This book explores the main methods, models, and approaches of food consumer science applied to six countries of the Western Balkans, illustrating each of these methods with concrete case studies. Research conducted between 2008 and 2011 in the course of the FOCUS-BALKANS project forms an excellent database for exploring recent changes and trends in food consumption.

In recent years, consumers have become increasingly interested not just in price and quality but in where and how food is produced. However, these changes to consumer attitudes have highlighted a considerable gap between intention and actual purchasing behaviour, particularly where ethical and environmental issues are concerned. Consumers and food: Understanding and shaping consumer behaviour reviews what we know about changing food purchasing behaviours so that farmers, food manufacturers, retailers and policymakers can better meet and influence customer needs and expectations. The book reviews existing models of customer behaviour such as dual process and neuroscience approaches. The book also considers contemporary issues such as the growing use of mobile apps to buy food, regional and cultural influences on consumer purchasing behaviour, as well as how consumers assess attributes such as food origins and sustainability. With its unique approach, the book provides an extensive insight into consumer behaviours and attitudes, enabling the key stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain to better understand consumers and help them make healthier and more sustainable purchasing decisions.

Integrated Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas in Central European Countries presents the exciting results of original research on the integrated development of agriculture and rural areas in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. This edited collection includes academics from both Western and Central European Countries who worked together on a three-year research project. The project yielded unique data that covers different aspects of rural development-both agriculture and non-agricultural activities-and is of special relevance owing to these countries' status as new members of the European Union. Following an introduction into the transition process and the current situations in each country, variations in farm performance are analyzed, a detailed look is taken at the rural development in the EU, the role of non-agricultural farm diversification is analyzed, and the major findings of the research are presented. This exceptional collection compiled by Davidova, Bauer, and Cuddy, will appeal to scholars of agriculture and rural economics and policy.

Transitions, Institutions and the Rural Sector is a series of essays examining and analyzing the rural transformations in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The authors included in this volume employ a variety of interesting and insightful approaches to the topic, including synthetic regional analysis, analytic comparative studies, and unique case studies drawn from fieldwork. The first part of the book presents comparative studies of agrarian reform during the past decade of transition, while the second contains detailed studies of individual countries. Part of the Rural Economies in Transition series, Transitions, Institutions and the Rural Sector explores the complexities of rural transformations and the often unanticipated challenges faced by both the public and private sector in developing countries. Editor Max Spoor has assembled a set of thoroughly researched and persuasively argued pieces that fill a major gap in the scholarship on transition economies

The future of public space is uncertain. Although public spaces have become increasingly shabby and crowded, novel alternatives have appeared in the form of fantastic, semi-public pleasure grounds, developed by well-heeled, crowd-pleasing entrepreneurs and devoted to profit, consumption, and self-indulgence. Philosophers and geographers have converged on the topic of public space, fascinated and in many ways alarmed by fundamental changes in the way post-industrial societies produce space for public use, and in the way citizens of these same societies perceive and constitute themselves as a public. The contributors to this volume advance this inquiry, making extensive use of political and social theory. Philosophy and Geography II: The Production of Public Space gives readers an enhanced appreciation of the intimate connections between political principles, social processes, and the commonplaces of our everyday environments.