Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"title":"Farm-level acceptability of contract attributes in agri-environment-climate measures for biodiversity conservation","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103448","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103448","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Farmers are key to preserving and restoring semi-natural pastures (SNPs) while maintaining their environmental and cultural significance. To support these efforts, it is essential to create favorable conditions that encourages voluntary participation of farmers in agri-environment-climate measures (AECM) for SNP management. This study aims to assess acceptability of contract attributes within AECM for SNP management at the farm-level, including supported activity, payment, inspection, and sanction. Using a qualitative document analysis on data from semi-structured interviews, scientific literature, and policy documents, this study provides insights into farmers' perceptions of how these attributes affect effective implementation, along with recommendations for alternative solutions, and the potential of the Strategic Plan (SP) 2023–27. Results highlight concerns with current AECM, such as: i) misunderstandings between authorities and farmers on stipulated practices and conflicts with other regulations; ii) growing importance and reliance on payments; iii) apprehensions concerning potential interactions with unfavorable inspectors and punitive financial measures. Farmers expressed a strong desire for increased management flexibility, underscoring its significance over stringent contract attributes, and convey a need for improved communication with authorities. The SP 2023-27 offers an opportunity for improvements, mainly through administrative modifications via service digitalisation. As such, the results contribute to governance debates linked to contractual design and have implications for policy effectiveness, addressing both the appropriateness of AECM as a policy instrument and the capacity of governmental agencies to implement them effectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is Australia's urban-regional schism on climate reality or rhetoric?","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103446","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103446","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research and popular discourse have not settled on whether there exists an urban-regional divide on climate. In Australia, we observe rhetoric in the public sphere suggesting such a divide. In this paper we examine whether the urban-regional schism on climate reflects the reality of Australians' opinions on climate change. We conducted a quota survey of the Australian population (N = 2,952) and measured opinion across seven climate and seven social issues. We found limited evidence of an urban-regional divide on climate change and most social issues. However, urban and regional Australians’ attitudes differed on one item: perception of difference between urban and regional people. We suggest that urban-regional divide rhetoric may appeal to rural <em>identifying</em> people, not regional residents per se. We also identified the role of media habits: consumption of ABC (the national broadcaster) or Sky News (News Corp subscription channel) are significant predictors of climate opinion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the institutional factors in mitigating rural gentrification-led displacement: The case of Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou, China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103441","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103441","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Displacement remains a critical issue in global gentrification research, highlighting class tensions and social injustices. While recent literature has increasingly examined gentrification-led displacement, particularly in rural settings, the experiences of rural China in managing displacement have received comparatively limited attention. This paper offers two primary contributions. First, it proposes an institutional factors-based understanding to elucidate the distinctive nature of gentrification-led displacement in rural China. Second, it explores the mitigating effects and mechanisms of formal and informal institutional factors based on the analysis of the case of Xiaozhou Village. Our study finds that: 1) Formal institutional factors, including laws, regulations, planning documents, and legal titles, provide a bottom-line guarantee for villagers, mitigating spatial and economic displacement pressures. 2) Informal clan-based institutional factors mitigate sociocultural displacement pressure by reinforcing shared consensus, behavioral norms, and self-imposed codes of conduct. 3) The mitigation of direct displacement is attributed to the cooperation between these institutional factors, enabling villagers to return to their communities and rebuild their homes. These structural experiences offer valuable insights that can be flexibly integrated into the global anti-gentrification movement, advancing the theoretical understanding and practical management of rural gentrification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the ‘gender gap’ in agriculture: Africa's Green Revolution and gendered rural transformation in Rwanda","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103444","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103444","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The African Green Revolution (AGR) aims to modernize, intensify, and commercialize agriculture through increasing technology adoption by smallholder farmers. AGR interventions also promote gender equality, aiming to close the ‘gender gap’ in agriculture by enhancing women's access to purchased inputs, technology, land, and finance. With an empirical focus on Rwanda, this article examines the gendered implications of the AGR. We critically reflect on the notion of gender gaps and the associated tendency of development research to treat gender as a variable, assessing outcomes for male-headed versus female-headed households in terms of their access to material assets. We argue that these assessments overlook (1) the differential impacts of AGR policies within households and (2) how agricultural modernization influences gendered access to material resources as well as immaterial responsibilities, norms, and identities. Our findings from a mixed-methods study with four Rwandan communities show how the AGR empowers men as ‘modern’ farmers while marginalizing women's agricultural spaces, labor, and crops. We argue that development research and practice should move beyond the narrow focus on gender gaps to additionally consider how technologies and policies are themselves gendered in ways that can constrict food security, entrench inequitable power dynamics, and further marginalize women.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The potential of local online shopping platforms for villages and small and medium-sized towns","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103422","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103422","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For decades, many rural areas and small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) have struggled with a declining number of retailers and shops. While it was argued that digitalisation can help businesses to counteract the rural penalty, little empirical evidence has been collected so far. With this study, we shed a light on the possibilities and limitations of local online shopping platforms to foster the local retail economy by digital means in the rural and SMST context by studying three initiatives in different European countries. Interviews with platform managers and participating businesses, together with the analysis of accompanying documents and a comparative content analysis of the websites, provide in-depth insights into the development and functioning of these online initiatives. The study shows that the platforms increased the options for selling beyond the region and helped businesses to go online as well. However, the small scale of the platforms demands high personal and financial commitment to succeed in the long term. The study also demonstrates the importance of place-specific conditions (online-place dependency) such as existing local and regional networks and spatial determinants like the remoteness of potential customers or the diversity of local shops. Based on these findings, we present an overview of the opportunities and obstacles of local online shopping platforms in the rural and SMST context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Farmers’ limited perceptions of the role of ecological processes in crop production, a potential obstacle to agroecological transition","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Industrialized agriculture has strong impacts on ecosystem functioning. However, despite public policies, incentives and scientific warnings, intensive agriculture remains the main model. Agroecology, as a way to produce food while relying on ecological processes and reducing negative externalities, is considered as a sustainable alternative. The literature on agroecological transitions increasingly focuses on the perceptions that farmers have of ecological processes, supposing that the more farmers perceive the interests of ecological processes for production, the more they will implement sustainable farming practices. In this research, we tested the hypothesis that an obstacle to an agroecological transition is that farmers have little awareness of the reliance of food production on the natural functions of ecosystems. We thus address three issues in this article: first, the weight farmers gave to ecological processes in farming production itself; second, the roles of on-farm experiments (OFEs) or agri-environmental schemes (AESs) as drivers of this perception of ecological processes; and third, the links between the perception of ecological processes and the definitions of agroecology given by farmers. We interviewed 78 farmers representative of an intensive cereal plain in western France about what they perceive as drivers of crop production and of soil fertility and the links they perceived between hedges and crop production. Our results show that farmers perceive climate, inputs and technical aspects of crop production as more important drivers of crop yields than ecological processes. By contrast in non-productive areas of the farm, the perception of the importance of ecological processes was greater for questions relating to hedges. A redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that AESs rather than OFEs positively affected farmers' perceptions of ecological processes in sustaining farming. Nevertheless, despite the fact that half of the farmers related agroecology to benefits in ecosystem functioning, they had limited perceptions of the positive role of ecological processes in sustaining farming. Our study therefore supports our hypothesis that limited perceptions of the role of ecosystem functions in farming could be an obstacle to an agroecological transition, as agroecology and ecological processes are seen as beneficial for ecosystems but not for farming production. Our study also suggests that open-ended and indirect questions rather than direct methodologies can bring new insights to our understanding of farmers’ perceptions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Examining farmers’ motivations to engage in low-carbon agricultural practices: A study of New Zealand dairy farmers","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103440","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103440","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dairy farmers contribute to a quarter of New Zealand's total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), making them a critical constituency to meet the emissions targets in the country's net zero 2050 legislation. Understanding the motivations behind dairy farmers' intentions is imperative to effect the behavioural change needed to curb the country's emissions from dairy production. Using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand behavioural change, a qualitative thematic analysis of interview data from New Zealand dairy farmers reveals there is a weak intention to adopt practices to reduce GHG emissions. While farmers appear to be intrinsically motivated to be good stewards of the environment, financial viability remains as their primary concern. Despite considerable societal pressure to reduce the environmental impact of dairy farming, farmers feel there are few options to implement practices to reduce GHG emissions and limited knowledge, expertise, modelled normative behaviours, or financial support. Based on our findings, we develop a set of recommendations for policy and practice to more effectively steer New Zealand dairy farming towards a low-carbon mode of operating. We contribute to the extant literature in three distinct ways. Empirically, we contribute by identifying the factors that underpin farmer decision-making in relation to low-carbon practices. Theoretically, our findings help to refine TPB theorizing by demonstrating how the promise of future technology to solve environmental problems limits motivation and intentionality in the present. Finally, we contribute by adding to the limited body of qualitative research centred on the theory of planned behaviour.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"National and local political discourses of rural in-migration in Japan","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper analyses the political discourses around depopulation and policy measures to encourage in-migration from urban to rural areas in Japan. Based on policy texts, national party manifestos, and mayoral candidate manifestos, the paper applies mixed methods to illuminate how depopulation and in-migration is framed and debated at both national and local levels. The dominant frame at national level assumes non-Tokyo “regions”, chiefly depopulating rural areas, as having both potential and responsibility to revive demographically and economically. It claims that these rural areas tend to be more conducive to young families seeking to raise children and must play an important role in slowing or even reversing Japan's population decline. These assumptions are largely unchallenged by opposition parties, aside from the communists, at national level and echoed by most mayoral candidates at local level. Few voices provide alternatives frames or challenge the claim that only with population growth can regions thrive. The framing of Japan's state-led promotion of rural in-migration is found to differ from political discourses around rural issues identified in comparative literature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Urban–rural migration in Germany: A decision in favour of ‘the rural’ or against ‘the urban’?","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103431","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103431","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For many years, the debate on internal migration in Germany focused on rural out-migration. Since the early 2000s, large cities have had positive migration balances. Almost unnoticed, however, in the early 2010s the patterns of internal migration started to shift towards rural locations. It was only the COVID-19 pandemic that drew attention to these changing tendencies and the apparent new appreciation of rural living.</div><div>In this paper, we will first shed light on the changes in internal migration between 2000 and 2021. We divide this period into three phases and show that the overall pattern of population centralisation transformed into a process of decentralisation. This trend further intensified during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, based on a German-wide population survey, we present findings on the reasons why households moved from urban to rural areas between mid-2015 and mid-2020, with personal, employment-related and housing-related reasons being the most relevant. To better understand urban-rural migration (or ‘counterurbanisation’), we pay particular attention to how respondents experienced cities and urban housing markets and which residential characteristics they ascribed to the rural destination. We show that urban-rural migration is a multifaceted decision in which the structural impediments of urban housing markets lacking affordable housing play a relevant part. In conclusion, we argue that research on urban-rural migration needs to more systematically pursue the idea of a complex and contingent decision that is driven by both structural factors and personal preferences. Extending the long-standing counterurbanisation debate beyond a mere residential choice for ‘the rural’ is all the more important to adequately interpret future findings on post-pandemic patterns of internal migration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142356902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forest machine entrepreneurs’ emotional bonds and conflicts in the forestry transition in Finland","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103443","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103443","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainability transitions’ entanglements with the environment, the economy, and society can become manifest in challenges faced by groups with emotional attachments to place. This article examines how emotions contribute to conflict during sustainability transitions among forest machine entrepreneurs, a group of forest professionals whose livelihood is at the center of the ongoing forestry transition in Finland. The study is based on 24 interviews that reveal three ways in which emotions construct conflicts: place attachment and continuity are challenged by decreasing feelings of being appreciated and recognized; the feeling that rural lifestyles are being left behind by comparison with urban areas causes sadness and anger; and pride and traditional forestry knowledge imply distrust of scientific forest information. These results demonstrate that emotions arising from a group-specific place attachment contribute to conflict by acting as a source for diverging views, escalating and maintaining existing conflicts, and by influencing information-processing. The article draws attention to a forestry livelihood and rural, group-specific emotional challenges in the era of sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142426506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}