New Abstract of an old paper (19989

John M. Bryden on ResearchGate

Abstract: (PDF) Development strategies for remote rural regions: What do we know so far. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310829515_Development_strategies_for_remote_rural_regions_What_do_we_know_so_far [accessed Nov 03 2022].

John M Bryden and Shirley P Dawe, The Arkleton Centre for Rrural Development Research, University of Aberdeen.

In this paper, written in 1998 for the annual OECD Rural Policy Conference with my then PhD student Shirley P Dawe, we built on the OECD’s (1996) work on territorial indicators which informed us that some peripheral localities performed much better than others and, in some cases, better than urban areas). In it, we argue that that such differences cannot be explained in terms of traditional theories (either core-periphery or neo-classical). Rather, the explanation lies in local capacities to develop and exploit less mobile assets, in the form of economic, social, cultural and environmental capital, and the synergies between these assets and processes. One such asset, but only one, is what is now termed ‘amenities’ – we suggest that we needed to look further than this to both understand differential performance and frame local development strategies in a context of globalisation. In particular, we need to pay more attention to the range of immobile or less mobile assets which are specific to individual rural areas, the relationship between these and assets which are more mobile, and the role of less tangible factors in valorising these assets within the local economy. The paper was followed by the EU research on Differential Performance of Rural Areas in Europe (DORA) in 1999-2001 and other research projects in South and North America as well as Europe.