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[pt] Desde a Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre o Meio Ambiente e o Desenvolvimento (Eco-92), diferentes dispositivos regulatórios, alinhados a emergentes diretrizes de ordenamento territorial e ambiental, foram elaborados para disciplinar os usos da terra no espaço rural nacional, com repercussões específicas em cada unidade da federação. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho analisou as dinâmicas territoriais responsáveis pela expansão de Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) no estado do Rio de Janeiro. As redefinições paisagísticas derivaram de práticas espaciais indicativas de novas territorialidades, (re)funcionalizações e ressignificações do espaço rural fluminense. Enfoques metodológicos qualitativo e misto foram adotados para a interpretação de dados secundários e primários, estes últimos recolhidos em campo a partir de uma amostra de cinquenta proprietários rurais. Os resultados caracterizaram uma trama de intencionalidades e compensações responsáveis por mudanças nos mosaicos regionais de uso e cobertura da terra, tais como: o incremento de áreas florestais para preservação, remuneração por serviços ambientais e consumo turístico da paisagem rural. O crescimento de unidades de conservação privadas foi favorecido por conjunturas sócio-políticas a partir das quais identificamos uma particular densidade institucional de processos territorializantes, representados pela permeabilidade de projetos, programas – ICMS Ecológico, Produtor de Águas e Florestas, Conexão Mata Atlântica, Rio Rural, Programa de Incentivo às RPPNs, dentre outros – e agentes direta ou indiretamente envolvidos – APN/RJ, SERPPN, ICMBio, AMLD e outros – na difusão da referida categoria de área protegida, incentivando, portanto, novos caminhos para o desenvolvimento e a sustentabilidade no espaço rural fluminense. / [en] Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Eco-92), different regulatory mechanisms, in line with emerging territorial and environmental planning guidelines, have been developed to discipline land uses in the national countryside, with specific repercussions on each unit of the brazilian federation. In this context, the present work analyzed the territorial dynamics responsible for the expansion of Private Reserves of Natural Patrimony (RPPN) in the Rio de Janeiro state. The landscape redefinitions were derived from spatial practices indicative of new territorialities, (re) functionalisations and re-significances of the countryside. Qualitative and mixed methodological approaches were adopted for the interpretation of secondary and primary data, collected from a sample of fifty rural landowners. The results identified a network of intentions and compensations responsible for changes in the regional land use and land cover mosaic, such as: the increase of forest areas for preservation, remuneration for environmental services and tourism consumption of the rural landscape. The growth of private conservation units was favored by socio-political conjunctures from which we identified a particular institutional density of territorial processes, represented by the permeability of projects, programs - ICMS Ecológico, Produtor de Águas e Florestas, Conexão Mata Atlântica, Rio Rural, Programa de Incentivo às RPPN, among others - and agents directly or indirectly involved - APN / RJ, SERPPN, ICMBio, AMLD - in the diffusion of this category of protected area, encouraging new paths for development and sustainability in rural areas of Rio de Janeiro state.

The central hypothesis of this study was that the allocation system for NHS hospital and community health services between 1997 and 2003 was not meeting key principles of compensating for differences in the need for services and unavoidable costs. The review and analyses in this study indicate that the underpinning assumptions used when formulating the need adjustment were not robust and that this led to the selection of inappropriate proxies for need. In addition it is concluded that the age adjustment underestimated the costs of elderly care. This study has concluded that the pay adjustment, which was the largest in the formula, did not reflect actual unavoidable differences in cost because the Warwick studies that were used to set the adjustment ignored the monopsonistic nature of the NHS. As a consequence the pay adjustment was based on the assumption that NHS salaries should be related to local salaries. This study identified unavoidable additional costs of providing healthcare in rural areas. These findings were consistent with other comprehensive studies on healthcare costs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This study concludes that the exclusion of a market forces adjustment for rurality was inconsistent with all other comparable allocation formulae in the Home Countries. The absence of a rurality adjustment resulted in rural areas receiving a lower proportion of NHS funding than was justified and this is referred to as the Inverse Share Law. This study concludes that the central hypothesis was correct and that a rurality adjustment was justified, but that the principal determinant of service quality was an adequate focus on efficiency.

No description available.

Faisant émerger de nouveaux objets et de nouveaux acteurs, les pratiques spatiales des artistes sont une entrée féconde pour repenser les dynamiques rurales actuelles. En les considérant comme partie prenante des rapports sociaux et bien sûr des espaces géographiques qu’elles contribuent à produire, notre thèse analyse la place des artistes en milieu rural sur un fond de mutation sociale et institutionnelle caractéristique des espaces ruraux contemporains. Car si la culture y apparaît comme un argument de distinction dans un contexte de compétition territoriale, elle croise une logique résidentielle et d’ouverture de la part des acteurs ruraux, susceptibles de favoriser l’installation d’artistes et de divers professionnels. Ceux-ci sont à la recherche de nouveaux espaces de vie et de travail et croisent en retour les nombreuses pratiques associatives et amateurs qui irriguent l’espace rural. Aussi, à l’inverse d’une approche sectorielle, nous abordons ce sujet par la question de la pratique des lieux, afin de comprendre comment les artistes distinguent les espaces dans leur argumentaire et comment en retour ils contribuent à un renouvellement des espaces vécus. Afin de dépasser les frontières habituelles du développement local, ce travail considère les ancrages et les circulations individuelles qui articulent différentes échelles de ruralité. L’approche biographique permet en effet de penser le local dans ses interfaces, ses réseaux et ses mobilités ; et ce retour aux lieux montre les incidences que les artistes peuvent avoir sur la définition de la ruralité, engageant par là une réflexion plus large sur le statut de l’espace rural dans la société. Ainsi, l’originalité de cette thèse consiste à utiliser une méthode qualitative centrée sur les parcours d’artistes pour analyser leur positionnement et leur stratégie, en s’intéressant aux transformations contemporaines des savoirs, des espaces et des pratiques créatives en milieu rural. Grâce à une approche qui croise les échelles d’analyse, cette thèse montre le rôle des espaces de l’art dans la fabrique du rural, et la manière dont les artistes contribuent à l’émergence de nouvelles articulations entre l’espace rural et la ville métropolisée. / By drawing attention to new objects and actors, artistic practices are a fruitful entry point for rethinking current dynamics of French rural life. This thesis interrogates cultural development in relation to recent social and institutional changes in rural areas, without isolating such areas from social relations or the geographical spaces that underlie them. If culture appears as a distinction argument in a context of territorial competition, it intersects with a residential logic and an openness of rural actors to the cultural field. This, in turn, can initiate dynamic interactions with artists and various professionals. Such “creatives,” always on the search for new living and working spaces, are increasingly moving to rural areas, where they cooperate with the latter’s respective associations and amateur practices. Thus, contrary to a sectoral methodology, we consider this topic with a multipolar approach of culture, in order to understand how artistic actors distinguish territories, and how these territories become, in return, renewed living spaces. To overcome the usual boundaries of local development, we have chosen to put forward the multiple scales of rurality by considering artists as actors in motion, who play with various territorial resources. The microsocial approach makes here possible to think the local in its interfaces, its networks and its mobilities. And this return to the site shows the impact that artists can have on the definition of rurality itself, thus engaging to a broader reflection on the status of rural space in society. One of the originalities of this thesis is to use a qualitative method centered on artists’ analyses of their own positioning and strategies, vis- à-vis contemporary transformations of knowledge, spaces and creative practices in rural areas. Through an approach that correlates rural contexts and scales of analysis, this thesis shows the role of art spaces in the rural fabric and the way they contribute to the emergence of new articulations between rural areas and metropoles.

PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / In other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Traditional Councils (TCs) have always been central to the governance of rural communities. In South Africa, they were restructured in 2003 in order to promote effective leadership and good governance. According to the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act 41 of 2003, TCs are responsible for land administration, promotion of peace and stability, facilitating service delivery and building sustainable social cohesion in rural communities, among others. In Vhembe District, for example, land disputes, violent protests and xenophobic attacks are experienced. This situation raises the question whether TCs are really functional. Multi stage stratified random sampling was used to select six out of the 43 TCs in the Vhembe District for the purpose of the current study. Age, gender and degree of rurality were considered when selecting respondents. Using the exploratory sequential mixed methods design, a series of studies were conducted to suggest a functionality index for TCs. The first study was conducted to clarify the meaning of rural development as perceived by grassroots communities. Focus group discussions, observation and preference ranking were used to collect data in the six TCs. Using Atlas Ti version 7.5 software, standard of living, service provision, empowerment, agricultural practice, economic development, shopping malls, indigenous culture and traditions, competent human resource and spatial planning were identified as key elements of rural development. The Friedman test of the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to calculate the mean ranks of the identified themes. Most respondents (mean rank 7.57) defined rural development in terms of service delivery with construction of shopping centres (mean rank 3.90) and promotion of culture ( mean rank 3.65) being the least popular views. Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0. 01) confirmed service delivery and standard of life to be the most preferred indicators of rural development. The second study was to explain the roles of TCS in developing rural communities. In addition to reviewing previous literature and legislations, focus group discussions, observations and preference ranking techniques were used to explain the roles of TCs in rural development. Service delivery, land administration, management of resources, social welfare, administration of justice, economic development, records keeping, recruitment of investors, moral regeneration, culture and tradition, and communication were identified as key roles of TC in developing rural communities. The Friedman test was performed to calculate the mean ranks of each of the identified roles. The results indicated that provisioning of service delivery (mean rank 7.34) was the most preferred role TCs are expected to perform in developing rural communities with communication (mean rank 4.75) being the least preferred. Wilcoxon signedrank test (P=0.00) indicated that there was a remarkable significance difference between the most recognised role of TC (service delivery) and the other three (communication, culture and moral regeneration) which were identified as less important in the current study. It was evident in the study that various government policies that defines the roles of TCs did not provide specific duties traditional councillors should perform within the listed fields of functional domains. The third study was carried out to determine the major attributes of functional TCs in the Vhembe District of South Africa. Leadership and governance, resources, organisational structure, development programmes and social cohesion were the main five attributes of functional TCs identified in the study. Friedman test was computed to establish the mean ranks of each of the identified attributes. The study revealed that effective leadership and good governance (mean rank 3.71) was the most attribute contributing to the functionality of TCs in Vhembe rural communities with social cohesion (mean rank 2.03) being the least identified. The results of Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0.01) indicated a significance difference only to those pairs of variables including social cohesion. Therefore, the study concluded that social cohesion was the least preferred attribute of functional TCs. The results of the study were used to develop an index for measuring the functionality of TCs in rural development. The equation is in the form: 􀜻􀯜 􀵌 􀟤 􀵅 􀟚􀬵􀜴 􀵅 􀟚􀬶􀜵 􀵅 􀟚􀬷􀜦􀜲 􀵅 􀟚􀬸􀜵􀜥 􀵅 􀟚􀬹􀜮􀜩 􀵅 􀟳 To become functional, traditional councillors should be equipped with leadership and governance skills for rural development. Based on the findings of the current study, it is further recommended that provisioning of basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity in Vhembe rural communities be prioritized over other programmes for development discussed in the study. Furthermore, the study recommends for establishment of guidelines explaining the roles of TCs and to be translated in local languages. / NRF

The thesis searches for driving forces behind structural changes of rural employment in the example of Czechia subject to changing rural paradigm and the related question of rural economic viability represented by the employment performance. The research elaborates on the territorial approaches which categorises regions according to their degree of rurality. In addition, the detailed classification is made according to the change of non-agricultural employment in the period 2001-2011 in order to identify dynamic regions which showed performance above national average (leading) and those which lacked behind (lagging). The observations prompt the question why is the performance differentiated. Therefore, the regionally differentiated impact of processes such as deagriculturisation, deindustrialisation and tertiarisation in the period 2001-2011 is analysed by the use of analysis of components (namely shift-share analysis) and multivariate analysis (namely factor and cluster analysis). The thesis aims to provide answers in particular by giving a thorough analysis of how the changing rural paradigm (and regional theories in wider context) conceptualise the driving forces behind employment development in rural areas. The added value is in the analysis of interrelations and correlations of chosen...

Some earlier studies have explored the peripheralization of sparsely populated municipalities and the urban-rural divide, both in Sweden and abroad. However, few studies have explored if central actors in the Swedish crisis management system puts these municipalities in their peripheralization according to the ones who conduct the crisis management in the sparsely populated municipalities. Therefore, this study aims to help fill that knowledge gap by capturing the attitudes and experiences from the ones working with crisis preparedness in those municipalities, regarding the handbooks and the other support the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency offers. The study is conducted by semi-structured interviews with those who work with crisis preparedness on a municipal level, in sparsely populated regions. After the interviews a narrative method, together with analysis tools from Michael Foucault’s theories about power dynamics is applied. Although many good things were said about the handbooks, the results presented two narratives. The first about the peripheralization of the rural areas and the other about an understanding of the urban perspective. An application of the analysis tools made it clear that power dynamics where visible in the narratives. The urban areas have the power to create norms and exclude the rural perspective, while at the same time making it fair and reasonable according to the ones who are affected by it. Which clearly illustrates the power dynamics at play.

Mobilité, désir d’accéder à une meilleure qualité de vie, attraction de la campagne s’accélèrent depuis une trentaine d’années au Québec, comme ailleurs en occident. La campagne et les usages que l’on en fait se diversifient et se complexifient, à l’instar des populations qui l’habitent. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse se penche sur l’expérience géographique de la campagne, en tant qu’espace social. Elle met en lumière l’expérience géographique des ruraux, plus particulièrement les modalités de leur rencontre dans divers lieux qui marquent leur quotidien. Le matériel empirique de la thèse consiste surtout en des témoignages recueillis lors d’entrevues qualitatives menées auprès de nouveaux résidents et des ruraux de longue date dans deux municipalités régionales de comté (MRC) contrastées au Québec : Brome-Missisquoi et Arthabaska. La démarche privilégiée et les principales contributions qui en découlent se déclinent en trois temps. D’abord, une comparaison directe des deux populations rurales étudiées fait ressortir que leurs pratiques de mobilité et leurs sens des lieux se rejoignent dans une certaine mesure, mais affichent aussi des différences. Par exemple, elles partagent toutes deux un sentiment d’appartenance marqué à leur milieu de vie, mais pas nécessairement avec la même intensité et pour les mêmes raisons. En outre, leurs pratiques d’engagement local convergent, favorisées par un même désir de contribuer au bien-être de leur milieu. La thèse démontre aussi que certains lieux de sociabilité rapprochent ces deux groupes au quotidien, quoique subsistent des tensions notamment liées à leurs origines rurale ou urbaine, leur classe sociale, leurs expériences antérieures des lieux, la durée vécue dans leur milieu de vie, leur historique familial, leurs représentations et usages de la campagne... Se décèle aussi un effet de milieu entre les deux MRC à cet égard. Dans l’ensemble, leur rencontre s’avère timide et surtout réservée à l’espace public. Enfin, en se basant sur leurs représentations de l’avenir, la thèse illustre que l’espace de leur rencontre représente un espace d’opportunités pour le dialogue sur la campagne, bien que celui-ci ne se produise pas sans affrontements et heurts. Ainsi, au-delà du binarisme traditionnel et antagonique lié aux statuts de « nouveaux » et « anciens » ruraux, l’espace de rencontre, celui à l’intérieur duquel s’opèrent à la fois tensions, négociations, compromis et nouvelles alliances, participe à construire la nouvelle ruralité contemporaine.

Mobilité, désir d’accéder à une meilleure qualité de vie, attraction de la campagne s’accélèrent depuis une trentaine d’années au Québec, comme ailleurs en occident. La campagne et les usages que l’on en fait se diversifient et se complexifient, à l’instar des populations qui l’habitent. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse se penche sur l’expérience géographique de la campagne, en tant qu’espace social. Elle met en lumière l’expérience géographique des ruraux, plus particulièrement les modalités de leur rencontre dans divers lieux qui marquent leur quotidien. Le matériel empirique de la thèse consiste surtout en des témoignages recueillis lors d’entrevues qualitatives menées auprès de nouveaux résidents et des ruraux de longue date dans deux municipalités régionales de comté (MRC) contrastées au Québec : Brome-Missisquoi et Arthabaska. La démarche privilégiée et les principales contributions qui en découlent se déclinent en trois temps. D’abord, une comparaison directe des deux populations rurales étudiées fait ressortir que leurs pratiques de mobilité et leurs sens des lieux se rejoignent dans une certaine mesure, mais affichent aussi des différences. Par exemple, elles partagent toutes deux un sentiment d’appartenance marqué à leur milieu de vie, mais pas nécessairement avec la même intensité et pour les mêmes raisons. En outre, leurs pratiques d’engagement local convergent, favorisées par un même désir de contribuer au bien-être de leur milieu. La thèse démontre aussi que certains lieux de sociabilité rapprochent ces deux groupes au quotidien, quoique subsistent des tensions notamment liées à leurs origines rurale ou urbaine, leur classe sociale, leurs expériences antérieures des lieux, la durée vécue dans leur milieu de vie, leur historique familial, leurs représentations et usages de la campagne... Se décèle aussi un effet de milieu entre les deux MRC à cet égard. Dans l’ensemble, leur rencontre s’avère timide et surtout réservée à l’espace public. Enfin, en se basant sur leurs représentations de l’avenir, la thèse illustre que l’espace de leur rencontre représente un espace d’opportunités pour le dialogue sur la campagne, bien que celui-ci ne se produise pas sans affrontements et heurts. Ainsi, au-delà du binarisme traditionnel et antagonique lié aux statuts de « nouveaux » et « anciens » ruraux, l’espace de rencontre, celui à l’intérieur duquel s’opèrent à la fois tensions, négociations, compromis et nouvelles alliances, participe à construire la nouvelle ruralité contemporaine.