The rural-urban interface (RUI) is a complex landscape impacted by a variety of social and economic processes. Substantial U.S. agricultural production occurs at the RUI despite non-farm development pressure. Notably, at a time when U.S. farming is increasingly dominated by a shrinking number of large scale operations, RUI agricultural production occurs primarily on small and medium farms. Importantly, RUI farms exhibit greater diversity in terms of operator demographics, production type, and marketing channels, than their large-scale counterparts. A critical resource in the persistence of diverse RUI farms is Technical Assistance (TA). While TA is provided by a number of different institutional actors, the focus here is restricted to the Extension Service, United States Department of Agriculture backed Natural Resource Conservation Service and Soil and Water Conservation District programs, and nonprofit sector organizations whose mission is focused on supporting U.S. agriculture. Through an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a multi-state study, the goal of this work is twofold. In the first place, this work seeks to assess the utilization of the different sources of TA by farmers operating at the RUI. Subsequently, the work investigates the resulting attitudes farmers hold about the TA they use. As such, this analysis is intended to examine how TA contributes to the persistence of the diverse agriculture operating at the RUI and to explore possible ways in which these critical resources can be further enhanced in order to support RUI farms and farmers.

This dissertation adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the determinants of residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime, focusing specifically on a series of structural factors at the community level, in accordance with the social disorganisation model. Using different statistical models, including correlations, linear regression, multilevel models and spatial regression analyses, and several Spanish data sources, in particular the 2001 Population and Housing Census and a nationally representative survey conducted in 2006, the research confirms the relevance of its exogenous sources in explaining perceived neighbourhood crime. These include classical variables, such as neighbourhoods’ socioeconomic status, residential stability, ethnic diversity, family disruption and degree of urbanisation, but also other features related to the time, skills and resources deployed by residents in their residential areas such as commuting time to work, the number of working hours and the availability of a second home. For its part, other local conditions traditionally associated specifically with perceived neighbourhood crime, such as social incivilities and physical decay, act as mediators of other contextual effects, in particular of the number of retail shops and offices. The research also demonstrates the urban nature of the social disorganisation theory. That is, that the local conditions typically associated with social disorganisation, urban unease and the various social problems that can affect neighbourhoods, are better predictors of residents’ perceptions of crime in town and large cities than in rural areas, operationalized as municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Small municipalities seem particularly successful in controlling their younger residents for neither the proportion of adolescents and young adults, nor the number of children per family exert an important effect on residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime. Among these local conditions, special attention has been devoted to measures of diversity and immigration demonstrating that their effect on residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime, except for the positive impact of Asians, is not necessarily robust to different model specifications and statistical methods. This erratic immigrant effect is surprising given how consistent the belief in a crime-immigration nexus is among Spaniards. Precisely on this point, the dissertation has investigated why the belief in a crime-immigration nexus varies significantly between individuals and across communities. Three variables have been identified as determining factors: contextual parochialism, right-wing ideology and the media. In rural areas with high residential stability, a significant presence of elderly population and a low socioeconomic status, residents are more likely to unconsciously associate immigration and crime, even when individual attributes are adjusted for and, more importantly, even if few migrants live in the surroundings. Not surprisingly, right-wing residents are more likely to associate both phenomena yet, in contrast to many statements by scholars and pundits, the media in Spain seems to exert a moderator effect.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / One of the fundamental challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa’s urban settlement planning has been the requirement for social cohesion. For this reason, urban transformation interventions involved the construction of mixed-income housing, wherein social cohesion among low- and middle-income households could be enforced. Far from rhetoric and the drift of middle-income households into cities that were previously the preserves for white people, urban South Africa remains deeply segregated. It is against this background that the study assessed the determinants of the manifestation of social cohesion in the Serala View residential area, which consists of diverse races and different socio-economic classes. The study is in a form of a case study, and has adopted the normative together with the historical research design. The study used both primary and secondary data to complement each other. These data is both qualitative and quantitative. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the purposively sampled respondents, and an interview schedule was used to solicit data from the key informants. The International Business Machine-Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS) version 22 software was use for analysis, with which a non-parametric t-test was conducted to determine the intensity of the respondents on the different dimensions of social cohesion. Analysis results reveal there are three typologies of mixed-income housing, which are generally recognized in urban areas of many countries, and that the Serala View is a Gated Townhouse Complex typology. Importantly, this typology is mainly identified by six physical characteristics, which are central in determining the manifestations of social cohesion in the gated townhouse complex typology. Importantly, target hardening, which refers to security measures, is considered to be the most important aspect in Serala View residential development. From the analyses and interpretation of the theoretical and empirical evidence, the dissertation concludes that the contributions of mixed-income housing towards social cohesion are mixed and non-straightforward. However, there is theoretical validity of the notion that such an approach could cultivate social cohesion among different socio-economic classes. Results from Serala View Residential area largely confirm this theoretical positioning. This dissertation concedes that implementation discrepancies could be the real elephant in the room, rather than the fault of the idea itself. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between expenditures on local public services and the net migration rate for Swedish urban and rural municipalities. Data from Statistics Sweden over all Swedish municipalities between 2004 and 2014 was used for the empirical analysis. The data also included control variables to control for differences in economic and demographic conditions in the municipalities. The result found using pooled OLS with instrumental variables reveals great differences on the significance of local service expenditure in relation to migration for the two types of municipalities. Childcare was found to be of great significance for rural regions. In contrast, social assistance had a positive association in urban regions while it had a negative insignificant correlation in rural regions. Moreover, culture and education were found to be insignificant in relation to migration for both regions. The results also showed similarities such as elderly care and local taxes were significantly negatively correlated with migration in both type of regions. Overall, the results show that certain local services, such as childcare, are correlated with migration. Nevertheless, economic conditions such as low local taxes, presence of a university campus and having low unemployment are as well of importance to attract residents to both types of municipalities.

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how female emigrants and returnees could use these as tools to achieve social mobility. The study has qualitatively investigated both text and oral sources from returnees to find reasons for emigration, effects of them regarding women's changing social contexts and results of migration, by analyzing the source material based on the concepts of rural and urban identity combined with perspectives on actors as tools for change-making processes for these women. The study has found that both external and internal factors regarding intentions with emigration, livelihoods based on business emigration, social networks and perceived identity, interact in women's perceived social mobility. The left-behind rural context creates a foundation and incentive for women to build an urban identity in the new American social context. The choice to return to the former homeland is not always a choice of its own for women, the social network exerts pressure based on old and patriarchal structures. The majority of returning women choose to settle in the rural environment they once left to care for elderly relatives. Most of them went home to Sweden with a return ticket to America and with intentions to travel back, which did not happen.    Women's identity creation is given multiple layers and changed by leaving a rural context behind and entering an urban context. Intentions, livelihoods, social networks and their own perceived identity all contribute to women's perceived identity and thus opportunities for social mobility.

As the world grapples with increasing urbanization, population growth, climate change and depleting natural resources, there is an increased recognition that more food will have to be produced with fewer resources while food consumption has to shift rapidly towards more sustainable patterns. Meanwhile, although many are willing to work in and innovate agricultural practices, young people in rural areas still struggle to access the resources needed to be part of this shift, not to mention to make a living. In Guatemala, more than 90 % of young people engaged in agriculture work in the informal sector. In such a context of insecure labour conditions combined with strong vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, migration to cities or abroad is often a result of push rather than pull factors.Through an inductive methodological approach based on qualitative interview research with a small yet broad sample of stakeholders, this study explores the potential of rural-urban linkages to help strengthen opportunities for rural youth in Guatemala. By supporting information exchanges on the value of local small-scale food production and conscious consumption, it also aims to promote sustainable development in a broader sense. Four areas of inquiry are investigated with the goal of generating evidence-based recommendations on framing, messaging and channels that could be used as a foundation to build on when promoting local produce in urban and peri-urban markets.Interviewees agree on the importance of agriculture and many see a need for raising awareness on the value of local small-scale food production for advancing all dimensions of sustainable development. This coincides with a broad interest within a limited test group for accessing such information. Suggested communication channels range from social media via branding to goodwill ambassadors. Messaging should be short and impactful and focus on mutual benefits for producers and consumers, including for personal health and community development. Local food is believed to have a particular potential to promote perceptions of a common identity, supporting efforts to tackle historical and current barriers for linking urban and rural areas closer together.Future research could look at successful initiatives to strengthen rural-urban linkages among youth, as well as on the increasingly porous borders between rural and urban areas and identities. Reassessing classifications of rural producers and urban consumers could hopefully contribute to more circular and sustainable models of development.

This thesis interrogates sense of place and place attachment in the Big Empty on the north central Texas plains. The region stretches from the Red River on the north to the Colorado River basin on the south and from the Cross Timbers on the east to the Caprock escarpment on the west. Since 1930, the Big Empty has seen sustained and severe population decline such that some counties there now register less than a quarter the population they did at their peaks during the interwar years. Through in-depth field interviews, I examine sense of place and place attachment amidst apparently irreversible decline. I also describe conditions of postindustrial rurality arising from rolling reconfigurations of economic and social relations, particularly changes in scale in farming and the diminished centrality of productivist agriculture in local economies and culture, and how these conditions become legible through the study of place.

No description available.

This thesis sheds light on differences in health insurance enrolment determinants and uptake barriers between urban and rural areas in the Jirapa district of Ghana. The National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana has made significant progress in terms of enrolment, which has had a commensurate increase in utilization of health care services. However, there are challenges that pose a threat to the scheme’s transition to universal coverage; enrolment in the scheme has not progressed according to plan, and there are many barriers known to impede uptake of health care. Interestingly, these barriers vary in relation to locality, and rural residents appear to carry a disproportionate portion of the burden. A mixed method approach was employed to collect and analyse the data. On the basis of the primary qualitative and quantitative results, the thesis argues that the costs of enrolling and accessing health care is disproportionately higher for rural residents than it is their urban counterparts. It also highlights that the distribution of service benefits both in terms of the NHIS and health care in the Jirapa district favours urban residents. Lastly, the thesis found that whereas rural residents prefer health care provision to be social in nature, urban residents were more interested in the technical quality aspects of care. These findings suggest that rural residents are not benefitting from, or may not be accessing health services to the extent as their urban counterparts. Affordability, long distance to health facilities, availability and acceptability barriers were found to influence the resultant pro-urban distribution of the overall health care benefit. / Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund)