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Background:
This
proposal is focusing on the analysis of the impact of different
Community policies on the situation and development of rural areas.
Furthermore it deals with the constraints on the development of
new economic activities in vulnerable rural areas. It involves
the development of methodologies concerning the identification
and assessment of conflicts and tensions which exist between Community
environmental policies affecting transport activities, and the
policies for rural development. It uses study areas from five
participating countries - Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, and
the UK.
Objectives:
The
objectives of the proposed Concerted Action are to develop research
methodologies which will allow the following to be carried out:
(a)
Identification of polices at Community and Member State levels,
present and planned, and particularly new environmental polices,
which affect the economic cost of transport activities, vulnerable
rural areas of selected Member States, and thus the mobility of
people and goods both internally and externally, with respect
to rural areas.
(b)
Identification of policies at Community and Member State levels,
present and planned, for rural development in which the mobility
and access of people and goods, both internally and externally,
is a significant factor.
(c)
Assessment of the implications for rural development policy of
conflicts between these policy areas.
(d)
Reflections on the directions in which environmental policy might
be modified to allow rural development policies to have maximum
effect.
Description:
The
proposed Concerted Action is important for the development of
policy in the environmental and rural fields. Methodologies which
allow the recognition of tensions between policies in these fields
will facilitate the more effective evolution of policies designed
to achieve rural development, as well as policies designed to
meet the Community's environmental commitments.
Current
situation/results
Participants
have completed the application of stages one and two of the Cardiff
Methodology and are in the process of applying stages three and
four.
Each
partner has produced an individual progress report detailing environmental
transport studies in their respective states and their study areas
as well as their application of stages one and two of the methodology.
They are in the process of writing a second individual progress
report on their application of stages three and four. This report
will also detail their initial thoughts on the utility of the
Cardiff Methodology in the assessment of conflicts between environmental
transport policies and rural development policies as well as policy
modification which might be considered as a consequence of their
findings.
All
participants have met twice, once in Aberdeen in January 1999
and again in London in September 1999. In May 2000 we shall be
having our third meeting in one of the German case-study areas
- Landkreis Guestrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Northern Germany.
The meeting will pull together the experiences of the participants
and provide a basis for the findings and recommendations to be
made in the final report.
A
seminar to disseminate the findings of the project will be held
in Brussels in September 2000 to which key policy-makers will
be invited. The project will also provide the basis for further
research applications. These are still being discussed.
Description
of the methodology:
The
Cardiff Methodology is a policy analysis framework for assessing
progress towards the goals of rural development across different
policies and sectors. The framework compares policy performances
in relation to the three facets of sustainable development, as
well as characteristic structures of governance and policy processes.
In short, the methodology aims to provide a framework for assessing
and questioning how policies can work both separately and together
to progress rural development more effectively. It is not
a primary research methodology. Rather, it is a framework for
evaluation and policy analysis. This means that it provides a
framework for the collection, collation and analysis of both primary
and secondary data, as well as both quantitative and qualitative
data on policy impacts and processes.
In
general terms, the methodology undertakes four broad and related
tasks. These tasks are as follows:
-
Policy Description and Mapping: The first task is the identification
of the principal policy instruments to be studied, and a description
of key features of their design and delivery. This includes
the political scale at which they are designed and implemented,
the institutions or agencies involved in this process, and the
degree to which they provide blanket coverage of rural areas
and people.
-
Policy Impacts (1): Sustainable Development: The second
task is to identify the negative and positive sustainability
impacts of policy instruments, and their ability to deliver
all three sustainability objectives simultaneously.
-
Policy Impacts (2): Integrated Rural Development: The third
task is to compare policy performances according to the principles
and processes considered to be important in achieving integrated
and sustainable rural development (as upheld by the Cork Declaration).
-
Policy Limits and Potentials: The fourth task is to assess
policies against a series of integrated and sustainable development
`tests', in order to highlight the key potentials and limitations
of different policies for the progression of rural development
objectives.
Coordinator
John
FARRINGTON
Department
of Geography
Arkleton
Centre
St.Marys
University
of Aberdeen
UK-Old
Aberdeen
Tel.:
+44 1224 27 23 50
Fax:
+44 1224 27 23 31
E-mail:
geo134@abdn.ac.uk
Partners
- Erik WESTHOLM
Dalarnas Forskningsrad
PO Box 743
S- Falun
Tel.: +46 2 33 94 79
Fax: +46 2 33 94 89
E-mail: erik.westholm@dfr.se
- Karlheinz KNICKEL
Institntfuer Laendliche Strukturforschung Ander Johann Wolfgang
Goethe
University of Frankfurt
Zeppelinallee 31
D-Frankfurt
Tel: +49 69 77 50 01
Fax: +49 69 77 77 84
E-mail: knickel@em.uni-frankfurt.de
- John McDONAGH
Department of Geography
National University of Ireland
IRL-Galway
Tel.: +353 91 524 411 x2569
Fax: +353 91 525 700
E-mail: john.d.mcdonagh@ucg.ie
- Stavros GOUTSOS
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautics Engineering
University of Patras
GR-Patras
Tel.: +30 61 99 72 54
Fax: +30 61 99 72 60
E-mail: goutsos@hol.gr
- John SUMELIUS
Department of Economics
University of Helsinki
PO BOX 27
FIN-Helsinki
Tel.: +358 97 08 50 77
Fax: +358 97 08 50 96
E-mail: john.sumelius@helsinki.fi
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