Revitalising rural areas through counterurbanisation: Community-oriented policies for the settlement of urban newcomers

IF 6.5 1区 经济学 Q1 DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Simona Zollet , Meng Qu
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Abstract

Rural communities throughout Japan, especially in the most peripheral regions, are experiencing rapid demographic, socio-economic, and environmental decline, with many facing the possibility of vanishing in the coming decades. To address these issues, the Japanese government has implemented various policy initiatives aimed at rural revitalisation, some of which focus on attracting newcomers to depopulating rural communities and encouraging counterurbanisation. The relocation of urban residents is therefore considered essential to the regeneration of rural and peripheral areas. This paper examines the characteristics and practical implementation of the chiiki okoshi kyouryoukutai (Local Revitalisation Cooperator, LRC) initiative, a well-established national level policy that supports rural revitalisation through counterurbanisation. The initiative offers aspiring urban in-migrants a salary and housing for up to three years, while also requiring them to engage in community-oriented and entrepreneurial activities. The study uses secondary and qualitative primary data to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of LRC members and the successes and challenges of the initiative in meeting its two key policy objectives, namely the settlement of newcomers and the development of local entrepreneurship. The results contribute to our understanding of contemporary urban-to-rural mobilities in Japan, particularly the way counterurbanisation is normatively framed as a process that should benefit both in-migrants and receiving communities. We conclude by delineating the broader potential of this kind of initiative as a rural revitalisation instrument that can be flexibly tailored to the needs of each community and that can facilitate newcomers’ integration. Concurrently, we also raise questions about the degree of success of the policy, particularly regarding its effectiveness in stimulating entrepreneurship and retaining newcomers in the long term.

通过逆城市化振兴农村地区:以社区为导向的城市新移民安置政策
日本各地的农村社区,尤其是最边缘地区的农村社区,正经历着人口、社会经济和环境的快速衰退,许多社区在未来几十年内有可能消失。为了解决这些问题,日本政府实施了各种旨在振兴农村的政策措施,其中一些措施的重点是吸引新移民进入人口减少的农村社区,鼓励逆城市化。因此,城市居民的搬迁被认为是农村和周边地区复兴的关键。本文探讨了 "地方振兴合作者"(chiiki okoshi kyouryoukutai,LRC)倡议的特点和实际实施情况。该倡议为有抱负的城市移民提供长达三年的工资和住房,同时还要求他们参与以社区为导向的创业活动。本研究利用二手和定性原始数据,考察了土地改革委员会成员的社会人口特征,以及该倡议在实现其两个关键政策目标(即安置新移民和发展当地创业精神)方面的成功经验和挑战。研究结果有助于我们理解日本当代城市向农村的流动,特别是逆城市化如何被规范地描述为一个既有利于新移民也有利于接收社区的过程。最后,我们描述了此类举措作为乡村振兴工具的广泛潜力,它可以根据每个社区的需求灵活定制,并能促进新移民的融入。同时,我们也对该政策的成功程度提出了疑问,特别是其在刺激创业和长期留住新移民方面的有效性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
10.50
自引率
10.30%
发文量
151
审稿时长
38 days
期刊介绍: Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.
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