Imre Kovách - Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development

Keith Halfacree, Imre Kovach and Rachel Woodward

Chris Curtin and Tony Varley

Henri Goverde and Henk de Haan

Rachel Woodward and Keith Halfacree

Imre Kovch

Nicole Mathieu and Philippe Gajewski

Lutz Laschewski, Parto Teherani-Krnner and Titus Bahner

Fernando Garrido, Jos R. Maulen and Eduardo Moyano

Thomas Dax and Martin Hebertshuber

Torsti Hyyrylinen and Eero Uusitalo

Nina Gunnerud Berg and Hans Kjetil Lysgrd

Keith Halfacree, Imre Kovch and Rachel Woodward

It is a truism that contemporary processes of economic, social, political and cultural restructuring, many of which are global in origin, are having pronounced impacts on the form and function of rural areas across Europe. Whilst these processes may be broadly similar in origin, their outcomes are highly differentiated across space. This diversity of outcomes reflects local, regional and national responses to the challenge of restructuring, visible in the differential geographical impact of economic and social changes, the policies that have been developed to meet these challenges and the ways in which different national traditions have responded to processes of restructuring. The challenges of restructuring are particularly problematic for Europes rural areas, given the scale of changes in modes of agricultural production and the specific problems economic and social trends have raised for rural localities. Indeed, the importance of both agricultural and rural development policy initiatives within the European Union (EU) is indicative of the significance and specificity of the problems of rural restructuring. A point of departure for this volume is the recognition both of the significance of pan-European economic and social changes, and of the significance of such changes for rural areas. Its starting-point is the tension between diversity and homogeneity, between local responses and global processes.

These broad processes of economic and social change in Europes rural areas have consequences for local configurations of power, and for local political responses to these broad processes. The study of these configurations and responses is important. These economic and social changes have produced pronounced inequalities across space which in turn have prompted responses (and perceptions) at national and EU levels of the need for economic and social intervention or development. (Marsden, 1998 and 1999; Bell and Lowe, 1998; Starosta et al., 1999). One policy challenge across the EU is the production of a coherent Europe of the Regions which strikes a balance between the specificity of local conditions and experiences, and normative desires for economic prosperity and stability across Europe (Woods, 1998). Moreover, with the retreat from the top-down (exogenous) model of development at national and EU levels (for political, pragmatic and ideological reasons), local responses have gained in significance. As Granberg and Kovch (1998) and Tovey (1998) argue, local actors play a key role in determining responses to restructuring, and the identification of such actors and their roles constitutes a specific research question in European rural studies. Furthermore, certain policy shifts (such as the adoption by the EU of the model of endogenous rural development) have accorded greater (and ever-increasing) significance to the work of local actors and the operation of local networks of power (Murdoch and Marsden, 1994; Shucksmith, 2000). Quite simply, the local is of increasing significance in EU development programmes; LEADER, for example, is viewed as a template for future EU development policy programmes (Ray, 2000). With this institutional emphasis on endogenous development comes an imperative to investigate the influences on local political configurations, power relations and the way they shape local responses to global processes (de Haan and van der Ploeg, 1994; Ray, 1999a, 1999b; Goverde et al., 2000). Who controls and who benefits from changing power relations as a consequence of development initiatives (Bruckmeier, 2000; Buller, 2000; Kovch, 2000; Osti, 2000; Ray, 2000)? Finally, the study of local configurations of rural power and local responses to restructuring are of wider interest because of what they tell us about cultural issues such as the construction of national and regional identities (Woods, 1997). These identities are influenced across Europe by rural images and constructs; it is pertinent, therefore, to see how these identities are developed and mobilised at the local level within a rural context (Halfacree, 1993; Halfacree, 1995; Hoggart et al., 1995; Pratt, 1996; Frouws, 1998). This volume therefore constitutes a contribution to a growing body of research on local responses, local actors, questions of leadership, power, autonomy and control in the evolution of responses to wider economic and social restructuring across rural Europe. Its purpose is to examine the diversity of these local political responses with specific reference to the implications of these responses for local configurations of power in rural areas.