A Dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course-work degree of Masters of Recreation and Tourism in the Department for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / Cultural heritage tourism refers to travelling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present, such activities are found in living communities, these are signs that the past and present spoken of is authentic and rooted in the experience of the people. The importance of this study was to help create cultural heritage awareness among the people of the Zululand District Municipality. This was to be achieved by focusing on establishing the potential of cultural heritage tourism and finding out if cultural heritage tourism can be a driver of rural development. Cultural heritage tourism can be used to generate financial and social benefits using resources within the communities. The intention was to find out if the study area does have such cultural heritage resources, if so, how these resources could contribute to the development of the study area. The key objectives of this research study were achieved as reflected in Chapter 4. The objectives of this study are as follows:  To identify cultural heritage resources available in the study area.  To view local communities perception towards cultural heritage tourism development.  To assess the level of participation by the local community in cultural heritage development.  To discover strategies used by the Zululand District Municipality to transform cultural heritage assets into tourism products.  To establish the contribution of cultural heritage tourism resources towards the economic upliftment of the community in the study area. The findings of the research study revealed that, the study area has cultural heritage resources which are available but are not utilised to the benefit of the community as yet. The level of the community participation in the development of cultural heritage tourism is therefore limited. The major problem with participation is caused by the lack of involvement in decision making of the respondents; the findings indicate that they are willing to learn more about cultural heritage tourism which will enhance their capacity to participate in tourism development.

This research evaluates the post-program treatment effects of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project (SWPRP), a large-scale ($463.55 million) rural development project jointly funded by the World Bank and the Chinese Government from 1995 to 2001. The SWPRP aimed at reducing poverty and increasing living standards for the absolute poor in southwest China. The treatment effects are measured by the changes in 21 indicators at the village level. The dataset for this research includes 327 project villages and 3887 non-project villages in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Rigorous econometric methods are employed to remove selection bias. A probit model is established to investigate the selection rule of the project villages. In addition to the control function approach, different methods of propensity score matching such as nearest neighbor, caliper or radius, and kernel-based matching, are used to estimate the treatment effects, including the average treatment effect, average treatment effect on the treated, and average treatment effect on the untreated.The evidence from the treatment effect estimations shows that the SWPRP achieved its overall objective but not necessarily all specific objectives. The evidence supports a statement of significant impacts on farming, offarm employment, and infrastructure by the project investments, while there is no strong evidence to support a conclusion of significant impacts on primary education and rural healthcare services. The poverty rate in the project villages was reduced by about 3.0-3.3 percent and net income increased by about 24-26 Yuan. Further investigation of the specific treatment effects on individual villages expose that the treatment effects vary with land resources in the villages. Lastly, the project was successful in targeting the poorer villages but not necessarily the poorest.This research also reveals some findings of practical relevance for social program design. The approach of integrated policies proves to be effective in large-scale poverty reduction. However, designers should be aware that households may trade off one activity against another to maximize their utility rather than simply follow the whole package of integrated activities. In addition, the minimization of operational costs of the project agents should not be detrimental to the effectiveness of the project.

Woolgathering aims to speculate around ways to reduce the wasteof wool and how wool can catalyze the regeneration of ruralvillages in the north of Sweden. In Sweden today, we producearound 1000 metric tons of wool per year, yet only about half of it isused. This is due to its varied quality and a lack of political support,economic incentive and a low demand on global and nationalmarkets causing a loss of knowledge in wool management andfailing value chains. Modern monocultural agriculture has phasedout traditional sheep breeds and vital semi-natural pastures whichhas had detrimental effects on biodiversity, cultural heritage andland ownership. Björkå, a rural village Västernorrland, has had adwindling population and is in need of regeneration in order toalleviate symptoms of rural neglect. Inspired by the architecutralaccpuncture employed in Songyang and the Brown sugar factoryin Xing village as well as the cooperative management of thefarms in Marinaleda, and a visits to Björkå and one of the manylocal sheep farms, I identified wool as a potential catalyst forthis development along with a series of devices to be employedin a rural regeneration strategy: rural-urban links, tourism, localeconomy, cultural heritage, industry and nature. The woolgathering strategy, like the darning of woolensocks, introduces these devices along with local and regionalactors as threads that feed into the fabric of Björkå aiming torestore its integrity. There is a focus on locally controlled industrywhere economical profits feed back into the community but alsoon collaboration between local and national wool actors. Thecentral core of the strategy merges the 6 devices with the 5 actors. The different threads and wool programmes merge andform new associations, or become integrated into new (virtualand physical) networks that expand well beyond the rural locality. With wool as the catalyst, the strategy can start to mend thegaps in the territory, reconnecting links to endogenous networkswithin the wool industry and exogenous networks between actorsand create economic viability for sheep farmers locally and across Norrland.

Settlement in the midlands of Norrland is linked to specific difficulties, partly rooted in a historical perspective of indigenous colonialism. Consequences include significant geographical value differences, which make new construction of housing unequal in Sweden. In addition, a demographic problem arises as older people stay in a larger living space than they need, as it becomes more expensive to move than to stay. The consequence is a stagnant generational change in the housing market, making it difficult for young adults to settle in rural areas. That relationship is generally more prevalent in rural areas in the midlands of Norrland, a phenomenon that I define as a part of The rural dilemma. Based on this problem, interest grew to investigate alternative and possible solutions, which at the same time favored settlement in the midlands of Norrland. However, some people defy these difficulties and, with collective solutions, create settlements based on alternative forms of social housing. Therefore the collective Skogsnäs was visited in Sollefteå municipality, which has since then served as a source of inspiration for the project: A shared household across generations. The ambition was to investigate a dwelling typology that combines important components that favor rural areas and which can contribute to upgrading values ​​in these territories, promote social community, and take into account building economies using natural building materials. This can benefit local resource processing and entrepreneurship. The dwelling typology consists of interior wall modules, which contribute to the living space not becoming static but can grow and change together with the household constellation and needs. In addition to the advantage of shared housing costs, the concept offers an alternative form of social housing that enables possible generational housing, where the wall modules can be seen as an artifact whose function integrates with everyday life in time and space. The module becomes an important part of the design of common variability and surface flexibility based on needs over a generation.

<p> During the last several decades, Chile has experienced development characterized by rapid social and economic changes. In conjunction with economic growth, Chile has experienced rural stagnation, a growing dependence on imported foodstuffs and a migration of rural population to the urban centres. Unemployment and underemployment exist in both the rural and urban sectors.</p> <p> Economic planning in Chile must be directed in part to improving agricultural production, reducing the dependence on imported foodstuffs, and creating more employment opportunities in the rural sector.</p> <p> In this paper, the Chilean provinces of O'Higgins and Colchagua are examined with regard to the determinants of labour demand. A measure of rural unemployment (CH), calculated for thirty-two townships is analysed and evaluated as a planning tool. Variations in the demand for labour and the estimated levels of unemployment (CĤ) are analysed with reference to the physiographic characteristics of the townships, land use, and the system of land tenure.</p> <p> It was found that spatial distribution of the supply of labour is a function of the location of labour demand and that surplus labour tends to move toward the minifundios and the urban areas. Land use and the choice of technique appear to be strongly influenced by land tenure and access to markets in addition to being determined by land capability. The paper concludes with a discussion of the planning and policy implications of the study.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

This Project Work looks into the communicational dimension of onedevelopment strategy for rural development through tourism in rural areas ofwestern Serbia. In 2011 the regional Development agency of Uzice -‘Zlatibor’, together with the Camping Association of Serbia started a projectof mini camping sites in the rural areas of western Serbia. The aim was tomeet an unemployment issue by capacitating and empowering locals to takean active part in rural camping tourism. The purpose of this study is todetermine both strengths and weaknesses in the development project from acommunicational point of view. The methods used to gather data in thisresearch are qualitative semi structured interviews and participantobservation. The study examines the presence and/or absence of C4D in thestrategy’s planning and implementation, and considers ways in which astronger and clearer focus on C4D could lead to enhancement of the processof community-based development in the rural area and building of touristcapacities within the local community. The findings of the study indicate thatan unclear responsibility sharing between stakeholders and neglecting of thecommunicational aspect in the planning and implementation of the projectcould lead to an insufficient communication among participants. This lackingcommunication has shown to suppress the full potential of the developmentproject.

This dissertation contains three related papers. The first paper revisits the concept of integrated rural development and provides examples on how to design balanced development work programs for the Trifinio region, a small rural region shared by 3 Central American countries. Work programs should balance 3 development objectives: economic development, social development and environmental protection. Finding a balance between these 3 competing objectives is difficult. The literature of Sustainable Development recognizes that policy makers often fail to balance objectives while the Integrated Rural Development literature points out the challenges of combining the objectives in a manageable project. We argue that, by focusing on identifying sources of economic friction and by accurately measuring tradeoffs using appropriate tools, we can design sound work programs. We present a toolkit that allows policy makers to identify sources of economic friction, measure their drag on the economy, and prioritize these sources so as to reduce the frictions that slow rural development. The toolkit contains 4 tools to assist in program design and 1 for implementation. GIS and building municipal indices of outcomes, household surveys, conjoint analysis and economic field experiments, are the tools that we have applied to design work programs in the Trifinio. In addition, balanced programs must be multi-dimensional in scope so we propose a tool that focuses on the institutional setup required for successful program execution. Finally we make policy recommendations and suggest additional tools that may also be added to our tool kit. In the second paper we create municipal indices of agricultural value of production, personal consumption and poverty in the Trifinio region of Central America with the objective of using them to guide investment priorities. Our indices synthesize information from the complex economic, social and geographic system of this region. In this respect we depart from established practices of estimating indices—for outcomes such as competitiveness—that select factors and create the index by adding them up. The established practice follows a normative approach because the index results from adding factors that should have an impact on the outcome. In this context the index author does not observe the outcome or the impact of factors; and does not know the functional relationship between factors and outcome. The author assumes all the information to create indices. Our methodology follows a positive approach and departs from the established practice because we estimate the outcome and identify factors that have an impact on it. To do it we use household survey and municipal level data to estimate determinants of agricultural value of production, consumption and poverty for the 45 municipalities in the Trifinio region. We then show how to identify municipalities in greatest need, identify factors of greatest impact on the outcome, and identify complementary activities. In addition we use GIS to develop a method that allows for the "generation" of missing agricultural-related data by extrapolating high quality yet limited information from a subsection of the region to the whole. The data generated has been validated in the field by agriculture experts thus confirming the legitimacy of this innovation. Finally we offer policy recommendations. The final paper presents an economic model of group formation with an application to data collected from an agricultural credit program in western Honduras. We formulate a simple theory of group formation using the concept of centers of gravity to explain why individuals join a group. According to our theory, prospective members join based on the potential benefits and costs of group membership, and based on their perception of social distance between themselves and other group members. Social distance is unobservable by outsiders but known by the individual: if you are in then you know who has blue hair. Thus, we argue that social distance helps explain preferences for group formation. To test our theory we analyze data collected from members and non-members of PRODERT, a program that has helped create 188 "Cajas Rurales" (CRs). Using conjoint analysis we test for differences in preferences between members and non-members for the main attributes of the CR. We find that members and non-members exhibit similar preferences for the attributes of the CR; therefore non-membership is not related to supply factors. Using information gathered by executing field experiments, we estimate a proxy for social distance. We use this proxy to run a group formation equation and find that it explains, along with individual characteristics, participation in the CR. Finally we offer suggestions on how to balance performance and coverage in programs in which beneficiaries decide who joins. Small cohesive groups may show exceptional performance at the cost of low coverage, and the opposite may be true. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to examine the economic development activities at selected small, rural two-year community colleges. Specifically, the study addressed the question of how a small rural community college can effectively contribute to the economic development efforts of the community it serves. This study combined the survey and the exploratory case study methods to determine those economic development activities that small rural community colleges do emphasize in accomplishing overall community economic development. The literature on the community college's role in economic development identified 25 activities that support economic growth and development. These activities were used as the basis for the survey questionnaire. In this study, the presidents of 237 small rural colleges in 13 Southern states were asked to rate each activity as to the level of emphasis that was occurring at their institution and to ii assess the level of success for each activity. Although the major purpose of the survey was to identify small, rural community colleges with extensive economic development programs, the survey data was analyzed to provide other useful information. The survey results were used to identify four colleges with extensive economic development efforts. One college was used to conduct a pilot case study. The other three colleges were used as sites to conduct the actual case studies. Seven specific research questions were formulated to guide the case studies. These were: The findings of this study show that all three colleges operate in states where statewide initiatives exist to encourage involvement in economic development activities. At all three sites studied, there was widespread support for the colleges' economic development efforts. Each college had taken a leadership role and served as a catalyst in accomplishing certain economic development functions. The college-business connection was strong at each college. Close collaboration between each college and existing economic development organizations was evident. The college president and other key administrators had made economic development a top institutional priority. / Ed. D.

In the third world countries the regional development plans tend to be made up of sectoral components for example industry, education and agriculture. Though the government machinery does pay some attention to inter-sectoral coordination yet it is rare that anything more than superficial attention is paid to urban-rural systems, and the geographical location of the projects. Same is the case with the Baluchistan Province of Pakistan. Due to political developments in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Pakistan in general and Baluchistan in particular have assumed a special significance in the World politics. "Urban Functions in Rural Development" (UFRD) was developed under U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and applied in the study of Potosi Region in Bolivia. In this thesis we have tried to describe, in brief the concept and methodology of the spatial aspects of the regional development, and apply the UFRD concept in analyzing the Baluchistan Region. The accessibility step of this planning process is very important. It tells us the disparity among the areas in the Region and also the overall regional accessibility• So the accessibility aspect of Baluchistan has been dealt in great details and a number of trials have been done using "Applesoft Basic Package". / M.S.