Showing papers in "Journal of Rural Studies in 2017"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a systematic review of 157 papers on digital developments and rural development in advanced countries, focusing on the general conclusions, in order to better understand the potential impacts of the coming Next Generation Access revolution.

TL;DR: In this paper, the relevance of informal farmer knowledge and learning practices in constructing alternative pathways in sustainable agriculture and strengthening agricultural resilience is explored, based on 11 case studies carried out within the international RETHINK research programme.

TL;DR: The impact of extension services on poverty reduction and of cooperatives on technology adoption is significantly stronger for smallholders with access to formal credit than for those without access, implying that expanding rural financial markets can maximize the potential positive impacts of extension and cooperative services on farmers’ productivity and welfare.

TL;DR: Based on high resolution poverty data, the authors systematically examined the status quo and spatial distribution characteristics of poverty in rural China and its driving mechanism, and found that the distribution of the Chinese rural poor exhibits a distinct spatial agglomeration feature.

TL;DR: In this article, a propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR) model is used to estimate treatment effects by controlling for selection biases, and the results are augmented with qualitative data collected through group discussions made with randomly selected farmers in the study area.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that a high level of specialisation allows farmers to be technically efficient, acquire highly specific production skills and apply the latest production techniques, but it also leads specialised farms to be highly dependent on the commodity market in which they operate, increasing their economic vulnerability.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the interaction and distribution of research and extension roles of public, private, and agricultural industry organizations in precision farming innovation systems and connect findings to the broader debates on role divisions of public and private research and extensions in innovation systems.

TL;DR: In this article, a secondary data analysis using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) regional data revealed that remoteness was a strong predictor of home Internet and broadband connectivity, but digital divide was exacerbated by other socio-demographic factors such as educational levels and employment status.

TL;DR: Original analysis of data published by the UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, is presented and the implications of digital exclusion for personal and business lives in rural, and in particular remote rural, areas are demonstrated.

TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual categorisation of entrepreneurial strategy for upland agricultural businesses in rural Wales is proposed, distinguished on the basis of attitudes towards on-and off-farm income generation and on stated stance towards current and future policy grant streams.

TL;DR: This paper explored the dynamic spatiotemporal characteristics and trends of rural settlement loss and arable land depletion in the process of urban expansion, which could offer a theoretical basis and scientific support for further research of rural development and restructuring.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify which and how underlying psychological factors affect farmers' intention to diversify their agricultural production, and demonstrate the behavioral, normative and control beliefs that drive attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, respectively.

TL;DR: This paper identified two principal modes of ordering: (1) commercial-technological, in which lack of compatibility between technologies produced by different machinery manufacturers creates challenges for farmers in integrating and adapting PA to existing farming practices and systems; and (2) biophysical, where drought and low water allocations create uncertainty and a reluctance by farmers to make large capital outlays for PA technology.

TL;DR: In this article, a community resilience framework is used to critically examine the digital-rural policy agenda, and three resilience motifs are explored: resilience as multi-scalar; resilience as entailing normative assumptions; and as integrated and place-sensitive.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop the assumption that the embeddedness of social enterprises in rural communities and their ability to connect rural communities with supra-regional networks and decision makers are crucial preconditions for generating and fostering social innovation in the countryside.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors systematically explore the variety of advice providing bodies in Europe regarding organisational features, characteristics of service provision and the targeted client groups, and conclude on impacts of organisational pluralism and especially privatisation of AAS for various client groups.

TL;DR: In this paper, older people in rural communities increasingly rely on the Internet to access essential health, finance, education, and other social services, but their abilities to participate in the online...

TL;DR: It is argued that social enterprise could represent a means of tackling rural challenges of providing sustainable economic development, addressing the withdrawal of public services and promoting community cohesion and a conceptual framework is developed that helps to understand how to unlock the potential contribution of social enterprises to rural development.

TL;DR: The CURIOS (Cultural Repositories and Information Systems) project as mentioned in this paper explores two case studies in rural Scotland asking how community activity, connectivity and digital archives can support interest in local heritage as well as help develop more resilient communities.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the more encompassing notion of social-ecological resilience and contend that among the causes of this divergence are the disparate spatial and temporal scales used to assess and plan enhancing resilience.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a unique set of household-level data from the Indian state of Punjab to assess the performance and financing of dairy value chains at their upstream and found that more than half of the dairy farmers finance their dairying activities borrowing from the formal as well as informal sources.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how multi-actor governance systems are being implemented and the limiting and enabling factors involved, and identify five strategies that they interpret as responses to the challenge of reconnecting farm modernization and sustainable rural development.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that there is an opportunity to develop a more critical food scholarship by explicitly integrating political ecology approaches, and identify key avenues of convergence between food studies and political ecology frameworks that constitute three conceptual building blocks of a revised critical food scholars: understanding place-based socio-natures; addressing the politics of scale and inequality; and co-producing knowledge and change.

TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper analyzed the trend and spatial differences of rural population change and the driving forces of this process and suggested that the government should pay more attention to rural population changes and its impacts and that narrowing the regional development gap may be the most effective way to promote sustainable development of rural areas in less developed regions.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue for the need to acknowledge and access the multiple, contested meanings that are attributed to food supply chains (FSCs) over recent years and argue that producers, policy-makers and consumers are to have the cognitive tools to enable them to make informed decisions about the broader impacts of the different FSCs they engage with.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an analysis of focus groups and interviews to showcase gendered vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers to climate change, revealing that both climate change and conflict significantly increase smallholder vulnerability, resulting in loss of livelihoods, financial assets, agricultural yield and the worsening of debt problems.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore aspects, dynamics and experiences of the crisis in the Greek countryside and investigate experiences and strategies to deal with the crisis, in the framework of work and family and in the context of discourses on rural resilience.

TL;DR: In this paper, a method for understanding the geographic patterns of local food supply chains in relation to the social networks formed through farm tours, byproduct sales, farm-to-farm collaboration, and donations to the local food bank is proposed.