BRANDING REGIONAL IDENTITY AS A DRIVER FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Within the globalizing world, regions and their identities are subjected to great pressure. At present, places are engaged in a process of “territorial competition” in an integrated world economy. The identity of the region can be used as a starting point to brand a region and differentiate it from others. In the regional branding process, the region as a whole becomes a product or brand and offers a “basket” of regional products and services. This paper discusses the possibility of regional identity as a mobilizing force for rural development, by studying best practice examples of regional branding. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted interviews in three case regions: West Cork (Ireland), Groene Woud (the Netherlands) and Pajottenland (Belgium). The study of these cases led to the formulation of critical success factors on the organization of regional branding.Identity, Region formation, Regional branding, Rural development, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development,

Multifunctionele landbouw en plattelandsontwikkeling: worden alle mogelijkheden benut? : een case-studie over zorglandbouw

Zorglandbouw biedt zorg op maat voor verschillende types zorgvragers, zoals jongeren uit de jeugdzorg of mensen met een verstandelijke beperking. De zorgvragers kunnen een tijdje meedraaien op een boerderij. Zorglandbouw in Vlaanderen ziet er anders uit dan in Nederland, Duitsland, Oostenrijk of Noorwegen. De formules verschillen, de financieringsbronnen ook. De veerkracht van het systeem in tijden van crisis of verandering eveneens. Sociologen legden verschillende systemen onder de loep. Naargelang het denkkader dat dominant is, krijg je mogelijkerwijze een andere invulling van het begrip ‘zorglandbouw’. In hun onderzoek hebben Joost Dessein van de ILVO-eenheid Landbouw en maatschappij, Michiel de Krom (UGent/ILVO) en Bettina Bock (WUR, Nederland) drie discoursen rond zorglandbouw ontrafeld en geanalyseerd. Wie goed leest, haalt er ideeën uit over innovatieve, creatieve plattelandsontwikkeling en verbreding die ons tot op heden in Vlaanderen onbekend zijn. De nogal eenzijdige benadering van zorglandbouw vanuit het zogenaamde multifunctionele landbouw-discours lijkt in Vlaanderen immers de toekomstmogelijkheden te beperken

The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach as an impact assessment tool for development interventions in rural Tigray, Ethiopia : opportunities & challenges

Measuring the impact and sustainability of development programmes requires the development of appropriate assessment tools. This paper examines the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach's (SLA) potential to be transformed to and called in as a practical instrument to evaluate the impact of development interventions in rural Tigray (Northern Ethiopia). Fieldwork has been carried out in communities in woreda Dogua Tembien using participant observation and open interviews as methods. Next to more general challenges of defining, measuring and comparing livelihood assets, context specific factors complicate the operationalisation of the SLA as an impact assessment tool in the area. The SLA distinguishes between livelihood assets on the one hand and transforming structures and processes on the other. The latter lend meaning and value to the former. This conceptual distinction is worthy as it makes the two-way interaction between both categories explicit and escapes from reducing institutions, organisations, policies and legislation to context or background. However, in practice the boundaries are fuzzy and not easy to interpret. The example of religion as a cross-cutting organizing principle illustrates this assumption. Moreover the distinction complicates the operationalisation of the SLA as it implies the meaning and value of capitals to be volatile and depending on the prevailing social, institutional and organisational environment. This is exemplified with the big transforming power of policy shifts in the area. For the SLA to serve as an impact assessment tool, it requires a culture- and policy-sensitive analysis of farmers' asset base. Only a sound understanding of the interactions between livelihood assets and transforming structures and processes can lead to a locally contextualised, meaningful and workable impact assessment tool that measures asset levels using indicators that reflect farmers' own criteria to judge development interventions

Assessment of socio-economic configuration of value chains : a proposed analysis framework to facilitate integration of small rural producers with global agribusiness

Value chain analysis is an important tool to assess and enhance the performance of agribusiness. This paper analyzes the empirical application of a conceptual framework known as the Rural Web to evaluate the socio-economic complexity of a specific agribusiness value chain. This can be used as a complementary approach to traditional value chain analysis. The proposed framework goes beyond linear descriptions of product flows and examines how supply chains are built, shaped and reproduced over time and space, while considering social, cultural, environmental and political aspects. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is a suitable method for value chain analysis, principally for those whose early stages are based on small and medium-sized rural actors. The Rural Web analysis offers decision-makers a platform to identify key actors not traditionally considered in value chain analysis, as well as the social interrelationships that occur at different dimensions. It also enables the identification of corrective and preventive measures to enhance agribusiness value chains

Fighting banana bunchy top disease in Southern Malawi : the interface of knowledge systems and dynamics in a development arena

Purpose: Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD) was first reported in Malawi in 1997. The major strategy used to deal with BBTD required banana growers to uproot and burn all their bananas and replace them with disease-free imported planting materials. This had limited success only. This paper uses an actor-oriented approach to explain this experience by assessing the different knowledge types and dynamics.Design/methodology/approach: Using a qualitative study design we sampled respondents through snowball and purposive sampling. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to interview 120 farmers in 5 villages, 5 extension experts, 6 crop scientists, 2 banana research scientists and 3 NGOs leaders. Transcripts were analysed using Grounded Theory Methodology.Findings: The results showed that development agents and farmers conceived of, and dealt with, BBTD on the basis of different types of knowledge and dynamics. The battle that arose around this knowledge interface explains why the top-down approach to dealing with BBTD led to resistance from banana growers. These top-down approaches contrast with the widely-used rhetoric of using bottom-up approaches to foster co-innovation.Practical implications: Development actors need to embrace co-innovation principles and move away from merely sticking to the label of bottom up approaches.Theoretical implications: Using participation as a means to achieve predetermined strategies lead to failure and conflict in development programmes while as consulting with, and listening to farmers has potential to increase their cooperation in development programmes.Originality/value: The study informs that while there is so much talk about a shift in extension approaches, not much has changed to embrace co-innovation amongst actors

Stakeholders perception of attitudes towards major landscape changes held by the public: the case of greenhouse clusters in Flanders

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Op zoek naar de wortels van een gepolariseerd publiek debat: de case van een gecontesteerde ggo-veldproef

De controverse rond de GGO-aardappelveldproef in Wetteren in 2011 was geen ideeënstrijd rond één, voor iedereen duidelijk omschreven wetenschappelijke proef. De posities van de verschillende betrokkenen in het debat zijn terug te voeren tot verschillende denkkaders die zich ontwikkelden in verschillende contexten (bijvoorbeeld natuurwetenschappelijke, maatschappelijke, politieke, beleidsgerelateerde) waarin de veldproef betekenis kreeg. Om de controverse te begrijpen moet men dus de vraag stellen naar welke veldproef men refereerde en naar welk bijhorend kader

Organic farming and fair trade in developing country as a new agribusiness paradigm: Evidence from Mali

Organic farming and fair trade certified chains have emerged in West-Africa since the 1990s in answer to new alternative markets in developed countries. These chains, involving actors from North and South, are seen as an opportunity to sustainably valorise the small peasants agriculture in Africa and include the smallholders in global markets. Certification and labelling systems accompany these chains in developed countries. The aim of this article is to analyze the challenges for smallholders of this new North- South trade regime established by certificates and labels. This article uses the theory of Global Value Chains as theoretical framework. The empirical framework consists of four cases (organic sesame; organic- fair sesame; fair cotton and organicfair cotton) in Mali and in Belgium and France. It focuses on data that are gathered during our inquiry based on a questionnaire with the chains stakeholders in the south and in the north. The chains upstream inquiry was conducted in Mali with individuals producers, producers organizations, exporters; and the downstream inquiry was conducted in Belgium and France with European importers, distributors and certifications bodies. The results show that the new North- South regime established by organic and fair certificates and labels has a potential impact on the negotiation power and value distribution between chain participants. Lack of adequate local institutions in Southern countries, and increasing complexity of the “cahiers de charges” imposed by the North however may cause exclusion of many smallholders in these new North-South trade networks.organic farming, Fair Trade, smallholders, North-South trade, Certificates, Labels, Global markets, Value chains, certification scheme, local institution, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade,

Taking context into account in urban agriculture governance: Case studies of Warsaw (Poland) and Ghent (Belgium)

AbstractThis article explores the role of local particularism in relation to the global interest in urban agriculture (UA). A growing movement is advocating UA, but future prospects are limited by variability, unclear expectations, vague responsibilities and leadership in the UA movement. We wonder whether the poor understanding of UA governance is associated with a public discourse and academic literature that too easily adopt the generic and universally claimed benefits. We argue here that uncritical enthusiasm results in an overly instrumental approach to governance of UA with a main focus on stimulating formal (e.g., policy making) and informal advocacy (e.g., civic engagement in UA). We do not deny the importance of formal and informal advocacy in UA development, but rather claim that the potential of UA needs a more nuanced analysis. Study of the interplay between UA advocacy and a city’s contextual characteristics is a worthy pursuit, as it may provide significant and more profound explanations for the divergence observed in UA developments. Case studies performed in Warsaw (Poland) and Ghent (Belgium) serve to illustrate the importance of context. The results suggest that neither case is likely to benefit from a governance strategy that only stimulates greater advocacy and institutional support. The inclusion of city-specific needs, opportunities and pitfalls of UA in the governance strategy can help to move UA toward its full potential. We suggest a policy-making strategy for UA that expands beyond the realm of food production alone. Ultimately, the aim is to steer away from assessing (and critiquing) UA solely against the backdrop of these generic success factors