Start Time: 11:20

Location: Suite Sunningdale

Speaker:

Neil Ward - Dean of the Faculty of Social Science, University of East Anglia

Summary:

The presentation will explore the question of how best to develop resilience in Europe’s rural economies, especially in the light of the current economic downturn.  It will first set out the distinctive features of economic activity in Europe’s rural areas, highlighting the diversity of rural conditions across the EU27, but also some common challenges.  Rural areas are characterised by extensive land uses, such as agricultural and forestry, and relatively smaller-scale settlements.  However, the primary sectors represent a declining share of economic activity, and especially employment, in rural areas.  In 21st century Europe, rural economies are effectively best characterised as mixed and service-based economies, dominated by small and often family-based enterprises, rather than as essentially agricultural economies.  Although rural support policies (especially through the European Union) continue to focus on land-based industries as the main conduit of support, innovative and enterprising behaviour are just as likely to thrive in other economic sectors.  This is increasingly being recognised across the OECD through a ‘new paradigm’ of more holistic and integrated measures for supporting rural economies.  The presentation will explore the implications of the OCED’s ‘new rural paradigm’ for approaches to rural (and regional) development in Europe.  The presentation will briefly discuss the concept of resilience in rural economies and discuss the experience of different ‘system shocks’ in different parts of rural Europe (e.g. EU accession in new member states; animal disease outbreaks such as the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis in the UK).  Finally, drawing on recent empirical research in the UK, it will highlight the value of adopting a ‘neo-endogenous’ perspective on stimulating local rural economies, focussing on the productive interplay between local and non-local resources and actors.