscapes as models for a more sustainable and prosperous rural and urban future. It includes practical examples of working places where growing food, raising animals, or harvesting from the sea has been the primary economy for centuries to exhibit a clear and sustainable local relationship between humans, animals, buildings, climate and place. Aimed at students, teachers and professionals, this book investigates how design thinking can be used to integrate rural and urban sites to shape land use for more sustainable futures.

The ambition of the book is to investigate a possible transition in the markets for food in the Nordic countries. Six chapters from various disciplinary traditions study change and innovation within the food sectors in Denmark, Sweden and Norway; while an introductory chapter discusses the findings of these analyses. Specialty food has established a strong position within product categories such as craft beer in Denmark and organic food in Sweden, but has failed to do so in others. The emergence of markets for specialty foods have been promoted by top-down policy initiatives and bottom-up entrepreneurial efforts. Far from providing the only relevant platform for food transition and innovation, the "New Nordic Food" manifesto has helped creating a territorialized action space for networks of food producers and distributors promoting diversity in local food and rural development. Some of the specialty food networks have succeeded in re-scaling their operations from a local to a national market. Today even large retailers and food processing companies have to pay notice to the ongoing changes among consumers. There is however a paradoxical constraint in a transition towards specialty food. A large-scale transition would imply that producers and consumers abandon precisely what constitute them - their exclusiveness. The chapters were originally published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.

Rural Development is a textbook that critically examines economic, social and cultural aspects of rural development efforts both in the global north and in the global south. By consistently using examples from the north and the south the book highlights similarities of processes as well as differences in contexts. The authors' knowledge of Afghanistan and Sweden respectively creates a core for the discussions which are complemented with a wide range of other empirical examples. Rural Development is divided into nine chapters, each with a thematic focus, ranging from concepts and theories through rural livelihoods and natural resources to discussions on policy and processes of change. The book sees rural development as a multi-level, multi-actor and multi-faceted subject area that needs multidisciplinary perspectives both to support it and to analyse it. Throughout the book examples of rural development interventions are discussed using analytical concepts such as power, discourse, consequences and context to grasp rural development as practices that are more than what is presented in policy documents. The book is written in a way that makes it accessible for undergraduates while at the same time caters for the kind of deeper reading used by master students and Ph.D.'s. Every chapter is linked to discussion questions as well as suggested further readings and useful websites.

Rural Development in Practice focuses on the evolving nature of rural development in the Global South. It outlines how we got to where we are today, checks what we can learn from history, and explores the development drivers, facilitators, and obstacles most likely to shape the years ahead. The book covers the management of fishing grounds, forests, grazing lands, water sources and soil, and looks at the effects of infrastructure, trade mechanisms, and new crop varieties on farming. The author discusses the opportunities and challenges of microfinance, social safety nets and migration, and assesses the way ICT and climate change are changing everything, rapidly. Real-life examples, exercises, role-plays, textboxes, anecdotes, and illustrative artwork are used to bring concepts and theories to life, and every chapter concludes with a section that explores how best to tackle the tough and complex dilemmas of our time. Rural Development in Practice is essential reading for students at all levels and may be of benefit for programme and policy staff in rural-focused government departments, multilateral agencies, and non-government organisations.

The countryside has often been marginalised in discussions of economic and societal development, in favour of the urban. This book aims to stimulate a debate and a re-evaluation of how the concepts of the rural, peripheral and marginal are treated in academia and policy. Approaching this theme from geographic, demographic and economic perspectives, Peter de Souza makes a compelling case for giving the periphery a prominent role as an integral part of a holistic and balanced society. The book carefully deconstructs the concept of the urban, and critiques the idea of urban-rural or centre-periphery comparisons, and presents an alternative approach to spark future discussions. The Rural and Peripheral in Regional Development will be of interest to those studying and researching in the areas of rural economics, sustainability and development, as well as those involved in rural policymaking.

While many rural areas continue to experience depopulation and economic decline, others are facing rapid in-migration, as well as employment and income growth. Much of this growth is due to the presence and use of amenity resources, broadly defined as qualities of a region that make it an attractive place to live and work. Rather than extracting natural resources for external markets, these communities have begun to build economies based on promoting environmental quality. Amenities and Rural Development explores the paradigmatic shift in how we view land resources and the potential for development in amenity-rich rural regions. Amenity-based growth can lead to several paths, based largely on proximity to urban areas and the type of development that occurs, whether it be seasonal residents, retirees, or tourism. The distributional implications of amenity-led development are an important consideration for policy, both within and between communities and regions. The contributors conclude that public policy needs to focus on maximizing complementary and supplementary uses while minimizing antagonistic uses of amenities. Scholars and policymakers concerned with economic development and natural resource management will find this comprehensive volume of great interest.

This volume examines just how successful community-based conservation approaches have been in their twin objectives of conserving African environments and improving rural livelihoods. Recent conservation policies in Africa have followed three main principles: 1) that conservation should be community-based; 2) that things conserved should be managed to achieve both development and conservation goals; 3) that markets should play a role in shaping the incentives for conservation. The editors and contributors of this volume examine the success or otherwise of these practices in a number of different contexts across the continent. Uganda: Fountain Publishers; Kenya: EAEP; Zimbabwe: Weaver Press

Housing is crucial to the quality of life and wellbeing for individuals and familes, but the availability of adequate or affordable housing also plays a vital role in community economic development. Rural areas face a substantial disadvantage compared to urban areas in regard to housing, and this book explores these issues. Rural Housing and Economic Development includes chapters from nationally known experts from throughout the U.S. to provide insight to help understand and address the difficult housing concerns within rural areas. The chapters cover a variety of issues including housing for rural minorities, the extent of and problems associated with mobile home dwelling, the extent to which affordable rental housing is available in rural areas, the rapidly growing elderly population, and the housing consequences of rapid population and economic growth associated with energy development. The authors not only describe various housing problems, but also suggest policy approaches to more effectively address them. This book will be a vital resource to policy makers at the local, state or national level as they grapple with difficult rural housing problems. Researchers and professionals dealing with housing issues will also benefit from the insights of these experts while the book will also be appropriate for upper level undergraduates or graduate students in courses on housing or economic development.

Most of us have heard of green belts - but how much do we really know about them? This book tries to separate the fact from the fiction when it comes to green belts by looking both backwards and forwards. They were introduced in the mid-twentieth century to try and stop cities merging together as they grew. There is little doubt they have been very effective at doing that, but at what cost? Are green belts still the answer to today's problems of an increasing population and ever higher demands on our natural resources? Green Belts: Past; present; future? reflects upon green belts in the United Kingdom at a time when they have perhaps never been more valued by the public or under more pressure from development. The book begins with a historical study of the development of green belt ideas, policy and practice from the nineteenth century to the present. It discusses the impacts and characteristics of green belts and attempts to reconcile perceptions and reality. By observing examples of green belts and similar policies in other parts of the world, the authors ask what we want green belts to achieve and suggest alternative ways in which that could be done, before looking forward to consider how things might change in the coming years. This book draws together information from a range of sources to present, for the first time, a comprehensive study of green belts in the UK. It reflects upon the gap between perception and reality about green belts, analyses their impacts on rural and urban areas, and questions why they retain such popular support and whether they are still the right solution for the UK and elsewhere. It will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with planning and development and how we can provide the homes, jobs and services we need while protecting our more valuable natural assets.

This book examines examples of rural regeneration projects through the public administration lens, analysing how governance arrangements in rural settings work. In particular, the author focusses on the role of communities, business and tiers of governance (local, regional, national, and supra national) in terms of delivery and funding. By drawing on a range of case studies from the UK, US, Australia and South Africa, the book identifies best practice in governance, applicable to both academic conceptual debates and to practitioners engaged in real world governance of regeneration. While there are substantial political science, sociology and geography debates within the existing academic literature around food security, fair trade, urban-rural divides and supply chains, little has been written on the way in which governance in comparative global case study settings operates in achieving or underpinning rural renewal programmes. Through the inclusion of dedicated sections in each chapter summarising both the links between academic debate and practice, this book will be of great interest to researchers and policy-makers in the field of rural development, and environmental politics and governance in general.

Some 7.3 billion people currently live on the planet. Of these, 3.4 billion live in rural areas. In just a few regions-Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa-less than 50 per cent of poverty is now located in rural areas. But for the rest of the world's regions between 55 per cent and 80 per cent of the poor continue to live in the countryside. Progress is being made, but much of the knowhow needed is not disseminated outside of a small coterie of professionals who work in the area. With urban development attracting a great deal of attention lately, poorer rural areas deserve the same and new knowledge for empowerment of rural communities is urgently needed. This book provides an overview of current thinking and practices that have emerged over the last thirty years for uplifting rural communities in developing economies. Drawing on a body of knowledge across a spectrum of relevant disciplines, this book provides a range of innovative ideas for rural planning, housing and infrastructure development. Governments in many emerging economies, where rural poverty is often most acute, have attempted to improve livelihoods. Approaches and techniques that have been used for urban development are often not applicable to rural communities. Studies show that money allocated for rural development is often not effectively spent due to distance, lack of infrastructure, lack of education, poverty and other factors. Meanwhile, the gap in development between the city and country continues to grow, sometimes leading to social and political instability, in both developing and developed countries. This book seeks to provide a guidebook for meeting such challenges. Through in-depth enquiry of global practices and thinking about rural development, and selected case studies, the authors argue that careful consideration must be given to incorporating issues of resilience, resourcefulness and the involvement of communities at grassroots levels in realising the transformation of rural settlements into Smart Villages.

Building Effective Crisis Communications for Disaster Recovery: A Case of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Sichuan, China reviews and evaluates public relations (PR) campaigns launched by the Chinese government to facilitate long-term disaster recovery after the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. The Discourse of Renewal (DR) theory is employed to guide the study and explore how the Chinese government utilized communication to help communities recover from disaster and promote community growth. Steered by the co-creational perspective, this book also examines the influence of PR campaigns on the public's situation awareness, attitude agreement, perceived care and concern, and ultimately the public's relationship with the Chinese government in renewal. In addition to developing and testing a DR evaluation model, this study investigates the communication obstacles that constrain the effectiveness of DR. In-depth interviews, content analysis, and surveys are conducted to analyze the themes, characteristics, effectiveness, and barriers of the campaigns. The findings of Building Effective Crisis Communications for Disaster Recovery include that (1) DR theory, which has heretofore been developed and applied mainly in Western culture, can inform the study of crisis communication in an Eastern culture, especially in China, (2) DR employed in government campaigns can be very powerful in achieving PR goals in crisis renewal, and (3) imbalanced deployment of campaign resources can affect the outcome of DR. This book also discusses the implications of utilizing these findings to better plan and implement long-term DR campaigns.

This book by Westlund and Kobayashi emphasises the fact that the gap between urban and rural areas is no longer relevant today: all places and regions are under a strong influence from cities. The authors show in a straightforward way that the continuum between more and less urbanized places requires new types of regulations, based on innovation and local skills, and that rural policies cannot be based on agriculture only but primarily require the mobilization of local social capital links.' - Andre Torre, INRA - Agroparistech, Paris, France''Rural' communities are not all resource dependent and very low-density places. Not all have people leaving in droves and no newcomers. This book's theoretical arguments and case studies (from five countries) help one understand better the diversity of 'rural'. We find population gainers, population losers; newcomers and long-term 'stayers' together in sizable towns; Aboriginal communities where out-migration is limited. The diversity is a key dimension in the analyses of public and private action to build and maintain social capital.' - Roger E. Bolton, Williams College, US 'This amazingly surprising book takes the popular topic of social capital and provocatively examines the contemporary rural development issue. New social capital driven thinking and insights are applied globally from a conceptual frame and locally with examples. The way forward for both urban and rural development is achieved when the variables that define social capital are simultaneously balanced around focused development objectives. Examples show how a multidimensional view of social capital enables meaningful rural development.' - Roger R. Stough, George Mason University, US Social capital is often considered a key factor for local development. This book analyzes the role of social capital for rural areas' survival and development in the current age of metropolitan growth - an era in which urban is the norm and where rural areas must adapt to this new situation and build innovative urban-rural relations. The traditional division between 'rural' and 'urban' is no longer valid in the knowledge society. Instead of being a homogeneous unit based on primary sector production, the countryside in the developed world increasingly consists of areas with very different development paths. With examples from Europe, Asia and America, the book discusses building and renewal of rural social capital from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives, and from the standpoint of business, and both the public and private sectors. Being the first book to treat social capital and rural development in the age of megacities and the knowledge economy, it will be of great benefit to academics interested in social capital research and rural development. Contributors: L. Dahlgren, K. Eliasson, M. Emmelin, M. Eriksson, S. Foelster, A. Forsberg, A. Gasior-Niemiec, T. Hatori, K. Ito, H. Jeong, K. Kobayashi, Y. Li, D. Natcher, M.R. Olfert, G. Ray, C. Waldenstroem, L. Westin, H. Westlund, J. Zola

This book discusses the impact of climate change, land use and land cover, and socio-economic dynamics on landslides in Asian countries. Scholars recently have brought about a shift in their focus regarding triggering factors for landslides, from rainfall or earthquake to claiming rapid urbanization, extreme population pressure, improper land use planning, illegal hill cutting for settlements and indiscriminate deforestation. This suggests that the occurrence or probabilities of landslides are shaped by both climate-related and non-climate-related anthropogenic factors. Among these issues, land use and land cover change or improper land use planning is one of the key factors. Further climate change shapes the rainfall pattern and intensity in different parts of the world, and consequently rainfall-triggered landslides have increased. These changes cause socio-economic changes. Conversely, socio-economic and lifestyle changes enhance inappropriate land use and climate change. All these changes in land use, climate and socio-economic aspects are dynamics in nature and shape landslide risks in Asian countries, where they are given serious attention by governments, disaster management professionals, researchers and academicians. This book comprises 21 chapters divided into three major sections highlighting the effect of climate change on landslide incidence with the influence on vegetation and socio-economic aspects. The sections address how climate change and extreme events have triggered landslides. The advances in geospatial techniques with the focus on land use and land cover change along with the effect on socio-economic aspects are also explored.

During the early republican period, architectural interventions in rural Turkey took the form of social engineering as part of the state's modernization and nationalization policies. OEzge Sezer demonstrates how the state's particular programs had a powerful effect on rural life in the countryside. She examines the regime's goals and strategies for controlling the rural people through development projects and demographic shaping to create a strong Turkish identity and a loyal citizenry. The book outlines the implementation of new rural settlements, particularly following the 1934 Settlement Law, with a geographic focus on two cities - Izmir and Elazig - with varied socio-economic and ethnic standing in the state program.

The southern African savannah landscape has been framed as an 'Arid Eden' in recent literature, as one of Africa's most sought after exotic tourism destinations by twenty-first century travellers, as a 'last frontier' by early twentieth-century travellers and as an ancient ancestral land by Namibia's Herero communities. In this 150-year history of the region, Michael Bollig looks at how this 'Arid Eden' came into being, how this 'last frontier' was construed, and how local pastoralists relate to the landscape. Putting the intricate and changing relations between humans, arid savannah grasslands and its co-evolving animal inhabitants at the centre of his analysis, this history of material relations, of power struggles between commercial hunters and wildlife, between wealthy cattle patrons and foraging clients, between established homesteads and recent migrants, conservationists and pastoralists. Finally, Bollig highlights how futures are being aspired to and planned for between the increasing challenges of climate change, global demands for cheap ores and quests for biodiversity conservation.

Rapid industrialisation is promoted by many as the most feasible way of rejuvenating the Indian economy, and as a way of generating employment on a large scale. At the same time, the transfer of land from rural communities and indigenous groups for industrial parks, mining, or Special Economic Zones has emerged as perhaps the most explosive issue in India over the past decade. Industrialising Rural India sheds light on crucial political and social dynamics that unfold today as India seeks to accelerate industrial growth. The volume examines key aspects that are implicated in current processes of industrialisation in rural India, including the evolution of industrial and related policies; the contested role of land transfers, dispossession, and the destruction of the natural resource base more generally; and the popular resistance against industrial projects, extractive industries and Special Economic Zones. Combining the work of scholars long established in their respective fields with the refreshing approach of younger scholars, Industrialising Rural India seeks to chart new ways in the study of contemporary industrialisation and its associated challenges in India. This cutting-edge interdisciplinary work will be of interest to scholars working on industrial development and land questions in India and South Asia alongside those with an interest in sociology , political science and development research.