Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization

To a person living in a remote corner of Slovenia, Sweden or even West Wales, globalisation may appear to be a remote concept, involving big towns and cities with their Starbucks and McDonalds, and indeed academic research in the field would seem to support this way of thinking, with most studies in recent years focusing on urban concerns.

This is all set to change with a new three-year project which is being coordinated by the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University.

Professor Michael Woods, Head of the Institute, is leading a €1.5m study funded by the European Union Framework Programme into Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization (DERREG).

This ambitious project will work with partners in nine European countries, ranging from Sweden in the north to Spain in the south, Ireland in the west and the Czech Republic in the east. The nature of the areas studied will vary from very remote areas such as the west of Ireland to rural regions that are close to industrial centres such as Saarland in Germany.

Professor Woods has been interested in the idea behind the project for a number of years. His research has been predominantly in the area of rural politics and governance, and he is fascinated by the way in which global processes affect different regions.

 “One of the fallacies about globalization is that it is a steam-roller that erodes local differences,” says Professor Woods. “Yes, there are overarching trends that affect us all but different regions are differently positioned to respond to them.”

Globalization is obviously a tremendously large concept, so the team has broken it down into a series of themes. One of these is the economic impact, and how businesses in rural areas are becoming engaged in global processes. Another is increased mobility and migration, such as migrant workers and second home owners.

Sustainable development is the next element, looking for instance at how rural areas can use their natural environment as capital, such as through ecotourism or the potential for renewable energy. The final theme is capacity building, looking at issues such as education and training.

There is a practical purpose to this research. At the end of the three-year project, the intention is that there will be an online resource centre which will make the information gathered and conclusions reached publicly available as a tool to be used by people involved with rural and regional development. This can then inform the preparation of strategies to cope with globalization, allowing people to look at the issues in the context of their own regions and highlighting best practice.

With the current global uncertainty in the forefront of people’s minds, Professor Woods’s project is certainly timely. While the world’s attention has hitherto been mainly on the cities of the world, as Professor Woods says: “issues such as global agriculture and food security are becoming more prominent, and understanding how these global questions impact on rural areas is becoming increasingly important.”