Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"title":"Impact of COVID mobility measures on the financial performance of small business in rural areas of Spain","authors":"David Peón ,&nbsp;Vik Singh ,&nbsp;Jorge Rodríguez-Álvarez","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103687","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103687","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The COVID-19 pandemic impacted public health and the economy, precipitating measures such as lockdowns and mobility restrictions that have profoundly affected businesses and employment. To assess the impact of these restrictions on the financial performance of micro and small firms in rural areas, we draw upon official Spanish population mobility statistics from 2019 to 2021. Our research is motivated by the pandemic's uneven economic burden and expected lasting changes in consumer and business behaviour. Our findings reveal a notable shift in population retention patterns within rural areas, which were able to retain more daily population not only during the pandemic, but also post-pandemic. We observe four distinct impacts on the financial performance of rural enterprises. First, industries oriented to local demand, such as real estate and hospitality, were hit particularly hard in 2020. Second, population retention in rural areas helped firms in these industries to perform better in terms of revenues and employment, while demand-driven positive impacts led by population retention are not translated into profitability. Third, firms in industries that may easily resort to digital work environments suffered less the impact of COVID-19 both in terms of revenues and employment. Fourth, firms in industries where employment adjustment is difficult to achieve show a clear negative impact in terms of labour productivity. This research addresses a gap in understanding the pandemic's effects on rural small firms and offers insights to inform targeted policy interventions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103687"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143876648","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":"Crop booms at subtropic frontiers: smallholder coffee production and agrarian change in Southwest China","authors":"Jun He ,&nbsp;Siyun Xiong ,&nbsp;Zoe Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural China is undergoing dramatic transformation along with modernization and globalization, driven by increasing capitalist engagement to increase commercial crop production. This phenomenon has been termed “crop booms” and was widely observed in tropical and subtropical frontiers of the Global South. International concerns about crop booms driven capitalist agrarian changes have been widely documented due to its unexpected environmental and socioeconomic outcomes, such as exacerbating large-scale land acquisition, socioeconomic inequality, and environmental degradation. However, knowledge gaps can be found from existing literature, mainly ignorance of voices needs of smallholder farmers and the role of the state behind crop booms. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper offers insights to crop booms and agrarian change through case studies of coffee plantations in Southwest China. Different from large-scale and capital-intensified crop booms in other regions, which often result in negative environmental and social consequences, this paper reveals relatively positive aspects of crop booms in which fewer land transfers occurred and enhanced benefit-sharing helped improve equality. Findings suggest that security of agricultural land tenure system, increasing both international and domestic market competition, and involvement in value-added processing activities all enable smallholder farmers to engage in coffee plantations with support from government agencies and international companies. In connection with crop booms and agrarian change, policy implications drawn from this research call for deeper understanding of local dynamics in agrarian change and investment from governments to improve land tenure security and market infrastructure across the Global South.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103672"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143876649","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 initial boom: Energy transitions can improve rural development indicators","authors":"Simone Felton ,&nbsp;David A. Fleming-Muñoz ,&nbsp;Tom Measham","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural decline, in the form of loss of youth, reduced human capital and poverty remains a key issue for studies of rural systems. The strategies for mitigating and reversing rural decline are not sufficiently understood. Including, how transitions in the global energy system are impacting rural economies and communities, who commonly host the industries and infrastructure. This study extends a previous assessment of the first ten years of an onshore gas industry's growth in rural Australia by analysing the second decade of operations and socio-economic change. The original quasi-experimental design was followed to examine changes in rural decline indicators—migration, education levels, and poverty—across areas with and without onshore gas activity. Socio-economic data were sourced from the Australian Census for 2011, 2016 and 2021. Public government data of location and number of onshore gas wells were used to distinguish regions with, or without onshore gas activity. Overall, in regions with onshore gas activity, greater mitigation of rural decline was observed. Greater inward migration, educational attainment, and less poverty. Inward migration included more older young adults, females and with bachelor's degrees. These second decade observations were consistent with the earlier decade. Though not as positive, as the first decade consisted of the industry's initial boom in construction for resource extraction, logistics and employee housing. This evaluation of the second decade extends the literature with empirical evidence of local rural impacts from the global energy transition. Including, timely insight into the plausibility of improving rural decline and the utility of monitoring the socio-economic indicators over an extended time as part of development policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103659"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143874103","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":"Quantifying the influence of sociocognitive factors on land use changes in agricultural regions: Application of the social cognitive theory","authors":"Fardin Kamali ,&nbsp;Amir Reza Nasiri ,&nbsp;Mohammad Reza Nikoo ,&nbsp;Reza Kerachian","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103681","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103681","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural lands provide various ecosystem services such as food production, carbon sequestration, preventing soil erosion and pollination. Today, some farmers are changing their agricultural lands to residential houses due to population growth, migration, tourism development, and reduced profit from agricultural activities. Maintaining agricultural land use and accepting governmental policies in this regard depends on the voluntary acceptance of farmers. Therefore, understanding the psychological factors affecting the behavior of farmers will provide valuable information for land use management. This paper aims to use social cognitive theory to investigate the sociopsychological factors that influence farmers' behavior toward agricultural land use conservation behavior in the Jouybar region, which is located in northern Iran. The required data were collected by conducting interviews with 200 male farmers using random sampling. The collected data have been analyzed using structural equation modeling and the partial least squares method. According to the results, the social cognitive theory can satisfactorily explain farmers' behavior in terms of agricultural land use conservation. The developed behavioral model explains 69 % and 71 % of farmers' intention and behavior variance, respectively. The results illustrate that some strategies can help control agricultural land use change and reduce its adverse effects on ecosystem services. For example, increasing public awareness through advertising campaigns, imposing penalties against any unauthorized land use change, and enlisting the support of credible and influential farming community members to encourage others to conserve agricultural land use can be suggested for controlling the land use change in the study area.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103681"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870176","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":"How to tackle landownership challenges in Finnish agriculture: Types of landowners and their views on ownership, land tenure and improvement measures","authors":"Pasi Rikkonen,&nbsp;Susanna Lahnamäki-Kivelä,&nbsp;Jussi Leppänen","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103685","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103685","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A rapid change in farm structure has increased non-farmer landownership during Finland's EU membership. Farm sizes have grown, and there is a clear need to generally improve the functioning of the land and rental market. These improvements include optimising land division, and promoting the appropriate and efficient use of the cultivated field area with the help of new technologies. In Finland, although farming landowners own a significant proportion of agricultural land, a considerable share is also leased from non-farming landowners. Leased land, however, causes short-sightedness regarding maintaining and improving soil fertility and improving the farming sector in general. This study analyses the main motives and values of Finnish farming and non-farming landowners regarding landownership. It examines how these motives vary among different landowner types, their experiences with land tenure and related challenges, and their thoughts and plans for improving land management. We adopted a mixed methods research design to gather the data. First, we conducted nine landowner interviews and a literature review to prepare for the quantitative survey. Second, survey data from 248 landowners was collected through structured telephone interviews in February 2021. To form the landowner groups, we applied principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). The results show that agricultural landownership is motivated by different values depending on whether the landowners are from farming or non-farming backgrounds. Through PCA, we identified three components of landowners' motives: 1) livelihood, active farming, and an effective farm structure; 2) continuity, family farming, and ownership; and 3) concerns in developing property structure. Through clustering, these were interpreted as four types of landowners: 1) optimisers of arable land; 2) rational developers; 3) continuity seekers of family farming; and 4) preservers of ownership. In general, as farming seeks economies of scale through larger units, attaining the optimal techno-economic farm size may be challenging in the future due to a lack of arable land for purchase or rental in Finland's typical mixed agriculture-forest landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103685"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865038","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":"Colonists under Franco: rural masculinity during the dictatorship … and beyond","authors":"Laura Cabezas Vega,&nbsp;Teresa María Ortega López,&nbsp;Gregorio Santiago Díaz","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103653","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103653","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the construction of rural masculinity in Spain under Franco. Based on oral sources and institutional documentation, it analyzes the effects of the regime's colonization policy on rural men in the post-civil war context. The article explores the dominant ideal of agrarian masculinity used to convey the image of the good farmworker in a new Spain, based on hard work and an idealized relationship between farmers and the land, all promoted by the agrarian reform discourse of the Franco regime. This figure did not only have a critical economic value in times of shortage, but also a social and symbolic value, as it reinforced a patriarchal system that marginalized women, relegating them to tasks considered secondary and establishing discourses that are still prevalent today.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103653"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865039","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":"Norwegian sheep farmers’ perception of the advantages and disadvantages of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies","authors":"Michelle C. Reeves ,&nbsp;Lise Grøva ,&nbsp;Lesley Jessiman ,&nbsp;Cathy M. Dwyer","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite enthusiastic industry and policy developments around Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technology, it is unclear how often the development of new tools is centred around farmers' needs and means. This study aimed to identify the perceived benefits and disadvantages of PLF technology on Norwegian sheep farms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 Norwegian sheep farmers who use one or more PLF tool. Participants were between 35 and 70 years old, were from three Norwegian regions and farmed between 20 and 400 ewes. The most used technologies were GPS collars monitoring sheep location and registration software. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and six themes were identified: Resources and Savings, Gaining Control, The User Experience, The Human-Animal Relationship, Trust in Technology and Stewards of the Land. The identified advantages of technology use were time, energy and economic savings that lightened farmers' cognitive burden, offered an increased sense of control gained through access to new data, an improved relationship between the farmers and their sheep, and an increased ability to preserve their farming lifestyle and the land they farm on. However, these benefits were not unanimously agreed upon, with many participants suggesting that the economic costs outweighed the time and energy savings, that farmers’ cognitive burden actually increased, that sellers and digital information could be untrustworthy and that technology posed a risk to the quality of the human-animal relationship. These findings could inform the future development and applications of user-centric PLF products to support the resilience of farming communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103684"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870177","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":"Recognizing complexity in agricultural innovation: Advancing responsible scaling using the Rapid Scaling Tool in Intermediate Value Chains","authors":"E. Van Parys ,&nbsp;J. Molina-Maturano ,&nbsp;M. Rad ,&nbsp;A. Wahlberg ,&nbsp;K. Östergren ,&nbsp;J.C. Laso Bayas ,&nbsp;X. Gellynck ,&nbsp;J.J. Schouteten ,&nbsp;H. De Steur","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103689","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103689","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aims to develop and apply the Rapid Scaling Tool (RST), a novel instrument designed to facilitate the responsible scaling of agricultural innovations. The RST integrates the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targeted agri-food sustainability indicators into one comprehensive evaluation framework. Developed iteratively through literature reviews, expert consultations, and case studies, the RST relies on stakeholder collaboration from the early stages of innovation development. It provides a three-step process to ensure that scaling efforts align with environmental, economic, and social sustainability targets. This framework guides practitioners through the complexities of scaling agricultural innovations, and uses Intermediate Value Chains (IVCs)as a case study to identify indicators for responsible scaling. The concept of IVCs represents a novel organizational structure within agri-food chains, offering a middle ground between short and long chain structures. This paper details the methodology behind the RST and discusses its implications for transforming agri-food systems, by applying it to a case study involving a Swedish IVC for wild berry picking. The IVC case study illustrates how the RST can aid in preemptively identifying potential negative impacts and developing mitigation strategies, while offering a practical solution for addressing the design paradox in early-stage innovation assessments. Building on its flexible, user-friendly design, this makes the RST an essential tool for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners aiming to achieve impactful and sustainable outcomes for scaling innovations in the agri-food sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103689"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143860165","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":"Agrarian transformation and artisanal and small-scale chrome mining on Zimbabwe's Great Dyke geological formation","authors":"Grasian Mkodzongi ,&nbsp;Joseph Mujere","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103675","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103675","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the growth of artisanal and small-scale chrome mining (ASCM) on the back of Zimbabwe's radical land and agrarian reforms implemented in 2000, there is a dearth of studies on the nexus between the agrarian transformation and the boom in artisanal chrome mining. This paper explores the interface between ASCM and the agrarian transformation engendered by the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe. The article seeks to address the gap in the literature on artisanal mining and rural livelihood by examining how artisanal chrome mining is reshaping rural livelihoods. The article argues that ASCM and agriculture are greatly imbricated livelihoods with people oscillating between the two livelihoods. It demonstrates how base minerals such as chrome are increasingly becoming an integral part of the livelihoods of communities living along the Great Dyke. The article draws on ethnographic data gathered in Mapanzure communal areas in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103675"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865116","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":"Not all trails are straight: Residential aspirations and place attachment of rural queer young adults","authors":"Zach Davis ,&nbsp;Mindy S. Crandall ,&nbsp;Jessica E. Leahy ,&nbsp;Kathleen P. Bell ,&nbsp;Catharine Biddle","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103673","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103673","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Young adult out-migration poses challenges for rural communities as they strive to address workforce shortages, population decline, and broader social and economic issues. In addition, certain groups of young people in rural areas, such as queer young adults, face additional identity-based challenges that can influence their migration decisions and distinguish aspects of their decision-making from other young adults. Using a qualitative approach, interviews with 17 queer young adult college students from a rural area were conducted to better understand how this group experiences nature and forms residential aspirations. Results show that queer rural young adults desire to live in communities that value diversity, promote acceptance, and have accessible nature. Our work also showed that queer rural young adults value nature for more than just outdoor recreation; they also value it as a mental health resource. Our findings offer insights for rural communities on how to attract and retain queer residents, such as investing in and connecting queer young adults to a community's natural amenities and by displaying symbols of acceptance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103673"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143865035","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}