Journal of Rural Studies最新文献

{"title":"I've got friends in rural places: Examining predictors of people's feelings about rural residents","authors":"Jay D. Hmielowski ,&nbsp;Brittany Shaughnessy","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103528","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103528","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we assess what variables correlate with how people feel about rural residents. Specifically, this paper examines partisan media use, political beliefs, and placed-based identity as predictors of people's evaluations of rural residents. We also examine the two-way interaction of media use and political beliefs and the three-way interaction of media use, political beliefs, and placed-based identity to better understand where the correlations between media use and feelings toward rural residents are concentrated.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103528"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131539","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":"Governance by satellite: Remote sensing, bureaucrats and agency in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union","authors":"Daniel van der Velden ,&nbsp;Laurens Klerkx ,&nbsp;Joost Dessein ,&nbsp;Lies Debruyne","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103558","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasingly, European member states are using remote sensing technologies to determine if farmers comply with measures of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Member states use satellite images, aerial photographs and geotagged pictures, and combine this with advanced algorithms and machine learning to determine if farmers comply with requirements that they have set out in their CAP strategic plans. Our research analyses the use of satellite images and the software used to process this data at paying agencies to understand how these technologies are enabling new forms of governance and what these technologies mean for how farmers are seen (literally and figuratively) by government agencies. This research is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with the developers of the technologies used to monitor compliance, which includes people working for paying agencies as well as people working at research institutes and companies where they provide technical support to the development and use of remote sensing at paying agencies.</div><div>This research reveals that the governance of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), facilitated by remote sensing, fosters an audit culture characterized by strict control and compliance. The emphasis on mapping, quantifying, and representing agriculture underpins this governance model and drives further technological advancements. However, participants highlight the shortcomings of remote sensing technologies in effectively controlling farming practices. By integrating theories of bureaucracy and governance with a critical perspective on techno-utopianism, we examine these dynamics. Our findings indicate that the current application of remote sensing within the CAP is constrained not only by technical limitations but also by the existing governance framework. The push for quantification leads respondents to advocate for the further adoption of technical innovations to enhance control over agriculture. In conclusion, we suggest that a policy shift is necessary to break free from this technology trap.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103558"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143132320","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 effect of management accounting practices and ICT on the efficiency of organic farms","authors":"Beatriz García-Cornejo ,&nbsp;José A. Pérez-Méndez ,&nbsp;Alan Wall ,&nbsp;David Castrillo-Cachón","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103554","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103554","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The contribution of organic farming to sustainability in its different environmental, economic, and societal facets underlines the importance of studying the viability of this type of farming and the factors that influence it. This work focuses on factors under farmers' control, particularly the use of two management tools, namely Management Accounting Practices (MAP) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Using survey data from a sample of Spanish organic farms, we employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure efficiency and analyze its determinants. Our findings reveal that a higher intensity in the use of MAP and ICT is associated with improved farm efficiency and, therefore, contributes to their economic sustainability. The study also identifies additional factors affecting organic farm efficiency, notably diversification and direct marketing strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103554"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131138","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":"Unpacking the multifaceted rurality of Hong Kong's countryside: A social representation approach","authors":"Shenjing He ,&nbsp;Weihang Gong ,&nbsp;Junxi Qian","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103589","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103589","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In Hong Kong, a global metropolis with a vast countryside occupying about 60% of land use, “de-ruralization” in terms of depopulation and marginalisation of rural villages has started since the 1960s. Nonetheless, it does not necessarily lead to the vanishment of rurality. On the contrary, rural spaces have been (re)appropriated and (re)imagined through the re-establishment of different internal and external socio-spatial relationships within a changing policy environment in recent years. Nonetheless, the multifaceted rurality as a socially-constructed, post-structuralist, dynamic, relational, and evolving concept remains insufficiently explored. This study thus aims to unravel the polysemic and polyvalent rurality of Hong Kong's countryside through a social representation approach, which emphasizes the importance of imaginations, positionalities, and discourses. Based on two rounds of questionnaire surveys involving both visitors and villagers, this study identifies five distinct clusters of rural representations: 1) rural idyll consumerists, consuming the idyllic image of the rural; 2) urbanists, envisaging urbanisation as the future of the rural; 3) rural utopianists, attracted by “authentic” rural lifestyle; 4) rural conservationists, with strong interests in ecological and biodiversity conservation; 5) rural dull realists, regarding rural as unattractive and hopeless. Discourse analysis and stakeholder interviews are also conducted to verify and explain the emergence of variegated representations of rurality in Hong Kong. These representations mainly revolve around a dialectical relation between rural idyll and rural dull emerging from the intensified urban-rural interactions and shaped by the uneven power relations among multi-generation villagers, urbanites, environmentalists, business interests, and government organizations. This study offers a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted rurality within a global metropolis to enrich the rural epistemology and to provide a practical framework to inform rural revitalization and conservation strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103589"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131139","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":"What affects farmers' intention and behavior to mitigate the impact of climate change? Evidence from Hebei Province, China","authors":"Lin Shen ,&nbsp;Wenchao Liu ,&nbsp;Hongyun Si ,&nbsp;Hui Li ,&nbsp;Na Li ,&nbsp;Feng Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103525","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103525","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Greenhouse-gas induced global climate change impedes the sustainable development of humanity. Considerable research has focused on the intention of farmers to adapt to climate change, but few articles have explored farmers' intention and behavior to mitigate the impact of climate change. This paper extends protection motivation theory to develop an innovative theoretical framework that describes both farmers' intention and behavior to ameliorate the impact of climate change. Research data from 846 farmers of a major Chinese grain-producing province are empirically analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that farmers' intention to mitigate the impact of climate change is positively impacted by perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, policy incentives, market incentives, and information publicity, while response cost negatively affects their intention. Farmers' mitigation behavior is positively and significantly influenced by market incentives, information publicity, and intention to mitigate the impact of climate change. Additionally, the information publicity lowers the influence of perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, and policy incentives on farmers' mitigation intention, while it reinforces the impact of response costs on farmers' intention. This research helps policymakers to better understand farmers' intention and behavior to mitigate the impact of climate change. Such knowledge, in turn, can help global policymakers, especially those in developing nations, to effectively encourage farmers to adopt practices relevant for mitigating the impact of climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103525"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131532","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":"New-type professional farmers: How to make use of different types of social capital to engage in agriculture specialization","authors":"Peipei Chen ,&nbsp;Jinlong Gao ,&nbsp;Min Zhang ,&nbsp;Di Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103545","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103545","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The emerging new-type professional farmers (NTPFs) in China form a subset of new farmers worldwide who, while benefiting from certain advantages, also face challenges as they enter the agricultural industry. Existing literature has highlighted the importance of social capital within traditional agricultural communities, but it has not thoroughly examined how different types of social capital are utilized by these new farmers. This study fills this gap by investigating the social network configurations of NTPFs, drawing on the case of fruit farmers from Lishui District in the suburban area of Nanjing. Based on in-depth interviews and observation, our findings reveal that the use of social capital among different NTPFs is diverse and evolves. First, the varying compositions of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital among NTPFs as a heterogeneous group in the process of agricultural specialization are influenced by their socio-demographic characteristics and motivations. This challenges the notion of idealized agricultural communities and adds complexities to the duality of continuer and newcomer farmers. Second, as NTPFs experiment with different agricultural production and marketing strategies to maximize profit, their social capital configurations shift over time. This finding adds nuance to previous research on how farmers balance different types of social capital. Moreover, this research highlights the context-specific strategies of new farmers by examining Chinese NTPFs and their engagement in agricultural specialization. This expands the mainstream academic focus beyond the Western context, where new farmers are often associated with peasant-like farming strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103545"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131585","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":"Emerging paradigm in redressing the imbalanced “state-village” power relationship: How have rural gentrifiers bypassed institutional exclusion to influence rural planning processes?","authors":"Jin Zhu ,&nbsp;Jinwei Hao ,&nbsp;Yiming Han","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103564","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103564","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The imbalanced “state-village” power relationship persists amid modernisation and urbanisation processes, posing a threat to rural sustainable development. Nonetheless, the impact of newly arrived rural elites, such as gentrifiers, on this power dynamic has been largely overlooked. Drawing on a planning modification incident in <em>Cenbu</em> Village, Shanghai, this article examines the gentrifiers' motivations for planning participation, the institutional exclusion they faced, and the informal channels they adopted to circumvent the exclusion, through the lens of “empowerment” and “informal participation”. The findings reveal that the gentrifiers’ informal participation contributed to a partial alteration of the rural plan, directing the village on a path towards sustainable development. The involvement of gentrifiers also effectively redresses the deficiencies of the traditional top-down planning decision-making approach and signifies a shift in the “state-village” power relationship. These insights are crucial for managing complex relationships in rural governance and enhancing village planning participation systems. Furthermore, this article contributes a novel perspective on the multifaceted role of the gentrifiers in rural development, diverging from the negative stereotypes commonly observed in Western contexts. This understanding is instrumental in comprehending power dynamics and ameliorating any imbalances within rural gentrification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103564"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143132321","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":"Opportunities, challenges, and future directions for the public social participation of older adults living in a rural region in Germany: Results from a mixed-methods study","authors":"Anke Desch ,&nbsp;Christine Holmberg ,&nbsp;Niklas Demmerer ,&nbsp;Sylvia Euler ,&nbsp;Philipp Jaehn ,&nbsp;Andreas Bergholz","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103567","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103567","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social integration is considered beneficial for people's health. However, research shows mixed results for the older population and often lower social participation and related health-outcomes for rural areas, rendering rural-living seniors a potentially vulnerable group. This article explores current opportunities, challenges, and possible improvements for seniors' public social participation in the structurally weak and fast aging Uckermark county in northeastern Germany. With a mixed-methods approach, we geocoded public data on social clubs, conducted expert interviews, and applied a qualitative content analysis to gain insights into the structural conditions and social mechanisms of seniors' social participation in the Uckermark. Geocoding revealed that over 60% of the settlements have at least one social club and experts deemed the number of social activity offers sufficient. However, they reported challenges relating to declining physical health, poverty, infrastructural deficits, difficulties in outreach, a lack of motivation, conflicting relationships, regional mentality, and a struggle for sustainability. They suggested prioritizing rural seniors' lives in the political agenda, increased networking and sustainable reorganization of regional stakeholders, and providing tailored participation offers. The interviews highlight the interconnectedness of different groups and historically shaped socioeconomic developments in the rural community. Relating these results to international studies and aging theories, we conclude that there are common structural challenges in rural regions that foster seniors' social disengagement. However, dynamic and regionally specific relationships, norms, and preferences seem to play a major role in seniors' selective (dis-)engagement in public social activities and deserve greater attention in the provision and evaluation of participation offers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103567"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143132330","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":"Scaling up mechanisms in citizen farming initiatives: Lessons learned from a citizen-led and collective agroecological farm","authors":"Marie Houdart ,&nbsp;Magali Blot ,&nbsp;Salma Loudiyi ,&nbsp;William Loveluck","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103556","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103556","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Citizen initiatives are gaining prominence as they clearly articulate core social values and contribute to localized agri-food transitions. However, stakeholders within these initiatives may encounter challenges when attempting to engage in rescaling processes. This raises questions regarding the implementation mechanisms: How can citizen-led agricultural and food initiatives successfully scale up, and what mechanisms and prerequisites are necessary to achieve this? To address these questions, we employ a temporal approach that integrates three analytical dimensions: meaning, governance, and space. This approach is applied to a case study of a citizen-led experiment that establishes a collective farm promoting agroecology across approximately 100 ha near Clermont-Ferrand in central France. The methodology relies on primary data obtained through participatory workshops, where participants co-constructed a chronicle of the project. The analysis results are presented as a narrative, highlighting four temporal sequences characterized by different articulations and modalities between meaning, governance, and space. By examining this unique initiative involving citizen participation in agriculture and food, we shed light on the process of collective action and the far-reaching effects of experiments that serve as alternatives to productivist agri-food models while redefining approaches to policymaking and economic practices. Through this lens, we demonstrate the project's deep-rooted connection to a complex environment, addressing the challenges faced in agri-food transition within a specific territory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103556"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131516","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":"Residential art centres and their understanding of freedom in rural areas","authors":"Stela Houserová,&nbsp;Pavel Pospěch","doi":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This novel study in interpretive rural sociology draws on recent discussions of the role of art in rural areas, and specifically focuses on the case study of rural residential centres for artists. As the numbers and popularity of arts residencies in rural and peripheral locations grow, we examine what artists <em>both</em> seek and acquire from rural residencies. Artists and managers of residencies emphasize freedom as a key value associated with rural residential centres: yet what does “freedom” mean for them? Using approaches based in interpretive research and cultural sociology, we reconstruct the ways through actors in the field use the term “freedom” to make sense of their experience. We identify four key contradictions that relate both to the benefits and to the drawback of the perceived freedom of rural residencies: autonomy vs. disconnection, ideal working environment vs. solitude, authenticity vs. exhaustion and refuge vs. colony. These contradictions are experienced and negotiated by artists and artistic residential centres managers in their everyday lives. The qualitative analysis is based on a set of interviews conducted in rural residential centres in the Czech Republic and on a content analysis of the materials published and produced by the centres themselves.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17002,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Rural Studies","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103569"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143131517","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}