Ian Smith and Paul Courtney

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Rural-Urban linkages and social cohesion a
position paper

• Ian Smith and Paul Courtney

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Rural-urban linkages

• What were we asked to do?
• Writing the position paper
• What are we trying to achieve today?

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Structure of the day

• Setting out a conceptual framework
• Morning What are the cohesion outcomes of
  rural-urban linkages?
• Afternoon What are the means of promoting
  rural-urban linkages?
• What can the Commission do?
• Key respondents and rounding up

4
Remember

• The paper is the start of a conversation and not
  the end
• The conversation will continue after today

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A conceptual framework for Rural-Urban linkages
and social cohesion

• Paul Courtney

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Presentation Structure

• Defining the nature of urban-rural linkages
• Defining social cohesion
• Social cohesion and social/territorial capital
• Measuring social cohesion
• A conceptual framework
• Operationalising social cohesion
• Discussion points

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Defining rural-urban linkages

• Lack of clarity and complexity underestimated
• Two-way flows which are functional and structural
• Movements of people goods, capital,
• Social transactions and administrative / service
  provision / Governance
• Flows of technology, lifestyles
• Interdependencies and increasingly complex
  inter-relations
• Geographic (territorial) and socio-economic
  (relational) space

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Defining social cohesion

• Academic (Sociology and Psychology)
• Social and economic relevance
• Solidarity and division of labour (Durkheim)
• Communities, groups and memberships.
• Shared values reducing disparities common
  enterprise facing shared challenges
• Nature and extent of socio-economic divisions in
  society
• Group membership how members can shape the
  conditions of their environment

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Defining social cohesion

• Policy perspective social and economic
• Achieving Integration income differentials
  labour market access housing conditions social
  networks community interaction whilst
• Recognising differences and interdependences
• Focus on social networks and community
  interaction leads debate to Social capital
  (Networks, norms, trust, reciprocity)

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Social Cohesion Social Capital

• Implicit and explicit relationship well
  documented, and contested
• Tool to achieve or sub-set of cohesion? Societal
  or group level?
• Social Capital individual and group levels
  (i.e. networks)
• Social Cohesion General condition of society
  (networks may be exclusionary, thus high social
  capital but low levels of cohesion)
• Need to tackle social exclusion and cohesion in
  tandem

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Social cohesion and territorial capital
economic goals

• Business networks, customs, solidarity, mutual
  assistance, agglomeration economies and
  natural/cultural endowments
• Process by which social capital mobilised through
  R-U linkages integral to an areas territorial
  capital with economic goals of enhancing
  efficiency and productivity

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Measuring social cohesion

• Means-end and Pluralistic approaches
• Council of Europes multi-dimensional approach
• Equity in enjoyment of rights dignity
  recognition occupational and family development
  participation and commitment
• Half of indicators focussed broadly on social
  capital
• Chan et als two-by-two framework
• Horizontal cohesion within civil society
• Vertical State-citizen cohesion

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A Conceptual framework
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Operationalising social cohesion and rural-urban
linkages

• Labour market linkages
• Rural-urban migration
• Rural-urban partnership working

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Labour market linkages

• Division of labour supports dependence, supports
  social cohesion, thus labour market patterns and
  commuting important
• Research shows varying patterns of employment
  decentralisation and journey to work times
• Combining residential and employment land use
  will help support services, stocks of human and
  social capital
• Related to wider patterns of rural-urban migration

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Rural-urban Migration

• Patterns of rural-urban flows of human and social
  capital and implications for civil society
  differentiated and difficult to predict
• In-migration of urban professionals can create
  tensions but can add to civic vibrancy
• Out-migration from rural areas can lead to spiral
  of decline, although return migration can bring
  urban knowledge, skills and networks
• As a form of linkage, impacts of commuting are
  variable according to sector and distance

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Rural-urban partnership working

• Limited evidence indicates that a number of
  opportunities and barriers exist
• But that good practice can be sought
• To be examined in the context of the vignettes

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Discussion points

• Can we foster social cohesion through rural-urban
  linkages? Are rural-urban linkages special?
• Should we attempt to measure social/territorial
  cohesion derived from rural-urban linkages and if
  so how?
• Is there merit in considering social cohesion
  separately from the territorial agenda?

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Rural-Urban linkages do they foster cohesion?

• Ian Smith

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Discussion points

• Can we foster social cohesion through rural-urban
  linkages? Are rural-urban linkages special?
• Should we attempt to measure social/territorial
  cohesion derived from rural-urban linkages and if
  so how?
• Is there merit in considering social cohesion
  separately from the territorial agenda?

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Vignettes illustration

• How will we illustrate the issues?
• Seven vignettes in paper
• Inter-municipal partnership in Umeå, Sweden.
• NGO-driven work with disadvantaged urban youth
• Combined Universities in Cornwall
• Tackling out-migration by young people in the
  Pays Berry Saint Amandois
• Counteracting digital exclusion through broadband
  in Kuyavia-Pomerania
• Joining up public transport in the Prague
  metropolitan area
• Realignment of family protection and
  child-welfare service in Pécs micro-region
  (Hungary).

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Case vignettes
Inter-municipal partnership in Umeå
Implementing a Broadband Network in
Kuyavia-Pomerania
Social farming Netherlands
Imayla (NGO-led) social cohesion youth SW
England
Prague Integrated Transit System
Realignment of family protection and
child-welfare services, Pécs
Combined Universities in Cornwall
Tackling issues for young people Pays Berry
Saint-Amandois
Source of base map Wikipedia reproduced under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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What was being done?

• Infrastructure building
• Improving public services
• Training and employment
• Tackling social problems

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Creating social cohesion through experience

• Imayla creates learning environments for
  disadvantaged young people
• Young people from disadvantaged urban areas taken
  to experience rural environments (cohesion within
  group)
• Also social farming later
• Are rural-urban linkages special?

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Cohesion through improving public services

• Improving family support services in Pécs
  (Hungary)
• Re-organisation of service at city-region level
• Improved access, specialist service and quality
  control
• Are rural-urban linkages special?

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Propositions

• Proposition 1 cohesion outcomes of rural-urban
  linkages need to benefit both rural and urban
  communities
• Proposition 2 cohesion can be the unintended or
  secondary outcome of linkages
• Proposition 3 territorial and social cohesion
  are generally linked but they do not have to be
• Proposition 4 linkages are good for dealing with
  service deficits, migration issues, shared
  experiences

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Rural-Urban linkages do they foster cohesion?

• Some thoughts from our case vignettes

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Rural-Urban linkages how do you create them?

• Ian Smith

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Making rural-urban linkages

• Outline some key ideas
• What have we learnt from EU initiatives
• Vignette illustrations
• What you think

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Rural-Urban Partnerships

• Benefits/opportunities
• Reduced polarisation
• Ability to address regional issues
• Intelligence of local concerns at strategic level
• Inclusion of multiple stakeholders
• Increased global competitiveness
• Increased capacity to provide fiscal relief for
  revitalisation

• Challenges/constraints
• Political and cultural differences
• Difficulties in cross-collaboration and building
  trust
• Lack of regional policy frameworks and ambiguous
  structures
• Operational complexity of process
• Lack of resources
• Competition between local authorities

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Partnerships EU initiative experience

• Partnerships are important for problem
  identification and project delivery
• Partnership programmes need to be integrated and
  area-based
• Transfer of lessons at EU level important
• Partnerships need to be encouraged to be
  innovative

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Case vignettes
Inter-municipal partnership in Umeå
Implementing a Broadband Network in
Kuyavia-Pomerania
Social farming Netherlands
Imayla (NGO-led) social cohesion youth SW
England
Prague Integrated Transit System
Realignment of family protection and
child-welfare services, Pécs
Combined Universities in Cornwall
Tackling issues for young people Pays Berry
Saint-Amandois
Source of base map Wikipedia reproduced under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
33
Institutional structures in vignettes

• Voluntary local government associations (with and
  without incentives)
• Regional partnerships
• Non-governmental partnerships
• Partnerships for identifying priorities and
  partnerships for delivering projects

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Voluntary associations of municipalities

• Giving small rural authorities a voice the
  city-region of Umeå
• Umeå city region of 143,000 residents
• Voluntary association brings together 6
  municipalities to pool some resources this
  partnership identifies priorities
• Project partnerships take forward projects
  calling on EU co-finance
• Transferability? Probably good if have strong
  local government

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Non-governmental public partnership

• Providing HE for Cornwall Combined Universities
  in Cornwall
• 500,000 population of which 92 rural and small
  towns
• Partnership of 6 universities (independent public
  sector) comes together around accessing EU
  co-finance
• Provides HE courses
• Transferability? Depends on capacity of
  non-governmental sector

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Propositions

• Proposition 1 partnership is crucial in the
  delivery of rural-urban linkages both in terms
  of issue identification and project delivery
• Proposition 2 partnerships will probably mostly
  depend on local government but is not the only
  form of partnership
• Proposition 3 EU co-finance/support has been
  important in facilitating rural-urban linkage
• Proposition 4 lessons on partnership can be
  transferred across Europe

37
Rural-Urban linkages how do you create them?

• Some thoughts from our case vignettes