Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges: Transformation in Rural Space

318 Pages·2019·9.55 MB·English

by  Walter Leimgruber

Perspectives on Geographical Marginality
Walter Leimgruber
Chang-yi David Chang Editors
Rural Areas
Between Regional
Needs and Global
Challenges
Transformation in Rural Space
Perspectives on Geographical Marginality
Volume 4
Series editors
Walter Leimgruber, Fribourg, Switzerland
Etienne Nel, Dunedin, New Zealand
Stanko Pelc, Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia
This book series Perspectives on Geographical Marginality comprehensively
overviews research, on areas and communities impacted by processes of
marginalization as a result of globalization, economic, environmental, political
andsocialchange. Thisseriesseeks todiscussanddeterminewhat isgeographical
marginality by inviting leading international experts to publish theoretical and
appliedwork.Italsoseekstorigorouslydebatethedegreetowhichlocalareasand
communities are responding to these process of change and with what success.
The series stems from the International Geographical Union’s (IGU),
‘Commission on Globalization, Marginalization, and Regional and Local
Response’ (C12.29). As is suggested by its name, the commission researches the
problem of geographical marginality offering a leading forum from which this
series will be led. Marginality cannot be defined without putting it into a certain
perspective: economic, political and social (including cultural). Marginality has to
be clearly distinguished from peripherality. Marginal areas may be a part of
periphery or even the centre, but “cannot really be attributed to them”.
Proposed themes which will be covered include:
(cid:129) Mountainous regions and globalization;
(cid:129) Regional development and policy/or: Globalization and its impact on local and
regional development;
(cid:129) Theory of marginalization;
(cid:129) Transformation of rural areas from the viewpoint of globalization and
marginalization;
(cid:129) Drivers of marginalization in border and peripheral areas.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15046
Walter Leimgruber Chang-yi David Chang
(cid:129)
Editors
Rural Areas Between
Regional Needs and Global
Challenges
Transformation in Rural Space
123
Editors
Walter Leimgruber Chang-yiDavid Chang
Department ofGeosciences, Dharma DrumInstitute of Liberal Arts
GeographyUnit NewTaipei City,Taiwan
University of Fribourg
Fribourg, Switzerland
ISSN 2367-0002 ISSN 2367-0010 (electronic)
Perspectives onGeographical Marginality
ISBN978-3-030-04392-6 ISBN978-3-030-04393-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018961721
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Preface
The rapid process of urbanization with an increasing concentration of populations,
and the resulting loss of land and the many threats to rural environment justify to
focus on people, processes and contributions to mankind in the rural areas. It is
fromthecountrysidethatwestillobtainmostofourfood(despitethecontributions
by urban agriculture, important on the local but irrelevant on the global scale), get
electricenergy,andregenerateourphysicalandpsychicforcesthroughallkindsof
leisure activities. Inrecent years, rural space has also become a popularresidential
destination for urban dwellers who are seeking peace and quiet in a quasi-natural
environment, who may even be seeking their roots because their parents or
grandparents had left the countryside to follow the appeal of the town.
For a long time, rural areas and their population led a marginal life and in
popularperceptionwerebackwardregionswhoseonlybenefitlayinthereservoirof
young people that would eventually migrate to cities. It is not quite clear what
brought about a change in attitude. The economic boom in the second half of the
twentieth century was characterized by a considerable drain of people and
resources. Industrial agriculture transformed large swathes of land into schematic
landscapes where any ‘disturbing’ elements (small streams, hedges, individual old
trees, etc.) were eliminated to make way for a rational cultivation of fields. The
indiscriminateapplicationofsyntheticfertilizersandallkindsofpesticidesresulted
inasteadydegradationoftheenvironment:soilsbecamecontaminated,thewildlife
disappeared, and both surface and groundwater became gradually polluted.
However,wehavebecomeawareoftheseproblems,andthingsbegantochange
in the last decades of the twentieth century. It has been the work of the scientific
community as well as of many NGOs active in nature protection that managed to
influence public perception. Rural areas have gradually obtained a more positive
image, as spaces of production as well as of residence for exurbanites. The eco-
logical movement has gained ground, and insight into the environmental damages
and their long-term consequences has reached politics. The renaturation of rivers
and small streams, the replanting of hedges in the fields, and reforestations across
the world are the visible signs of a change in attitude. Also, agriculture is under-
goingavalueshift,frompurelyexploitativetocaringthroughfarminginharmony
v
vi Preface
withnature.Ruralspaceandnaturearenolongerseenasplayingamarginalrolein
our society but have become the centre of attention.
This volume illustrates the many facets of rural space: people, processes,
products and perspectives. It is built on previously unpublished papers originally
delivered during a number of conferences of the IGU Commission on
Globalization, Marginalization and Regional and Local Response. They contain
materials from original field research and have been revised and updated. A few
cases include longer term observations that allow us to observe certain processes
based on well-defined data over a certain time.
We would like to thank all authors for their efforts to prepare their manuscripts
for this publication, and the staff at Springer for their excellent work in publishing
this book.
Fribourg, Switzerland Walter Leimgruber
New Taipei City, Taiwan Chang-yi David Chang
Contents
Part I Introduction
1 Rural Space Between Marginality and Centrality. Approaches
to Marginality Issues in Rural Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Walter Leimgruber and Chang-yi David Chang
Part II People
2 Impact of Rural Restructuring on the Time-Space Behavioural
Patterns in a Marginal Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Vladimír Ira
3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital: A Case Study
of Peripheral and Rural Microregions in Czechia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Miroslav Marada, Pavel Chromý, Vít Jančák, Tomáš Havlíček
and Jan Pileček
4 Rural Labour Markets and Peripherization Processes
in Poland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Krystian Heffner
5 The Role of Identity in Community Activities of Marginal
Rural Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Hayeong Jeong, Kakuya Matsushima and Kiyoshi Kobayashi
6 Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion in the
DevelopmentDiscourse:CaseStudiesofMicrofinanceOperations
in Rural Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ai Sugie
vii
viii Contents
Part III Transformation Processes
7 Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Lâm Đồng
Province, Vietnam: Adaptation or Marginalisation
for Ethnic Minorities?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Steve Déry, Maëva Lucas and Louis Boisclair
8 The Influence of Globalization to Overcome Marginality
in the Uco Valley of Mendoza, Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Margarita Schmidt and Claudio Urra Coletti
9 Advances in Marginality Studies in Southern Mendoza,
Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
María Eugenia Cepparo
10 Demographic and Economic Change in Small Towns
in New Zealand and the Responses to Marginalisation. . . . . . . . . . 177
Etienne Nel and Teresa Stevenson
Part IV Primary Activities
11 An Alternative Agricultural Space in an Indigenous
Community: Kalala, Taiwan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Chiung-Wen Chang
12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability
of More Advanced Forestry Regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Yasutaka Matsuo
13 Urban Agriculture in Zambia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Tony Binns and Etienne Nel
Part V Towards a Multifunctional Rural Space
14 The Role of Traditional Handicrafts in the Development
of Rural Areas: The Case of Ribnica, Slovenia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Kristjan Nemac and Stanko Pelc
15 Wind Farms in Champagne-Ardenne Region, an Assessment
of the Acceptability and Local Governance Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Céline Burger
Contents ix
16 Protected Areas and the Integration Process of Mountainous
AreasinMainlandSoutheastAsia:TheCaseofLuangNamTha,
Lao PDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Steve Déry, Lucie Dubé and Bakham Chanthavong
Part VI Conclusion
17 Perspectives of Rural Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Chang-yi David Chang and Walter Leimgruber