Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104288
Karolina Parding, Emma Lundholm, Birgit Abelsen, Grete Overvåg
{"title":"Attracting, recruiting and retaining residents and staff – a systematic literature review of studies in northern Sweden, Finland and Norway","authors":"Karolina Parding, Emma Lundholm, Birgit Abelsen, Grete Overvåg","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper is based on a systematic literature review, with the aim of identifying and discussing what previous research says regarding strategies local, regional and national actors have, to attract, recruit and retain residents and staff to the north of Sweden, Finland and Norway. Being geographically peripheral, grappling with a demographic challenge; with an aging and declining population, at the same time as there are increased work force needs due to the green transition and the changed military presence in the area, this is a clear case of a region with severe skills-supply issues.</div><div>A main finding is that the literature is rather limited, only 21 publications of relevance were identified. Three key themes emerged: attracting, recruiting and retaining staff (and residents) in the healthcare sector, immigration as strategy for attracting, recruiting, and retaining residents and staff, and regional and municipal development strategies. Rather few studies examine specific strategies, and even fewer their outcomes. One exception is research on the healthcare sector specifically, where it is found that connecting individuals as early as possible, via initiatives such as internship and decentralized education and training, along with offering good conditions for learning and professional development are key aspects in sustainable strategies for attracting, recruiting and retaining medical staff and residents to work and live in the rural north. Still, more studies are needed, on different levels, where the outcomes of specific strategies are examined. Such studies would contribute with much needed basis for policy makers in making evidence-based decisions regarding staff recruitment and retention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104288"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854769","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-29DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104380
Jonas Kačkus Tybjerg, Nicola Wendt-Lucas, Tove Lundberg, Rebecca Cavicchia, Hilma Salonen, Maja Brynteson, Sæunn Gísladóttir, Hjalti Jóhannesson, Linnea Löfving
{"title":"Piloting Nordic connectivity: Examining perspectives on the potential of electric aviation to enhance accessibility and socio-economic development in Nordic remote rural regions","authors":"Jonas Kačkus Tybjerg, Nicola Wendt-Lucas, Tove Lundberg, Rebecca Cavicchia, Hilma Salonen, Maja Brynteson, Sæunn Gísladóttir, Hjalti Jóhannesson, Linnea Löfving","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104380","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104380","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lack of accessibility is both a defining characteristic and a key obstacle for the development of remote rural areas. In the Nordic context, challenging travel conditions have reinforced the need for new, sustainable transport solutions. This article explores the perceived potential of electric aviation as an environmentally low-impact and innovative way to improve accessibility and thereby strengthen the socio-economic development of remote regions. The study applies an analytical framework on accessibility components to explore how electric aviation could strengthen remote rural areas in the Nordic countries. The study adopts a qualitative approach exploring five case studies, selected through a pre-study to identify which routes in the Nordic region would benefit the most from the introduction of electric aviation. These case studies draw on focus group discussions with local stakeholders and aviation experts from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The study offers an analytical contribution by suggesting an additional dimension to Geurs and van Wee's accessibility component model highlighting the importance of energy infrastructure to better understand and support the green shift in the transport sector. Stakeholders perceived electric aviation as a possible contributor to regional development, but only under restrictive conditions relating to affordability, service frequency, integration with local transport, public trust, and energy infrastructure. The study highlights both the promises and challenges of electric aviation and its perceived potential impact on regional development trajectories in sectors including tourism and healthcare as well as the design of sustainable and context-sensitive transport policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104380"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854909","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104388
Joni Kukkamäki, Laura Rosenberg, Jenni Valorinta, Emma Salminen, Iivari Kunttu
{"title":"Bridging intuition and digitalization: Decision-making in regenerative agriculture","authors":"Joni Kukkamäki, Laura Rosenberg, Jenni Valorinta, Emma Salminen, Iivari Kunttu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104388","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104388","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and regenerative farming have emerged as complementary approaches to addressing the environmental, economic, and social challenges posed by climate change. While CSA emphasizes productivity, resilience, and emissions reduction, regenerative agriculture focuses on ecological restoration, particularly soil health. This study investigates how regenerative farmers integrate intuitive reasoning with data-driven methods in their decision-making and identifies the key drivers and barriers to adopting digital tools. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the research reveals that intuitive decision-making—rooted in experiential knowledge, situational awareness, and ecological sensitivity—remains central to farm management in regenerative systems. Although digital technologies offer valuable support, their adoption is shaped by usability, interoperability, and alignment with farmers' values and regulatory requirements. The findings challenge the assumption that data-driven approaches replace traditional intuition, instead highlighting how digital tools can complement and refine intuitive strategies. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of designing decision-support systems that respect the epistemological foundations of regenerative farming, including indigenous and traditional knowledge systems. By bridging intuitive and analytical reasoning, digitalisation can enhance adaptive capacity and environmental outcomes without undermining farmers’ experiential expertise. This research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable agriculture by offering nuanced insights into the interplay between intuition and technology in farm-level decision-making.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104388"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854770","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-31DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104383
Sarah Belalia, Hadrien Di Roberto
{"title":"Beyond the forest: Land-use transitions and the futures of cocoa in post-forest Côte d’Ivoire","authors":"Sarah Belalia, Hadrien Di Roberto","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104383","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104383","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Côte d’Ivoire offers an emblematic case of post-forest transition: the world's leading cocoa producer is facing the exhaustion of forest resources that historically supported its agricultural development, raising questions about its economic resilience and the broader risks of frontier displacement. This turning point is particularly significant, as concerns about imported deforestation have prompted the development of traceability schemes whose impacts remain modest. In this context, Côte d’Ivoire's capacity to shift from a “plantation economy” to a “replantation economy” becomes critical not only for its own development, but for the future of truly zero-deforestation cocoa. Combining qualitative and quantitative data from 279 farms and 1163 agricultural plots, this study reconstructs land-use transitions across three illustrative sites in Côte d’Ivoire's main cocoa regions, based on farmer-reported plot histories and triangulated with field observations. This bottom-up approach allows a fine-grained analysis of crop succession dynamics that remain largely invisible to remote sensing. Our findings show that, contrary to expectations, cocoa has not collapsed following forest exhaustion, but is instead undergoing contrasting reconfigurations, shaped by local and global drivers. These differentiated adaptation pathways challenge simple Malthusian–Boserupian narratives and highlight contrasting longer-term outcomes for cocoa renewal, agricultural landscapes, and rural resilience. This calls for a reorientation of current approaches to cocoa sustainability, toward greater attention to context-specific transitions and dynamic farm-level strategies, rather than short-term plot productivity. Drawing on the illustrative case of cocoa, our analysis also contributes to the broader understanding of agrarian transitions following the end of pioneer phase in plantation economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104383"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148952344","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}
Machteld Catharina Simoens, Caroline Hélène Dabard, Jonathan Friedrich, Juan Garzon, Felix Zoll
{"title":"Cultivating social innovation for agri-food sustainability transformations: a literature review","authors":"Machteld Catharina Simoens, Caroline Hélène Dabard, Jonathan Friedrich, Juan Garzon, Felix Zoll","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104387","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This scoping literature review focuses on the operation and orientation of social innovations (SI) in agri-food systems, in order to understand their role in sustainability transformations. Its main objective is to analyze and synthesize the types of cases studied in SI literature, with a specific focus on what is reported regarding their characteristics, how they form relations, the societal problems they respond to and their contributions to transformation processes. The review is based on 86 empirical English articles published in Scopus and Web of Science between 2013 and 2023, covering 168 empirical SI cases. The data reveal limited geographical variation and a Eurocentric focus in the study of SI, but diverse spatial and operational foci of SI cases. We identify seven SI types: community food networks, food equity initiatives, capacity-building programs, agri-cooperatives, social agri-enterprises, agri-environmental initiatives, and tech-driven agri-services. These often-localized solutions address different internal and external relations, aim to respond to a variety of societal needs and problems, and are rhetorically linked to transformations of various kinds. In addition to providing insights into key trends in the operation and orientation of SI, this analysis contributes to the discussion on the transformative potential of SI, including the ambivalent role of strong ties between SI and the state. Furthermore, this study identifies potential research avenues for the study of SI in agriculture and food with a particular focus on rural places. In particular, we call for reflexivity in researchers' normative assumptions, more rigorous reporting of relations and transformative contributions, and more systematic approaches to better integrate findings across SI cases as well as with adjacent concepts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104387"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148952345","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":"Market outlet choice, crop diversification and household welfare: Empirical evidence from Ghana","authors":"Ebenezer Kondo, Freda Elikplim Asem, Yaw Bonsu Osei-Asare, Akwasi Mensah-Bonsu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104390","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104390","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Market outlet choice is a critical strategy adopted by farm households to enhance their welfare through improved crop revenue, food security, and overall living standards. This study leverages the wave 3 cross-sectional data of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey to examine the impact of market outlet choice on crop diversification, per capita household consumption expenditure, and food consumption score. To account for endogeneity and address the potential problem of self-selection bias associated with the random participation in a given market outlet, the multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model was used for the estimation. The results indicate that participation in the consumer-based, institutional and contract-based, and intermediary and wholesale-based market outlets increases the count of diversified crops by 22%, 13%, and 34%, respectively. Food consumption score and per capita household consumption expenditure are higher among participants in all market outlets relative to non-participants, with participation in the intermediary and wholesale-based market outlets resulting in the largest welfare gains. Gender disaggregated findings show that female-headed farm households benefit more from market outlet participation, with increased crop diversification and food consumption score. Policy efforts should prioritise reducing transaction costs through investments in rural infrastructure, strengthening farmer organisations and promoting gender-sensitive market interventions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104390"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854564","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104360
Christine Niens, Susanne Padel, Zazie v. Davier
{"title":"Burnout among female farmers and farm workers in Germany - Results of an online cross-sectional survey","authors":"Christine Niens, Susanne Padel, Zazie v. Davier","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104360","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104360","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The mental health of farmers has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. While studies are available in many European and non-European countries, there is a lack of corresponding data in Germany. This study therefore examines the prevalence of burnout among women on farms in Germany and the relationship to various, partly gender-specific, risk factors. The study uses data of an online survey of 7345 women that was conducted in 2021. The risk of burnout was measured using the “Personal Burnout Scale” of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). The results show that 21.5% of women on farms in Germany represented in this sample suffer from burnout, with non-family employees without management functions showing a particularly high burnout rate of 27%. The strongest associations with the CBI Burnout Score were observed for self-rated general health status, stress related to household and farm work, lack of free time, and family and generational conflicts. However, the comparability of the present results with previous studies is unclear due to the potential influence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of data collection. It cannot be ruled out that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as isolation, fear of illness, and financial uncertainty, may have biased the data. Nevertheless, the study is the first Germany-wide survey of the prevalence of burnout among women in agriculture, and therefore offers initial important insights into a previously under-researched topic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104360"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854908","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-23DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104384
Xuhong Li, Yuanzhi Guo
{"title":"Beyond the factor-driven paradigm: Spatiotemporal dynamics and system coupling of agricultural transition in Henan Province, China","authors":"Xuhong Li, Yuanzhi Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104384","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104384","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The core of agricultural transition lies in changes to the various components of the agricultural systems and their interactions. Drawing on the social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) framework, this study developed an “element coupling–external manifestation” analytical framework and a corresponding evaluation index system for agricultural transition. Using county-level data from Henan Province spanning 1990 to 2020, this study further examined the spatiotemporal patterns of agricultural transition in Henan Province and identified its key influencing factors through the XGBoost-SHAP and GTWR models. The results show that the average agricultural transition index rose steadily from 0.280 in 1990 to 0.565 in 2020, while regional disparities narrowed. During the study period, the spatial pattern of agricultural transition has shifted from a “higher in the north and lower in the south” model to one featured by multi-point diffusion and cluster-based development, with hypervariable density emerging as the primary source of overall inequality. Government macro-control capability and economic development level are the two factors most strongly associated with agricultural transition, collectively accounting for 63.3% of the total contribution. Both exhibited a U-shaped relationship, and all factors demonstrated significant nonlinearity and spatiotemporal non-stationarity, with government macro-control capability being particularly prominent. By establishing a SETS-based analytical paradigm, this study redefines agricultural transition as a coupling process within the SETS framework and provides theoretical and empirical insights into the diversity of its pathway as well as the nonlinearity and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of its influencing factors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104384"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854958","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104382
Haohui Cai
{"title":"Following and untangling multiple metabolisms of Chinese beekeeping","authors":"Haohui Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104382","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104382","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper traces the multiple metabolisms in Chinese apiculture through three ethnographic stories, adopting the orienting practices of following material flows and untangling metabolic knots. The first story analyses the Langstroth beehive as an animal infrastructure that renders honeybees as metabolic labour. The second follows the flow of honey back to nectar – a metabolic output of flowers – to examine the intimate metabolic relations among insects, flowers and weather. The last story addresses the metabolic disruptions caused by pesticides used on lychee trees, reflecting the complex interactions between lives and materials, as well as lychee growers and nomadic beekeepers. Acknowledging the profound and universal interconnectedness of these metabolisms, the paper argues that achieving metabolic justice requires developing careful attentiveness to metabolic multiplicity while confronting the situated conflicts over diverse metabolic care practices and the hidden structural challenges of Chinese smallholder farmers’ precarious livelihood. Ultimately, metabolic justice must confront the uneven material-social politics affecting both human and more-than-human actants marginalised in contemporary food regimes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104382"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148854771","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}
Journal of Rural StudiesPub Date : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-06-13DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104160
Ananya Karol Rao
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Claiming land in heterogenous bureaucracies: The daily labor and decadal cycles of land rights movements in Karnataka, India” [J. Rural Stud. 122, Feb 2026, 104003]","authors":"Ananya Karol Rao","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104160","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104160","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104160"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148642123","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}