As the problem of urban-rural inequality in China becomes increasingly severe, urban-rural integration has become a hot topic among both researchers and policymakers. However, to achieve urban-rural integration faces the challenges from dualism in institutional arrangements, diversity in territorial contexts, and uncertainty in development environments. In response to these challenges, this research employs the idea of ‘economic linkages of small towns’ to develop a rural-centred, place-based, and process-oriented approach towards urban-rural integration. This research examines the functions, patterns, and dynamics of economic linkages of small towns under the wider economic-spatial restructuring process brought by rapid economic growth and urbanisation in China. More specifically, this research explores the implications of small towns’ economic linkages for integrated development of urban and rural areas. Based on the idea of ‘problem-solving’, this research develops the conceptual framework of ‘Learning-based Territorial Economic System (TES)’ which includes ‘knowledge system’, ‘organisational system’, and ‘territorial system’. This conceptual framework conceptualises ‘economic linkages’ as interactions between economic actors who participated in various ‘interactive situations’ in solving local development problems. This research carried out two case studies of successful small town and rural development in Kunshan, Jiangsu and Shunde, Guangdong. The empirical findings demonstrate that economic linkages are crucial in identifying local development problems, getting access to key economic resources, and coordinating economic activities in uncertain circumstances. Based on the empirical findings, this research develops two development models of Learning-based TES – the Kunshan Model and the Shunde Model – as coherent systems of economic linkages in problem-solving processes. Explicitly, the Kunshan Model features interactive situations of competitive positioning, elite coalition-building, and synchronised operation and the Shunde Model features interactive situations of reflective monitoring, skill matching, and communicative mediation. In application of these two development models, this research formulates a ‘3-step formula’ as key policy implication, including assessment, experiment, and institutionalisation. Such ‘3-step formula’ can contribute to build up local problem-solving capacities that lead to more substantial urban-rural integration.

This paper takes a look at the challenges mayors of Czech small towns face in they day-to-day job and presents a comprehensive overview of ways they can be addressed. It then focuses on the non-financial and non-legislative tools of cooperation and external support in particular, which are introduced under a collective name "services for effective rural governance". The thesis then presents on the concept of "service design" and its uses in the public sector. Consequently, this method is used to analyze and propose changes to the currently available services for effective rural governance so that they best serve the small town mayors.

The goal of this thesis is to analyse the business opportunities in Libáň and propose a new business plan, which in this particular town is missing and has the potential to succeed. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part deals mainly with small and medium sector companies and prerequisites for a successful business. There are also explained the terminology attaching to the business and the business plan. The practical part consists of a business plan of the language school in a small town. The plan also contains of a detailed description of services offered, location and competitive environment as well as marketing and financial plan. At the end of the document are evaluated risks and prospects of the plan.

Det offentliga rummet är under konstant förändring och i Sverige pågår det stora satsningar för att bevara levande stadskärnor, framförallt genom bevarande av kommersiell handel. Oavsett storlek på städer tenderar centrumutveckling i Sverige att grundas på liknande mål och visioner, att det är nationella och internationella ideal och trender som styr. Utifrån den bakgrunden är syftet med vår uppsats att studera hur en av Sveriges mindre städer, Karlsborg, planlägger för att utveckla sitt centrum. För att besvara uppsatsens syfte genom studiens gång har följande frågeställningar utformats:● Hur presenteras problem som centrumutvecklingen ska lösa i kommunens styrdokument?● Vilka är de underliggande faktorerna för centrumutveckling i Karlsborg?● Hur är Karlsborgs framtidsplaner för sin centrumutveckling anpassade efter tätortens kontext?Till vår hjälp att analysera Karlsborgs uttalade planer och visioner för deras centrumutveckling har vi använt den diskursanalytiska metoden What's the problem represented to be? framtagen av Carol Lee Bacchi. Analysmetoden är uppbyggd av sex analysfrågor som gett oss möjlighet till att förstå vad som är det egentliga problemet som ligger bakom Karlsborgs centrumutveckling. Resultatet av vår undersökning visade på att den dominerande problempresentationen för Karlsborgs centrumutveckling var att de vill arbeta bort den splittrade centrumbild som finns idag. Den splittrade bilden av centrum ses som ett hot mot Karlsborgs tillväxt och attraktivitet, vilket är två av de underliggande faktorerna till att kommunen centrumutvecklar. Det går också att se kopplingar till den splittrade centrumbilden i Karlsborgs geografiska utformning och historiska framväxt. I kommunens beskrivningar för att arbeta för en enad bild är vår tolkning att de influerats av rådande normer och andra centrumutvecklingsprojekt, samtidigt som de i viss mån tar tillvara på sina egna förutsättningar och vill planlägga efter vad som kan anses bäst utifrån dem.

The topic of this diploma thesis is a cultural life in small spa towns, specifically presented on a case study of town Lázně Toušeň. In the theoretical part of the thesis the topic is incorporated into urban sociology and the thesis focuses on questions such as what is the difference between a city and a village, are there any transitional areas and what kind of urbanization processes can occur in the countryside. In the second chapter of the theoretical part the main focus of the thesis lies with spas, their history and cultural specifics. In the empirical part, the case study itself, the thesis looks into the town of Lázně Toušeň and its spa, specifically on the cultural life in the town between the years 1968 - 1989. The study focuses on topics such as what is the difference between cultural and community life in the town during normalization period and present day and how are they influenced by the specifics of Toušeň. The study also covers the topics of daily life in the spa, the organizational and financial side of the cultural events or the role of the "cultural officers". The research was based on semi structured interviews with contemporary witnesses and was complemented by historical sources and secondary literature. The objective of the thesis is to bring a study of cultural life in a...

My collection of short stories is set in the fictional town of Lockswood Gap, Tennessee, and centers around the lives of four women. Through various points of view and story lengths, I interweave several story lines to span over a time period of about twenty years. Themes of change and regret are prevalent in these stories, as each of these four women must make, or refuse to make, choices that will impact their lives. I modeled my collection after Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, using individual short stories that share the same group of characters to tell a novel-length story. The ten stories included in my thesis will comprise about threeourths of the novel, and I will add several more to it following my graduation.

City growth policies codify community values and serve as the basis for enforcement of community standards. If these policies do not match resident preferences for growth, potential exists for communities to grow in ways which make the community undesirable. This thesis examines whether adopted city growth policies match resident preferences in small towns in Utah. Findings include a strong relationship between resident preferences and city leader preferences for growth. Also, city staffs are poor readers of public sentiment relative to growth and growth management. Some cities are more effective in enacting city policies to match resident attitudes towards growth than others, specifically; it seems that cities which have already experienced growth have policies which more closely match resident preferences. This thesis has relevance to the adoption of city growth policies in rural Utah cities. Since city staffs in small towns tend to be poor readers of resident attitudes, whereas city elected officials are much better readers of public opinion, it is important that city policy be instituted at the impetus of elected leaders rather than on the recommendation of city personnel. Failure to adopt city policies regarding growth may lead to growth which is undesirable to city residents.

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Before the American small town was enshrined as an ideal, it was a space of dynamic and pioneering progressive reform, a narrative that has been largely untold in histories of professional planning and landscape history. Archival research shows that village improvement was not simply a prequel to the City Beautiful in the years following the 1893 Chicago Expo, but a rich and complex history that places the residential village at the center of debates about the middle landscape as a civic realm comprised of complimentary and oppositional pastoral and urban worldviews. The second half of the nineteenth century saw an extensive movement in village improvement that affected the physical, economic, and social infrastructure of rural settlements of all sizes in every region of the country. As a concept referenced by planners working on comprehensively-designed suburban communities, the small town ideal has never been historicized with respect to the history and theory of the nineteenth century village landscape improvements. This study broadens the study of village improvement to include the history of ideas and debates surrounding rural development on the national and local level between the 1820s and 1880s and, in doing so, argues that the discussion-born theory of village improvement within a national rural reform movement led by some of the nineteenth century's most respected and influential reformers including B.G. Northrop (education), Col. George Waring (sanitation), N.H. Egleston (conservation), Isabella Beecher Hooker (women's rights), and F.L. Olmsted, Sr. (landscape architecture) was modeled on the Laurel Hill Association in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and that the local practice of this one society over the same period in line with the national movement together comprised the most active sustained discussion about the civic society and physical infrastructure of rural settlements in American history. This narrative tracks reform movements in rural settlements over several decades, beginning with landscape gardening through sanitation and up to the professionalization of city planning and the country life movement. Planning veered from broadly conceived urban pastoralism and multi-disciplinary rural improvement that viewed the village as an extension of the city toward preservation planning that viewed the small town as an increasingly idealized pastoral space, past-looking and unchanging. This trend was in line with an associated shift from planning as a series of fine-grained locally led practices to expert-driven professionalized planning as grandiose comprehensive vision.

В работе были рассмотрены этапы и инструменты формирования и корректировки имиджа территории, влияние внутреннего и внешнего имиджа на продвижение территории. В ходе изучения поставленной проблемы, было проведено исследование, направленное на изучение внутреннего имиджа территории, а также участников его формирования. Результаты исследования показали, что изучаемая территория имеет ряд проблем с имиджем. Среди населения наиболее активными участниками продвижения неблагополучного имиджа является молодежь. Для работы с данной целевой аудиторией, по результатам исследования был разработан проект, который предусматривает комплексную работу со стейкхолдерами данной территории. / The work considered the stages and tools of formation and adjustment of the image of the territory, the influence of internal and external image on the promotion of the territory. In the course of studying the problem posed, a study was conducted aimed at studying the internal image of the territory, as well as the participants in its formation. The results of the study showed that the study area has a number of image problems. Among the population, the most active participants in promoting an unfavorable image are young people. To work with this target audience, according to the results of the study, a project was developed that provides for integrated work with stakeholders in this territory.