pod redakcją naukową Katarzyny Zawalińskiej

Rural Development in the Enlarged European Union (Rozwój obszarów wiejskich w rozszerzonej Unii Europejskiej) Warszawa: 2005, 329 s., map., tab., wyk. Wydawca: Instytut Rozwoju Wsi i Rolnictwa Polskiej Akademii Nauk ISBN 83-89900-05-X

PREFACE
This book is the outcome of cooperation between the Centre for Rural Research, University of Exeter, UK, the Institute for Rural Research and Training, University of Helsinki, Finland, and the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development (IRWiR), Polish Academy of Sciences. Over the past decade, the British and Finnish universities have collaborated with IRWiR by research on themes of common interest, study visits to each others' countries, research and policy workshops, and conferences open to practitioners and policy makers in the fields of rural and agricultural policy.
Currently, rural and agricultural policy in the European Union (EU) is in a period of radical change. The EU's Common Agricultural Policy, for many years focused on agricultural commodity production and attempts to increase farmers' incomes mainly by price support, is being transformed. The Single Farm Payment decouples farm support from commodity production. Payment is conditional on farmers implementing husbandry methods compatible with environmental objectives for the countryside. Also, agriculture itself is now seen as only one component of rural economy and society. The creation of alternative employment and earning opportunities, increased diversification of economic activities, and interpreting the role of rural economies in regional development, are new policy concerns for Europe's rural areas.
This volume of papers is published against that background. For some years now the issue of sustainable development of rural areas has been an area of common research interest for our collaborating institutions. The wider policy agenda for Europe's rural areas needs to draw on insights from the range of disciplines represented by our three institutions' researchers: economics, sociology, geography, demography, anthropology and political science. The papers here are the outcome of research by specialists dealing with similar problems but located in counties with different cultural, institutional and economic environments.
The UK, for example, is characterised by rural areas in which society is substantially urbanised in terms of its overall level of development. Typically large-scale agriculture makes a relatively small contribution to GDP and national employment, but still there are pockets of rural economic deprivation in the "urban countryside". In contrast, Finland's unusual geographical location and topography create distinctive needs for policy interventions to assist and sustain rural areas. Finally, Poland - an EU member only since May 2004 - is well known for having an agricultural structure unique amongst the former centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe. A predominance of small-scale private I farms alongside a restructured collectivised sector, also showing distinct regional variations, and a large rural population highly dependent on agriculture for jobs, incomes and social security, presents special challenges.
The idea of publishing the papers here in one volume was provoked by an ambition to answer a basic question. Namely, to what extent is it possible to obtain insights capable of assisting rural policy analysis in new situations by the shared experience of analysts engaged in very different country contexts. The specific topics addressed in the papers include: institutional aspects of rural development, perspectives and visions on European rural development, measuring rural development and its economic impacts, the development of both traditional and organic agri-food businesses, spatial and labour market problems, social capital and knowledge transfer, the changing role of women in the rural society, and changes in rural lifestyles and the image of villages. Overall, this publication summarises the results of cooperation between our respective institutions to date, and sets directions for future collaboration.

Katarzyna Zawalińska and Keith S. Howe

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

Part I: Institutional Perspectives on Rural Development

Wojciech Pomajda and Mirosław Drygas: Rural development in Poland first experiences of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARiMR) in Poland

Urszula Budzich-Szukała: Enhancing social capital in rural areas: the experience of the cooperation Fund and the Polish Rural Forum

Part II: Changes in Perceptions of Rural Development

Keith S. Howe: Perspectives on European rural development: the issue of "sustainability"

Jerzy Wilkin: About the need and assumptions for a long-term vision of rural development in Poland

Tadeusz Hunek: Diversification of agricultural activity in Poland: the management of decline

Part III: Measuring Rural Development

Hannu Tormä: Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for rural development policy - RurFin

Katarzyna Zawalińska: Rural Development Index (RDI) for Poland: construction and proposition for policy use

Part IV: Agri-Food Business and Rural Development

Tapani Köppä: Alternatives for success? Ownership and profit reformulated

Leszek Klank: SMEs and determinants of local development in Poland

Part V: Traditional Versus Organic Farms

Matthew Reed: The rise and current trajectory of the British organic sector

Artur Bołtromiuk: The role of public support in the development of organic fanning in Poland

Part VI: Specific Spatial and Labour Problems in Rural Areas of Poland

Izastaw Frenkel: Selected problems of the rural labour market in Poland

Krystian Heffner and Andrzej Rosner: Spatial variations in economic development of rural areas in Poland

Dorota Klepacka: Support for Less Favoured Areas in Poland, Finland and United Kingdom

Part VII: Building Social Capital in Rural Areas

Maria Wieruszewska: Self organisation and building social capital in Polish villages

Allan Butler, Matthew Reed and Phil Le Grice: Cows, capital and chat: transferring knowledge through rural social networks

Marta Błąd and Ryszard Kamiński: Social capital enhancement in the Polish countryside: experience from time implementation of LEADER-type programmes

Krystyna Szafraniec: Young people, education and social development: a rural perspective

Part VIII: The Changing Role of Women in Rural Areas

Pirjo Siiskonen: Women entrepreneurs in rural areas: some case studies from Finland

Krystyna Gutkowska and Barbara Tryfan: The role of women in rural areas in Poland

Part IX: Changes in Life Style and the Image of Rural Regions

Petri Kahila and Katja Rinne-Koski: Introducing the concept of flexible lifestyles: framework and theoretical background

Izabella Bukraba-Rylska: Rural amid peasant values in Polish society

Kaj Zimmerbauer: Developing time image of a rural region: the case of South-Ostrobothnia, Finland