Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges: Transformation in Rural Space [1st ed.] 978-3-030-04392-6, 978-3-030-04393-3

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Rural Space Between Marginality and Centrality. Approaches to Marginality Issues in Rural Areas (Walter Leimgruber, Chang-yi David Chang)....Pages 3-14
Front Matter ....Pages 15-16
Impact of Rural Restructuring on the Time-Space Behavioural Patterns in a Marginal Area (Vladimír Ira)....Pages 17-29
Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital: A Case Study of Peripheral and Rural Microregions in Czechia (Miroslav Marada, Pavel Chromý, Vít Jančák, Tomáš Havlíček, Jan Pileček)....Pages 31-51
Rural Labour Markets and Peripherization Processes in Poland (Krystian Heffner)....Pages 53-71
The Role of Identity in Community Activities of Marginal Rural Areas (Hayeong Jeong, Kakuya Matsushima, Kiyoshi Kobayashi)....Pages 73-96
Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion in the Development Discourse: Case Studies of Microfinance Operations in Rural Bangladesh (Ai Sugie)....Pages 97-119
Front Matter ....Pages 121-122
Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam: Adaptation or Marginalisation for Ethnic Minorities? (Steve Déry, Maëva Lucas, Louis Boisclair)....Pages 123-146
The Influence of Globalization to Overcome Marginality in the Uco Valley of Mendoza, Argentina (Margarita Schmidt, Claudio Urra Coletti)....Pages 147-163
Advances in Marginality Studies in Southern Mendoza, Argentina (María Eugenia Cepparo)....Pages 165-176
Demographic and Economic Change in Small Towns in New Zealand and the Responses to Marginalisation (Etienne Nel, Teresa Stevenson)....Pages 177-189
Front Matter ....Pages 191-192
An Alternative Agricultural Space in an Indigenous Community: Kalala, Taiwan (Chiung-Wen Chang)....Pages 193-203
Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability of More Advanced Forestry Regions (Yasutaka Matsuo)....Pages 205-225
Urban Agriculture in Zambia (Tony Binns, Etienne Nel)....Pages 227-242
Front Matter ....Pages 243-244
The Role of Traditional Handicrafts in the Development of Rural Areas: The Case of Ribnica, Slovenia (Kristjan Nemac, Stanko Pelc)....Pages 245-262
Wind Farms in Champagne-Ardenne Region, an Assessment of the Acceptability and Local Governance Issues (Céline Burger)....Pages 263-275
Protected Areas and the Integration Process of Mountainous Areas in Mainland Southeast Asia: The Case of Luang Nam Tha, Lao PDR (Steve Déry, Lucie Dubé, Bakham Chanthavong)....Pages 277-306
Front Matter ....Pages 307-307
Perspectives of Rural Space (Chang-yi David Chang, Walter Leimgruber)....Pages 309-312

Citation preview

Perspectives on Geographical Marginality

Walter Leimgruber Chang-yi David Chang Editors

Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges Transformation in Rural Space

Perspectives on Geographical Marginality Volume 4

Series editors Walter Leimgruber, Fribourg, Switzerland Etienne Nel, Dunedin, New Zealand Stanko Pelc, Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia

This book series Perspectives on Geographical Marginality comprehensively overviews research, on areas and communities impacted by processes of marginalization as a result of globalization, economic, environmental, political and social change. This series seeks to discuss and determine what is geographical marginality by inviting leading international experts to publish theoretical and applied work. It also seeks to rigorously debate the degree to which local areas and communities are responding to these process of change and with what success. The series stems from the International Geographical Union’s (IGU), ‘Commission on Globalization, Marginalization, and Regional and Local Response’ (C12.29). As is suggested by its name, the commission researches the problem of geographical marginality offering a leading forum from which this series will be led. Marginality cannot be defined without putting it into a certain perspective: economic, political and social (including cultural). Marginality has to be clearly distinguished from peripherality. Marginal areas may be a part of periphery or even the centre, but “cannot really be attributed to them”. Proposed themes which will be covered include: • Mountainous regions and globalization; • Regional development and policy/or: Globalization and its impact on local and regional development; • Theory of marginalization; • Transformation of rural areas from the viewpoint of globalization and marginalization; • Drivers of marginalization in border and peripheral areas.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15046

Walter Leimgruber Chang-yi David Chang •

Editors

Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges Transformation in Rural Space

123

Editors Walter Leimgruber Department of Geosciences, Geography Unit University of Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland

Chang-yi David Chang Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts New Taipei City, Taiwan

ISSN 2367-0002 ISSN 2367-0010 (electronic) Perspectives on Geographical Marginality ISBN 978-3-030-04392-6 ISBN 978-3-030-04393-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961721 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

The rapid process of urbanization with an increasing concentration of populations, and the resulting loss of land and the many threats to rural environment justify to focus on people, processes and contributions to mankind in the rural areas. It is from the countryside that we still obtain most of our food (despite the contributions by urban agriculture, important on the local but irrelevant on the global scale), get electric energy, and regenerate our physical and psychic forces through all kinds of leisure activities. In recent years, rural space has also become a popular residential destination for urban dwellers who are seeking peace and quiet in a quasi-natural environment, who may even be seeking their roots because their parents or grandparents had left the countryside to follow the appeal of the town. For a long time, rural areas and their population led a marginal life and in popular perception were backward regions whose only benefit lay in the reservoir of young people that would eventually migrate to cities. It is not quite clear what brought about a change in attitude. The economic boom in the second half of the twentieth century was characterized by a considerable drain of people and resources. Industrial agriculture transformed large swathes of land into schematic landscapes where any ‘disturbing’ elements (small streams, hedges, individual old trees, etc.) were eliminated to make way for a rational cultivation of fields. The indiscriminate application of synthetic fertilizers and all kinds of pesticides resulted in a steady degradation of the environment: soils became contaminated, the wildlife disappeared, and both surface and groundwater became gradually polluted. However, we have become aware of these problems, and things began to change in the last decades of the twentieth century. It has been the work of the scientific community as well as of many NGOs active in nature protection that managed to influence public perception. Rural areas have gradually obtained a more positive image, as spaces of production as well as of residence for exurbanites. The ecological movement has gained ground, and insight into the environmental damages and their long-term consequences has reached politics. The renaturation of rivers and small streams, the replanting of hedges in the fields, and reforestations across the world are the visible signs of a change in attitude. Also, agriculture is undergoing a value shift, from purely exploitative to caring through farming in harmony v

vi

Preface

with nature. Rural space and nature are no longer seen as playing a marginal role in our society but have become the centre of attention. This volume illustrates the many facets of rural space: people, processes, products and perspectives. It is built on previously unpublished papers originally delivered during a number of conferences of the IGU Commission on Globalization, Marginalization and Regional and Local Response. They contain materials from original field research and have been revised and updated. A few cases include longer term observations that allow us to observe certain processes based on well-defined data over a certain time. We would like to thank all authors for their efforts to prepare their manuscripts for this publication, and the staff at Springer for their excellent work in publishing this book. Fribourg, Switzerland New Taipei City, Taiwan

Walter Leimgruber Chang-yi David Chang

Contents

Part I 1

Rural Space Between Marginality and Centrality. Approaches to Marginality Issues in Rural Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walter Leimgruber and Chang-yi David Chang

Part II 2

3

4

5

6

Introduction 3

People

Impact of Rural Restructuring on the Time-Space Behavioural Patterns in a Marginal Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vladimír Ira Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital: A Case Study of Peripheral and Rural Microregions in Czechia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miroslav Marada, Pavel Chromý, Vít Jančák, Tomáš Havlíček and Jan Pileček

17

31

Rural Labour Markets and Peripherization Processes in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Krystian Heffner

53

The Role of Identity in Community Activities of Marginal Rural Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hayeong Jeong, Kakuya Matsushima and Kiyoshi Kobayashi

73

Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion in the Development Discourse: Case Studies of Microfinance Operations in Rural Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ai Sugie

97

vii

viii

Contents

Part III

Transformation Processes

7

Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam: Adaptation or Marginalisation for Ethnic Minorities? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Steve Déry, Maëva Lucas and Louis Boisclair

8

The Influence of Globalization to Overcome Marginality in the Uco Valley of Mendoza, Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Margarita Schmidt and Claudio Urra Coletti

9

Advances in Marginality Studies in Southern Mendoza, Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 María Eugenia Cepparo

10 Demographic and Economic Change in Small Towns in New Zealand and the Responses to Marginalisation . . . . . . . . . . 177 Etienne Nel and Teresa Stevenson Part IV

Primary Activities

11 An Alternative Agricultural Space in an Indigenous Community: Kalala, Taiwan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Chiung-Wen Chang 12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability of More Advanced Forestry Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Yasutaka Matsuo 13 Urban Agriculture in Zambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Tony Binns and Etienne Nel Part V

Towards a Multifunctional Rural Space

14 The Role of Traditional Handicrafts in the Development of Rural Areas: The Case of Ribnica, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Kristjan Nemac and Stanko Pelc 15 Wind Farms in Champagne-Ardenne Region, an Assessment of the Acceptability and Local Governance Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 Céline Burger

Contents

ix

16 Protected Areas and the Integration Process of Mountainous Areas in Mainland Southeast Asia: The Case of Luang Nam Tha, Lao PDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Steve Déry, Lucie Dubé and Bakham Chanthavong Part VI

Conclusion

17 Perspectives of Rural Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Chang-yi David Chang and Walter Leimgruber

Contributors

Tony Binns University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Louis Boisclair Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada Céline Burger Laboratory HABITER, Reims Champagne-Ardenne University, Reims, France María Eugenia Cepparo Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina Chang-yi David Chang National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taipei, Taiwan Chiung-Wen Chang National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan Bakham Chanthavong Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos, Vientiane, Laos Pavel Chromý Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Steve Déry Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada Lucie Dubé Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada Tomáš Havlíček Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Krystian Heffner University of Economics, Katowice, Poland Vladimír Ira Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia Vít Jančák Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Hayeong Jeong Kyungnam University, Changwon, South Korea Kiyoshi Kobayashi Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Walter Leimgruber University of Fribourg/CH, Fribourg, Switzerland

xi

xii

Contributors

Maëva Lucas Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada Miroslav Marada Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Yasutaka Matsuo Senshu University, Tokyo, Japan Kakuya Matsushima Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Etienne Nel University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Kristjan Nemac Science and Research Centre Koper, Koper, Slovenia Stanko Pelc Faculty of Education, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia Jan Pileček Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Margarita Schmidt Instituto de Geografía, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina Teresa Stevenson University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Ai Sugie Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan Claudio Urra Coletti Instituto de Geografía, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

List of Figures

Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2

Fig. 3.1 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.1

Fig. 4.2 Fig. 4.3 Fig. 4.4 Fig. 4.5 Fig. 4.6

Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3

The urban–rural continuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The economic value of biodiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cultural diversity and its economic value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Location of the study area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Population development of Lom nad Rimavicou, 1869–2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Czechia: Location of model areas (MAMO administrative districts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model of measurement of collective social capital . . . . . . . . . Membership of associations according to regional levels . . . . Confidence in selected entities (persons and institutions) . . . . General satisfaction with life in municipality . . . . . . . . . . . . . Poland: the voivodeships with urban municipalities above 50,000 inhabitants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Population of rural municipalities in general: change in number of inhabitants, 2004–2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working age population of rural municipalities: change in number of inhabitants in working age, 2004–2015 . . . . . . Unemployment in rural municipalities. change in number of unemployed inhabitants, 2004–2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total net migration in rural municipalities, 2004–2014 (mean: 178 persons per municipality) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Average registrations abroad (foreign migration) in rural municipalities 2004–2014 (mean: 3 persons per municipality) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Location of Nichinan in Tottori Prefecture, Japan . . . . . . . . . Population changes in Nichinan town 1960–2015 . . . . . . . . . Comparison of population (inner circle) and sample (outer circle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .

4 8 10 21

..

22

. . . . .

. . . . .

36 44 45 46 47

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54

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56

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57

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58

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62

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63 79 80

..

81

. . . .

xiii

xiv

List of Figures

Fig. 5.4 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9

Fig. 5.10 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

5.11 5.12 5.13 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

7.3 7.4 8.1 8.2 8.3

Fig. 9.1 Fig. 10.1 Fig. 10.2

Fig. 10.3

Fig. 11.1 Fig. 11.2 Fig. 12.1 Fig. 12.2

Distribution of place of birth, place of residence, and work location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residence place and age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residence place and occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Years of residence and place attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The status of participation in community activities . . . . . . . . . . Residence years and place attachment of ‘sub-regional meeting’ activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cross-analysis of community activities and place attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Covariance structure model of identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Years of residence and place of birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Covariance structure of identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The study area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organizational structures of MFIs in the study area . . . . . . . . . . Vietnam, relief, hydrography and cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a Vietnam, urban population (rate by province), 1995; b Vietnam, urban population (rate by province), 2010. . . . . . . . Lâm Đồng, land use in 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lâm Đồng, Land Use 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Uco Valley (Mendoza, Argentina) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expansion of the Central Oasis 1988–2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Progressive expansion of the cultivated area in the Uco Valley 1988–2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The study area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Zealand: Annualised population change in the urban centres: 2001–2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing aggregate business numbers in rural service centres (in Canterbury and Otago/Southland in all centres with more or less than 2000 people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing aggregate business numbers in tourism, commuting, resource and industrial towns in Canterbury and Otago/Southland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Location map of Kalala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A change of interactional structure among agents . . . . . . . . . . . History of land taxation epochs and epoch-making determinants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Two types of the combination of mountain communities. I: premises and fields, II: inner forest (household’s holding), III: nearer outer forest (originally community’s direct holding), IV: remoter outer forest (originally community’s direct holding) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

82 83 83 85 86 86 87 88 90 93 103 105 126 132 135 137 149 152 153 166 183

185

185 197 201 207

209

List of Figures

Fig. 12.3 Fig. 12.4 Fig. 12.5 Fig. 12.6 Fig. 12.7 Fig. 12.8 Fig. 12.9 Fig. 13.1 Fig. 14.1 Fig. 14.2 Fig. 14.3 Fig. 14.4

Fig. 14.5 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

15.1 15.2 15.3 16.1 16.2 16.3

Historical Forestry Regions in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Areal differentiation of government-owned forest . . . . . . . . . Change in total log and timber production and the fall of share of Nara’s timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a Change in the area of afforested forest. b Change in the share between replanting and expanding planting . . . . Prefectures of Japan and prefectural code numbers . . . . . . . . Prices of standing trees and logs and the transaction volume of logs, Yoshino forestry region in Nara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yoshino forestry region, Nara (29) and population change of three municipalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zambia and the Copperbelt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Map of the “Woodenwareland” area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spatial distribution of traditional handicrafts in Slovenia in 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional wooden plates and a woodenware bouquet “Ribniški pušeljc” made by Anton Govže . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Franc Jaklič’s Workshop. Years ago, the workshop was open to tourists and Jaklič demonstrated the manufacture of a vessel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janko Marinč shows children how to make hazel “Vitre” used for weaving baskets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wind farms studies in Champagne-Ardennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . Decisions making-process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapelle-Vallon wind farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia, 2005 . . . . . . . . . Luang Nam Tha province in Laos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A model of integration and marginalisation after the creation of a protected area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

xv

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211 212

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213

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214 218

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219

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220 233 247

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251

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257

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259

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

260 265 267 270 285 290

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300

List of Tables

Table Table Table Table

1.1 2.1 3.1 3.2

Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 4.1 Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table Table Table Table Table

5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 6.1

Table 6.2 Table 6.3 Table 6.4 Table 6.5 Table 6.6 Table 6.7

Traits of urban and rural spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Activities and changing time-use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overview of selected definitions of term social capital . . . . . . Relationship between selected forms of social capital (SC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selected characteristics of model regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selected data for sample of respondents of questionnaire survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professional activity in Poland’s rural areas associated with farm households (population aged 15 years and older) . . . . . . Survey outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Principal component analysis of values and beliefs concerning the town and neighboring residents . . . . . . . . . . . . Classification of community activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary of variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cluster analysis of villages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Structural equation modeling and identity values . . . . . . . . . . Change of interest rate at sources in 62 sample villages in Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Basic information of MFIs providing services in Jubok and Tobra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of households by size class of holdings in Jubok and Tobra (in %) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Educational level of the population aged five years and above in Jubok and Tobra (in %) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Occupational composition of the working population in Jubok and Tobra (in %) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of households belonging to MFIs in Jubok . . . . . Distribution of members by membership period to MFIs in Jubok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 26 37 38 40 43 64 80 84 87 89 91 92 100 104 106 107 108 109 109

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List of Tables

Table 6.8 Table 6.9 Table 6.10 Table 7.1 Table 7.2 Table 7.3 Table 7.4 Table 7.5 Table 7.6

Table 7.7 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Table 12.1 Table 12.2 Table 12.3 Table 12.4 Table 13.1 Table Table Table Table

13.2 13.3 16.1 16.2

Table 16.3 Table 16.4 Table 16.5 Table 17.1

Uses for Loans from MFIs in Jubok and Tobra (multiple answers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of members by belonging period to MFIs in Tobra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of households by belonging to MFIs in Tobra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Population of Vietnam during the last four censuses plus 2016, and average growth rates per decade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evolution of the demographic weight per region in Vietnam, 1995–2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vietnam. Cultivated areas by culture, 1990–2010 . . . . . . . . . . Vietnam. Exportation of products from agriculture, forestry and fishing, 1995–2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vietnam. Urban population, 1995–2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lạc Dương district, communes adjacent to Bi Ðoup-Núi Bà National Park: Total and agricultural surfaces, population density, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Characteristics of Ðà Lạt peripheral communes, 2004 . . . . . . . Urban change by size category and local government areas: New Zealand 1981–2013. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aggregate population change in key categories of Canterbury and Otago/Southland Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Change in rank of standing cedar tree price from 1997 to 2010 and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient . . . Change in rank of standing cypress tree price from 1997 to 2010 and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient . . . Decrease in local forest managers in Kawakami village . . . . . Business conditions of the timber enterprise “Kawakami Sapuri” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Incidences of urban and peri-urban agriculture in households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Employment status of household heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Economic sphere of employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agriculture and forest areas according to various sources, Laos, 1965–2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Villages located inside or within a five kilometres radius of Nam Ha National Biodiversity Conservation Area, 2001 . . . . Luang Nam Tha, area of rice production according to the type of cultivation, 1976–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Establishment of the thirteen villages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Functions of the rural space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

110 112 113 128 129 131 131 133

140 141 182 184 216 217 222 223 234 237 237 284 287 292 295 297 309

Part I

Introduction

Chapter 1

Rural Space Between Marginality and Centrality. Approaches to Marginality Issues in Rural Areas Walter Leimgruber and Chang-yi David Chang

1.1 Introduction: The Limits of a Binary Perspective We usually discuss rural areas from our northern perspective as the opposite to urban areas. Town and countryside are two distinct entities, and there is a general belief that the future of humanity lies with cities, as is illustrated by the growing number of urban dwellers. Currently, about 4 billion people live in cities worldwide, i.e. more than 55% of the global population (United Nations 2015, p. 7). The corollary is that rural areas are perceived as being marginal, of secondary importance, off the urbandefined normal way of life—we are confronted with a kind of marginality in the mind. It is true that many people living in the countryside do not necessarily profit of all amenities of urban spaces, but this is essentially a matter of perception: are the so-called benefits of the town truly real or not often imagined, are rural areas really simply backward? As so often, the truth lies somewhere in the middle between the extremes. In a book series with the general topic of marginality, we have to focus on this key term in order to understand the urban–rural dichotomy. We usually define marginality from a purely materialist (i.e. quantitative) point of view, which emphasizes differences in calculable indicators such as income or productivity. However, with such an approach we do not take the qualitative assets of rural space and rural ways of life into

W. Leimgruber (B) University of Fribourg/CH, Fribourg, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] C. D. Chang National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] C. D. Chang Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taipei, Taiwan © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_1

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account, i.e. the immaterial side of life.1 Also, our perspective stems from a simple binary view (thinking in two extremes) that opposes the countryside to the town. It is rooted in the core-periphery theory, which plays an important role in the definition of marginal regions and is characterized by the attitude ‘either–or’, an exclusive rather than an inclusive way of thinking. It does not consider a possible transition between the two, although we know how difficult it is to draw the limit between good and bad or, in our case, between town and countryside. When we look deeper, we have to change our view, particularly when we add ecological considerations to our reflexions, such as renewability of resources, species and cultural diversity. In this case, marginality and centrality become very relative concepts. From an ecological perspective, nature becomes central to human survival, and humans (culture) are only marginal (Leimgruber 1994, p. 9 f.), although not negligible. There are other traps into which we tend to fall. When studying rural areas, we tend to emphasize primary production, as opposed to secondary and tertiary activities that characterize urban space. Agriculture is the most typical rural activity, but there are others: horticulture, forestry, mining and quarrying. Besides, there are many different crafts that serve these various sectors, and not all transformations of raw materials are located in towns and cities. Finally, many essential services have been and are also found in rural areas. The rural space offers definitely more than farming. This simple dichotomy between rural and urban space has for quite some time given way to a more differentiated view. Since nobody can say with any precision where the countryside ends and the townscape begins, it is realistic speak of a continuum between town and country: they merge into each other, and it is very difficult to draw a clear line between them. The debate around it goes back to the 1960s (Bull et al. 1984, p. 15), but it was Kirk (1980) who provided us with a convincing illustration of how rural and urban traits (or ways of life) penetrate each other (Fig. 1.1). These traits include ecological, economic as well as social factors, going well beyond physiognomic characteristics (Table 1.1).

Fig. 1.1 The urban–rural continuum (Source Kirk 1980)

Rurban transiƟon zone Urban way of life

1 The

same holds good for the definitions of rich or poor, for example.

Rural way of life

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Table 1.1 Traits of urban and rural spaces (Source Kirk 1980, p. 13, modified) Rural traits Urban traits 1. Agricultural activities dominant 2. Labour intensive systems

1. Commercial-industrial service activities dominant 2. Capital intensive systems

3. Infrequent cash transactions

3. Frequent cash transactions

4. Competition less intense

4. Competition more intense

5. Retail establishments less specialized

5. Retail establishments more specialized

6. Primary groups dominant

6. Secondary groups dominant

7. Strong community networks

7. Few or no community networks

8. Social mobility restricted

8. Social mobility less restricted

9. Seasonal routines dominant

9. Daily routines dominant

10. Residence and workplace close

10. Residence and workplace separate

11. Small amount of time spent in travel

11. Considerable amount of time spent in travel

12. Stress situations fewer and more irregular

12. Stress situations more frequent and regular

13. Politically conservative and passive

13. Politically radical and active

14. Low literacy requirements

14. High literacy requirements

15. Adolescent yearnings for town life

15. Adult yearnings for rural life

16. Organic, irregular environment

16. Inorganic, geometric environments

17. Quiet

17. Noisy

18. Landscape changes few and usually gradual 18. Landscape changes many and often abrupt 19. Diffuse leisure activities 20. Food partly subsistence based

19. Focussed leisure activities 20. Food purchased in shops

21. Individual transport dominant

21. Public transport dominant

Kirk renounces the statistical trap and focuses on the dominance of certain expressions of ways of life of the respective populations, i.e. he prefers a qualitative approach. The list in Table 1.1, from which the model in Fig. 1.1 has been developed, illustrates that there is not a straightforward polarity but that urban and rural traits ‘thin out’ in space before disappearing (almost) entirely. How radical this fading is in reality, is subject to debate. Three points must be borne in mind when examining it: 1. It is not exhaustive and the individual traits must not be taken as absolute. Kirk’s 19 traits offer a well-balanced selection to illustrate the differences; we have added two more: ways to procure food (trait 20) and transportation (trait 21). 2. The pairs are listed as binary in the sense of black/white or either/or. In real life, there is no total polarization but a gradual fading, and the extremes merge in a transition zone. Urban and rural land uses mix in the complex rurban fringe (Coleman and Catling 1982). 3. The world is in constant transformation, and a lot has changed since Kirk published his ideas. There have been changes in almost all traits. By way of example, we can look at the following: rural activities are less labour and more capital intensive than in former times (trait 2); in the case of literacy (trait 14) the digital revolution has also conquered the countryside; the countryside exercises a growing attraction for townspeople (trait 15) with families increasingly exchanging

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city-life for rural areas; in the production of food (trait 20) there is a rising tendency for urban farming, mirroring a longing for rural life. In the past decades, the differences between rural and urban traits have become smaller, although some pairs can be seen as more resilient to change than others (e.g. trait 18 about the environment). Agriculture is not the sole prerogative of rural areas. It has quite a tradition in cities as well. In Europe, the allotment garden movement started in the 19th century and continues until today. Bee keeping in cities and cultivating rooftop gardens began in the late 20th century, and so did the idea of vertical farming that uses skyscrapers to produce vegetables. Developed by the ecologist Dickson Despommier in 1999 (Venkataraman 2008), this seducing project faces many obstacles, not the least of which is the energy required (Bomford 2010). Urban farming has also been traditionally practised in African and Asian cities (Lee et al. 2010; Binns and Nel in this book), where it is sometimes even promoted by local authorities (Nel and Binns 2010, p. 63). The latest trends in urban farming are the use of empty spaces in cities for farming, such as bomb shelters from World War II in London (Rodionova 2017) or disaffected underground parkings in Paris (Gaitzsch 2018)—made possible thanks to alternative energy and LED technology. And finally, the greening of large roofs (e.g. warehouses or factories) could also hold a farming potential. Such projects represent an ecological approach by serving local customers with locally produced organic food, if possible through direct sale or by using bicycles for transport (http:// cycloponics.co; Accessed May 05, 2018). Similarly, while rural areas were characterized by low literacy requirements as opposed to high skills demanded in towns, things have changed in this respect too, and digital technology has entered the farming world nowadays, in the North as well as in the South (see below in the section on marginality). Computer programmes assist farmers in feeding (individual fodder ration according to a cow’s age and weight) and milking (standardized quantity of milk extracted), for example. The term ‘industrial agriculture’ illustrates the high degree to which a previously urban practice has now penetrated the countryside, including the geometric environment of large-sized fields. The confrontation between rural and urban spaces in Table 1.1 therefore simplifies a much more complex present-day reality. Under current circumstances, it is therefore no longer appropriate to see the rural space (particularly agriculture) as marginal,2 at least in the North. The situation is still different in countries of the South, where the primary sector dominates, smallholders still prevail over large-scale industrial agriculture, and urban life is a major aspiration for people in the countryside. However, the difference is not always very pronounced. In Assam (India), for example, the “bond between the rural and urban areas” (Sharma 2012) continues to be very strong, and “mainstream Assamese in the Brahmaputra 2 Marginal

carries with it a negative connotation. Characterizing rural areas as marginal comes therefore close to an offense to those inhabitants who supply their urban fellow humans with food and all other raw materials. They work hard to produce all sorts of goods that we need for physical and social survival—from this perspective they are not marginal at all but occupy a key position in the world.

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Valley prefer a rural lifestyle even while maintaining urban links” (ibid). However, large plantations (oil palms, rubber trees, soya fields, tea, stock rearing) and, more recently, land grabbing (the acquisition “by transnational corporations, investment funds, government agencies and other buyers” of “long-term leases or outright title to farmland, savannas and forests across Asia, Africa and Latin America.”; Lazarus 2014, p. 74) have been marking the arrival of industrial-scale profit-oriented primary activities in certain parts of the world and an increasing globalization of agriculture. Land grabbing can even be seen as a sort of neo-colonialism, although most purchases are made through legal channels.3 These examples show that alongside small farmers working for self-sufficiency, also nature has been marginalized; modern human activity in rural areas is directed towards the global market and profit. We tend to overlook indigenous populations who traditionally live in rural areas. They are “distinct peoples, with their own languages, cultures and territories, who have lived in a country since times prior to the formation of the current nations state” … and suffer from “structural threats in relation to access to their resources and defence of their lives and cultures.” (Gray 1999, p. 61). Since Europeans colonized the world they have been systematically marginalized. Their land was seized and they were either exterminated or driven into less fertile regions with which they had no spiritual attachment and that barely sufficed to guarantee their livelihood. Such practices of suppression continue until today when the needs of the industrialized society weigh more than the needs of the natives of the land and of the land itself. It is true that in many countries compensations are nowadays being made, but the current situation of fixed landownership cannot be reversed to the time before colonization. Australian Aborigines, for example, can rarely return to their homelands lest alone to their sacred sites (Scott 2001, p. 261), although progress has been achieved in this context.4 Tribes in the Amazon region have been removed “from the forest areas they still occupy [and that] are targeted for mining and hydroelectric dams.” (López 2004, p. 149). And sedentarized nomads will conflict with the mainstream society (Meir 1999).

1.2 The Assets of the Rural Space In the first section, we mentioned that we tend to overlook the (qualitative) assets of rural space when applying merely statistical or materialistic standards to the definition of marginality. If we define marginal as being “at the edge of a system, but … not … outside the system” (Leimgruber 2012), we must remember that also the rural space is a (sub)system, just as urban space. 3 This

is, of course, a simplification. Land grabbing is a much more complicated process, but I cannot enter into this debate here. See Borras and Franco (2012), Moyo (2012, p. 32 f.) and Rullo et al. (2013) for details. 4 Problems persist, as the co-existence of native land titles and pastoral leases (for ‘white’ settlers) is controversial and concerns “the overall treatment of the Aboriginal population” (Cullen 2003, p. 142).

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Indeed, the rural space has a wide range of assets that are fundamental for mankind. One usually refers first and foremost to the material (physical) side with food and all kinds of raw materials (biological and mineral), but we must not forget drinking water and clean air, essential for urban populations. However, we must also consider the non-material side. Families from cities do not migrate to the countryside for these resources alone. They are interested in improving their quality of life, particularly landscape and nature, less pollution, a less hectic way of life etc. Buying local food from shops and farmers is an additional bonus, to say nothing of the possibility to grow one’s own fruit and vegetable. Such benefits cannot be calculated in money terms alone. Besides, rural areas hold another unquantifiable asset that is essential for the survival of mankind: biological diversity. We have become aware of it in recent decades only, certainly since the publication of the Brundtland report (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987), and since Rio 1992 it figures in most political programmes. Biological diversity is not only key to the natural ecosystem, it has also economic and cultural values. Edwards and Abivardi (1998) identify material (use) and immaterial (non-use) values (Fig. 1.2).

Fig. 1.2 The economic value of biodiversity (Source Edwards and Abivardi 1998, p. 241)

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The natural environment exists thanks to biological diversity, a fact well known to countless indigenous populations across the globe, a simple fact that our Western civilization has gradually forgotten. It saw the natural ecosystem as an endless supplier of primary products (and a patient receiver of all our waste). Indigenous peoples, on the other hand, have always been fully aware of the relationships between nature and humans (UNEP 1999), and know how vital an intact environment is. Biodiversity has been of a major concern in the Millennium Development Goals (UN Millennium Project 2005), and figures in Goal 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals (15.4, 15.5, and 15.9).5 The conservation of agro-biodiversity, along with sustainable soil and water management have also for many years been the goal of efforts by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC 2007) as well as innumerable other (private) development agencies. Biodiversity as we know it in our present time is simply one stage in a log-term process of change (Lovelock 2006, p. 42). It varies according to the dynamics of climate over time. While climate change in the past has been relatively slow (due to the absence of humans), following the rhythm of nature, the presence of human actors with a rapidly changing technology and appropriation of land (i.e. land use change) tends to change the current climate and the associated biodiversity at an unprecedented pace. Diversity is the opposite to monotony, and it is “the characteristics of nature and the basis of ecological stability” (Shiva 1993, p. 65). As such it guarantees not only variety and difference, but also long-term survival of the entire world. Agricultural practice can, for example, use intercropping (mixing various crops on a determined plot of land) to prevent the spread of pests and avoid the use of pesticides. A similar effect can be obtained by crop rotation: “Since many pests are specific to particular plants, planting crops in different seasons and different years causes large reductions in pest populations.” (ibid., p. 75). Farmers have known about the significance of diversity to sustain food production and adapt to changes in agriculture (Gotor et al. 2017, p. 878). An additional advantage is the maintenance of soil fertility because different plants use different nutrients. In turn, this can lead to a reduction of fertilizer input. While biological diversity is an obvious (rational) requirement for primary activities, rural areas also offer cultural diversity. It may be dismissed as emotional and of no commercial value, but there is also a rational side to it, which can be economically relevant (Fig. 1.3). It is true that its monetary value is difficult to determine, but I doubt that this aspect is the only valid one in life (Leimgruber 2004b, p. 30). The benefits of cultural diversity are of an indirect nature and cannot be directly translated into money terms, but they are of a sustainable nature. Every problem requires its own solution, and diversity in thinking may reveal a variety of solutions that would not turn up if one only thought along one specific line—it is organic thinking (Wood 1987), typical for geographers. The free exchange of ideas can enhance our thinking, promote our creativity and result in innovations, as the Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development explicitly stated (Perez de 5 “Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably man-

age forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” (UN General Assembly 2014, p. 10).

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Fig. 1.3 Cultural diversity and its economic value (Source Leimgruber 2004b, p. 31)

Cuellar 1996, p. 79 f.). There are positive effects for enterprises, encouraging “a creative and flexible organizational culture that facilitates organizational innovation and change, which in turn produces economic and social benefits.” (Cho et al. 2017, p. 201). Therefore, farmers as the main representatives of the rural space are not just recipients of state subsidies but perform a variety of noble tasks for humans. Many people profit of rural tourism, of products they can purchase on farms, and enjoy the possibility to meet the producers of their daily food and observe their work. It is these immaterial aspects that are the true assets of rural areas.

1.3 Defining Marginality From this perspective, rural space is not marginal at all. The definition of marginality itself is an illustration of (conceptual) diversity. The term is very broad and comprises geometrical, ecological, economic, social, political, and ethical aspects (Leimgruber 1994). Also, it is related to scale and context and is a question of perspective (Leimgruber 2004a, p. 37; Gurung and Kollmair 2007, Schmidt 2007). Because of the character of nature and humans (Leimgruber 2004a, pp. 41 ff.), it is rare that a region (or an individual, a group, a society) will be permanently marginal. Every person, group, society or region is subject to change over time. In our research on marginality we conventionally use statistical data to illustrate our point. Measuring marginality can be done through a variety of indicators, and they are usually selected to examine a specific question, i.e. they are not objective. In the case of rural space, the dichotomy town—countryside usually guides our reflections.

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There are, however, two key problems that must be considered: first, how objective or subjective is the issue we want to identify as ‘marginal’, and second, which is our point of reference (the statistical threshold value, the ‘red line’) beyond which a region is defined as marginal. In addition, we have to consider the spatial scale (country, province, valley or region) at which we study marginality, as well as the time dimension. In less affluent countries the contrast between town and countryside is still significant. Rural areas are often marginalized when it comes to drinking water supply (UNDP 2015, p. 4), sanitation (ibid., p. 59), access to health services (ibid., p. 67) or access to the products of the digital revolution (ibid., p. 7). However, rural areas are quickly adapting to new information technology. Mobile phones, for example, have rapidly conquered rural areas. “In Ethiopia farmers use mobile phones to check coffee prices. In Saudi Arabia farmers use wireless technology to distribute scarce irrigated water for wheat cultivation. In some villages in Bangladesh, female entrepreneurs use their phones to provide paid services for neighbours.” (ibid., p. 10).6 And the Agri-Fin Mobile project of the Swiss Development Agency is providing smallholder farmers in Indonesia, Uganda and Zimbabwe with access to financial services (SDC 2018). These countries have simply moved directly from face-to-face communication to the latest products by the digital revolution, bypassing the ordinary telephone connections via (non-existent) landlines. The farmers in Ethiopia or Saudi Arabia (but also in many other countries) or the women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh (or elsewhere) are no longer marginal people from this perspective, although they may lack access to drinking water and parts of their countries may still be struck by poverty. The technical means at least lift them out of isolation and open new perspectives. Classing a region or a country as marginal has an influence on how it is perceived by others. Quantitative indicators may be practical and facilitate comparison, but they do not do justice to the people in the respective countries. Marginality is not simply a statistical fact; it has much more to do with the quality of life, people’s feelings, hopes, and wishes, to say nothing of the political system. Marginality also occurs in people’s minds, and it is often associated with negative feelings, a point not to be underrated. The definitions of marginality comprise various elements (see e.g. Gurung and Kollmair 2007): structure and process, exclusion and discrimination, the societal and the spatial dimension, the scales of observation and of occurrence, vulnerability, poverty, and others. But marginality is not absolute and finite but relative and subject to change, always dependent on a point of reference. There is a process we call demarginalization. Also, there are not just the two categories ‘marginal’ and ‘not marginal’ but there is a continuum from less to more marginality (Aru and Puttilli 2014, p. 7). 6 Sub-Saharan

Africa registered 71.1 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people in 2014 (UNDP 2015, Table 15, p. 265), well below world average (96.2) or the OECD mean (110.4). However, they are catching up fast: 2009–2014 the number increased by 111.5%, more than twice world and OECD averages (+50% and +9.7% respectively). The UNDP sees them as important elements in rural development and for agriculture (ibid., p. 89).

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Marginality is relative to a norm or standard, and it is usually the centre that fixes the norms (i.e. the dominating individuals or groups) and imposes them on the periphery and the margins (Pfirsch 2014, p. 114). Such norms are socially (culturally) defined and are purely subjective. Even a statistical definition of a marginal region is based on the subjective choice of indicators and threshold values. But what happens if the value of a region lies just below or above the limit? Is the value wrong or the region? Can we solve this problem by simply adjusting the threshold? Marginality is a social concept and not necessarily tied to humans only. It can also be found in animal societies, as the pecking order among chicken or the eating order among certain predators illustrate. The marking of territorial boundaries in the animal world, creates margins just as when we humans draw political borders.

1.4 Final Remarks The rural world is of fundamental importance for both humans and nature, and it is therefore not marginal at all. It provides vital ecosystem services (a term like the notion of assets that mirrors economic thinking) and is an important Lebensraum. The chapters in this volume demonstrate the vitality of rural regions. Despite difficulties, they are finding their way in the modern world and are undergoing permanent restructuring processes. They are adapting to urban lifestyles as well as to the challenges of a globalized world, and they also keep abreast of technological development.

References Aru, S., & Puttilli, M. (2014). Formi, spazi e tempi di marginalità. Un itinerario concettuale, Bollettina della Società Geografica Italiana, Serie XIII, vol VII, fascicolo 1, pp. 5–16. Bomford, M. (2010). Energy and vertical farms. Energy Farms (December 2, 2010). https://energyfarms.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/energy-and-vertical-farms/. Accessed January 31, 2017. Borras, S. M., Jr., & Franco, J. C. (2012). Global land grabbing and trajectories of agrrian change: A preliminary analysis. Journal of Agrarian Change, 12(1), 34–59. Bull, C., Daniel, P., & Hopkinson, M. (1984). The geography of rural resources. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Cho, S., Kim, A., & Mor Barak, M. E. (2017). Does diversity matter? Explorying workforce diversity, diversity management, and organizational performance in social enterprises. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 11, 193–204. Coleman, A., & Catling, S. (1982). Patterns on the map: 1. Introductory handbook. Sheffield: The Geographical Association. Cullen, B. (2003). Management of Western Australia’s land: Who is in charge? In Leimgruber W., Majoral R. and Lee C.-W. (Es. 2003): Policies and strategies in marginal regions. Summary and evaluations, Aldershot, Ashgate, (pp. 138–148). Edwards, P. J., & Abivardi, C. (1998). The value of biodiversity: Where ecology and economy blend. Biological Conservation, 83(3), 239–246.

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Gaitzsch, S. (2018). Une ferme souterraine en plein Paris. Un start-up a investi und ancien parking pour cultiver endives, champignons et jeunes pousses, La Liberté (Fribourg/CH), 4 mai 2018, p. 33. Gotor, E., Bellon, A., Polar, V., & Caracciolo, F. (2017). Assessing the benefits of Andean crop diversity on farmers’ livelihood: Insights from a development programme in Bolivia and Peru. Journal of International Development, 29, 877–898. Gray, A. (1999). Indigenous peoples, their environments and territories. Introduction. In UNEP 1999 (pp. 61–66). Gurung, G. S., & Kollmair, M. (2007). Marginality: Concepts and their limitations, NCCR NorthSouth Dialogue, 12. Bern, Switzerland, NCCR North-South (first published 2005). Kirk, W. (1980). The rural-urban continuum: Perception and reality. In G. Enyedi & J. Mézaróz (Eds.), Development of settlement systems, Studies in Geography in Hungary (Vol. 15, pp. 11–19). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Lazarus, E. D. (2014). Land grabbing as a driver of environmental change. Area, 46(1), 74–82. Lee, B., Binns, T., & Dixon, A. (2010). The dynamics of urban agriculture in Hanoi, Vietnam. In: W. Leimgruber, E. Nel, Y. Matsuo, T. Binns, R. Chand, B. Cullen, D. Lynch, & P. K. Pradhan (Eds.), Geographical marginality as a global issue (Vol. 5, pp. 41–51, CD-Rom). Dunedin, New Zealand: Department of Geography, University of Otago. Leimgruber W. (1994), Marginality and marginal regions: Problems of definition. In: C. D. Chang (Ed.), Marginality and development issues in marginal regions. Proceedings of the IGU Study Group ‘Development issues in marginal regions’ (pp. 1–18). Taipei: National Taiwan University. Leimgruber, W. (2004a). Between global and local. Marginality and marginal regions in the context of globalization and deregulation. Ashgate: Aldershot. Leimgruber, W. (2004b). The right to diversity: Human rights from a geographical point of view. In A. Bohnet & M. Höher (Eds.), The role of minorities in the development process (pp. 21–36). Schriften zur Internationalen Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung 4. Giessen. Leimgruber, W. (2012). Marginality. In M. Juergensmeyer & H. Anheier (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Global studies. Sage Publications. López, A. (2004). Population movements, environmental change and social conflicts in the Brazilian Amaziuon. In J. Unruh, M. S. Krol, & N. Kliot (Eds. 2004), Environmental change and its implications for population migration (Vol. 20, pp. 145–163). Advances in Global Change Research, Dordrecht, Kluwer. Lovelock, J. (2006). The revenge of Gaia. Why the Earth is fighting back—and how we can still save humanity. London: Allan Lane. Meir, A. (1999). Local government among marginalized ex-nomads: The Israeli Bedouin and the state. In H. Jussila, R. Majoral & F. Delgado-Cravidão (Eds. 2001), Globalization and marginality in geographical space. Political, economic and social issues of development in the new millennium, Aldershot, Ashgate (pp. 101–119). Moyo, D. (2012). Winner take all. China’s race for resources and what it means for us. London: Penguin. Nel, E., & Binns, T. (2010). Evaluating local economic development initiatives in South Africa: Evidence from the cities. In W. Leimgruber, E. Nel, Y. Matsuo, T. Binns, R. Chand, B. Cullen, D. Lynch, & Pradhan P. K. (Eds.), Geographical marginality as a global issue (Vol. 5, pp. 52–71 CD-Rom). Dunedin, New Zealand: Department of Geography, University of Otago. Perez de Cuellar, J. (1996). Our creative diversity. Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development (2nd ed). Paris: UNESCO. Pfirsch, T. (2014). I margini nel cuore dei “Quartieri bene”? Bollettina della Società Geografica Italiana, Serie XIII, vol VII, fascicolo 1, pp. 113–129. Rodionova, Z. (2017). Inside London’s first underground farm. The Independent (February 3, 2017). Rullo, M. C., Saviori, A., & D’Odorico, P. (2013). Global land and water grabbing. PNAS (January 15, 2013), pp. 892–897. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.11073/pnas.1213163110.

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Schmidt, M. (2007). Some reflectons on the definition and delimitation of geographical marginality. In G. Jones, W. Leimgruber, & E. Nel (Eds.), Issues in geographical marginality. General and theoretical aspects (pp. 34–43, CD-Rom). Grahamstown, South Africa: Rhodes University. Scott, P. (2001). People who were not there but are now! Aboriginality in Tasmania. In H. Jussila, R. Majoral, & F. Delgado-Cravidão (Eds. 2001), Globalization and marginality in geographical space. Political, economic and social issues of development in the new millennium, Aldershot, Ashgate (pp. 248–266). SDC. (2007). Securing enough food for all. Berne: Swiss Development Corporation. SDC. (2018). How mobiles change smallholder farmers’ lives, York Global Brief 1/2018. Berne: Swiss Development Corporation. Sharma, A. (2012). The persistence of the rural, Paper delivered in December 2012, seminar ASSAM: UNSTABLE PEACE, a symposium on politics, society, culture and the challenges of reconciliation. http://www.india-seminar.com/2012/640/640_amiya_sharma.htm. Accessed February 04, 2017. Shiva, V. (1993). Monocultures of the mind. Perspectives on biodiversity and biotechnology. London and New York: ZED Books; Penang: Third world Network. United Nations. (2015). World urbanization prospects. The 2014 revision. New York: United Nations. UN General Assembly. (2014). Report of the open working group of the general assembly on sustainable development goals, Document A/68/970. New York: United Nations. UN Millennium Project. (2005). Investing in development: A practical plan to achieve the millennium development goals. New York: United Nations. UNDP. (2015). Human development report 2015. Work for development. New York: United Nations Development Programme. UNEP. (1999). Cultural and spiritual values of biodiversity. Nairobi: United Nations Environmental Programme. Venkataraman, B. (2008). Country, the city version. Farms in the sky gain new interest. The New York Times (July 15, 2008). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15farm.html. Accessed January 31, 2017. Wood, T. F. (1987). Thinking in geography. Geography, 72(4), 289–299. World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Part II

People

People are the most important asset in rural space, apart from the natural space within which activities take place. They are physically active in their various occupations; they have their perceptions and their identity; they are holders of traditional knowledge. However, even if rural populations are usually seen as conservative and oriented towards the past, they have by no means forgotten that they are living in a changing world. Transformations concern the individual, the group (family or other), the professions as well as the structural environment. The chapters in this part therefore focus on people in rural space and their general setting. From Vladimir Ira’s contribution, we can see how people in remote Slovakian mountain villages cope with the challenge of change by adapting their activities according to time and space. The author benefits of long-term data collection that reaches back 30 years (i.e. more than a generation). The reader will remember her/his own experience when comparing her/his present situation to the one 30 years before. In an economic terminology, humans constitute capital (called social or human capital), a topic discussed by Miroslav Marada and his co-authors. The term itself is not clearly defined and open to interpretation, and it escapes a clear quantitative analysis. A few elements can be quantified provided adequate data are available; others are only of a qualitative nature. In their chapter, the authors define social capital as the personal ability to get along in a community and to contribute to the development of civil society by personal activity. Identity plays an important part in it. People in the countryside no longer live in an idyllic space but are exposed to the whims of the regional and national labour market Krystian Heffner illustrates the situation of rural areas in Poland with respect to the role urban centres play in draining workers from rural areas close to the cities. The role of identity and identification with a place (place attachment) are at the core of the contribution by Hayeong Jeong and co-authors. They see identity as a sort of empowerment for a community to develop itself out of its own potential, thereby strengthening people’s identification with the place. Their case study in

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rural Japan indeed delivered a significant correlation between identity and community activities, such that they also developed a few policy recommendations. Activities in rural areas are often characterized by a lack of financial capital and, more generally, access to financial services. The creation of microcredit services, followed by microfinance services of all sorts, tried to help people out of this deficit in order to improve their lives in general and offer them increased possibilities to earn some money to pay, e.g. for the education of their children. Ai Sugie has studied this phenomenon in rural Bangladesh, the country of the founder of the Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus. Microfinance now also comprises general banking services, insurances and even pension schemes. But while the original idea was to help the poor to get out of misery, it turned out that those customers who knew how to use the system could profit, whereas poorer and less well-educated people fell behind and remained poor. The various chapters, although very diverse in their approach to the rural world, illustrate the many challenges the inhabitants of the countryside face.

Chapter 2

Impact of Rural Restructuring on the Time-Space Behavioural Patterns in a Marginal Area Vladimír Ira

2.1 Introduction Time and space are two basic attributes that play a significant role in research on rural restructuring and marginality. Rural restructuring is a complex of processes that transform rural areas not only in a positive sense; due to a wide range of social, cultural, economic and political factors, however, they may lead to development, although it may be accompanied by several negative phenomena. Marginalisation can be regarded as a consequence of many factors related to the process of rural restructuring (Tykkyläinen 1998). An example are the changes of mountainous rural areas in Slovakia that have accelerated in recent years. They are diversifying as a result of broader socio-economic factors, political transformation, and societal modernisation. Rural areas are no longer dominated by the agricultural sector. Agriculture is being restructured. Some local socio-cultural and economic changes become part of the global processes of restructuring. The new situation in mountainous rural areas, including marginalisation, has forced these areas to be utilised in new ways. The contemporary era of rural restructuring in marginal regions of Slovakia has been set by earlier changes in the rural world and by the pace and persistence of change in the transition period after 1989 (characterized by the change and creation of institutions, particularly private enterprises, changes in the role of the state, the creation of fundamentally different governmental institutions and the promotion of privately owned enterprises, markets and independent financial institutions) as experienced during the last decade of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. These features are an expression of the way in which recent rural change has been driven by the processes of transformation (modernization, post-communist transition, marginalization, and globalization). The aim of this contribution is to analyse recent and contemporary rural restructuring by examining the time-space behaviour of people living in the V. Ira (B) Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Štefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_2

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marginal mountainous municipality of Lom nad Rimavicou in Central Slovakia. Several time-geography concepts applied in the study are presented and results from three surveys (based on time-space budgets) conducted in the years 1986, 1997 and 2011 are analysed. The processes of rural restructuring in the context of marginalization and their time-space consequences in individual behaviour may lead us to re-think the way in which we approach the changes in mountainous rural life.

2.2 Rural Change, Marginalization and Time Space Behaviour Rural areas have always been spaces of change shaped by socio-economic factors and their fluctuations, new technologies and innovations, migration flows, political disturbances, and the changing environmental conditions. In the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century, rural areas across Europe have experienced a period of significant change. Social and technological modernization has affected almost all areas of rural life. Rural restructuring has produced causally linked effects across a multiplicity of sectors with consequences that are qualitative as well as quantifiable (Woods 2005). In order to explain the nature of recent rural change, scholars from various research areas adopted a multidimensional theoretical framework in which rural change is seen as the interrelated consequence of technical, economic, social and cultural changes on a global scale. This perspective has come to be known as the term “rural restructuring” (e.g. Ilbery 1998; Woods 2005). The idea of rural restructuring is to view rural change as a multifaceted and interdependent phenomenon, not limited only to few aspects of reality; in a sense, it takes a holistic view on rural change (Hedlund 2013). According to Kiss (2000) the concept of restructuring may refer to different processes of change. Restructuring may also refer to a general structural change in the organisational form of economic, social and political institutions, to the development of different sectors of society and to the division of history into different stable phases with unstable breaks representing the shift from one stable phase to another stable phase. Using this meaning, Central Eastern European countries may be undergoing a ‘break’ in which the old socialist system has broken down but a new stable phase has yet to emerge in complete form. Marginalization has been a matter of substantial interest in human geography. Scholars have used the concept of marginalization to describe the ways in which individuals and social groups are relegated to positions of low(er) and unequal standing in society. Human geography and many disciplines across the social sciences and humanities have contributed to this field of inquiry. However, geographers’ specific focus on the relationships between society and space has shown the ways in which labelling places as marginal and the marginalization of space compound and complicate the social inequalities that marginalization produces (Trudeau and McMorran 2011, p. 438).

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Marginality should be considered from different angles. According to Leimgruber (2013, p. 7) the elements to discuss marginal regions are, for example: lying outside the mainstream, bypassed by development and transportation routes, lying largely outside most people’s minds, lack of indigenous development force, neglected by politics and uninteresting to investors (perceived as not sufficiently profitable). Physical difficulties, such as accessibility or topography, can be included, but they have always to be considered from the social perspective: how people evaluate them, how they feel constrained by them, to what extent they are promoting or hindering human action. Marginality research focuses on many different topics considering the scale and the type of marginal region that a specific research is dealing with. The regions with traces of marginality, with clearly observable marginality issues and with severe marginality problems will probably attract the geographical research interest in fields of identification of marginal individuals or social groups, identification of the type of marginality, identification of consequences, identification of marginalizing factors, and identifying the role of geographical factors (Pelc 2017, p. 26). Several scholars tried to study marginality through partial specific approaches to go deeper in explanation. When Leimgruber (1994) defined marginal regions he proposed four different approaches: geometrical (marginal regions would be those at the geometric periphery of a larger area), ecological (it can either be taken as the natural potential of an area for human survival, or as the state of the environment), economic (marginality would be defined by the production potential, accessibility, infrastructure, attraction within a space economy) and social (the focus on minorities and socially marginal groups, according to various criteria—e.g. ethnicity, language and religion). He also mentioned political and cultural approaches. Poláˇcková (2010) in her theoretical study has defined a political approach and identified four main trends of political marginality and its research in regions (the first is conditioned by the barrier effect on different scales, the second by important historical-political affairs, the third by purposive and calculated marginality aimed to force a political power, and the fourth identified marginality by distinguishing between preferred and not preferred regions). In her study, she mentioned the perception approach focused on marginality through human perception, values and decisions. Marginality research has the ambition to consider the scale (between global and local) and various contexts. Leimgruber (2004) analysed marginality and marginal regions in the context of globalization and deregulation. Selected aspects of marginality might be transformed into a pattern of specific electoral behaviour. Mikuš and Máliková (2015) analyzed what is happening with the electoral preferences and participation if the area is considered marginal. Marginality and disadvantage are not determined only by objective factors but also by the subjective perception of a particular situation by individuals. Marginality can be seen as a state of mind and it is subject to our respective value system (Leimgruber 2007). The surveys of individual perception of marginality can contribute to the understanding of similarities and differences in defining marginality from two different perspectives—objective and subjective (Mikuš et al. 2016).

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The problem of time in relation to space began to be highlighted by several significant geographers already in the beginning of the 20th century. Time-geography, as an approach integrating the temporal and spatial aspects of human behaviour, was first introduced by Hägerstrand (1970) at the end of the 1960s in Sweden at Lund University. During the last five decades time-geography, as a part of behavioural geography, has contributed to the continuation and consolidation of the theoretical/quantitative revolution in geography (Golledge 2008). This was mainly due to the detailed research of man’s time-spatial behaviour (e.g. Hägerstrand 1970; Schwanen and Kwan 2012). Time-geography represents a synthetic view of time and space, unlike an analytical approach that strictly separates time and space. A synthetic view of time and space prefers the human dimension and practical meaning for life to abstraction (Frantál et al. 2012). Several works represent dozens of concepts applied within time-geography (among others, e.g. Ellegård 1999a; Lenntorp 1999; Ira 2001, 2006). Among them are several concepts relevant to our analysis, such as: population, paths, stations, contexts, bundles, and activities. Most studies that have applied the time-geography approach deal with an analysis of individual, family or household spatiotemporal activity patterns. One of the interesting topics connected with the use of methods applied in timegeography is the issue of marginalization of the territory, particularly communities (e.g. Ira 2003; Temelová et al. 2011). Marginalized territories represent a specific environment with distorted functional and spatial relationships that result from the uneven functioning of mutually conditioned economic, political, social, cultural and environmental factors. These territories are insufficiently integrated into significant structures, processes and systems in a given time-spatial context (Schmidt 1998; Leimgruber 2004; Havlíˇcek et al. 2005). This chapter has the ambition to avoid criticism that some approaches applied by geography do not take into account sociocultural and economic factors as the determining forces for social change (Pred 1981). Partially, the study tries to address the issue of marginalization and rural restructuring, applying a time-space analysis of human everyday activities, in order to approach some aspects of life in Lom nad Rimavicou, a marginal mountain village of Central Slovakia.

2.3 Study Area, Data Sources, and Research Method Lom nad Rimavicou is a village (administered by an elected council) in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of Central Slovakia (Fig. 2.1). It is one of the highest villages in Slovakia (1024 m above sea level). The village is situated in the central part of the Veporské vrchy Mts. On the western edge, it borders the Protected Landscape Area of Poˇlana. The village is connected by regional road II/529 with the district town Brezno (23 km) and the town of Hriˇnová (17 km).

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Fig. 2.1 Location of the study area (Source “© OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC BY-SA” and EU-DEM (https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/satellite-derived-products/view)—elaborated by D. Szatmári)

The site was originally settled by the gorals (highlanders) in 1796, when the Forgách family (Hungarian nobles) established a settlement for cattlemen and forest workers. Lom nad Rimavicou is the youngest of the three settlements located at Sihlianská planina plateau (Sihla was founded in 1744 and Drábsko in 1566). During the census in 1828, there were 58 mostly log houses inhabited by 473 inhabitants. Apart from livestock farming and forestry work, part of the population was employed in carrying trade, glassworks, and paperwork. The Roman Catholic church, which replaced an original wood construction from 1799, was built in the years 1812–18. After the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the settlements Banský Grúˇn, Drábsko, Hilda, Plešková, Dolina, Chlipˇnaˇcka, Javorina and, Polianka were joined to the village. Traditionally, the village gravitated to the south-east (Kokava nad Rimavicou). In the period before World War II, most local residents worked in a relatively isolated area of three mountainous villages with limited transport accessibility. The centre of gravity of Lom nad Rimavicou moved from Kokava nad Rimavicou to the town Brezno until 1940, when the north-south road between Brezno and Kriváˇn was completed. After World War II, due to the improved transport infrastructure, employment opportunities in the industrial plants in Brezno, Podbrezová, and Hriˇnová were expanded (Ronˇcák et al. 2008). Bus connections were introduced in 1947, and since 1960 the village has been electrified. Since the 1880s until the 1960s the population oscillated around 1,000. Changes in demographic behaviour, especially the increasing depopulation caused a decline in the number of inhabitants (Fig. 2.2), there were 885 persons in 1970, 587 in 1980, 444 in 1986, 366 in 1991, 346 in 1997, 326 in 2001 and only 294 in 2011. Lom nad Rimavicou is part of a large marginal area of the southern part of Central Slovakia and belongs to the municipali-

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Fig. 2.2 Population development of Lom nad Rimavicou, 1869–2011 (Sources FSÚ 1978, OO SŠÚ Banská Bystrica 1982, ŠÚ SR 1994, ŠÚ SR 2001 and ŠÚ SR 2013)

ties of the so-called cumulative peripherality/marginality, defined on the basis of four groups of indicators: human resources, economic potential, personal amenities, and accessibility of economic centres (Halás 2008; Halás and Hurbánek 2008, p. 131). The availability of labour, education, services and transportation significantly influences the quality of life not only in urban but also in rural areas. The supply of job opportunities and services is not sufficient in rural marginal localities/villages, and particularly young and well-educated people often respond by emigrating. The poor supply of jobs and social infrastructure is a source of considerable problems for less mobile people trying to satisfy their basic needs. This case study tries to evaluate the daily behavioural patterns of people in a marginal municipality in Central Slovakia. It aims to identify the problems and barriers in everyday life of the local population and to identify forms of daily mobility related to work, education and service provision. It evaluates how the lack of job opportunities and basic civic amenities influences the everyday strategies that people adopt to cope with the spatial mismatch between their place of residence and the places where jobs and services are located. The daily mobility and strategies of people living in mountain villages are set in the context of changes in (not only commuting) behaviour. Theoretically and methodologically the study draws on the strong tradition of time-geography. The use of time-space diaries (time-space budgets) expanded after the introduction of Hägerstrand’s time geography into human geography. Time geography provided a conceptual framework for the analysis of time–space diaries through several concepts (e.g. prism, time-space path, geographical context, social context, and constraints—see Ellegård 1999a, b; Lenntorp 1999). The development of geographic information systems (GIS) and computational capabilities in the last few decades facilitates the analysis of time–space diaries. Geographers have discovered them as

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a useful means for recording the continuous flow of everyday practices. Activity diaries (time-space budgets) collect information on the activity content: the clock time that an activity episode starts and ends (when), the geographical context, i.e. the spatial location where the activity takes place (where), the social context, i.e. the person(s) involved in the event (with whom), and the use of technology, which usually concerns the transportation/ICT mode(s) used to access the place where the activity occurs (how). There are several additional dimensions for which information can be collected, e.g. the respondent’s feelings, emotions during activities, estimations, or space–time flexibility (Schwanen 2009). Geographers utilize time–space diaries to explore the relations between individual behaviour, accessibility, and the physical environment. They enable us to explore the reciprocal relations between individual action and social structures. A more intensive approach to time–space diaries is primarily associated with recent developments in cultural geography. Their use is in our study complemented with interviews or other methods relying on intensive contact between researcher and researched. The collection of new time–space diaries is tailored to specific research questions and is likely to be an often-preferred strategy for researchers with a particular interest in the multiplicity and particularity of people’s experiences of everyday life (e.g. Temelová et al. 2011). Research of the time-space activity budgets have been used to investigate human behaviour and activities that may occur in time and space. It was based on a systematic record of the person’s use of time over a given period including the spatial coordinates of activity locations. The study was modelled after the concept of household (an individual’s) activity patterns and included diary-day and post-diary interviews as the method of data collection (Golledge and Stimson 1990). The method of diary reliably supplies information for disaggregated analysis. The individual respondents (diary writers), older than 6 years,1 were asked to write at what time, where and what activity was performed. Data collection was realised in Lom nad Rimavicou in 3 periods (Ira 2003; Ira et al. 2014). In May 1986, the basic set consisted of 366 inhabitants of (82.4% of the total population). In June 1997, the survey was conducted with 258 respondents (74.6% of the total population), and in June 2011 with 141 respondents only (48.0% of the total population). The method of diaries was complemented by the method of in-depth interviews. The aim was to capture the detailed time sequence of respondents’ activities recorded during 24 h of a workday. Information drawn from individual activity records was coded every five minutes. Apart from time and place they captured the kind of activity, the geographical, social, communication and transportation contexts, and the parallel activities. The activities themselves were coded in the framework of different levels, categories or degrees of specificity. The top level consisted of fourteen basic types of activities (sleep, personal care, care for others 1 Before conducting the surveys we decided to take the fact into account that childern (respondents)

older than 6 years are able to respond to questions related to time-space use, i.e. to be the diary writers.

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and care for the household, eating, work around the household, field or garden work, care for animals, leisure/relaxation, breadwinning activity (salaried work), study, religious/spiritual activity, communication, and transportation).

2.4 Changing Rural Area and Time-Space Behavioural Patterns in the Marginal Mountain Village of Lom Nad Rimavicou Until 1989, regional differences and inequalities had been absent from the minds of politicians and researchers. When they were ‘discovered’ and later accepted, this caused the impression of a sudden and significant polarization of the regional structure. It was therefore deemed necessary to address socio-spatial polarization and related issues, not only in terms of evident geographical differences from east to west or north to south, but especially in the more detailed view of urban-rural differences (Máliková and Klobuˇcník 2017, p. 133). The historical trends of rural-urban migration were evident in Slovakia under socialism when urban-based employment offered the prospect of higher living standards at a time when collectivisation removed much of the satisfaction in looking after the family estate (Drgona and Turnock 2000). Depopulation in the study area reduced the local rural community to the point where their survival was doubted. After losing much of its demographic vitality in the last period of communism, the study area is now handicapped by greatly reduced commuting opportunities, job losses in industry, worsening functional links with the neighbouring towns and by a lack of vitally important investment in the countryside. Restitution and privatisation has placed much of the land under the control of private farmers. It is evident from the analysis of the situation in Lom nad Rimavicou, that there is a need of general modernisation of agriculture and rural infrastructure including services. The marginality of the village and its inhabitants (community) is also manifested by changes in the time-spatial patterns of behaviour. The vast majority of all activities are carried out in the municipality itself. The physical mobility of the local population is largely limited to the territory of three neighbouring municipalities (Drábsko, Lom nad Rimavicou, and Sihla). The main reason is the declining importance of public transport (the number of bus services during the working days was reduced from 44 in 1986 to 22 in 2011). As in 1986 and 1997, the analysis of the data capturing the geographical context in 2011 pointed to the dominant role of locations represented by the place of living and place of work (in the case of economically active respondents), place of education activities (children below 14) and place related to work in the field or garden (persons over 60). The findings show the importance of the people’s basic activity places defined by the anchor point theory (Golledge 1978). Almost ninety percent of daily activities of villagers in 2011 were concentrated in their closest environs, mainly because of the worsening economic situation and transport accessibility, although

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this change did not play as significant a role as expected. Most of the daily activities in the village concentrated on household, work with yard animals and in fields or gardens. Other places such as those of education and work (crafts, industries, offices, etc.) were also important. Out of all recorded activities sleep occupied most time, on average somewhat below 8 h a day. Beside sleep there were activities connected with leisure, breadwinning, and alimentation along with cooking and work in fields or gardens (Ira et al. 2014). Women spent more time working in fields or gardens, domestic chores and preparation of meals. Men, on the contrary, spent more time working with animals, working around the house and in education. Persons over 60 spent most time in leisure and working in fields or gardens. Persons of working age were the most mobile category. This was the population group which spent most time (average 54 min a day in 2011) of all age categories in transportation to different places or commuting. Spatial movement between different locations was carried out by walking, driving, by bus or bicycle. The most important activities which influenced the time-space behaviour of respondents from the municipality Lom nad Rimavicou included work, education and care for their property. Out of all leisure activities TV watching occupied most time (half the average time spent, on average 134 min a day). Physical activity during leisure time took an average of 22 min a day. In the last decades, small scale farming activities on household plots have regained importance. Increasing self-sufficiency is also a significant element of survival strategies at the beginning of the 21st century. Not only in 1986 and 1997, but also in 2011, a high percentage of the families cultivated household plots to meet a (in some cases significant) part of their needs. The surveys in the three periods showed that shopping habits have changed since the 1980s. The general deterioration of living standards encouraged households to economise in shopping. This is evident from the analysis of shopping behaviour in the three periods. During the ‘socialist period’ daily shopping was very common, but recently family shoppers go to a shop less frequently (spending less time for shopping—see Table 2.1). As far as other findings are concerned, the rise of virtual mobility, in particular of the population below 20 years, the higher importance of sport activities, recreation activities and services, and participation in church life (Roman Catholic church) are worth mentioning. Research conducted in 2011 along with the findings resulting from the previous surveys of 1986 and 1997 confirmed some presumed and expected changes. The time-spatial records presented in this chapter provide a comprehensive picture of people’s changing activities in the pursuit of satisfying their needs. Such a picture offers interesting information in terms of assessment and comprehension of the processes taking place in a rural marginalized locality (community) related to rural restructuring (rural change as a multifaceted and interdependent phenomenon) and it may contribute to planning or formulating local and, in some aspects, regional development strategies.

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Table 2.1 Activities and changing time-use Activity Time (minutes/day/person)

% of respondents

1986

1997

2011

1986

1997

2011

536 417 28

494 391 28

433 335 24.8

57.4 13.7 35.2

39.5 9.3 69.4

34.8 15.6 19.9

Farming/work on private plots 103

150

275

44.3

59.3

40.4

Church-related activities Sports and exercise activities

60 83

33 97

6.6 4.9

6.6 116

5.7 11.3

Work Education activities Shopping

60 69

Source Field surveys in 1986, 1997 and 2011

2.5 Conclusion Lom nad Rimavicou belongs to rural areas which are experiencing a sharp decline in the number of jobs, population, as well as in economic independence in general. This decline is mainly due to a failure to adapt to the new economic conditions resulting from political changes in the beginning of the 1990s. One of the principal facts is that the local economic structure depends on primary resources. Also, the decreasing relative proximity to larger industrial and service centres is crucial. The study area could be perceived as a territory that is little developed economically and located outside of developed regions. The village is not economically autonomous, it is dependent on the more advanced part of the Central Slovakia region. Furthermore, the actual remoteness (distance) from urban centres, not only in a purely spatial sense (transport: accessibility, the impact of natural barriers, insufficiently developed transport infrastructure), but also in a social sense (social exclusion, etc.) plays a significant role. Likewise, limited opportunities of marginal areas to participate in political decision-making processes are important. A complex of diverse demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, for instance, the low population density of this isolated group of three villages, their declining population, a high unemployment rate, a low level of education, etc. must also be considered. In accordance with the theoretical viewpoint of Pileˇcek and Janˇcák (2011) this refers to a territory that is poorly integrated, in a given place and time, into the dominating regional structures and processes in Central Slovakia. Marginal rural areas are formed not only by local residents and immigrants, farmers, landowners, forest workers, tourists, recreational visitors, people employed in services, entrepreneurs, local and regional policy-makers, but also by the media, and academic researchers. Recent work in the ‘geography of marginal regions’ has started to engage with the research of several significant problems relevant to the changing rural environment (Pelc 2017). This development has not only raised new research questions for geographers, but also stimulated innovations in methodology. Rural restructuring in Lom nad Rimavicou has produced effects across a multiplicity of human activities with consequences that are quantitative as well qualitative.

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Rural change could be seen as the interrelated consequence of economic, social and cultural transformations in the post-socialist period. Restructuring refers to a general structural change in the organisational form of economic, social and political life. The analyses of individual time-spatial records enabled us to show the effects of rural restructuring on the local community and to point to some changes in the spatiotemporal behaviour of the population. The time-geographic approach applied in this contribution is to be further developed in two directions. First, it could be used as a device for understanding the life situations of individuals in marginalized localities influenced by processes of rural restructuring. The approach could be developed so that it can help to understand the complexity of people’s everyday life and help politicians and planners to solve problems in marginalized rural areas. Second, it could increase the understanding of the interrelations between individuals, households, local community and a changing environment. Acknowledgement This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency VEGAl (grants number 1/0049/18 and 2/0013/18).

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Schwanen, T., & Kwan, M.-P. (2012). Critical space–time geographies thinking the spatiotemporal. Editorial. Environment and Planning A, 44, 2043–2048. ŠÚ SR. (1994). Štatistický lexikón obcí Slovenskej republiky. Bratislava: ŠEVT. ˇ domov a bytov, Základné údaje, Obyvatelstvo. ˇ ŠÚ SR. (2001). Sˇcítanie obyvatelov, Bratislava: Štatistický úrad SR. ˇ domov a bytov 2011, Výsledky v multidimenzionálnych tabŠÚ SR. (2013). Sˇcítanie obyvatelov, ulkách. http://census2011.statistics.sk/tabulky.html. Temelová, J., Novák, J., Pospíšilová, L., & Dvoˇráková, N. (2011). Každodenní život, denní mobilita a adaptaˇcní strategie obyvatel v periferních lokalitách. Sociologický cˇ asopis/Czech Sociological Review, 47(4), 831–858. Trudeau, D., & McMorran, C. (2011). The geographies of marginalization. In V. Del Casin et al. (Eds.), A companion to social and cultural geography (pp. 437–453). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Tykkyläinen, M. (1998). From territorial marginality to marginality in cybersociety. In H. Jussila, W. Leimgruber, & R. Majoral (Eds.), Perception of marginality: Theoretical issues and regional perceptions of marginality (pp. 123–134). Aldershot: Ashgate. Woods, M. (2005). Rural geography: processes, responses and experiences in rural restructuring. London: Sage.

Chapter 3

Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital: A Case Study of Peripheral and Rural Microregions in Czechia Miroslav Marada, Pavel Chromý, Vít Janˇcák, Tomáš Havlíˇcek and Jan Pileˇcek

3.1 Introduction After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, Czechia underwent a profound social transformation. The centrally controlled (and relatively successful) effort to equalize social differences, especially with regard to economic maturity, was followed by a new structuring of the society. However, the growing differentiation has caused not only shifts in society, but a geographical redistribution of the economy as well. These processes result in a growing spatial differentiation and thus an intensified polarisation of space. The transformation era is mainly connected with the changing outer frameworks, mostly in the sphere of legislation which defined new opportunities and limitations (=‘rules of the game’) for the development of society. In addition, in the course of the 1990s, the ‘correctional’ post-communist transformation was reinforced by the process of Czechia’s integration into EU structures, by a growing influence of globalisation (see for instance Leimgruber 2001) and, in general, by a post-industrial transformation. In the changing external context, a substantial role is played by the reactions of social actors (individuals, municipalities, regions, etc.), which necessarily differ according to local conditions. Within the framework of M. Marada (B) · P. Chromý · V. Janˇcák · T. Havlíˇcek · J. Pileˇcek Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] P. Chromý e-mail: [email protected] V. Janˇcák e-mail: [email protected] T. Havlíˇcek e-mail: [email protected] J. Pileˇcek e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_3

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identical rules, it brings about varying results on the scale ‘successful–unsuccessful’. Specifically, in the case of Czechia’s settlement and regional system, one can speak about differing transformation successes of localities and regions depending on the ‘ability’ of their inhabitants and crucial actors. They can make the most of the given geographical potential in order to successfully overcome unfavourable conditions and magnify positive aspects for their development in the given external frameworks. Although experts consider the existence of inequalities an immanent quality of reality, which is an indispensable driving force of social development, it is a precondition for the shaping of efficient forms of labour division and territorial specialisation (Hampl 1998, 2001, 2005, 2007; Hampl and Marada 2015). But, an excessive rate of inequality can cause a number of problems. This is doubly true of rural or borderland peripheries, which are not successfully integrated into a regional system.1 It is apparent from the existing research on Czechia’s territorial polarisation (Havlíˇcek et al. 2008; Marada 2001) that, despite of the changes in a social as well as a spatiotemporal context, a position in the settlement hierarchy or in a regional system is still decisive for the development of a periphery. The position results from a longstanding development of a settlement/regional system especially in the industrial period (Hampl et al. 1987), also reflecting an extremely complicated and specific historical development of Czechia’s territory in the second half of the 20th century (Hampl et al. 2007). Due to the impact of historical inertia and a differing development of individual regions, one can observe in Czechia a ‘macro-differentiation’ of the settlement system of Bohemia and Moravia on the one hand and of the areas continuously developing or resettled after the post-war deportation of Czech Germans (hinterland–borderland), on the other. The latter is also true of the areas heavily influenced by massive industrialisation and of rural areas (structurally affected areas versus economically weak, predominantly rural areas in the long run; see Chromý et al. 2011; Kucera and Kucerová 2012; Perlín et al. 2010). It is obvious from the existing evaluation of Czechia’s space polarisation and research into the development of problem regions that the endogenous development potential differs between the areas of inner and outer peripheries (Havlíˇcek et al. 2008). The relationships within the framework of a ‘commanding’ settlement hierarchy can be relatively easily overcome by means of a new infrastructure, support for transport servicing, and a suitable distribution of subsidies from national or EU sources. However, it has turned out that if the instruments are to be efficiently used the crucial role is played by aspects of a social and cultural nature or the quality of the regional milieu (for more, see Blažek 2012 or Havlíˇcek and Chromý 2001). In general, one can speak about the quality of human and social capital in an area (Jancák et al. 2008). If there is a limited development potential of peripheries, there is a growing importance of the activity of local and regional communities in peripheral areas, and also a rising importance of the relationships between the identification 1 In

accordance with Leimgruber (1994) and others, we consider the term “marginal region” as an area disintegrated from a regional system. In Czechia, regions fulfilling this condition are totally exceptional and of special type, e.g. military training areas. Therefore, the term “peripheral regions” is used in this contribution.

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of the inhabitants of an area with the area itself (regional identity; e.g., Chromý and Jan˚u 2003; Kuldová 2005; see also the chapter by Jeong et al. in this volume), of the quality of the image of an area, but also of the representation of territorial communities (in the political, economic, social and cultural senses). As a result, the quality of human and social capital appears to play a substantial role in influencing the territorial inequality of regional development, and it considerably differentiates the success of the development of peripheries. According to Pileˇcek (2010), social capital is a term with a broad application in a number of various contexts and academic disciplines, which is coupled with a large number of its definitions, classifications and typologies, objectives and chances to evaluate it (for more, see an overview by Pileˇcek 2010, 2013). The term social capital started to appear intensively in scientific literature in the 1980s, especially in sociology. Its definition is most often bound to the following trio of authors: Bourdieu (1986), Coleman (1988) and Putnam (1993). They are considered to be the founders of the modern concept of social capital, although the oldest discussions go back to the 1920s. They are associated with the work of the sociologist Max Weber (Triglia 2001). Why should this sociological concept be of interest for geography? When it comes to geographers, the studies dealing with the questions of influence of social capital on territorial development seem to be most relevant. From this perspective, one can find a great inspiration in the studies by Granovetter (1973, 1985). At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, they had a relatively strong influence on the development of theoretical approaches to regional development (for more, see Blažek and Uhlíˇr 2002), especially in the sphere of the implementation of institutional approaches and institutional directions of regional development (Blažek 2012). According to Granovetter, the rate of confidence is one of the most important characteristics of the organisation of the economy. The networks of contact “…with a differing quality and extent of confidence create the context in which economic transactions occur” (Blažek and Uhlír 2002, p. 156), while the quality of these contact networks differs in the various actors, firms, regions, “which creates different preconditions for their development” (ibid., p. 157). From this viewpoint, one can consider social capital as a vital part of ‘socio-cultural factors’, which along with the geographical and economic-social ones underlie regional development (Blažek et al. 2008). Out of a large number of studies taking into account the described theoretical background, one has to name, e.g., the contribution of Cook et al. (2005). They checked the impact of social capital on the performance of small and medium-sized businesses in British regions. The authors arrived at the conclusion that innovative firms clearly tend much more towards cooperation and exchange of information, trying to join contact networks of a nonlocal character in the sense of bridging social capital. The role of human capital in the development of selected European rural areas was assessed by Labrianidis (2006). Preston and Dyer (2003) stress a link between lifelong learning, social capital and development. Including social capital in geographic studies has a further reason: the territorial differentiation of its quality which has an influence on differing successes of regions (in the case of peripheries, this is primarily their ability to be integrated into a regional

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system). In fact, this is a topic directly connected to the first issue mentioned. It was Putnam (1993) who already arrived at the conclusion that the economic success of some Italian regions (such as Emilia-Romagna) in the 1970s and 1980s arose from the prevailing norms of reciprocity, confidence and civic initiative widely common among local actors, which contributed to their cooperation (Johnston et al. 2000). According to Putnam, regional differences lay just in various forms of social capital or social links. Horizontal links were typical of the regions of northern and central Italy. In contrast, the regions of southern Italy tended to be based on a vertical organisation of society (Ptáˇcek 2001). Following up Putnam, the influence of social capital on economic advancement of the regions of the ‘third Italy’ was to be empirically verified by Boschma (2005). Although he confirmed a positive dependence between social capital and the functioning of the economy, he stressed that the “…explanation of the detected statistical dependencies is a (…) deduction rather than a real empirical analysis of causal mechanisms” (Bebbington and Perreault 1999 in Boschma 2005, p. 162). A comprehensive overview of a variety of studies discussing the relationship between social capital and economic development (including reactions to Putnam’s results) both from the positive and negative viewpoints is presented by Kostelecký et al. (2007), Pileˇcek (2010), Kuˇcerová (2008) and others. Social capital as one of the main factors of polarisation of space or the development of Czechia’s peripheral areas was included in the research conducted by Vít Janˇcák’s team at the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague (e.g., Janˇcák et al. 2006, 2008, 2010; Havlíˇcek et al. 2008; Pilecek et al. 2013; Marada and Kvˇetoˇn 2016). The authors’ work arises from the conviction that the level of social capital is an outstanding factor influencing the polarisation of space. Along with the level of human capital, it basically determines the chances of the further development of an area and of territorial communities, especially on the local and microregional levels. On these levels, development is to a large extent determined by the activity and capabilities of local actors/entities and their interest groups. Without their existence it is difficult to eliminate and overcome locational disadvantages and dysfunctions. In Czechia’s conditions, this is doubly true of peripheral regions (in the sense of their position, economy and social affairs). Given their limited development potential, importance is gained just by the activity of local/microregional communities as a major development factor (Hampl et al. 2007). Finally, there is a third reason for geographical research into social capital: its diverse applications on various regional scales. In this context, social capital was discussed within the framework of Czech geography in connection with territorial development in a contribution by Hampl (2003). Using the example of the regional system of Karlovy Vary (a self-administrative region in western Bohemia), he tried to outline a general development and structural scheme of regional organisation of society. Hampl stressed the growing role of the community and institutional organisational level “…as an instrument of activation of endogenous development potential in regional/local communities” (p. 184). An interconnection of the concept of social capital (its various forms: binding, bridging and linking) and geographic organisation of society was also examined by Sýkora and Matoušek (2009) on the general level. The authors pointed out the fact that in a specific area there is, as a rule,

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a combination of social networks of a diverse character and also various forms of social capital. These networks operate in various regions, with different patterns of geographic operation on various levels of the social/regional hierarchy. With regard to territorial development, the authors stress the need to take into account the territorial extent of social networks and the multi-layer character of interconnected (but also unconnected) social networks in a specific area. In general, this chapter wants to contribute to the study of human and social capital and its role in the polarisation of space. Specifically, it wants to analyse the differences in human and social capital in Czechia’s peripheral areas of various types (inner vs. outer periphery, borderlands, rural areas—those with a weak economy in the long run, the areas with a differing continuity of historical development), following up previous quantitative research (Janˇcák et al. 2008, 2010 in particular). In its empirical part, the chapter mainly focuses on presenting an analysis of selected results of a large empirical survey, conducted in Czechia’s model areas in autumn 2008.

3.2 Conceptualisation of Human and Social Capital in Geographic Research The survey presented below offers an evaluation of human and social capital in 14 selected model peripheral regions of Czechia (Fig. 3.1) on the basis of a standardised questionnaire. The authors divide social capital into collective and individual elements, considering the latter an individual’s potential to join collective social capital networks. In accordance with other authors, this component can be considered as a ‘human capital’, expressing the potential of an individual to join community networks. Both concepts are naturally intertwined and can hardly be separated. One can, for example, argue whether an individual’s involvement in active social networks is a manifestation of his/her personal engagement or of human capital (or individual social capital) or whether this is a sign of collective social capital (in the sense: it is usual to ‘do something for the public wealth, not to stand apart’ in a place). Therefore, in the chapter, the term social capital is used without any further adjective and in the collective sense. We consider social capital as a personal ability to get along in a community and to contribute by personal activity to the development of civil society. The survey was conceptualised based on this definition. Social capital is a special kind of capital. It represents a certain quality of a social system, which newly emerges through the interactions of elements (constituents) of a system. Social interactions also bring about the reproduction of social capital in the form of transfer and sharing of sources, information and knowledge among individuals within social networks and groups (Sýkora and Matoušek 2009). The adapted Table 3.1 (Pileˇcek 2010) affords an overview of the definitions of social capital according to a few key authors. The definitions are quite diverse. Nevertheless, many authors (Côté 2001; Schuller 2001; Halpern 2005; Paxton 1999) agree that most

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Fig. 3.1 Czechia: Location of model areas (MAMO administrative districts). Note Inner peripheries typically lie on the internal border of provinces (“kraj” in Czech), e.g. No. 4 or 11, outer peripheries are on the state boundary (No. 7 or 13). Re-settled peripheries lie between state and language borders (e.g. No. 1 or 3). There used to be the German language enclaves within continuous settlement in the Czechia’s inland, e.g. around Jihlava. The type of the model areas is signed in the Table 3.4, column 2.

of them share the following aspects: social networks, norms, values, confidence and engagement. Obviously, the authors‘approaches arise from diverse philosophical or paradigmatic backgrounds: (i) Some authors emphasize structural aspects of social capital such as networks of interaction and their qualities. ‘Structuralist-like’ research either focuses on the quantity of contacts, the capacity of information flows, the density of horizontal and vertical links, codified rules, participants’ roles, institutionalisation, etc. (such as Coleman’s concept), or—in the phenomenological conception—research concentrates on the qualities of social networks such as the perception of relationships, aspects of bilateral confidence, commitments, convictions and expectations of the actors, etc. In this sense, Uphoff (1999 in Šafr and Sedláˇcková 2006) speaks about structural versus cognitive social capital. (ii) The studies, usually of an economic character, stress the concept of social capital as a source or latent potential, which can be, if there is a need, activated and used (such as the concepts of Bourdieu 1986; Fukuyama 1995). This concept is also close to regional and social geography. For Havlícek (2007), e.g., social capital is a collective source. The concept of collective social capital as an implementation of the potential given by the unification of present human capital is also suggested by Giddens (1984). The emphasis on research into the implementation of a certain objective as a ‘model’ activity, in which the

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Table 3.1 Overview of selected definitions of term social capital Butt (1992 in Woolcock 1998, p. 189)—“friends, colleagues and, more general, contacts through whom you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capital” Bourdieu (1986, p. 51)—“social capital is the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” Coleman (1988, p. 98)—“social capital is defined by its function. It is not a single entity, but a variety of different entities having two characteristics in common: They all consist of some aspects of social structure, and they facilitate certain actions of individuals who are within the structure” Fukuyama (1995, p. 10)—“the ability of people to work together for common purposes in groups and organizations” Johnston et al. (2000, p. 746)—“the qualities of a social structure or social relations which facilitate the conduct of individuals based on mutual cooperation and which, as a result, enhance economic performance” Lin (2001 in Lin 2008, p. 51)—“resources embedded in one’s social networks, resources that can be accessed or mobilized through ties in the networks” Putnam (1993, p. 167)—“the features of social organization, such as confidence, norms, and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions” Woolcock and Narayan (2000, p. 226)—“the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively” Source Selected authors and publications

qualities of social capital transpire, is also presented by Piseli (1999), highlighting the insufficiency of the analyses restricted to a mere description of networks, typical of structuralism. However, Granovetter (1973) also points out a possible narrow closing or exclusivity of the individual networks which then mostly abuse this position for short-term personal benefit. Although we know from the present a number of examples of this contradictory use of social capital, this study considers quality human and social capital primarily a positive value and a development factor (see also Putnam 2001). Leimgruber (1998), too, mentions the crucial importance of human decisions, based on subjective interests and values in regional development. (iii) The role of the third approach is played by emphasis on the topic of territorial differences in the quality of social capital in the context of regional scale. Uphoff (1999, in Šafr and Sedláˇcková 2006), who was already mentioned, distinguishes between civic versus governmental depending on whether social capital develops in a political or civic milieu on the community or higher level. However, this separation does not sufficiently describe reality: as mentioned by Narayan (1999 in Callois and Angeon 2004), both forms are interdependent. On the one hand, government stability and support for the government depend on social stability or the satisfaction of the population. On the other hand, strong and active civic communities can support the functioning of a government. As a result, the difference lies in the extent of institutionalisation:

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Table 3.2 Relationship between selected forms of social capital (SC) Structural SC Cognitive SC Informal SC

Clubs, associations, non-profit organisations, community,…

Norms, convictions, attitudes, values,…

Formal SC

State and administrative institutions, judiciary, self-administrative institutions…

The way the government is executing, i.e. laws, procedures, conduct… (=“governance”)

Source Modified according to Pileˇcek 2010 (according to Sirven 2000 in: Callois and Angeon 2004)

while the operations of governmental institutions are defined by the law, ‘from above’, and in the ideal case they operate professionally, irrespective of politicians’ ‘colour’, civic society and ‘nongovernmental’ institutions emerge from below, uniting people sharing similar values and objectives. Social capital on the governmental (institutional) level is primarily developed according to codified norms (=structures), while social capital in civic society tends to be guided by customary rules, on the basis of one’s identity within a group, jointly given expectations, etc., i.e. ‘cognitively’. This discussion outlines a summarising division of social capital presented in Table 3.2, substituting the category ‘governmental-civic’ with the category ‘official-unofficial’. For the sake of a graphic description, the presented separation lacks the third, substantial (geographic) dimension, which is regional order. The primary distinction is between the local/microregional level (which develops under a considerable influence of civic associations, associations of municipalities and self-administrative institutions) and the higher levels, which means national and regional ones, whose powers are mainly filled by state institutions. The Czech research from autumn 2008, whose results are presented below, focuses just on the examination of civic entities on the local and microregional levels and their relationships with superior levels. Table 3.2 also introduces the question of whether social capital can be recognised and measured. It is discussed in greater detail in the following methodological section.

3.3 Methodology of Research into Human and Social Capital in Czechia’s Peripheries Based on a theoretical-methodological discussion it has appeared that the measurement of social capital is a very complicated and largely also controversial affair (Pileˇcek and Janˇcák 2010). It is determined by a number of factors—see the multitude of definitions and forms of social capital, variability of social capital or differences in the distinction of indicators in the sense of ‘level’ versus ‘conditions’ versus ‘consequence’ (this is typically exemplified by the extent of confidence, e.g., Fukuyama 1995 vs. Putnam 1993 vs. Côté 2001). According to Sýkora and Matoušek (2009), one cannot, as a rule, measure social capital directly, but rather the conditions suitable

3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital …

39

for the creation of social capital, or the phenomena which are due to the existence of a certain social capital. There is also the question of the choice of the territorial order suitably representing the examined research intention and then the selection of the sample of respondents. It should be sufficiently large and reliable and able to capture a general regional differentiation of the observed phenomenon. As a result, methodological problems can be summed up as a formulation of questions for a standardised questionnaire, a selection of model microregions with representative types and the selection of suitable respondents inside the regions. The authors pursued the objective of evaluating the differentiation of the quality of social capital taking into account external conditions as well as the success of regional development. Due to this, it was necessary to proceed to a detailed assessment in the form of a deep inquiry into local communities. Hence the selection of the regional level of the administrative district of municipalities with an authorized municipal office (subsequently called MAMO). These territorial units are always composed of several municipalities, ensuring basic administrative work for an administrative district. They typically serve as seats of the registry office and the building authority, for example. Typically, small towns are centres of the unit. With the number of 393 units in total, they have an average area of 200 km2 and on average 27,000 inhabitants. However, the examination was focused on peripherally located units with rather less population than the average (see Table 3.3 for details). The choice of model areas proceeded on the basis of previous research into the polarisation of Czechia (Janˇcák 2001; Marada 2001; Novotná 2005). The territorial differentiation of Czechia’s social capital was analysed by a team of authors using quantitative secondary data in their previous works (such as Jancák et al. 2008). As mentioned above, the analyses were conducted for administrative districts of municipalities with an authorized municipal office (MAMO), to which average values of data for the relevant municipalities were assigned. The MAMO level was chosen due to its suitable explanatory capability when it comes to territorial differentiation because the data for individual municipalities or, on the contrary, for higher units of so called municipalities with extended powers only document territorial differences in a far too diversified or generalised manner. The data documenting social capital are naturally very limited, due to which the study only examined the education index, the number of candidates in local elections per number of mandates as a certain sign of engagement (but also of ‘party discipline’), and voter turnout. From the study emerged that the regional differentiation of the education index on the basis of administrative districts of MAMO largely matches the ‘core–periphery’ theory. As bearers of innovations and centres concentrating tertiary functions of the highest orders, cores naturally also concentrate the population with the highest education, while the educational level weakens with growing distance from the cores, concerning regional centres in particular. However, the quality of human capital in general does not have any clear geographic distribution as it is, more or less, of a random character. In addition, people’s capability to hold, e.g., the post of mayor does not depend on education either. Obviously, the education index is not quite a suitable indicator of the quality of human capital, although it is essentially the only one available from the statistics.

16

21

8

7

8

Kopidlno

Konice

Klobouky u Brna

Osoblaha

Bojkovice

ˇ Source CSÚ (2011), MPSV (2008)

7563

11

ˇ Ceský Dub

9037

3105

6941

11,720

7007

7793

7435

ˇ Ceská Kamenice

3959 11,970

8

8 15

Netolice Votice

6928

5684

5049

8684

Population number in 2001

Uhlíˇrské Janovice 17

8

15

Bˇreznice

Vejprty

Žlutice

7

5

Bor

Number of municipalities

Name of microregion seat

Table 3.3 Selected characteristics of model regions

12,196

10,375

9685

17,804

14,113

17,413

20,906

15,642

7813 28,877

15,366

22,267

13,275

38,812

Area (ha)

74.10

29.93

71.67

65.83

49.65

43.43

35.56

49.82

50.67 41.45

45.07

25.52

38.03

22.4

Population density

5.35

2.39

4.86

3.92

3.12

4.57

4.16

3.76

4.87 3.88

4.54

4.05

2.41

3.66

Share of people with university education (%)

8.10

22.25

9.65

8.55

7.75

7.83

6.48

15.68

5.10 3.16

4.86

11.98

13.49

9.13

Unemployment rate (%; 2008)

1.15

0.67

1.12

1.12

0.97

1.09

1.13

0.79

0.94 1.13

1.00

0.81

0.85

0.62

Ageing index

40 M. Marada et al.

3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital …

41

With regard to the number of candidates to municipal assemblies per number of mandates, the borderlands seem to be more favourable, primarily the resettled areas, the Sudetes in particular, and also the South Moravia borderlands. Besides, these two regions are among the traditional strongholds of political parties: the Commuˇ nist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) in the first case and Christian Democrats ˇ (KDU-CSL) in the second. This is likely to play the crucial role in the territorial differentiation of the indicator. A rather contrasting picture of voter turnout was interesting. In this case, more engagement was found on the part of the inhabitants of ‘inner peripheries’ i.e. traditional rural regions, often with a higher share of church-goers, while the borderlands showed a lower voter turnout. This indicator also distinguished the Sudetes ‘with active candidates’ from South Moravia. The latter region also has a higher voter participation. The choice of 14 model areas (Fig. 3.1) for the intensive survey was conducted while considering the knowledge gained from the surveys mentioned above. This means that the model areas were chosen in different types of polarisation of Czechia’s space. Attention was primarily paid to their position in the areas of inner or outer (borderland) peripheries (Havlíˇcek et al. 2008). There was also a complementary viewpoint: economic maturity or the division into structurally affected areas (such as the coal-basin regions) and the areas of a rural character with poor economies in the long run. In the first step, the selection was directed by statistical analyses on the level of administrative district of municipalities with an authorized municipal office (MAMO), while there was also an examination of the size of the territorial units (number of inhabitants under 10,000) and population density. The microregions Votice and Konice slightly exceed the limit of 10,000 inhabitants, but both areas display a below-average population density. All the selected microregions (administrative districts of the MAMO) have a below-average proportion of people with higher education (see Table 3.3). Respondents of the questionnaire survey were inhabitants with permanent residence in the selected model areas who were addressed through pupils of all elementary schools in a given MAMO administrative district. The disadvantage of this technique was that it addressed only one generation of residents: schoolchildren’s parents (the span of respondents’ average age in the microregions ranged between 37 and 40 years). On the other hand, it is precisely this generation that is one of the most active parts of a population, due to which it is also a crucial segment. The chosen technique has also resulted in a bigger proportion of women. On average, they made up 58.4% of the whole sample (however, in some microregions as many as 70%). It has appeared that the preparation for school with children is mainly an affair of mothers. The technique was naturally also chosen due to a simple distribution of questionnaires as well as based on previous positive experiences (see Heˇrmanová and Chromý 2009, Vaishar and Zapletalová 1998). In total, over 4375 completed questionnaires (over 4% of the inhabitants) were collected, and in almost all model areas a representative population sample (over 3%) was ensured. With regard to educational structure, the assumption was confirmed that there is a lower educational

42

M. Marada et al.

ˇ level in resettled regions (with the exception of Ceský Dub which has the highest share of inhabitants with higher education of all the regions). In general, elementary and secondary education is typical of peripheries, while resettled areas display a higher share of elementary education. A detailed structure of respondents is given in Table 3.4. The questionnaire was the crucial research instrument. It was drafted on the basis of a model by van Deth (2003, 2008). He divides social capital into (1) interpersonal contact networks, (2) the confidence members of social networks have to each other, and (3) norms and values they profess and respect (see the scheme in Fig. 3.2). In the given order, there is also a growing difficulty in recognising these phenomena. Therefore, in the latter category the questionnaire only evaluated the identity with the area and its perception. Bearing in mind van Deth’s classification, the individual questions were drafted. They mostly offered closed answers. The challenge was to ask indirect questions to avoid that the interviewer suggested the ‘right’ answer, preventing him to uncover the real state of affairs. For example, resourcefulness was examined by means of the formula: ‘If you had the opportunity X, would you react in the ways a, b, c or d?’ or engagement in public affairs by means of the question: ‘If asked by the mayor… would you organise …?’ Some questions were heading towards a ‘geographic’ evaluation, i.e. measuring external relationships (such as ‘If you need to arrange for something, are you most helped by the people from your place of residence/broader neighbourhood/region, etc.’ or ‘Are you engaged in any association on the local/regional/national level?’). Confidence in relationships was evaluated in the spheres of family, workplace, municipalities, a club or association. The following section offers an example of results from various types of questions related to van Deth’s classification. The contact networks were primarily uncovered by the questions about association life, while confidence in existing networks and institutions is illustrated by a question evaluated for the whole set of answers, and the agreement in the values shared by the inhabitants is depicted by a synthetic question about satisfaction with life in a municipality. In the light of the knowledge gained from previous research, one can presume that in the results of the questionnaire survey, people’s stronger engagement will be seen in model regions with continuous settlement (not resettled). This means that the crucial factor of the differentiation of the engagement as a sign of social capital will be in the form of the dichotomy resettled—continuously settled rather than centre—periphery. However, both horizontal and vertical position are likely to play a major role, in particular the position towards regional cores—provincial capitals. Besides, one can presume (since social capital is not equal to individuals’ human capital, cooperation is needed) a probably unclear relationship of social capital to the education index. As a result, the results of the questionnaire survey will indirectly prove a weak relation between the quality of human and social capital.

6941

3105 9037

C/Inn

C/Inn

R/Out P/Out

–

Konice

Klobouky u Brna Osoblaha Bojkovice

Total

4375

4.3

4.9 6.5

2.8

7.0

2.5

1.1

1.3 4.3

4.0 5.8 6.3 4.0

4.1 4.5

Proportion of respondents in population number (%)

41.6

43.0 43.5

26.3

44.8

31.8

28.0

18.8 45.2

37.3 46.2 43.5 44.9

41.1 42.1

Respondents—men (%)

58.4

57.0 56.5

73.7

55.3

68.2

72.0

81.3 54.8

62.7 53.8 56.5 55.1

58.9 57.9

Respondents—women (%)

38.6

39.5 39.0

38.4

39.3

38.9

38.5

39.7 38.8

37.1 38.7 40.0 38.1

37.7 37.0

Average age of respondents

*Note The microregions are arranged from west to east. The respondents did not give their exact age in the questionnaire, only ticked one of the four intervals. Therefore, their average age was defined as weighted mean with the use of medium values of the intervals. Type of peripheral region: R  resettled, C  continuous settlement, Out  outer (borderland) periphery, Inn  inner periphery

102,875

152 585

196

826

175

7007

C/Inn

Kopidlno

11,720

83

226 401 251 476

7563

5684 6928 3959 11,970

358 228

100 318

R/Inn C/Inn C/Inn C/Inn

Žlutice Bˇreznice Netolice Votice

8684 5049

Number of respondents

7793 7435

R/Out R/Out

Bor Vejprty

Population number (2001)

ˇ Ceská Kamenice R/Out Uhlíˇrské C/Inn Janovice ˇ R/Inn Ceský Dub

Type of region*

Model area/MAMO seat

Table 3.4 Selected data for sample of respondents of questionnaire survey

3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital … 43

44

M. Marada et al.

Social capital

Structural aspects

Social networks - membership of associations, - members of personal network - characteristic of networks (such as frequency of cooperation, regional order, knowledge of foreign languages, etc.)

Cultural aspects

Confidence - confidence in close people - confidence in local entities and institutions - confidence in political institutions of higher orders (including EU)

Civic norms and values - norms of reciprocity - engagement in a locality (personal participation, sponsoring) - identity with municipality, usefulness of entities

Fig. 3.2 Model of measurement of collective social capital. Source van Deth 2008 (modified)

3.4 Selected Results of the Questionnaire Survey Membership in associations, as one of the signs of extent and quality of social networks and also of engagement, was also evaluated with regard to the level of competence. For the sake of an easy distinction, a few sentences described the idea of the individual levels to the respondents. The answers (Fig. 3.3) are no surprise with regard to the structure of levels (it is natural that the prevailing engagement appears on the local level), while a major differentiation is not obvious from the regional viewpoint either, such as between Bohemia and Moravia or between the resettled and continuously settled areas. Engagement on the local level very slightly depends on the educational level, while engagement on regional and national levels does not depend on sex, age or education. It was also not proven that lower/higher values are concentrated in outer/inner peripheries or in resettled/continuously settled peripheries. However, western resettled peripheries (Bor, Vejprty and Žlutice) ˇ and also Ceská Kamenice display the lowest values in the number of memberships, while in the inner peripheries the lowest values appear in Konice. By contrast, the ˇ highest membership numbers occur in Osoblaha and Ceský Dub, i.e. in the resettled outer peripheries. However, based on the limited sample of the model areas one cannot argue that respondents’ low or high engagement is typical of a certain type of periphery. What really matters is obviously the local quality of the social milieu. Equally (and with a similar result), the regional level of contacts was examined by the question ‘If you need to arrange for something in the public interest, are you

3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital …

45

Fig. 3.3 Membership of associations according to regional levels. Source Authors’ questionnaire survey

most helped by the people from the place of residence, a larger area or from the national level?’ The respondents clearly prefer to accept the help of the people from their immediate surroundings; differences among microregions are relatively small, ranging on the 10% level, below the statistical significance level. The highest coopˇ eration on the national level appears in Ceská Kamenice, with its almost lowest share of people with higher education and at the same time with the lowest engagement in associations and civic groups. This suggests a high complexity and irregularity of the observed topic, or it illustrates the important role individuals and their (random) contacts in a regional or national metropolis play. Confidence is a major characteristic within the evaluation of social capital in an area. Within the framework of a field survey of trust in the model areas, there was an examination of extent of confidence in eight selected entities (neighbours, local associations, mayor of a municipality, its town hall, local businesspeople, local school, local weekend-house owners and local church). The total results of the survey for all the model areas suggest relatively considerable differences in trust when it comes to the individual examined entities (Fig. 3.4). Unlike the significantly low extent of faith of Czech society in constitutional institutions and elected officials, quite a high confidence in local entities was found (almost invariably over 50%). By far the highest values of confidence (with the merger of the categories of answers ‘I trust’ and ‘I rather trust’) were displayed by local school establishments (over 80%) and also relationship with neighbours (almost 80%). Above-average values of trustworthiness (over 60%) were also found with local associations (fire fighters, sports clubs, etc.) as well as the institution of mayor of a municipality. Average values of confidence were observed in the remaining four entities: local weekend-house owners, businesspeople, town hall and the local church. A closer

46

M. Marada et al.

Fig. 3.4 Confidence in selected entities (persons and institutions). Source Authors’ questionnaire survey

look at the category ‘I trust’ reveals, with a considerable predominance, the highest level of confidence in the local school (40%), once more followed by neighbourly relations (26%) and the mayor (22%). At the same time, the local church received the most contradictory assessment from the respondents. They either trust or distrust it (more than 30%), while moderate answers (‘I rather trust/distrust) appeared much less frequently than in the case of other entities. When it comes to the regionally variable confidence in the church, a statistical significance of the analysed variance exploring influence of the factor of resettlement and position of the periphery was not confirmed. Respondents’ education is the only significantly differentiating value in this evaluation. In general, one can arrive at the conclusion that when it comes to trust, peripheral areas show a relatively high social capital, rather surprisingly without any relation to post-war resettlement. This is also confirmed by previous results (a survey among mayors from 2007, see Havlíˇcek 2009). As a result, local conditions of communities are what really matters. The question asking about general satisfaction with life in a municipality deliberately offered four options so that the respondents could not choose any ‘comfortable’ neutral answer (Fig. 3.5). This question was part of the group of questions examining the respondents’ local identity. The good news of the conducted survey is that most inhabitants are satisfied or very satisfied with life in their municipalities, which often lie in quite remote areas. High dissatisfaction is obvious in Žlutice and Osoblaha, the microregions which also displayed ‘extreme’ signs in some other questions, and whose situation will therefore demand a more detailed survey.

3 Spatial Differentiation of Social Capital …

47

Fig. 3.5 General satisfaction with life in municipality. Source Questionnaire survey

3.5 Final Comments Following up previously conducted quantitative analyses of differences in human and social capital in Czechia’s peripheral regions of various types, this contribution was to present analyses of selected results of a large-scale primary empirical survey, conducted in Czechia’s model peripheral microregions. An expected difference between resettled areas and those with continuous settlement was the basic assumption of regional differences in the results of the questionnaire survey. It was presumed that people’s stronger engagement would have an impact on model regions with continuous settlement or that the dichotomy resettled—continuously settled rather than centre—periphery would be the crucial factor differentiating engagement as a sign of social capital. In most cases, the correlation of answers with inhabitants’ sex or education was not proven despite the fact that education of the population in peripheral areas with continuous settlement is significantly higher than in the resettled ones. A closer positive relationship with education was only significantly recorded in the case of membership of political parties. The role of a differentiating factor is played not even by the position within the framework of the state (i.e. the western-eastern gradient or the aspect of resettlement vs. continuous settlement). The most probable explanation could be that the generation of respondents addressed (schoolchildren’s parents) is generally quite homogeneous, encountering similar problems and having a relatively similar way of life. Life in peripheral municipalities is probably most strongly influenced by their population size, on which the financial situation of municipalities depends, among others. This is why one can presume on the basis of our analyses that the position of a municipality in the settlement hierarchy is a crucial external

48

M. Marada et al.

factor influencing life in municipalities, while the quality of human and social capital provides for a satisfactory life of local communities. A successful development of municipalities, which is in the case of peripheries strongly determined by external help, demands more openness towards the surrounding area and higher hierarchical levels. So far, peripheral municipalities have only been able randomly and rarely to maintain these contacts and relationships. In fact, given the arrangement of the civil service and self-administrative authorities, their role is constantly growing. It is apparent from the conducted survey among others that social capital and its quality are very difficult to describe in territorial terms. On the level of regions there is a historically arisen ‘macro-differentiation’ of Bohemia and Moravia, due to the longstanding development of the settlement system, and a differentiation of the areas with continuous settlement/resettlement is also obvious with regard to the differentiation of rural space (Perlín et al. 2010). On the local and microregional level, the quality of a specific local milieu, i.e. local specific conditions (institutional milieu), seems to be the crucial factor differentiating social capital. The local/microregional institutional milieu appeared to be substantial for the respondents (without any major differences, in all types of periphery). Due to this, for the future development of these areas there is the crucial question of the quality of social and human capital of the key actors who represent the area outwardly, both in the sphere of public administration and commerce and in the non-governmental/non-profit sector. Where such judicious and instructed actors are absent, there is the threat that the social capital of territorial communities will even impede the development of peripheries and their successful co-operative integration into a regional system. Acknowledgement This contribution was written with the support of the Czech Science Foundation, project No. P410/12/G113

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Janˇcák, V. (2001). Pˇríspˇevek ke geografickému výzkumu periferních oblastí na mikroregionální ˇ úrovni, Geografie – Sborník CGS, 106,1, pp. 26–35. Janˇcák, V., Havlíˇcek, T., Chromý, P., & Marada, M. (2006). Research on peripheral regions in Czechia: Theoretical and methodological remarks and basic results. Acta Geographica Universitatis Comenianae, 48, 89–99. Janˇcák, V., Havlíˇcek, T., Chromý, P., & Marada, M. (2008). Regional differentiation of selected ˇ condition for the development of human and social capital in Czechia. Geografie-Sborník CGS, 113(3), 269–284. Janˇcák, V., Chromý, P., Marada, M., Havlíˇcek, T., & Vondráˇcková, P. (2010). Sociální kapitál jako faktor rozvoje periferních oblastí: analýza vybraných složek sociálního kapitálu v typovˇe ˇ odlišných periferiích Ceska. Geografie, 115(2), 207–222. Johnston, R. J., Gregory, D., Pratt, G., & Watts, M. (Eds.). (2000). Dictionary of human geography (4th ed.). Blackwell. ˇ Kostelecký, T., Patoˇcková, V., & Vobecká, J. (2007). Kraje v Ceské republice – existují souvislosti mezi ekonomickým rozvojem, sociálním kapitálem a výkonem krajských vlád? Sociologický cˇ asopis/Czech Sociological Review, 43(5), 911–943. ˇ Kuˇcerová, S. (2008). Územní rozmístˇení základních škol v Cesku, hlavní rysy jeho promˇen ve 2. polovinˇe 20. století a jejich potenciální d˚usledky. Studia Paedagogica, Sborník prací filozofické fakulty Brnˇenské univerzity U13, LVI, Masarykova univerzita, Brno, s. 35–51. Kuˇcera, Z., & Kuˇcerová, S. (2012). Historical geography of persistence, destruction and creation: The case of rural landscape transformations in Czechia’s resettled borderland. Historická geografie, 38(1), 165–184. Kuldová, S. (2005). Pˇríspˇevek ke kulturnˇegeografickému výzkumu: možnosti hodnocení kulturních ˇ aspekt˚u pomocí statistických metod, Geografie – Sborník CGS, 110,4, pp. 300–314. Labrianidis, L. (2006). Human capital as the critical factor for the development of Europe’s rural peripheral areas. In The new european rurality. Strategy for small firms (pp. 41–59). Ashgate: Aldershot. Leimgruber, W. (1994): Marginality and marginal regions: Problems of definition. In C. D. Chang (Ed.), Marginality and development issues in marginal regions. Proceedings of study group on development issues in marginal regions (pp. 1–18). Taipei. Leimgruber, W. (1998). From highlands and high-latitude zones to marginal regions. In H. Jussila, W. Leimgruber & R. Majoral (Eds.), Perception of marginality (pp. 27–33). Aldershot: Ashgate. Leimgruber, W. (2001). Globalization, deregulation, marginalization: Where are we at the end of the millenium? In H. Jussila, R. Majoral, & F. Delgado-Cravidão (Eds.), Globalization and marginality in geographical space (pp. 7–23). Aldershot: Ashgate. Lin, N. (2008). A network theory of social capital. In D. Castiglione, J. W. Deth, & G. van and Wolleb (Eds.), The handbook of social capital (pp. 50–69). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ˇ Marada, M. (2001). Vymezování periferních oblastí Ceska a studium jejich znak˚u pomocí statistické ˇ ˇ analýzy, Geografie – Sborník CGS, 106,1, Praha, CGS, pp.12–24. Marada, M., & Kvˇetoˇn, V. (2016). Transport supply and demand changes in relation to unemployment: Empirical evidence from the Czech Republic in a time of crisis. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 107(5), 611–627 Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, on-line statistics on an unemployment. https://www.mpsv. cz/en/. Novotná, M. (Ed.). (2005). Problémy periferních oblastí , UK v Praze, PˇrF, Praha, KSGRR. Paxton, P. (1999). Is social capital declining in the United States? A multiple indicator assessment. The American Journal of Sociology, 105(1), 88–127. ˇ Perlín, R., Kuˇcerová, S., & Kuˇcera, Z. (2010). Typologie venkovského prostoru Ceska, Geografie, roˇc. 115,2, pp. 161–187. Pileˇcek, J. (2010). Koncept sociálního kapitálu: pokus o pˇrehled teoretických a metodických východisek a aplikaˇcních pˇrístup˚u jeho studia. Geografie, 115(1), 64–77.

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ˇ Pileˇcek, J. (2013). Sociální a lidský kapitál jako faktor rozvoje periferních oblastí Ceska (Dissertation thesis). Department of social geography and regional development, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. Pileˇcek, J., & Janˇcák, V. (2010). Can social capital be measured? an analysis of territorial differences among the districts of Czechia. Geografie, (1), 78–95 [in Czech]. Pileˇcek, J., Chromý, P., & Janˇcák, V. (2013). Social capital and local socio-economic development: The case of Czech peripheries. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 104(5), 604–620. Piseli, F. (1999). Capitale sociale: un concetto situazionale e dimanico. Stato e Mercato, 57, 395–417. Preston, R., & Dyer, C. (2003). Human capital, social capital and lifelong learning: An editorial introduction. Compare, 33, 429–436. Ptáˇcek, P. (2001). Sociální kapitál a regionální rozvoj – teoretická východiska, in: Létal M. (ed.): ˇ ˇ Sborník pˇríspˇevk˚u Výroˇcní konference CGS – “Ceská geografie v období rozvoje informaˇcních technologií”, Olomouc, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Pˇrírodovˇedecká fakulta, katedra geografie, pp. 296–301. Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: civic tradition in modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Putnam, R. D. (2001). Social capital. Measurement and consequences. ISUMA—Canadian Journal of Policy Research, Social Capital 2(1), 41–51. Šafr, J., & Sedláˇcková, M. (2006). Sociální kapitál. Koncepty, teorie a metody mˇerˇení , Praha, ˇ Sociologický ústav AV CR. Schuller, T. (2001). The complementary roles of human and social capital. Canadian Journal of Policy Research, 2(1), 18–24. Sýkora, L., & Matoušek, R. (2009). Jak (ne)mˇeˇrit sociální kapitál pro regionální rozvoj? XII. Mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vˇedách, 18.-19. 6. 2009, Boˇretice, ESF MU Brno. http:// is.muni.cz/do/1456/soubory/katedry/kres/4884317/8594456/SykoraMatousek.pdf. Triglia, C. (2001). Social capital and local development. European Journal of Social Theory, 4(4), 427–442. Vaishar, A., & Zapletalová, J. (1998). Jemnice: The role of a small town in the present stage of transformation. Moravian Geographical Report, 6, 32–42. van Deth, J. W. (2003). Measuring social capital: orthodoxies and continuing controversies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 6(1), 79–92. van Deth, J. W. (2008). Measuring social capital. In D. Castiglione, J. W. van Deth, & G. Wolleb (Eds.), The handbook of social capital (pp. 150–176). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Woolcock, M. (1998). Theory and Society, 27(2), 151–208 Woolcock, M., & Narayan, D. (2000). Social capital: Implication for development theory, research and policy. The World Bank Research Observer, 15(2), 225–249.

Chapter 4

Rural Labour Markets and Peripherization Processes in Poland Krystian Heffner

4.1 Introduction The development of rural areas in Poland and the related living conditions of rural residents are directly linked to the functioning of the countryside labour market—stability of employment, structure of labour resources, workforce distribution and adjustment to the changing economic needs. It is also dependent on the changing external environment—attractiveness and pull forces of foreign labour markets, adjustment policies of the European economy to climate change and many others. In turn, the development of rural areas in the territorial sense, i.e. on the local and regional scales, is closely linked to the success (or its absence) of nearby urban centres, whose functioning is heavily dependent on the labour force potential in their rural hinterland and the changing external and endogenous features of rural labour markets. This chapter assesses the trends in the development of rural areas in Poland, taking into account changes in the countryside labour resources (and therefore labour supply) as well as select causes that affect the direction of these changes. It also identifies the conditions and ability to maintain or increase the demand for labour in the countryside due to declining employment in agriculture (particularly stable workplaces in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in rural areas). It emphasizes that the nature of changes occurring in the rural labour market is complex and complicated, and additionally, strongly spatially diversified on national, regional and even local scales, which results in a dichotomous structure of rural development processes in Poland. In addition, of particular importance for functioning rural labour markets is outmigration to foreign destinations, that has increased after Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. We also attempt to evidence that as the development processes are advancing, relatively narrow zones of intensive development have been gradually evolving, mainly K. Heffner (B) University of Economics, Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_4

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Fig. 4.1 Poland: the voivodeships with urban municipalities above 50,000 inhabitants

around the larger cities (in particular metropolitan centres) and in rural areas where non-agricultural functions dominate (such as leisure and tourism, handicrafts and small industries, environmental services and ecology, work abroad and remittances). In this situation, the emergence of relatively extensive zones of a peripheral nature (many of them progressively acquiring a lasting character) presents a serious concern for the development of rural areas in Poland. These include both external zones in many regions (voivodeships1 ; Fig. 4.1), as well as national peripheries (some of the border areas), and even local areas at a relatively short distance from cities, but unfavourably located as to communications.

4.2 Rural Labour Markets—Questions of Origin and Changes of Factors At the threshold of the political and economic system transformation of 1989 in Poland, the main economic sector of rural areas—agriculture—changed significantly, 1 Voivodeship—Polish

administration unit on the NUTS2 level (region). Poland is divided into 16 regional administrative units (Dolno´sl˛askie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lubelskie, Lubuskie, ´ askie, Łódzkie, Małopolskie, Mazowieckie, Opolskie, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Pomorskie, Sl˛ ´ etokrzyskie, Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie, Wielkopolskie, Zachodniopomorskie—the names of Swi˛ voivodeships (regions) according to the official nomenclature of the EU).

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which considerably influenced the situation of the farming population. Firstly, state farms were liquidated, which resulted in a huge and rapid increase in unemployment among their workers. Most of the labourers were unfit for any other activity, with no possibility to move towards vacancies in other activities, and finally lost their only sources of income. Uneven distribution of jobs in state agriculture associated with the post-war way of nationalization and collectivization on so-called Recovered Territories, became the cause of the persistent spatial diversification of social and economic effects of this process. Secondly, private agriculture played a significant role on the labour market during the transformation period, because of a long-lasting evolution (socio-economical, politico-cultural) of the present ownership and agrarian structure. A petrification of rural structures, together with all positive and negative consequences, had immunized them—compared to the rest of the economy—against the results of the system transformation in the first half of the 1990s. The rural, and specifically the agricultural labour market, had appeared to be more stable than off-farm economic sectors. One of the results of the relative stability of the agricultural work places is the cohesion of family and economic organization, which, from the point of view of economic effectiveness, yields worse effects, but secures basic living conditions. The flexible time schedule enables all family household members to combine farming and housekeeping. That organization of work significantly absorbs the influence of bad economic effects, and during difficulties on the labour market, it ‘kept’ a lot of work in agriculturally dominant areas (see, among others, Rosner 2001; Maleszyk 2014; Frenkel and Rosner 2001; Witkowski 2004). The rural areas, previously functioning quite efficiently, collapsed when Poland adopted market economic conditions and joined the European Union. The ‘absorbing’ form of the agricultural economy gradually disappeared, as is shown by the substantial short- and long-term outmigration from rural areas to destinations abroad (Łab˛edzki 2009; Macours and Swinnen 2005). It is distinctive that the spatial arrangement of rural areas is quite stable with their numerous and permanent problems of the functioning of the labour market. There are, however, relatively broad rural areas where labour markets are growing and show a tendency for development. These rural areas in various phases of the urbanization process are more or less integrating economically and socially with the main cities in the country. Their development bases and growth prospects are mostly considered advantageous (Strzelecki and Holcel 2008). On the other hand, in almost all regions there are often extensive complexes of rural areas which are at risk of becoming marginal and experience deepening developing difficulties (Fig. 4.2). In many studies, it has been noticed that the development of regional centres—during at least the past two decades—has been mainly concentrated on their suburbs, which results in a growing number of inhabitants of rural communities located in urbanizing areas, where work resources and activities also increase (Ba´nski 2009). At the same time, we observe an increasing rurbanization of the countryside around large and medium centers, resulting mainly from the immigration from these cities (Fig. 4.3). These people are the new inhabitants of the villages, but usually remain part of the urban labour market and economy, although they formally change

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Fig. 4.2 Population of rural municipalities in general: change in number of inhabitants, 2004–2015

the structure of the rural population. In turn, extensive rural areas in peripheral locations (both nationally and regionally) suffer from depopulation, and their demographic and work structures become increasingly limited (cf. Fig. 4.4; see e.g. Pelc 2006; Paveliuc-Olariu 2010; Kłodzi´nski 2004; Rosner 2012; Heffner 2014) Many research projects have, over the last decade, identified the correlations between market and non-market functions of agricultural holdings as well as their relation to processes of economic development and quality of life in different types of rural areas (among others Refsgaard and Johnson 2010; Shucksmith 2010). Knowing the influence of different policies on relations between components of the development of rural areas is also significant. In general, it can be shown that external direct support (farming subsidies) can negatively impact the functioning of a regional economy but its limitations, paradoxically, can act favorably through delivering work resources and capital, and stimulate the achievement of better nonagricultural effects through establishing an advantageous feedback in the economy. An additional effect can be the achievement of a better-quality environment and general quality of life in a village (Bryden and Hart 2004). It is also acknowledged that the success of rural regions is often connected to the efficient transformation of many public properties, among which some merge with

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Fig. 4.3 Working age population of rural municipalities: change in number of inhabitants in working age, 2004–2015

agriculture into new types of commercial activities connected with environment and culture (Terluin and Post 2000/2001; Gilg 1983). Also, the degree of the transformation of public and private agricultural properties for the territorial development (of communities) and a higher quality of life depends mainly on the condition of the local economy, and its social and environmental context. The factors which specify when and to what extent the process of change appears in each rural region mainly depend on how development policy is run, and on its impact on regional and local decision makers (agricultural holding owners, employees, customers, entrepreneurs, and potential emigrants and immigrants; cf. Stark and Fan 2008; Stockdale 2006).

4.3 Rural Labour Market—Changes to Multifunctional Villages One of the concepts which has indirect influence on the demanding part of a rural labour market is the striving for multifunctional development of villages, and within this approach the multifunctional development of agriculture. Multifunctional devel-

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Fig. 4.4 Unemployment in rural municipalities. change in number of unemployed inhabitants, 2004–2015

opment of a village is—in general—the creation of workplaces and activities which are located in a village but are not directly connected with agriculture. The multifunctionality of rural areas means a diversification of economic activity in villages, creating a friendly environment both for farmers and the non-farming village population, strengthening the vitality of rural areas, and meeting the expectations of those involved in the development of rural areas (who usually do not live in a village).2 Some authors understand it as the diversification of workplace supply in the rural environment, generated by local societies which find different forms of self-fulfilment in their place of residence (Heffner and Czarnecki 2015). From the point of view of durability of rural labour markets, the multifunctional development of a village doubtlessly endeavours to slow down and even block the processes that reduce the economic dimension of local economies by keeping the 2 The term multifunctional development of rural areas was defined by numerous Polish experts in various scientific and practical fields i.e. Jerzy Ba´nski, Adam Czarnecki, Jerzy Falkowski, Marcin Feltynowski, Krystian Heffner, Michał Jasiulewicz, Marek Kłodzi´nski, Andrzej Stasiak and Jerzy Wilkin a synthetic approach with a critical discussion of the works of the authors mentioned in Czarnecki (2009).

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working population in a village, thereby limiting outmigration. The local labour markets of a multifunctional rural area include so-called green workplaces—agriculture with its additional functions, and also forestry, conservation area services, renewable power engineering,3 and tourism and recreation, social, health, and housing services (e.g. for second homes), home-office and part-time jobs. Moreover, there is a place for numerous crafts and small manufacturing, transportation and construction services, which are in high demand in both agriculture and related activities and in the public and housing sectors. Boosting that kind of activity extends the local possibilities for the inhabitants of villages to earn their living, start local off-farm businesses, and concentrate on searching for new options for the use of the manufacturing potential. Most of these activities aim at finding new sources of income for the villagers to liberate agriculture from the necessity of providing for a redundant workforce (see among others Drejerska and Sawicka 2008; Guzal-Dec and Zwoli´nska-Ligaj 2013). All initiatives that result in keeping a minimum population potential in rural zones and make people want to live and work in rural areas, although giving up some of the benefits of large cities, are significant—they “guarantee” a reasonable demand on most off-farm activities established in a village and in intimately connected small towns.

4.4 Labour Resources in Rural Areas No doubt the main determinants of the situation on the rural labour market is on the one hand labour supply (i.e. all available work resources), and on the other hand work requirements, i.e. demand. It is difficult to mention all the factors which influence the scale of work resources in a village, particularly because they differ regionally. Some of the factors are strictly demographic, i.e. the population structure according to sex, age, and marital status of the inhabitants. Influencing them, or through them, is a difficult and long-term task, with highly uncertain results that appear after a few, more often after dozens of years. Significant are also the factors of so-called human resources (the social capital4 ), i.e. education, entrepreneurship, professional experience and abilities, which often initiate the permanent outmigration from the countryside, resulting in the depopulation of large areas. During the second half of the 2000s, the rural resources of the population in the productive age group (18–60/65, female/male) were growing in Poland at an average annual number of more than 100,000 people, which means that the balance of people reaching the productive age and leaving this age group was positive (and so was the balance of migration). Also, the share of the productive age population increased in rural areas. For the period 1999–2004 this population in rural areas was on average 63%, but in the next period (2005–2011) it was almost 67%. One of the reasons for this increase was the next wave (echo) or the effects of the post-war baby boomers 3 See 4 For

Chap. 15 by Burger in this volume. a discussion of this term, see Chap. 3 by Marada in this volume.

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in Poland. The working-age people are usually economically active, so their greatest shares are found in economically attractive rural areas where labour markets are rich and diverse, e.g. in the areas of suburbanization and in the rural parts of peri-urban areas (i.e. Biega´nska 2013; Heffner 2013). However, the population of the productive age (and consequently also the work resources) also increased in towns and cities, but because of a negative migration balance, the work resources in urban areas gradually decreased. The growth rate of work resources in villages is the principal element of the national work potential (Stanny 2013). Starting from the 1970s, there was a very strong selective migration flow from rural to urban areas, due to the age of the participants. They absorbed the entire natural growth rate of the rural population, and as a consequence the village population sizes did not change. The process was crucial for the demographic reproduction both in villages and cities at the end of the 20th century, and it resulted in a regressive general population trend in Poland. In the 1990s, the internal migration flows declined, and since the beginning of the year 2000, the rural areas have been characterized by a positive migration balance, higher than their natural growth rate. The loss of population concerned mainly cities and towns, whereas the rural population has been growing slightly with regionally different intensity (Rosner 2012). However, the trend was an increase around bigger cities and a decline (with resulting depopulation) in the external and peripheral rural areas. It is worth mentioning that these displacements in rural areas differ significantly from one region to another; the population increase distinctively concentrates on rural areas in suburbanization zones of mostly regional centres (Fig. 4.3). There are, in turn, wide rural areas where the population loss is significant and concentrated, mostly in eastern regions of Poland, south-eastern and eastern parts of Podlaskie voivodeship, bordering that zone in the eastern part of Mazowieckie voivodeship, in the northern and eastern Lublin region, and also in outer zones of ´ etokrzyskie, Łód´z, Mazowieckie, Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie Swi˛ and Zachodniopomorskie voivodeships. A large loss can also be noticed in the eastern part of Opolskie, and in the Kłodzko Area (located in Dolno´sl˛askie voivodeship). The socio-economic structure of the depopulation areas is characterised by a relatively high share of non-profit sources in the income of the population, very high employment in public services on an off-farm labour market, and a small number of off-farm business entities. Mostly, these companies employ very few workers and most of them supply local markets (Drygas 2010). Generally, the range of the population growth rate of the productive age group in 1991–2010 in Poland—which is one of the most important determinants of changes in work resources—is seen as exceptionally large (Fig. 4.3) (Rosner and Stanny 2017). In rural areas, according to their demography, the growth rate of work resources has stabilized after 2014, before becoming negative in rural areas as well as in cities. It does not mean, however, that all rural areas will have more problems with workforce supply; such problems will occur on the local scale only and are connected to maladjusted demographic and market structures. The characteristic feature of the

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change of the age structure of village populations in 2000–2007 was the absolute and relative growth of the participation of people of the productive age group in the rural work resources. Their number was growing much faster in villages than in cities. Particularly high differences appeared in the second half of the 2000s and later, when almost the entire growth rate was concentrated in villages. One of the most important reasons of these differences was migration from cities to villages, which dominated over the rural exodus.

4.5 Migration Flows as a Key Factor Shaping Rural Labour Markets The stability of a positive rate of population flows between almost all big towns (over 50,000 inhabitants) and surrounding rural areas is a sign that the living conditions in villages are becoming increasingly attractive to a large number of urban dwellers. Rural settlements increasingly attract relatively wealthy and well-educated people who will commute to the cities where they used to live. From the point of view of economic and service activities in a village, this is a positive sign. A significant shift of the urban population to suburbanization areas delays the onset of the process of reducing the resources of the rural labour force, it formally improves the structure of these resources due to the influx of mainly younger people. Furthermore, the spatial dimension of this phenomenon (in metropolitan and agglomeration areas, especially in regional centres) accelerates the growth of the internal differences in rural development opportunities. On the regional scale, the areas with a strong predominance of immigration are concentrated around Warsaw, Gda´nsk (here a relatively wide area of Kashubia is included), Pozna´n, Bydgoszcz and Toru´n, Wrocław, Cracow, Łód´z (especially in the north-western zone), Szczecin, Białystok, Lublin and also the regional centres (Gorzów Wielkopolski, Zielona Góra, Olsztyn, Kielce and Rzeszów) and regional towns (Zamo´sc´ , Nowy S˛acz, BielskoBiała, Płock; see Fig. 4.5). The main areas with a positive migration balance in villages in the decade 2000–2010 are connected with all metropoles and regional centres (apart from Opole whose wide rural suburbanization zone has a negative balance of foreign migration, and the Upper Silesian agglomeration where the outflow is mainly directed outside its influence zone, and in the western part even abroad, Fig. 4.6), and also with some other developing industrial centres (Bełchatów, LubinPolkowice). The apparently negative balance of population flows does not include extensive rural zones, however; many types of such local areas can be found in southern and eastern parts of Opolskie, in the Pomeranian Lakeland (Zachodniopomorskie and Pomorskie voivodeships), in the Fore-Sudetic part of Dolno´sl˛askie voivodeship, and in the southern parts of the Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie voivodeship. The particular elements of attractiveness of villages are a convenient and balanced environment, and of small and medium towns the availability of services, transporta-

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Fig. 4.5 Total net migration in rural municipalities, 2004–2014 (mean: 178 persons per municipality)

tion and good infrastructure, and also a convenient local environment, security, nature close by, and a stable labour market. Unfortunately, the latter is usually based on a relatively limited public sector, mainly the local administration (see, among others, Rosner and Stanny 2008; Bosworth 2006). In turn, big towns are mainly chosen because of the labour market, the availability of transportation and services, and the quality of infrastructure (Heffner 2014). The concentration of internal migration in relatively narrow rural zones around bigger towns in particular voivodeships distinctively diversifies rural space and the functioning of the rural labour market. In the context of the developmental perspectives of rural areas, local labour markets play an increasingly important role, using the potential of metropoles and bigger urban centres, which means they are located in and around those centres. They attract work resources which are active and mobile, especially well-educated, with a large developing potential from weaker, badly connected, therefore regionally and locally peripheral rural labour markets (rural areas together with small towns).

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Fig. 4.6 Average registrations abroad (foreign migration) in rural municipalities 2004–2014 (mean: 3 persons per municipality)

4.6 Labour Markets in Villages and Surroundings—Changing Factors In the 1990s and in the beginning of the 2000s, the rural labour market was characterized by a large free workforce. The structure of the rural labour market in Poland and its elements (demand, supply, labour costs, unemployment), and correlations between them, and also the components and the directions of evolution connected with demographic and economic conditions showed relatively stable regional differences (Sikorska 2001). The structure of the village population in their productive age was very unequal both in 2004 and 2015. The largest work resources were in Poland’s western ´ askie, Lubuskie, Wielkopolskie and Zachodniopomorskie) and north(Opolskie, Sl˛ ern voivodeships (Pomorskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie), and ´ askie), Warsaw, Łód´z and Kielce. also in the urban agglomerations of Katowice (Sl˛ North-eastern Poland (Podlaskie and Lubelskie), the wide outer zone of Mazowieckie ´ etokrzyskie and Łódzkie voivodeships, voivodeship, and the borderland between Swi˛ on the other hand, had the fewest. Changes in the number of people in the productivity

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age-group account for large differences in the spatial system, because the growth rates during 2004–2015 concentrated on the surroundings of the Gda´nsk agglomeration, around Pozna´n, Wrocław, Cracow and Warsaw, and Toru´n and Bydgoszcz, and some other urban centres. Apart from them, wider, compact growth areas can be seen in the Małopolskie, Podkarpackie and Wielkopolskie voivodeships. The zones of decrease, on the other hand, are scattered across the country, located in some communities of the southern Opolskie and Dolno´sl˛askie voivodeships (the Kłodzko Area), and individually in nine further regions. On a relative basis, the growth zone includes the whole of eastern Poland, apart from Warsaw agglomeration, and Pomorskie, Opolskie, and Małopolskie voivodeships. There is a recurrent mismatch between job seekers and job offers. This is due (at least to a large extent) to high hidden unemployment among both farming and non-farming rural populations, inherited from the past period of the command (or planning) economy. This population met with a young generation from the so-called second wave of a demographic boom and became victim of the fast decline in employment in the public sector, which in rural areas was not compensated by a corresponding increase in private employment. The village, especially agriculture, also acts as a “shock absorber” for the effects of unemployment on the urban labour market (Table 4.1). Numerous research has also shown the weak mutual adaptation abilities of employers and employees on the rural labour market, especially in areas poorly linked to regional and subregional development centers, with transportation problems, low communication availability, lack of social capital, etc.; (Sosnowska 2002; see also Schlitte 2012). The rural labour market is specific for its low rationality of allocation of work resources, which mainly derives from people’s weak mobility. Two major factors are obstacles on the way to remedy this situation: the fact that only one profession (farming) dominates most rural communities, and the prevalent traditional attitudes of employees in the decision to change jobs (cf. Suchta et al. 2006). In addition, the rural labour market has a secondary nature, offering ‘worse’ workplaces which means bad working and wage conditions (compared to corresponding job offers in cities), lower employment stability, smaller chances of promotion, etc. The most significant feature of unemployment, however, is its

Table 4.1 Professional activity in Poland’s rural areas associated with farm households (population aged 15 years and older) Population in households Population without a farm with a farm 2003 2012 2003 2012 Share of rural population (%) Approx. 40

Approx. 60

Employment rate (%)

57.6

62.4

33.4

42.6

Unemployment rate (%)

11.0

5.7

28.0

14.1

Source Stanny (2014)

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structural character, which originates in the transformation of 1989. The spatial difference has remained stable and has a meaningful connection with suburbanization zones (significantly lower) and peripheral areas (significantly higher) with different conditions (outer borderlands—Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie, Podlaskie, Podkarpackie, Lubelskie, Lubuskie and Dolno´sl˛askie [Sudetes Mountains] voivodeships, regional peripheries—Zachodniopomorskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie, west and north Mazowieckie, borderland of Lubuskie and Dolno´sl˛askie, west part ´ etokrzyskie and Radom region). They are of Opolskie voivodeships, and part of Swi˛ mostly highly negatively correlated with the level of the economy of the rural areas and the level of education of the population. Quite similar (but spatially not that compact and clear) and also stable is the distribution of communities with high unemployment. They are situated on the borderland of Opolskie and Dolno´sl˛askie, Warmi´nsko-Mazurskie and Podlaskie, Wielkopolskie ´ etokrzyskie voivodeships. and Kujawsko-Pomorskie as well as Mazowieckie and Swi˛ Moreover, there are many similar communities like those in Zachodniopomorskie, Podkarpackie and Wielkopolskie voivodeships—their distribution can partially be explained by their history, as they are former areas of nationalized farming or shut down local industries. The largest unemployment growth rate in villages can be found in Poland’s eastern regions (apart from the zones around regional centres (Kielce, Lublin and Rzeszów, also in the area of Białystok, Warsaw and Cracow), and in the zone between Opole and Gliwice and the south-eastern part of Wielkopolskie). Significant changes in the level of unemployment occur in areas with a relatively low level of unemployment, viz. Poland’s eastern voivodeships, Mazowieckie, Łódzkie and the eastern part of Opolskie (increase); in many areas with a high level of unemployment, a decrease was noticed locally (in the western part of Opolskie, the eastern part of Dolno´sl˛askie ´ etokrzyskie voivodeships (see Fig. 4.3)). and the northern part of Swi˛ The best way towards rationalization of employment and reduction of unemployment in villages and agriculture would be to accelerate the process of multifunctional development of rural areas, in connection with an improvement of the macroeconomic business cycle. An important role in balancing the rural labour market should also play an active, pro-employment policy of the labour market, complementary to the macroeconomic socio-economic policy. It also seems reasonable to emphasize and harmonize the macroeconomic, regional and local function of employment policy (Sosnowska 2002). For at least three decades the development policy for rural areas in Poland has concentrated on challenges in connection with the need to differentiate the economic functions (increasing the functional dynamics of villages). In particular, it looked at the possibility to implement off-farm functions, to promote new forms of off-farm employment, the utilization of migrants’ remittances, the support of service systems, and also the implementation of many facilities for various resident groups in rural areas (see among others Davis and Pearce 2001; De Haan and Rogaly 2002). They are not development goals but development ways which lead to increase the level and quality of life in a village. Simultaneously, a changing socio-economic and often also political situation (privatization and its effects, market facilitation of the

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economy along with the effects such as the total decline of many types of activity in some regions or their parts, increase of ecological awareness of the population, etc.) can lead to relatively frequent changes of priorities and goals of development of the rural areas on all scales, European, national and regional, and even local. During the period when Poland prepared her entry into the European structures and after the accession to the European Union (1995–2005), the policy on rural area development evolved relatively quickly. It began to concentrate on measures that should reduce the gap between the level of living of Polish villages and those in other member states that are supported by various European funds and programmes. The latter were consolidation initiatives that diversified the directions of agricultural activities and promoted local products and agrotourism, supporting small and medium businesses and improving the inhabitants’ qualifications, skills and level of education (e.g. Bartkowiak 2010). Moreover, the activities which improve the conditions of a rural infrastructure and secure natural resources as well as landscape values are widely subsidized on local and regional scales (Rudnicki et al. 2013). Nowadays, the socio-economic development of rural areas is a broad category including not only the diversification process of the rural economy (which means parallel activities of many rural economical functions, striving for and reaching the multi-functionality of rural areas), but also economic support programmes for the people, which are associated with the stimulation of local business activities and the aim to attract external investments. The point is also to improve conditions and quality of life which are reached through maintaining the environment (the restoration of lost environmental values often required both innovation and economic and technical measures) and the cultural values of villages.

4.7 Conclusions Admittedly, agriculture continues to play an important role in the functioning and development of Poland’s rural areas; however, the (economic and socio-cultural) relation between home and work plays an increasingly important role in most regions. This is characterized by two processes: – inhabitants of cities move to rural areas, keeping their workplace in the city, – the growing dependence of rural residents on the urban labour market and employment on this market. Both processes are directly and positively correlated with a good and mutual accessibility of urban centres and rural areas. A lively suburbanization process can considerably reduce both trends, slowing down the development of villages and deteriorating the communication conditions in the polarization zones, both regional and nationally. A key factor for rural areas outside the zones of influence of large urban agglomerations is the relation with central places (visible e.g. in local economic activity zones,

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local action groups, local labour markets, local service centres etc.) concerning high and also commonly available services. Included are off-farm labour markets which can (or should) help to absorb an eventual surplus workforce of the surrounding area, who must be highly available from their local areas. Changes in rural labour markets are associated with the level of ‘centrality’ of smaller cities in terms of education and professional training, trade, banking, insurance, health care, cultural services and local administration. In the 2000s, however, there has been a tendency of hierarchical and functional simplification of urban centres through the relocation of institutions and service sector activities (particularly in the public sector which is a permanent component of local labour markets) to larger cities and even metropoles. The result was a deterioration of accessibility to services in rural areas. A further consequence was the weakening and limitation of the functional diversification possibilities of villages (with enlarged and economically unjustified commuting, extended commuting to work) and the decrease of workplaces. It is also important to maintain the stability and diversification of rural labour markets and the relations between rural and urban entrepreneurship. They particularly include a modern and technologically advanced agriculture, which is highly dependent on the transfer of knowledge, modern services and new products—delivered by institutions situated in large urban centres, research and development centres, and enterprises. At the same time, the city is a market for food produced by the agricultural sector, and the relations transform from local to regional, which is because the friction of distance has declined. Agriculture is a main component of keeping workplaces in the countryside. The least important role in the diversification of rural labour markets can be attributed to relations connected with the recreation and leisure functions of rural areas (‘consumption areas’). The countryside plays an important role in providing possibilities of meeting the urban dwellers’ need for recreation (Pomianek 2012; Kutkowska and Hasi´nski 2013; Ciani 2017). This not only helps to diversify the economic base of agricultural holdings (and promotes multifunctional agriculture), but often initiates the establishment of new forms of village activity and performance. However, the rural recreation and leisure zones near large metropolitan areas often lose their character based on the agricultural tradition and ties to the rural landscape and are transformed into huge, modern recreation establishments (Boll et al. 2014). On the other hand, in other places they retain their rural features and are mainly visited because of their environmental, cultural and traditional values (Ciani 2017). It often happens that the dimension of tourism exceeds such regions’ environmental carrying capacity. In many cases, rural areas evolve towards ‘consumption landscapes’. Recreation and leisure as main forms of a relation between town and countryside become a basic component of an advantageous influence on the local labour market of rural areas in peripheral zones. Rural labour markets in a wide range assure the functioning of drinking water resources, water treatment plants, an aquifer, landscape and forest protection areas and also the infrastructure for electricity supply, and some resources mainly located in rural areas. These domains maintain a significant number of jobs in the countryside.

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Altogether, from a territorial perspective, a functioning rural labour market is a distinct link between position, development opportunities and trends of change and the development situation of the respective regions. No doubt, the rural areas in zones with an economic and communication impact of large urban centres (metropoles, regional centres) are a component of their labour markets and develop along with them. In those rural areas, which surround metropoles, we record a significant growth of employment. It is all the more visible for former inhabitants of cities who increasingly reside in suburban zones but continue their work activities in a city. Spatially, at least since the 1990s, there has been an apparent concentration of development and supporting instruments of structural policy in metropolitan areas (large urban agglomerations) and regional growth centres, but not in rural problem areas. Every other national strategy of regional development has initiated a process of development in less developed areas and better use of the potential of internal regional protection. The regional strategies, however, concentrate this assistance mainly on regional capitals5 and do not offer a more even distribution of activating funds to local centers (small towns among which only some might be objects of revitalization initiatives), which serve nearby rural communities and can become a catalytic agent for the diversification of regional labour markets. If they are not revitalized, the rural areas outside the agglomerations will continue to depopulate in many regions (Kłodzi´nski 2004). Rural areas around the largest cities, which benefit from urban markets in their neighbourhood, feature a fast development, but it is mainly based on work resources and the ‘colonization’ potential of the zone around large urban centres. The suburban zones emerge around the largest and also medium cities with a high urban level, they do not develop around mono-functional cities. Rural work resources gradually integrate with an urban labour market, and their functioning is strictly connected to the development of the cities they surround. Rural areas whose economic and often social development are retarded, with low dynamics of development, exist in areas which are peripheral to the main cities network. Lagging rural areas are more frequent in eastern than in western Poland, but among the factors which specify the spatial diversification of the rural labour market, the importance of historical factors such as the effects of the Polish partitions or the addition of the Western Territories in 1945 decreases, compared to the growing impact of the center-periphery system. The main problems of rural labour markets in such zones are a decreasing population potential and a self-limiting demand which derive from limited financial means. We are in a way confronted with the situation of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, there are measures stabilizing the population of these areas, and on the other hand, many initiatives are trying to stimulate life in their towns and villages, making them attractive. But only the latter can stop and reverse the negative trend and, consequently, the demographic and social decline. 5 Only through growing regional centers, particularly in regions without metropolis, the competitive-

ness of regions can be maintained, applying preferences for the polarization and diffusion policy at national level (cf. Heffner 2005; National Strategy of Regional Development 2010–2020: Regions, Cities, Rural Areas 2010).

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By way of conclusion we can say that a lot of inhabitants in villages live with the dilemma whether to orient themselves towards employment in cities, or rely on the rural labour market, which—despite two decades of transformation—is relatively small and quite destabilized. The decision whether to migrate towards urbanized areas or remain in a village is a decision between continuation or starting anew and improve one’s skills. It is difficult to skip the operations stimulating and activating a rural off-farm labour market in the process of programming the development of rural areas. A large part of the EU aid funds, which are directed to Poland, is assigned to this purpose, which means an economically and culturally strong countryside as a complement of cities and towns, and, at the same time, full of environmental values and a diverse landscape with agriculture central to the local economy.

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Chapter 5

The Role of Identity in Community Activities of Marginal Rural Areas Hayeong Jeong, Kakuya Matsushima and Kiyoshi Kobayashi

5.1 Introduction Identity is an important resource to act as a governance and coordination mechanism of regional development. Recent rural development policies and measures for revitalization and promotion of depopulating areas in Japan, especially in hilly and mountainous areas and islands, have been implemented to focus on regional identity (Hatori et al. 2015; Tsujimoto 2015). Hatori et al. (2015) analyzed the effect of the increase of sharing regional identity on civic pride through community memory mapping and confirmed its effect. Tsujimoto (2015) introduced a case study on the effect of promoting sports tourism as part of regional revitalization of health by utilizing regional identity. The point for an identity-based approach is to respect the traditional lifestyle that has been built up through interactions among the inhabitants and with the area itself. The identity-based approach enables an area to develop by taking advantage of tradition and older ways of life. Regional identity plays a role in creating a sense of pride and affection in the area and with the neighbors, as well as promoting a variety of activities to create a life worth living and a good living space for local people. It means that there is a very strong relationship between place attachment, regional identity, and regional development. However, Ohori (2010) pointed out that there is a danger of forcing residents to be attached to local H. Jeong (B) Kyungnam University, Changwon, South Korea e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] K. Matsushima · K. Kobayashi Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan e-mail: [email protected] K. Kobayashi e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_5

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identity in the identity-based regional regeneration approach. To overcome this problem, co-creating regional identity that can cope with the change in the local environment is necessary, where a general theoretical framework of identity is still lacking. Questions as to how a regional identity that can cope with changes in local environment is formed and how it contributes to rural development continue to be asked. Previous research on the role of identity in rural development is unclear and lacks scientific rigor. How can we use and create regional identity? The identity management system is one important issue in rural development. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the role of identity in rural development and to investigate the mechanism of identity formation. To clarify the role of identity, this study examines the construction of a theoretical framework of identity for rural development strategy. Section 5.2 reviews the basic concept of identity in detail, focusing on the role of identity and its function in rural development. Section 5.3 analyzes relationships with place attachment, such as pride in community environment and neighbors and community activities, using the individual responses to a questionnaire survey in a depopulating mountainous area. Section 5.4 proposes a covariance structure model to analyze the causal structure that identity as a normative principle and potential function promotes place attachment to the region as well as community activities.

5.2 Basic Concept of Identity 5.2.1 Literature Review In recent years, many mountainous areas and islands in Japan have experienced difficulties in sustaining schools, hospitals, community activities (e.g. road maintenance and sport clubs), and ceremonial occasions (e.g. weddings and funerals) due to rapid depopulation and aging—the essential foundations of rural life are collapsing. The shrinking of the foundations of rural living reciprocally affects depopulation. This negative feedback loop not only threatens the sustainable development of rural areas, but also harms national land conservation. In these rural areas, since there is a lack of physical and social capital, ways are sought to improve the capacity of communities to manage themselves and participate in community activities. Diverse policies and measures for facilitating the promotion of depopulated rural areas are being carried out, for example, road maintenance between rural areas and surrounding cities, green tourism to utilize rural resources, and the mobilization of new business startups. However, most of these policies and measures focus on economic and environmental aspects, such as infrastructure improvement and income-generating activities. Those attempts can have negative consequences for the traditional lifestyles of rural residents and existing community relations. In comparison, identity-based rural development measures and strategies utilized in

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the older traditional lifestyle of the region and the existing community relations will minimize the stress resulting from policies and measures focusing on economic and environmental perspectives. With this consideration, we try to reveal the role of identity in rural development. The concepts of identity have developed in a wide range of research fields such as psychology, politics, and geography. The common understanding of identity can be summarized as ‘normative governance’ for self-management and collective activism. Erikson (1950, 1959, 1968, 1974) described the concept of identity in his social theory of ego development as a means to recognize “who I am and how do we define ourselves (self-awareness)” and to maintain self-existence, or a sense of self. An important feature of identity is that we cannot make it self-sufficient and it can only be mobilized through interaction with other people and social activities. Identification is the process of clarifying and adjusting identity as well as valuing a sense of uniqueness by selecting individual identity elements one-by-one in social interactions. That is, identity must be approved by others who constantly affirm it. Goffman (1959, 1963) pointed out that the identification process has both a subjective and a reflexive nature. If an approved identity by others is not desirable for us, then it becomes unstable. This results in falling into a kind of psychological crisis, known as an ‘identity crisis.’ Moreover, if the approved identity is socially undesirable, then it becomes a ‘stigma’ with attributes of disdain and distrust. Stigma plays a role in motivating us to manage ourselves. We repeat communication with others and try to improve the evaluation and treatment of the approved identity by others. The above discussion describes the concept of personal identity in relation with others, generally referred to as self-identity. Tajfel (1981) and Tajfel and Turner (1986) addressed social category as an important factor affecting the formation of identity in their self-categorization theory. They proposed a new concept of social identity and described a generational process of the conflict between social groups with a terminology. Social identity is to be recognized as “what others understand about us” based on social category such as role-group, family status, occupation, ethnicity, national belonging, and language by distinguishing between ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ where we belong and not belong respectively. Social identity motivates us to evaluate the in-group as positive. Van Kinppenberg and Ellemers (1993) described that an in-group identity is formed by evaluating its social status compared with other outside-groups. If the in-group gains higher social status, or the benefits obtained from the in-group are larger, then in-group identity of the members is higher. Wichardt (2008) considered that higher-ranking people in a group (such as leaders) have a higher identity compared to other members of the group. He thought that the strong power of a leader brought benefits and also negative externalities. Ingroup identity of lower-ranking people will be weakened if their benefits from the in-group are relatively small. Similarly, Brewer et al. (1993) argued that in-group identification is correlated with the common consciousness of all members of a group about “being equal partners” and “having equal effort and achievement”. Higher

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common consciousness and higher homogeneity of the in-group can facilitate a strong in-group identity because of strong ties among members with similar interests and concerns, as well as a strong belief of each individual that his/her contributions lead to group achievement and benefit. In related research, Melucci (1989, 1996) focused on collective identity. He defined collective identity as “an interactive and shared definition produced by several individuals (or groups at a more complex level) and concerned with the orientation of action and field of opportunities and constraints in which the action takes place”—a kind of “we  peer consciousness, sense of camaraderie” (1996, p. 44) derived from members’ common interest, shared experience, and solidarity. Identity is formed based on a network of affiliation. This also affects strengthening or creating social networks with out-groups. Other factors of in-group identification, group size and eligibility (how easy it is to join the group) are also relevant. The relationship between place and identity is now considered. Proshansky et al. (1983) defined place identity as a substructure of self-identity. It is based on the recognition of the physical world in which the individual lives. We interpret ourselves in the context of our environment with the questions ‘where am I?’ and ‘where do I belong?’ Tarn (1974, p. 217) said that “identity was grounded in local community. However, after the legendary journeys of Alexander the Great (330 BC) people became increasingly ‘detachable’ from their local society and their sense of identity began to shift from being centered in the collective in their own individuality. The result of the cultural imperialism by the larger Hellenistic empire was that local societies increasingly lost their sense of self-determination”. In this weakened state, the local cultures could no longer maintain their powerful hold on the psychologies of their inhabitants, and the pattern of group identity that had previously held sway began to dissolve, leaving individuals suddenly thrown back on themselves (Ulansey 2000). Other researchers discussed the relationship between place and identity, focusing on regional identity and community identity. They defined identity as “moral capital” (Dickinson 1970), “regional consciousness”, “power of regions”, and “psychological sense of community” (Morgan 1939) derived from the community network, norms, and cultural activities in the place. Identity rooted in place mobilizes pride and attachment to the place and fosters community activism. People change ‘space to place’ by using the shared and accumulated knowledge and experiences in a certain space. The importance of place is that it develops the conscious of ‘commitment and imputation.’ Puddifoot (1995) proposed four elements to build up a “psychological sense of community”: (i) membership of the community, (ii) capacity to influence the reference group, (iii) collective meeting of needs, and (iv) shared emotional connection in time and space. A strong sense of community can be predicted from the willingness of residents to continue living in the community. First, membership of the community is influenced by four factors: boundary, emotional sense of security, sense of belonging, and individual investment. Second, the capacity to work with a certain

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group is influenced by four factors: goodness-of-fit, power, interest in the community, and simultaneous reciprocal effects. Third, the collective meeting of need refers to the effort to perform the act in order to meet the common interests of members and get the benefits of the commons. Fourth, the shared emotional connection in time and space refers to an emotional resource obtained by the sharing of experience and problem solving and deepening the mutual understanding and cooperation based on trust formation. Paasi (2001) described four elements to maintain and configure a region: (i) a territorial shape, (ii) a symbolic shape, (iii) a number of institutions, and (iv) an established identity in social practices and consciousness, both internally and externally. A territorial shape refers to boundaries distinguishing the region from other regions. A symbolic shape is constructed by economy, culture/media, and governance of a region. A number of institutions refer to groups, organizations, and associations to maintain the symbolic shape of the region. An established identity in social practices and consciousness is used by institutions to manage resources and power relationships in local involvement. The above reviews on the concepts of self-identity, social identity, place identity, and regional identity demonstrate that identity is organized in ‘social relations’ and ‘territorial relations’, and it becomes a driving force for making a region’s culture, lifestyle, and landscape distinct from other regions. An achieved identity can be maintained by daily communication among local residents. By increasing exchanges or creating new social networks with outsiders, a new regional identity can be mobilized. Recently, identity-based regional development policy has been attractive given the expectation that identity has an important role in leading to collective action, in particular, in depopulating rural areas. Identity creates a sense of pride and affection in the region and neighbors and promotes a variety of activities toward creating a good living space and a life worth living for local people. In the fields of urban planning and civil engineering, Suzuki and Fujii (2007, 2008a, b, 2009) investigated the impact of residential environment change on place attachment and the impact of place attachment on involvement in cooperative activity. These studies clarified that place attachment has the potential to not only encourage cooperative behavior of residents, but also enhance their well-being. They pointed out the importance of place attachment formation influenced by regional environment improvement in facilitating human relations as well as territorial relations with the regional environment such as landscape, security, and community facilities. However, there have been no studies of the identification process for strengthening place attachment. In this study, we attempt to clarify the process of regional identity formation and how it affects community activism.

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5.2.2 Identity and Community Activism In the previous subsection, we showed that identity is a factor to motivate stigma management. Stigma management is done by changing identity evaluation by others through repeated communication. In other words, communication (or relationship behavior) is performed when stigma management is necessary. For example, the elderly create a living environment by encouraging some activities that are suitable to maintain their lifestyle, through interactions with other community members who are in the same situation as themselves. Akerlof and Kranton (2000, 2005, 2010) described the relationship between identity and communication with formulae (1a) and (1b):   Uj  Uj aj , a−j , Ij

(1a)

Individual utility j is dependent on his/her action aj , others action a−j , and his/her identity I j . aj and a−j decide the level of service for personal consumption.   Ij  Ij aj , a−j ; cj , εj , P

(1b)

Here, identity I j depends on the individual social category cj , which refers to given social status. If his/her social status is higher, then his/her identity is also higher. Next, identity depends on characteristics εj of the individual j, the degree of compliance with an ideal feature P of the social category cj . For example, if the ideal image of Japanese is people having yellow skin and being rich, the people having white skin and being poor tend to have a low Japanese identity. In this study, P is termed an appropriate action norm for each social category. P is a shared belief and can be updated through communication with others. That is, when an individual acts as worthy of P, then his/her utility will be increased; or by receiving P-improving social evaluations of his/her characteristics εj or social category cj , he/she can enhance the utility. Communication plays an important role in updating the shared belief P and verifying the goodness-of-fit for their actions. As discussed in the previous sub-section, it is necessary to improve the social evaluation of in-group social status over the approval (i.e., commitment) by out-groups in order to enhance the identity. In the identification progress, daily communication is the key to maintain the relationship. In related research, Akerlof and Kranton (2000, 2005, 2010) argued that a strong in-group identity (i.e., collective identity) is effective in facilitating cooperation among group members. Stronger in-group identification leads to perceived group entitativity, the perception that a group is like an entity, a cohesive whole (Campbell 1958; Sani et al. 2007)—and “a sense of symbolic immortality” that is known to raise group members’ self-esteem (Pyszczynski et al. 2004; Sani et al. 2007). Exploring community activism is an important issue for sustaining and managing regional identity.

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5.3 Analysis of Daily Association Activities in Respects of Place Attachment and Identity 5.3.1 Outline of the Survey A survey was conducted in Nichinan town, a typical depopulated rural mountain area in Japan, to examine the role of identity in community activities. Nichinan town is an agricultural region located in the southwest of Tottori Prefecture, consisting of seven villages (Fig. 5.1). The aging and depopulation problem in the area is severe. According to the censuses, during 1960–2005, the population was reduced to half. The population has continued to decline for both males and females, and the proportion of people over the age of 65 has increased (Fig. 5.2). In 2005, the elderly represented about half of the population of the town. In 2006, three elementary schools in Omiya, Abire, and Yamagami villages were integrated. In 2009, all six elementary schools in Hinokami, Yamagami, Tari, east-Iwami, west-Iwami, and Hukusakae were integrated. The seven villages including Nichinan town have their own unique lifestyles, culture, history, and regional resources. In Hinokami, public facilities such as a public office, a hospital, a school, a supermarket, and a bank are concentrated in the town center. Yamagami, Tari, Hukusakae, and Omiya contain valuable natural resources including the Hime-firefly, the Japanese Andrias japonicus, and the native Primula sieboldii. Abire is located at a high altitude, 600 meters above sea level in a hilly area and many local specialty products including tomato, rice, and apple are cultivated there. Iwami is a snowy area and very famous for skiing and for cherry blossom during spring. Therefore, many tourists visit the village.

Fig. 5.1 Location of Nichinan in Tottori Prefecture, Japan

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Fig. 5.2 Population changes in Nichinan town 1960–2015. Source Ministry of Public Management (1960–2015)

A questionnaire survey was conducted with the cooperation of the town council of the seven villages and the Marginal Areas Research Group (MARG). Table 5.1 shows the survey outline for the seven villages. The questionnaire comprised two sheets: personal and household. The main questions of the household sheet were: place of residence, family structure, residence of family members or relatives in the town, and information about income. The personal sheet had question on personal characteristics, community activity involvement, attachment to place and neighbors, and disaster prevention activities. The household sheet comprised four questions: – Question h1: Residence of the household – Question h2: Family structure and number of family members – Question h3: Number of family members or relatives of the family living in Nichinan town – Question h4: Annual income of the household.

Table 5.1 Survey outline Survey period

From 1 November to 31 December 2009

Target

Individual men and women over the age of 15 residing in Nichinan town

Population

4947

Response rate

64.8%

Sample

3204

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The personal sheet comprised the following six questions: – Question p1: Personal attributes of years of residence, work location, working time per day, place of birth, gender, age, and occupation – Question p2: Attachment to place and neighbors (scale of 1–5 for 14 items) – Question p3: Community activity involvement including purpose, time, cost, place, motivation, frequency, and achievement – Question p4: Communication expenses including purpose, transportation cost, time used, frequency of meeting, place of meeting, and number of meeting-partners – Question p5: Disaster prevention activities including escape and rescue not only for themselves but also support for neighbors when the Tottori earthquake occurred on 6 October 2000 – Question p6: Current disaster prevention activities. This study investigated the relationships between place attachment, community activities, and identity with data collected for questions p1–p3.

5.3.2 Basic Analysis 5.3.2.1

Population and Sample

To determine the representativeness of the sample, the population, gender, age, and place of residence were compared (Fig. 5.3). The majority of respondents were female and >55 years old, and residents of Hinokami and Iwami.

5.3.2.2

Characteristics of the Sample

First, we checked the correlation coefficient and frequency distribution for the 1,085 samples which did not have missing values for place of birth, place of residence, and

Gender

Age

Place of Residence

Fig. 5.3 Comparison of population (inner circle) and sample (outer circle)

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work location. More than half of the respondents’ place of birth and place of work were in Hinokami (Fig. 5.4). The correlation coefficient (i.e. r) between the place of residence and place of work was 0.620, between place of residence and place of birth was 0.704, and between place of work and place of birth was 0.503. Indeed, 796 people (73.3% of the whole sample) worked and lived in the same place. There were 838 people (77% of the sample) who lived in their place of birth, indicating that many people tended to continue to live in their place of birth. It means that a place has a diverse meaning that includes the place of residence, hometown, and workplace. Hinokami occupies an important position in supporting the economy of the entire town as an important commuting centre. Next, we considered the relationship between years of residence, occupation, age, gender, and place of residence. There were 2318 responses with no missing values. The ratio of men to women was 4.5 score of place attachment: the Abire live event, the protection of Primula sieboldii in Omiya, the cultivation of Korean vegetables in Hinokami, elderly care, the development of specialty products, health and culture education, developing tourism resources, activities improving eating habits, the protection of Primula sieboldii in Fukusakae, traditional performing arts, and planning and management activities of the entire town. These activities were categorized into types Z6, Z7, and Z8. These three types of activities were not only related to recreation for enjoyment but also to the preservation of local resources and traditional performances, and to the development of resources for tourism. The average years

Fig. 5.9 Residence years and place attachment of ‘sub-regional meeting’ activity

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Table 5.3 Classification of community activities Type Community activities Z1

Sub-regional meeting

Z2 Z3

Training activities for firefighting, disaster prevention, crime prevention, and flood control 100 km marathon athletic events management, sports and recreation festival, local athletic events, cooperation with Athletic Association, baseball, athletic events of the town and region, encourage spread of lifelong sports

Z4

Street cleaning volunteer

Z5

Planning and Culture Festival, the festival of local culture, Bon dance, Furusato Festival

Z6

Meal delivery volunteer, volunteer activities, volunteer experience learning, environmental beautification activities, athletic and environmental maintenance of Keiro Kai, event planning, safety and security, traffic safety campaign for the elderly, Nichinan water protection meeting, Tottori Kai Association, Genki meeting, preservation of the giant salamander, cultivation of daffodils, Cherry Highway building

Z7

Promotion of lifelong learning, providing learning information, promoting antidiscrimination education, provision of learning opportunities, folklore tradition, saving traditional performing arts, cultural preservation

Z8

Promotion of agriculture; establishment of market expansion and introduction of new vegetables, and local production for local consumption; the expansion of flights in season

of residence of participants involved in those three types of activities was around 45 years, and the participants were younger than those involved in the other activities. We conducted a cross-analysis on place attachment between participants and nonparticipants to investigate the relationship between identity and community activity. For all respondents, the sum of the place attachment score was assigned as 0 if the score was 65 years old’ (–0.778), ‘two members of family (–0.835), ‘birth in Yamagami and living in Yamagami’ (0.652), ‘birth in Abire and living in Abire’ (0.645), ‘birth in Omiya and living in Omiya’ (0.700)’, ‘birth in Tari and living in Tari’ (0.711), ‘birth in Iwami and living in Iwami’ (0.687), ‘birth in Hukusakae and living in Hukusakae’ (0.616), and ‘5–19 year living in this location’ and >20 year living in this location’ (–0.900). Three pairs of variables had negative correlation coefficients shows characteristics of Nichinan town in which more than half of the residents are over 65 years old, have two-member families, and have been living here for more than 20 years. In the analysis, the three dummy variables used were: over 65 years old, two-member family, and over 20 years living in this location.

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Fig. 5.12 Years of residence and place of birth

Figure 5.12 shows the relationship between years of residence and place of birth. There were 400 respondents who were born in Nichinan town and continued to live there for >50 years. However, the period of residence of people born outside the town was relatively short, 2. For the individual and regional attribute X variables and community activity Z variables, we designed a path based on the goodness-of-fit of each model. We finally selected the variables and model structure with the highest estimation accuracy.

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Table 5.6 Structural equation modeling and identity values Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Y1, Y2, Y3

F1

F1

F1

Y4, Y5, Y6, Y7, Y8, Y9

F2

F2

F2

Y10 Y11 Y12 Y13 Y14 Model Chi-square

F2 F2 F2 F2 F2 557.5

F2 F2 F2 F1 F1 520.39

F1 F1 F2 F2 F2 682.09

Df Goodness-of-fit index Adjusted goodness-of-fit index

76 0.93 0.91

76 0.94 0.92

76 0.92 0.89

RMSEA index Bentler–Bonnett NFI Tucker–Lewis NNFI Bentler CFI SRMR BIC

0.07 0.87 0.86 0.88 0.04 13.5

0.06 0.88 0.87 0.89 0.04 −23.6

0.07 0.84 0.83 0.85 0.05 138.1

Figure 5.13 shows the final model structure. It supports our hypothesis that identity improves pride and attachment to neighbors and their living place, as well as resulting in community activities. Path coefficients to the latent variables from the variable of age >65 years old were relatively high, indicating that age had a great influence on identity. This may be because residence in the town over the years affected involvement and a strong sense of solidarity with environment and neighbors in the town. Path coefficients from occupation variables (agriculture and forestry) to identity were higher for civil servants and self-employed teachers. They may have a good highly-valued career in the town and also actively participate in community activities. In addition, it was confirmed that different characteristics of each village and the population structure produced different identities. By way of example, we look at path coefficients representing the relationship between village type and identity. The path coefficient of village type A (i.e., Fukusakae, Tari, and Omiya) is higher than for village type B. The culture and lifestyle affected the identity. Thus, people who had any kind of connection such as workplace, hometown, and residence place felt pride and affection for their neighbors and villages showed high participation in community activities. Finally, we see the path coefficient representing the relationship between type of activities and identity. The relationship can be interpreted as follows: activity type Z4 (e.g., agricultural and industrial development) and Z8 (e.g., road cleaning volunteers) had relatively low path coefficients compared to other activity types. Activity type Z5 (e.g., town festival) had the highest value in path coefficients; in

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Fig. 5.13 Covariance structure of identity

contrast, activity type Z4 (e.g., agricultural and industrial development) had lowest value. It can be interpreted that spontaneous and fun activities promoted identity more than forced activities.

5.4.4 Policy Implications For the revitalization of hilly and mountainous rural areas, policy measures are necessary to mobilize community activities such as town festivals with many people participating. Using the proposed covariance structure model of identity, we can show whether causal relationships between identity and observed variables have negative or positive impacts. The covariance structure analysis showed that people who continued to live in the town created a suitable environment and lifestyle for themselves and their neighbors, as well as promoted the participation of the people. For example, agriculture and forestry was the profession of many residents. So, they had a more positive relationship by involving in diverse activities. If there was a policy to support agriculture and forestry in the region, residents in these professions would make consistent acts for its promotion. This would make people continue living in the town, actively engaging in community activities. In addition, civil servants take an active part in activities. Civil servant-centered activities will attract more participants and this would be a valid regional development. The inhabitants of Omiya had a lower identity compared

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with other villages, and inhabitants of Tari and Fukuei had a high identity. Policy measures are necessary to improve the environment for identity and to strengthen identity for spontaneous environment improvement.

5.5 Conclusion This study focused on the important role of identity in rural development. Identity is valuable to promote rural development, especially in the hilly and mountainous rural areas of Japan that have a problem of aging and depopulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between identities and neighborhood-based community activities using a covariance structure analysis. The analysis was based on a survey of community activities in Nichinan town, which is a typical depopulated rural area in Japan. In order to find the answer to the question, ‘how does identity motivate community activism?’, Sect. 5.2 described the need for community activities in depopulated rural areas, and explained the concept of identity from previous studies of identity. We found the theoretical possibility of forming or reforming identity by promoting community activism. Section 5.3 outlined characteristics from the results of basic analysis on community activities in Nichinan. It clarified characteristics concerning the values and beliefs of residents and communication behaviors with neighboring residents. It was confirmed that personal attributes and regional characteristics may affect communication behavior, as well as the values and beliefs toward neighboring residents. A covariance structure analysis was conducted in Sect. 5.4 to explore the relationship between identity and community activism, and the validity of covariance structure analysis on identity and community activities was discussed. Although identity is a latent variable which cannot be observed, we estimated the relationship with three observed variables (personal attributes, regional attributes, and community activities). Pride and attachment to neighbors and community were shown to affect the formation of identity. We divided the ties into two classes: ‘ties with region’ and ‘ties with neighbors’. The result showed that the policy to motivate identities could foster development in marginal areas. In this study, only community activities performed inside the town were included in the analysis. Thus, we only obtained knowledge about neighborhood activities. However, communication and activities outside of the town that are necessary to foster marginal area development and to prevent population decline should be considered in future studies.

References Akerlof, G. A., & Kranton, R. E. (2000). Economics and identity. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), 715–753.

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Akerlof, G. A., & Kranton, R. E. (2005). Identity and the economics of organization. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1), 9–32. Akerlof, G. A., & Kranton, R. E. (2010). Identity economics: How our identities shape our works, wages, and well-being. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Brewer, M. B., Manzi, J., & Shaw, J. S. (1993). In-group identification as a function of depersonalization, distinctiveness, and status. Psychological Science, 4, 88–92. Campbell, D. T. (1958). Common fate, similarity, and other indices of the status of aggregates of persons as social entities. Behavioral Science, 3, 14–25. Dickinson, R. W. (1970). Regional ecology. New York: Wiley. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1974). Dimensions of a new identity. New York: Norton. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday Anchor. Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma and social identity, stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Hatori, T., Kataoka, Y., & Makino, D. (2015). Study on a measure to develop civic pride through particpatory and circular “community memory map”: Case of a community program targeting regional forests “Sao-no-mori” in Mendori Town at Shikoku-chuo City. Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan, 50(3), 445–450. Melucci, A. (1989). Nomads of the present: Social movements and individual needs in contemporary society. London: Hutchinson Radius. Melucci, A. (1996). Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ministry of Public Management. (1960–2005). National Census. Japan. Morgan, F. W. (1939). Three aspects of regional consciousness. Sociological Review, 31, 68–88. Ohori. (2010). The complexity of local identity: An examination of the direction for uses of the concept. Journal of Social Science, 61(5–6), 143-158. Paasi, A. (2001). Bounded spaces in the mobile world: Deconstructing ‘regional identity’. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 93(2), 137–148. Proshansky, H. M., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place-identity: Physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3, 57–83. Puddifoot, J. E. (1995). Dimensions of community identity. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 5, 357–370. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435–468. Sani, F., Bowe, M., Herrera, M., Manna, C., Cossa, T., Miao, X., et al. (2007). Perceived collective continuity: Seeing groups as entities that move through time. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1118–1134. Suzuki, H., & Fujii, S. (2007). The study on effect of attachment toward shops on place attachment. Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan, 42(3), 13–18 (in Japanese). Suzuki, H., & Fujii, S. (2008a). Study on effects of place attachment on cooperative behavior local area. Infrastructure Planning Review of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, 25(2), 357–362 (in Japanese). Suzuki, H., & Fujii, S. (2008b). Study on effects of contact level to regional environment during travel on emotional attachment to local areas. Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Division D: Infrastructure Planning and Management, 64(2), 179–189 (in Japanese). Suzuki, H., & Fujii, S. (2009). Study about effects of large scale retail shops on shopping behavior and place attachment: Case studies in Toyohashi city and Takamatsu city. Infrastructure Planning Review of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, 26(2), 307–314. (in Japanese). Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & L. W. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

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Tarn, W. W. (1974). Hellenistic civilization. New York: New American Library. Toyota, H. (2000). Covariance structure analysis: Structural equation modeling (basic). Tokyo: Asakura Publishing (in Japanese). Toyota, H. (2006). Covariance structure analysis: Structural equation modeling (applied). Tokyo: Asakura Publishing (in Japanese). Tsujimoto, C. (2015). A introduced the effect of promoting sports tourism as a part of local revitalization by utilizing the local identity of health. Journal of Osaka University of Tourism, 15(15), 23–32. Ulansey, D. (2000). Cultural transition and spiritual transformation: From Alexander the Great to cyberspace. In T. Singer (Ed.), Myth, politics, and psyche in the world (pp. 213–231). London and New York: Routledge. van Kinppenberg, A., & Ellemers, N. (1993). Strategies in intergroup relations. In M. Hogg & D. Abrams (Eds.), Group motivation (pp. 17–32). New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Wichardt, P. C. (2008). Identity and why we cooperate with those we do. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29, 127–139.

Chapter 6

Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion in the Development Discourse: Case Studies of Microfinance Operations in Rural Bangladesh Ai Sugie

6.1 Introduction Microcredit, or loans of small amounts to the poor without collateral, has been broadly approved as an effectual method to empower and generate income for the poor. Although such financial services have been provided in some Asian and South American countries since the 1970s, it is well known that Mohammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of Grameen Bank (GB), the ‘bank for the poor’, invented and popularized the microcredit method. Since 1997, the Global Microcredit Summit has been held annually with the goal of spreading microcredit among the world’s poorest families. These days, the term ‘microfinance’ is preferred. There has been an increase in the provision of microfinance—which includes not only small-loans but also stand-alone savings products, remittances, insurance, and other financial services with few transactions and minimum balances (La Torre 1 2006; Ledgerwood and Gibson 2013). The United Nations had declared 2005 the ‘International Year of Microfinance’. Microfinance services have reached 114 million people living in extreme poverty in 2013 (Microcredit Summit Campaign 2015). Policy-makers and development agencies, such as the World Bank, have moved from simply scaling up microfinance to a new agenda of financial inclusion, which is giving all victims of financial exclusion access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, and setting the goal of achieving universal 2 financial access by 2020 as a major contributor to ending extreme poverty. According 1 This

paper focuses on the provision of microcredit, which constitutes the main service in microfinancing, while mentioning other financial services, such as saving and insurance, as necessary. 2 http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/financialinclusion. A. Sugie (B) Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_6

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to the World Bank, more than 2 billion people do not use formal financial services and more than 50% of adults in the poorest households have no access to bank services, particularly women, rural poor, and other remote or hard-to-reach populations.3 In the development discourse, those financially excluded can improve their income and quality of their lives by financial inclusion (e.g. CGAP and World Bank 2010; Ledgerwood and Gibson 2013; World Bank 2014).4 Financial exclusion is generally defined as the inability to access financial services. More precisely, the Global Findex 2014 by the World Bank defines the financially included as those persons who have an account at a registered financial institution or with a mobile money provider and the excluded as those who do not (DemirgüçKunt et al. 2015). La Torre (2006, p. 4) notes the following five types of financial exclusion: (i) ‘self-exclusion’ is an individual’s feeling of inadequacy with regard to conditions required by financial intermediaries; (ii) ‘access exclusion’ is caused by geographical distance from financial institutions; (iii) ‘political–social exclusion’ affects, for example, immigrants and ex-convicts; (iv) ‘condition exclusion’ arises from the inability to bear the costs and conditions of financial products offered; and (v) ‘marketing exclusion’, by which effects customers are considered ‘marginal’ by intermediaries, since they represent a low-value target compared with traditional customer evaluation models. According to Demirgüç-Kunt et al. (2015), victims of ‘access’ and ‘condition exclusion’ comprise the majority of adults without accounts at financial institutions. Yunus invented microcredit with the aim of overcoming the problems of ‘access’, ‘condition’, and ‘market exclusion’ in rural Bangladesh.5 To capture the widening coverage of financial activities for the poor, microfinance has been expanded as an alternative to financial exclusion (some researchers speak of inclusive finance; Matsui and Tsuboi 2015). Alongside the social goals of financial inclusion for poverty reduction, the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs)6 is of significance in microfinance operations; profit by microfinance is used for their organizational management and is reinvested in the MFIs’ operations. This enables MFIs to be self-sufficient and to save time and labour required for collecting donations or subsidies. However, a number of researchers find strong evidence for the existence of a trade-off between aiming for financial sustainability of MFIs and social goals to provide loans to the extremely poor or rural poor, although this is a controversial issue in microfinance research (Paxton et al. 2000; Cull et al. 2007; Bateman 2010; Hermes et al. 2011 cf. Mersland and Strøm 2010). In addition, micro-level case studies show that microfinance rarely reaches the poorest (e.g. Montgomery and Weiss 2005; Datta 2004). Thus, it is doubtful whether microfinance can be called ‘inclusive finance’. More3 Ibid. 4 CGAP

is Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. countries with many immigrants, such as the US and those in Western Europe, microfinance services are provided to immigrants. 6 Although most of the previous studies do not specify which types of MFIs they refer to, there are various types such as one of the sectors in commercial banks and cooperative. MFIs in this paper specifically mean GB or NGOs. 5 In

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over, some studies explore and suggest that microfinance is the most beneficial and efficient for the ‘better-off poor’ or ‘active poor’, but not for the ‘extreme poor’ (Hulme and Mosley1996; Robinson 2001; cf. Khandker 2003). Criticism of the microfinance industry has increased beyond academic research by the ‘microfinance crisis’ in various parts of the world, such as the debtors’ revolt against MFIs in Bolivia and a suicide wave from over-indebtedness with MFIs in India (Sinclair 2012). Microfinance is becoming recognized as a possible cause of over-indebtedness and is undesirable, with sometimes catastrophic results that might even work against its original purpose, namely, poverty reduction (e.g. Chen and Rutherford 2013; Guérin et al. 2014). Despite this criticism and microfinance crises in some countries, the microfinance industry is sustained and expected to develop without fundamental reforms, merely considering new policy objectives, such as ‘responsible finance’ and ‘consumer protection’ (e.g. Brix and McKee 2010). This is because the microfinance approach to poverty reduction is strategically embedded in the global political economy to facilitate and sustain the implementation of financial industry liberalization and neoliberal restructuring on a global scale (Weber 2004). The languages of selfreliance, self-sufficiency, empowerment, and poverty reduction through microfinance are extremely productive given that they simultaneously provide legitimacy for the withdrawal of the state from development and create conditions for capitalist expansion (Weber 2004; Fernando 2006). Today, this restructuring process continues at the local, national, and global scales under the name of ‘poverty reduction’ and the establishment of ‘enabling environments’ for ‘financial inclusion’ (World Bank 2014). Moreover, development agency research pays significant attention to macro-level quantitative evaluation, such as the number of bank account holders or users, and the amount of outstanding and overdue loans (e.g. Karlan and Goldberg 2007; CGAP and World Bank 2010; Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2015). Such research rarely examines the actual conditions of financial inclusion by micro-level qualitative methods. This methodological bias fosters a way of thinking based on dichotomous and static categories of the financially included/excluded and ignorance of heterogeneity and diverse conditions of the two groups, which are the foundation of the development discourse mentioned above. This bias encourages the illusion that an increase of the number of the financially included shows progress in the effort to eradicate poverty. In addition, it is necessary to examine whether the actual local activities by MFIs undertaken under the name of ‘financial inclusion’ are indeed motivated to achieve social goals. This study seeks to contribute to the critical research on financial inclusion, specifically microfinance, by exploring the uses and operations of microfinance in two communities in rural Bangladesh. These cases demonstrate the continuous processes and dynamics of financial inclusion/exclusion and enable the deconstruction of the dichotomy and assumption of homogeneity of two groups. This study unveils the fictitiousness of the universal development goal of poverty reduction by financial

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inclusion and critically discusses the current situations of the microfinance industry as a significant driving force for financial inclusion and what is necessary for demarginalisation of the poor.

6.2 Microfinance Operations in Bangladesh Informal money lending is common in rural Bangladesh; this is partly because existing banks are largely concentrated in urban areas (Mujeri 2015, pp. 5–8). Sources of loans without MFIs can be categorized as banks, moneylenders, and other individuals. The interest rate of loans from moneylenders is extremely high and exploitative (Table 6.1). Microcredit was invented not only to overcome ‘access exclusion’ but also to protect the poor from moneylenders. The driving force for the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in Bangladesh in the 1990s was the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), established by the government as an institution designed to wholesale funds to microcredit; the World Bank and other donors provided the PKSF with financing of more than over USD 400 million (Chen and Rutherford 2013). These days, some MFIs have been funded by commercial banks as well.7 Like the World Bank (1994, p. 49), the Bangladeshi government regarded microcredit as the privatization of public safety-net programs in the National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II FY 2009–2011 (Government of Bangladesh 2008) and planned to extend microfinance coverage in the country in the Sixth Five-Year Plan FY 2011–2015 (Government of Bangladesh 2011). ‘Improving the poor’s access to financial services’ (Mujeri 2015) is listed top in a series of background studies for the Seventh Five-Year Plan.8 The government established the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) in 2006 to bring transparency and accountability and to promote and foster sustainable development of the microfinance industry. To operate microcredit in Bangladesh, an organization has to obtain or provide an application for a licence from the MRA by satisfying the following two conditions; (i) registration under one of five laws related

Table 6.1 Change of interest rate at sources in 62 sample villages in Bangladesh Year 1988 (%) 2000 (%) Source of credit

Commercial banks NGOs Moneylenders Friends and relatives All sources

Source Hossain and Bayes (2009, p. 338) 7 https://www.themix.org/. 8 http://www.plancomm.gov.bd/7th-five-year-plan/.

2008 (%)

16 30 120

13 14 180

8 13 100

51 65

59 41

53 19

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to a voluntary organization or company; and (ii) either more than 1000 borrowers or an outstanding loan balance of USD 580,000, which is generally considered the minimum initial operating portfolio of an MFI to be sustainable.9 There were 689 officially licensed MFIs in December 2016 and 141 temporarily approved MFIs.10 In addition, there are many small NGOs not registered with the MRA to provide microcredit services. According to the Credit and Development Forum (CDF) of Bangladesh, 540 MFIs, including GB, had more than 32 million active members (i.e. customers) with outstanding loans of about USD 3.75 million in 2012 (CDF 2013, p. ix).11 Chen and Rutherford (2013, p. 9) estimate that nearly half of Bangladesh’s 33 million households had loans from MFIs. In the past decade, two-thirds of all microfinance were furnished by the country’s big four MFIs, ASA, BRAC, BURO Bangladesh (BURO), and GB. The first three and direct providers of microfinance are NGOs,12 while GB is a specialized banking institution whose stocks are in their majority owned by members. Among NGOs, BRAC, which is well known as the world’s largest NGO, started to organize women and to lend small amounts of non-collateral loans in 1974, before Yunus started microcredit in Jobra village in 1976. Critical research uses the term ‘microfinance/microcredit minimalism’ to describe the current situation of prioritizing microfinance/microcredit at the expense of other social development activities. The national NGOs including ASA and BRAC that initially emphasised political empowerment and social mobilisation in the early days have followed the trend of the microcredit industry and increasingly pursued their own organisation’s expansion and growth (e.g. Hulme and Mosley 1996; Ahmad 2002; Devine 2003). The target and system of microfinancing have changed along with the shift of the strategy of MFIs. MFIs used to identify the poor who were worth to be members by the size of their land holdings.13 Members had to form a group composed of five persons because GB had a group lending system to collect repayment strictly by collective responsibility and many MFIs follows the Grameen model.14 However, MFIs started to accept applicants as members irrespective of economic status by the 2000s. The group lending system had also lost substance after ASA started providing loan to individuals. ASA attracted many new members and the increase rate of GB’s member reached a plateau. Then, GB abandoned imposing collective responsibility on groups 9 http://www.mra.gov.bd/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=74. 10 Ibid. 11 In

this study, USD 1  Bangladesh Taka 82.8.

12 While substantial foreign aid has been delivered to the government, NGOs founded by Bangladeshi

nationals, including BRAC, ASA, and later BURO, have grown significantly since the 1970s, a difficult period of disasters and after independence from Pakistan. Today, these organizations have even exceeded the capacity of the government to provide primary education and healthcare. Therefore, foreign aid has been increasingly directed to NGOs rather than to the corrupt and inefficient government, also because of the global neoliberal restructuring policy. 13 Although in the case of Bangladesh, the government adopts CBN method modified by the price fluctuation in the country for poverty measurement, MFIs used to regard the poor as the landless because microfinance has been traditionally provided in rural areas. 14 BRAC has a different model from GB and its group consists of from 10 to 15 women.

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after examining whether individual lending caused the decrease of repayment rate or not. Thus, the target of microfinancing has been expanded to the non-poor and economic achievement of individuals and financial sustainability of MFIs has been pursued. Nowadays, offices and branches of MFIs cover the entire country.15 In particular, 60 MFIs have expanded their services to inaccessible areas; for example, tracts of land surrounded by water (char) and hilly areas (CDF 2013). However, Fruttero and Gauri (2005) show evidence that MFIs prioritise pragmatic and organizational concerns in the location decisions of their branches rather than target the poorest villages and neediest communities. That is, the strategy and competition of each MFI’s expansion might achieve a high rate of geographical coverage but does not necessarily include the entire country.

6.3 Setting of the Study Although this study follows the World Bank’s definition of financial inclusion/exclusion, as mentioned in the previous subsection (Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2015), it focuses on MFIs and does not consider mobile money providers such as Western Union, because only 5% of the Bangladeshi population had mobile money accounts in 2014.16 The study area comprises several villages in Tangail district, more precisely in Mirzapur subdistrict (Fig. 6.1). Microcredit was introduced relatively early in Tangail district and MFIs’ activities are prosperous. This study sets samaj as the community unit of analysis. In Bangladesh, although the geographical unit of gram, translated as ‘natural village’, is usually considered, samaj is an informal social unit formed based on the sense of belonging to a gram with differences in religion and caste. Therefore, samaj tends to be socio-economically homogeneous. I select one samaj, Jubok, composed of 305 households of better-off and well-educated Muslims, and another samaj, Tobra, composed of 103 households of a group experiencing caste-like discrimination among Muslims.17 I conducted fieldwork from March 2011 to February 2012 and a supplementary survey in February 2017 and from December to February 2018,18 using qualitative research methods. The survey method involves a household survey with questionnaire, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with the people of

15 For example, GB provides services in more than 97% of the total villages in Bangladesh as of December, 2015 (http://www.GB.com/introduction/). 16 http://www.cgap.org/blog/mobile-money-bangladesh-still-long-way-go. 17 The community names are pseudonyms. In South Asia, caste-like social stratification is observed among Muslims. 18 When I use the data by the supplementary survey, the survey period is mentioned.

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Fig. 6.1 The study area. Note The specific location of the study area is not indicated to protect the informants’ privacy. Source Global administrative areas database, version 2.0, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (Hereafter, BBS) (1986) and field survey by the author in 2011–2012

Jubok and Tobra and the staff of MFIs. I was able to have interviews with all MFIs shown in Table 6.2, except a GB fieldworker19 who worked in Tobra.20 The tendency of ‘microfinance/microcredit minimalism’ is also observed in the study area; a few social development programs21 had been carried out, but those were retreated and only microfinance has been provided continuously in the long term. The NGOs providing services in the study area are classified in two categories with respect to their scale. An NGO’s activities are restricted to a specific administrative unit and are determined by the NGO’s amount of capital in Bangladesh. BRAC, ASA, BURO, and BASA carry out their programmes nationally, like GB (Table 6.2). While these NGOs are considered in this study as ‘national NGOs’, ‘local NGOs’ are those whose activities are restricted to Mirzapur subdistrict. The actual names of local NGOs are not revealed here to prevent the specific location of the study area 19 Fieldworker is a person who provides loans to and collects weekly repayment from members; therefore he/she has face to face and the closest relationship with members in MFI officers. A newly employed MFI officer usually has to work as fieldworker for certain years, after that he/she can get a promotion. 20 GB has prohibited its local branches from providing information to outsiders without permission from the head office, ever since a Bangladeshi student wrote a critical paper on GB. I submitted an application to the head office but did not receive permission. 21 In Jubok, BRAC provided a non-formal education programme before my survey period and a national NGO, namely Nijera Koli, organized people’s savings till 2014.

Name

Established

1999 2002 2010 2011

NGO-2

NGO-3

NGO-4

1991

BASA(Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement)

NGO-1

1990

BURO Bangladesh (Basic Unit for Resources and Opportunities of Bangladesh)

500

300

700

1100

54,388

1,018,695

15% (flat)

15% (flat)

15% (flat)

15% (flat)

25% (decline)

13.5% (flat)

25% (decline)

26% (decline)

5,835,861

4,734,545

20% (decline)

Interest rate of loan

The number of active member 8,373,893

Saving

Saving

Nothing

Saving

Saving

Saving Insurance

Saving

Other services without loan Saving Insurance, Financial education Saving Insurance, Financial education

Not licensed

Not licensed

Not licensed

Not licensed

Licensed

Licensed

Licensed

Licensed

–

Licence from MRA

Source The interest rate of GB, ASA and BRAC and the number of active member of BURO are cited from each official website (http://www.grameen.com/, http://www.asa.org.bd/loan-products/, http://www.brac.net/microfinance?view=page). The interest rate of BASA and the number of active member of GB, ASA and BRAC are based on CDF (2013). The other information is based on the field survey by the author in 2011–2012 and 2017

Local NGOs

1978

ASA (Association for Social Advancement)

Specialized Banking GB (Grameen Bank) 1983 Institutions National NGOs BRAC (Bangladesh 1972 Rural Advancement Committee)

Type of MFIs

Table 6.2 Basic information of MFIs providing services in Jubok and Tobra

104 A. Sugie

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Fig. 6.2 Organizational structures of MFIs in the study area. Note Among the national NGOs, BASA did not organize its members in 2012

from being identified; therefore, I refer to them as ‘NGO-1–4’ (See Table 6.2). Both national and local NGOs’ organizational structures are shown in Fig. 6.2.

6.4 Microfinance Uses and Operations in the Two Communities This subsection first provides a rough sketch of Jubok and Tobra. This is followed by the description of the extent to which the people of each community have been included in formal financial institutions, including MFIs and have used microfinance services. At the end, it mentions the background of microfinance operations in the two communities, based on the input of local officers in MFIs.

6.4.1 Brief Profile and Comparison of Jubok and Tobra While Muslims in Jubok were hardly differentiated by descent or occupation, those of Tobra were known locally as Sanaidar and Dholi, the former meaning windinstrument players, and the latter meaning, in a more derogatory way, drum-beaters.

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A. Sugie

As the names imply, they were traditionally occupied as musicians engaged in performance activities as band-parties at festivals and marriage ceremonies. The people in Tobra were socio-spatially segregated and marginalized, as is often the case for discriminated groups in South Asia. Jubok had a bazaar established by the samaj leader; it was originally developed alongside the paving of a road in 1996 and has come to fulfil a central function in the area. On the other hand, Tobra had only unpaved roads that were often covered with water in the rainy season; it was located several kilometres from a paved road, between two local market areas. Neighbouring Muslims avoided marriage with Sanaidars and did not accept them in their samaj and graveyards. Although there were only a few people who were musicians among Sanaidars, caste-like discrimination has persisted, with a stigma attached to the traditional occupation and its non-Islamic aspects (see Sugie 2016). There had been only a few rich households in Jubok once. Food security and the economic condition of each household in Jubok had improved along with macroscale socio-economic development since the 1980s in rural Bangladesh, which was brought about by a shift in governmental policy resulting in agricultural development, growth of non-agricultural sectors and changes in occupational structure, and an increase in the number of overseas workers. In contrast, Tobra did not experience the socioeconomic development mainly because the people had sold almost all of their land by the 1970s (Sugie 2016). The economic and educational status among Sanaidars has caused and reinforced discrimination against them. While more than half of the households in Jubok owned small or medium-sized parcels of land, more than 90% of those in Tobra were landless or marginal land-owners (Table 6.3).

Table 6.3 Distribution of households by size class of holdings in Jubok and Tobra (in %) Land property (acre) Bangladesh Tangail Jubok Tobra Landless Marginal Small Middle Large

0 0.01–0.049

14.0 32.4

6.7 25.9

1.0 1.3

9.7 47.6

0.05–0.49 0.5–0.99 1–2.49 2.5–7.49 7.5+

20.7 26.7

26.6 35.8

35.9 1.0 2.9

5.5 0.6

4.6 0.3

31.5 11.8 25.6 20.0 1.0

100.0

7.9 100.0

At issue Unknown Total

2.9 100.0

100.0

Note ‘At issue’ means those who have land with conflict and the ownership is not ensured Source BBS (2005: 175) and field survey by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

6 Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion …

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Table 6.4 Educational level of the population aged five years and above in Jubok and Tobra (in %) Educational qualification Bangladesh Tangail Jubok Tobra No schooling

32.2

40.2

11.5

67.6

Nursery

–

–

1.6

2.0

Class 1–5 Class 6–8 Class 9–10 SSC HSC Degree

32.9 14.9 6.8 6.6 3.9 1.9

28.3 11.3 6.7 6.2 3.3 4.3

20.5 13.4 16.4 17.0 12.2 5.0

20.5 5.8 1.8

Masters and above Hafez Madrassa Unknown Total

0.8 – – 100.0

0.5 – – 100.0

1.9 0.7 100.0

0.2

2.0 100.0

Note 1 The data of Bangladesh, Jubok and Tobra are above five years old and Tangail one is above seven years old Note 2 SSC means Secondary School Certificate and HSC means Higher School Certificate. In the case of Jubok, those who received their diploma are included in HSC Note 3 Hafez madrasa is an Islamic school to memorize Quran. Islamic schools without it are compatible with general education Source BBS (2014: xiii), BBS (2015: xviii, xv), and field survey by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

Proportionally, more people with higher education lived in Jubok compared to Tangail or Bangladesh (Table 6.4). Conversely, most people in Tobra were uneducated and only one person had a higher educational qualification. Tobra had a much lower rate of salaried workers and emigrants working overseas, but it had a higher rate of bicycle-drawn cart drivers, share-croppers, and physical labourers than Jubok (Table 6.5). With regard to businesses, originally considered the most efficiently developed base for microcredit, both Jubok and Tobra had about the same rate of entrepreneurs. However, their backgrounds and conditions were very different. Most entrepreneurs in Jubok were wealthy local elites or sons of high-ranked lineage, who originally started their businesses to avoid being dishonourable, i.e. ‘jobless’ and whose shops were located in the Jubok bazaar. On the other hand, all entrepreneurs in Tobra ran their businesses for their livelihoods and most of their shops were in or near their homesteads. Thus, the two communities had contrasting characteristics in terms of socio-economic status as well as location and access conditions.

6.4.2 Strategic Financial Inclusion by GB in Jubok In 1980, microcredit was introduced to Jubok via a pilot project of and before the establishment of GB. Although GB calls itself the ‘bank for the poor’ and cultivates an image of prioritizing poor women and the landless, similarly to the case of Devine (2003), it has depended on local elites to introduce and spread microcredit,

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Table 6.5 Occupational composition of the working population in Jubok and Tobra (in %) Occupation Jubok Tobra Farm operation

Owner

19.9

3.0

Non-owner Agricultural labor

4.4 0.6

12.3 7.6

Non-Agricultural labor

2.6

Cottage industry and weaving

5.3 4.1

Buisiness, skilled trade and hawking

12.7

14.7

Transport and communication

0.6

25.9

Religious service

0.6

1.2

Salary work

27.6

Overseas work Others Unknown Total

20.2 2.2 8.8 100.0

9.4 1.8 9.4 5.3 100.0

Note 1 Working population means the population of ten years and above except students, housewives and the jobless Note 2 The classification is based on the population census by BBS Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

for example, through introduction and accommodation for staff. Local leaders were the first to involve their wives in the microcredit programme because without them, no one would have trusted GB and the rationale for development through microcredit. Therefore, all of the first group of five members in Jubok were wealthy women whose husbands each owned more than 2 acres of land. A centre was built in 1980 and later extended to accommodate the increasing number of members in Jubok, while a local branch of GB was built in 1986. In the case of BRAC, a fieldworker arrived to recruit members and establish its centre there. Nearly 95% of the households had never had one or more accounts with formal banks without MFIs, such as Krishi Bank and Agroni Bank, while more than 30% of those households had never been a member of an MFI (Table 6.6).22 These nonmembers of MFIs were divided into wealthy and poor, but only four households were headed by women. The number of members of GB was overwhelmingly larger than that of BRAC and the local NGOs (Table 6.7). The main reason was that most people did not need loans, because they were salaried workers, land-owners, or rich entrepreneurs, as mentioned in the previous subsection (Table 6.5).23 Nevertheless, each of almost half the households had one or more members of GB because the Grameen Pension Savings scheme (GPS) was in high demand; more than 70% of the members of GB had GPS accounts, while less than 10% of members with loans for 22 Among

them, 3% had accounts at both formal banks and MFIs. reasons were that members of BRAC had to travel to a local office located in a village far away to obtain loans and that fieldworkers of GB made them convert to its members. 23 Other

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Table 6.6 Distribution of households belonging to MFIs in Jubok Number of NGO Household Number of account 0

Never Past

1 2 Unknown Total

95 34 145 9 22 305

31.1% 11.1% 47.5% 3.0% 7.2% 100.0%

1

2

3

4

127

14 7

3 2

1

127

21

5

1

Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012 Table 6.7 Distribution of members by membership period to MFIs in Jubok MFIs GB BRAC NGO-1 NGO-2 Total persons First year of 1980 operation −1 1–4 5–9 10–14 15–19 20+ Unknown Total

11 41 42 24 17 21 17 173

1996

1999

2 3 5

10

2004

2

3 3

Percentage

2

11 43 47 29 17 21 20 188

5.9 22.9 25.0 15.4 9.0 11.2 10.6 100.0

Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

farming or business did not. GPS is a product for regular weekly or monthly savings with a 10% interest rate for 5 years and 12% for 10 years. That is, the original sum of money doubles every 10 years. Half the members of GB have joined since 2002, when the GPS service started (Table 6.7), and there has been a steady stream of new members in 2017 as well. More than one-third of GPS account holders did not need loans; therefore, some gave loans to relatives or neighbours or paid back loans without using them (Table 6.8). GPS account holders did not necessarily take loans under the formal rules of GB. However, the Jubok centre heads forced GPS account holders to take loans continuously. One of them said to me, ‘we should consider not only our profits but also those of the bank’. According to interviews in 2018, local officers adopted this informal rule and the centre heads believed that it was a formal rule in GB. The rule enabled those who did not need loans to become involved as members and even to hand out loans to them. Furthermore, even though giving loans to other persons was prohibited by GB and BRAC, fieldworkers overlooked these facts provided there was no problem with repayment. Loan provision and proper repayment by fixed schedule

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Table 6.8 Uses for Loans from MFIs in Jubok and Tobra (multiple answers) Use for loan Jubok Tobra Agriculture

18

23

Business Skill training

17

13 1

Fund for emigration

3

1

Purchase/raising livestock

6

9

Building/repair of house

31

20

Purchase of furniture/appliance

3

Purchase of land Borrowing mortgaged land

2

3 1

Purchase/repair of Van

1

17

Purchase of paddy

2

Food expense

4

2

Education expense

6

1

Medical care expense

1

1

Payment for debts

1

5

Moneylending

14

6

Nothing and return it to MFIs

4

Borrowing loan just to keep GPS

39

Other family budget

22

4

Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

assumed significance while the actual uses of loans were not questioned. Thus, loans were oversupplied in Jubok. On the other hand, this oversupply of loans meant a high repayment capacity of the members. Fieldworkers of GB and national NGOs usually ask the centre heads about the repayment capacity, mainly the income sources, of applicants borrowing loans at first, and then they had to receive permission from local branches to provide loans. That is, members whose repayment capacity was judged low could not borrow, certainly not obtain high loans. Overall, members in Jubok were considered good at repayment. Nonetheless, the repayment problem was not entirely absent. Although I did not observe or hear about repayment problems in the main survey period, the centre heads told me that repayment problems had happened until around four or five years ago in 2018.24 Some fieldworkers had applied physical punishment (e.g. tying up defaulters) and seized their property at that time. Before GB introduced an insurance service in 24 It is considered that centre heads and members did not tell me about repayment problem in order not to embarrass the defaulters and smear Jubok samaj’s reputation. For example, one of the centre heads told me that a defaulter was forced to withdraw his/her membership in 2013 but she never opened her name.

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2002, which cancelled the repayments of those whose spouses had died, local leaders collected donations and repaid funds to GB on behalf of women members who had encountered repayment problems owing to their husbands’ deaths. However, such an insurance service did not work for women members whose husbands used loans wastefully. A member had to repay a ‘flexible loan’ over 15 years; such a loan is a rescheduled basic loan for members who have fallen into repayment problems with GB, arising from their husbands’ wasteful use of a loan, leaving her with a debt. However, repayment problems have been absent since around 2013 according to my survey in 2018. This was an evidence of the excellence of the members; indeed, one of the branch managers won a prize for her good performance at an annual meeting of GB in Tangail district in 2017. Thus, financial leeway among the members, high demand for GPS, and locally shared informal rules enabled smooth and stable microfinance operations in Jubok. GPS by GB was a strategic service to involve those who did not need loans, that is, the rich, while it continued to take repayments from a member who struggled owing to a wasteful loan by her husband. The actual conditions of financial inclusion in Jubok were far from the traditional slogan of microcredit, namely, ‘credit for the poor’.

6.4.3 Recurrence of Financial Inclusion and Exclusion by Various MFIs in Tobra Microcredit was introduced in Tobra through a pilot project before the establishment of GB at the same time as in Jubok. The other MFIs started to provide their services by recruiting members in Tobra through fieldworkers. Although GB had the highest number of members, there were many other MFIs (Table 6.9). GB, BRAC, ASA, and BURO each set up a centre in the homestead of the branch manager in 2012. The demand for loans from MFIs was higher in Tobra than in Jubok, because there were no formal bank account holders, and mutual help for financial problems within the community was limited because of bad economic conditions for all households. The unavailability of loans without high interest for these households was one reason for the low rate of overseas emigrant workers from Tobra (Table 6.5): at least USD 2400 was required for emigration, an amount that was difficult to manage for them. The fact that more than 90% of all households had an experience of joining MFIs seems to indicate a success of financial inclusion of socio-spatially marginalized people by microfinance (Table 6.10). However, it does not mean that there are no problems in the way of financial inclusion of the households. Before describing these problems, I want to mention non-members who occupied less than 10% of households. Among the financially excluded, only one household was self-sufficient in rice; the others were households with female heads and/or made their living by begging. Even though GB has a struggling (i.e. beggar) programme that provides loans without interest or collateral and a fixed repayment schedule to beggars, no

18

7 5 5 1

Unknown

ASA

16

1 10 3 2

1995

BURO

Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

6

1

1 1 3

7 9 10 9 2 17 1 55

1992

BRAC

−1 1–4 5–9 10–14 15–19 20+ Unknown Total

GB

First year of operation 1980

MFIs

Table 6.9 Distribution of members by belonging period to MFIs in Tobra

10

1 4 4 1

1991

BASA

2

2

2010

NGO-3

2 9

6 1

2011

NGO-4

16 34 25 17 4 17 3 116

Persons

13.8 29.3 21.6 14.7 3.4 14.7 2.6 100.0

Percentage

112 A. Sugie

6 Deconstructing Financial Inclusion and Exclusion …

113

Table 6.10 Distribution of households by belonging to MFIs in Tobra Number of MFI Household The number of account 0 1 2 3 Unknown Total

Never Past

8 11 55 23 3 3 103

7.8% 10.7% 53.4% 22.3% 2.9% 2.9% 100.0%

1

2

3

4

51

4 21 1

1 2

1

26

3

1

51

Source Field survey in by the author from November 2011 to February 2012

one was included in the study area. Most of the non-members were ‘self-excluded’, having given up joining MFIs due to their lower capacity for repayment on their own, and thus, the poorest of the poor were not financially included there. Next, I turn to the majority of households, namely, financially included households. While about 20% of these households belonged to only one MFI for more than 5 years, more than 20% had overlapping members (Table 6.6). The officers of local branches knew and overlooked membership overlaps even though BRAC, ASA, and BURO prohibited membership in other MFIs. Furthermore, most overlapping households fell into repayment problems. Rejecting lending loans and/or dropping from MFIs because of overdue payments or repayment troubles was frequent among them. Moreover, more than 40% of the households had joined MFIs within the last 4 years (Table 6.9). Unlike Jubok, the GPS account holders comprised only 40% of all GB members and did not tend to comprise those who had joined after GPS’s introduction. This implies there were many people who had moved from one MFI to another, mainly members whose repayment was overdue or who had a low repayment capacity. This concerned particularly poor elderly widows who could not take loans and therefore moved to other MFIs. Let us consider the repayment problems in detail. Members who took loans had to repay them according to a fixed weekly schedule for all MFIs except for the case of ‘flexible loans’ in GB. The strictness of collection was embodied in the expression by members that ‘he/she must repay even though a dead body of family was found in his/her house’. Even members of households that had mostly healthy and good male workers and who used loans for farming, the purchase of bicycle taxis, and business sometimes worried about their repayments, because it was difficult to earn enough income from those activities to repay their loans in the short term such as one or several weeks. Moreover, some members took loans not for productive economic activities but rather for ‘consumption smoothing’ or ‘protection’ purposes, such as building or repairing a house, or purchasing food, as previous studies show (e.g. Hulme and Mosley 1996; Collins et al. 2009). The fieldworkers did not pay attention to the actual use of a loan, even if it was different from the purpose mentioned in the borrower’s application, as long as it was repaid properly, as was the case of Jubok.

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The woman who had been the GB centre head until 2005 and other MFI members told me that members often experienced repayment problems in poor areas, such as Tobra, owing to the use of loans not for productive purposes but for dowry or food expenses. The woman withdrew her membership because she felt ashamed of the poor repayment conditions for members and pressures from local officers. Complaints about the frequency of repayment problems in Tobra were heard from local officers as well. I often observed fieldworkers and sometimes their bosses being kept waiting for weekly repayment by members in the centres of Tobra. The members sometimes managed weekly repayment with the help of other members or neighbourhoods. However, such help was rarely available, particularly for households composed of elderly people and/or women, or jobless men who had wasteful habits. The members of those households, mostly women, repaid their loans by begging or physical labour, such as road construction. Like Karim (2008), I found a case in which a GB fieldworker facilitated the sale of a member’s house and homestead by her husband to repay a large default when she was absent. This is called ghar bhanga (house-breaking) and brings ultimate shame of dishonour in rural Bangladesh. Let us consider the rejection of loans in detail. No MFIs gave loans to members with overdue repayments or lower repayment capacity. Members’ savings and repayment performance were registered in their offices or local branches, playing a blacklisting role against such members. Furthermore, some MFIs even withdrew their services from Tobra entirely because there were many members in default.25 The national NGO Social Service for Society (SSS) stopped services in Tobra before my survey and BRAC was the next to leave. In 2012, a BRAC fieldworker told me that the total amount of loans overdue by 35 members in Tobra had been more than USD 480 since 2006 and it was very stressful to collect repayment there.26 Just one year later, BRAC closed its centre and services in Tobra. Another entity to leave was NGO-3, in 2017. Thus, Tobra became labelled an un-creditworthy community. For such an unstable supply of loans and member dropouts, the composition of each MFI’s members has changed significantly since the household survey by the author in 2012. In particular, many people have become members of recently founded NGOs or those that have started to provide their services lately in Tobra; the members of NGO-4 increased to about 50 by 2017. The other local NGO, which is not included in Table 6.2 because of a lack of detailed information, started services in 2013 and had 23 members in 2017. Thus, most members in Tobra had repeatedly experienced financial inclusion and exclusion. However, most of these members and those who had overlapping membership told me that it was better to join only one MFI if he/she could repay the loan properly. This indicates that financial education was not a problem as Guérin et al. (2014) points out and they could not help but wander among or join multiple MFIs. An elderly woman among them said, ‘NGOs pay attention only to their profit. Thus, it is difficult to deal with them. I feel like 25 Such a retreat of MFIs was not limited to Tobra but was also evident in other areas and seen in Karim (2008). 26 The number of members does not correspond with that in Table 6.9, because the latter does not include those who revealed they had withdrawn their membership of BRAC.

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being in prison for indebtedness.’ In the next subsection, I highlight the problems of MFIs, namely, that local officers have paid attention not to the actual uses of loans but only to their proper repayment according to a fixed schedule and have rejected the provision of services to particular people and areas.

6.4.4 Multilevel Competition in Microfinance Operations One of the factors for the abovementioned microfinance operation was fierce multilevel competition among MFIs, local branches, and fieldworkers. Multilevel competition is caused by a narrow view of sustainability that rests predominantly on financial considerations in the microfinance industry (Devine 2003). MFIs are usually evaluated and compete with each other on a quantitative basis for their financial sustainability, such as through outstanding loans, repayment rate, and savings deposits. Between USD 24,000 and USD 30,000 of unsettled loans were set as a monthly target, and a high rate of repayment above 90% was emphasised in each local branch of the national NGOs.27 A monthly target was assigned to each fieldworker. Local officers concentrated their efforts on achieving the goal, because a good performance enabled them to receive promotions and salary rises. Thus, MFIs, local branches, and staff competed for new member acquisition and loan provision for their own profits. These organizations could not come close to achieving their monthly goals if they limited loans strictly by monitoring their actual use. In addition, fieldworkers in all the MFIs dealt with too many members—200 to 300—to monitor the actual uses of loans by themselves. As Ahmad (2002) explains, the fieldworkers experienced significant pressure not only from a great deal of work but also from the dilemma of having to choose between their bosses and the members. The local officers ignored members and areas with high risk of overdue repayment from their services, as they were under pressure to achieve high rates of repayment. Moreover, it was reported that information about whether a member had ever defaulted was sometimes informally shared among the local offices and fieldworkers when inquiring about new applicants to assess whether to issue loans to them. Actually, NGO-1 had some members in Tobra but stopped its services there, because of Tobra’s terrible reputation for repayment. Emphasis on financial sustainability and quantity-based evaluation resulted in financial exclusion by classifying people and areas into creditworthy and un-creditworthy, according to organizational concern, that is, for the profits of the MFIs.

27 GB set monthly targets to acquire new members. On the other hand, although NGO-3 aimed to make USD 12,370 loans each month, despite high demand, most local NGOs could not expand the number of standing loans owing to lack of capital.

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6.5 Conclusion This study examined contrasting cases of financial inclusion/exclusion in Jubok and Tobra, central Bangladesh. In the case of Jubok, while almost all the financially excluded were wealthy households, loans were over-supplied to people who were not necessarily poor and did not even need loans, as they made use of a savings product with a high interest rate; informal lending rules rather than formal ones applied to these people. On the other hand, in Tobra, while the poorest were financially excluded, most of the financially included were repeatedly included and excluded due to the rejection of members with overdue repayments or the withdrawal of services by some MFIs. Members with overlapping membership could be called ‘overly included’ and are more likely to default and become indebted for cross-borrowing, as previous studies show (e.g. Chaudhury and Matin 2002; Guérin et al. 2014). Furthermore, it is difficult to meet the criteria for receiving loans, particularly for members whose households are composed of only the elderly and/or women, or jobless men with wasteful habits. Actually, when such members tended to incur repayment problems, there was hardly any help available from relatives or neighbours. This situation was observed in Jubok as well. The case studies support previous feminist critique against microfinance (e.g. Goetz and Gupta 1996). Thus, indebtedness is shaped by and reinforces pre-existing inequalities and social relations (Guérin et al. 2014). As Taylor (2012: 603) argues, the universalized pretensions of development of the financially excluded serve to obscure location-specific social relations and institutional processes that (re)produce poverty, inequality, and marginality. In the same way, the discourse for achieving financial inclusion ignores its impermanent status and various conditions of people. In addition, this discourse presents an illusion that the financially included overcame financial exclusion and were able to climb out of poverty only through financial access. Examining only the number of financially included/excluded without inquiring about their real situation produces nothing meaningful for the social goals of microfinance, because financial access is a double-edged sword; it might develop the quality of life and yet cause disempowerment through indebtedness. The belief in financial access as a major contributor to ending extreme poverty is based on a very optimistic market fundamentalism that deviates from the actual processes and results of financial inclusion/exclusion. The marginality of the poor is not only caused by the shortage of money or ‘market exclusion’ but also by structural inequalities that stem from gender, caste and social customs such as abandonment of the elderly parents. Demarginalization of the poor needs human and social development and political empowerment to change the social structure and customs, which has been forgotten by development agencies in Bangladesh today due to the shift toward ‘microfinance/microcredit minimalism’. The cases investigated in this study show evidence of ‘mission drift’ of the microfinance industry; the better off, as opposed to the extreme poor, obtain more access to loans, increasing significance is attached to profitability, and the sight of social goals is getting lost. While the MFIs approve financial inclusion, they (re)produce financial exclusion, which La Torre (2006: 4) calls market exclusion, by classifying people

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into creditworthy and un-creditworthy types, and by including only the former without monitoring the actual uses and efficacy of loans. In this situation, certain people with lower repayment capacity are marginalized on the financial market; microfinance, which was originally introduced as an alternative to pre-existing financial infrastructure, has (re)produced disparities and marginalization, which runs counter to its social goals. Furthermore, even though the issue of over-indebtedness by overlapping membership and cross-borrowing has been recognized, and each MFI and PKSF has set regulations, such regulations and other formal rules have been ignored or reworked to become profit-oriented in actual microfinance operations at the local level. These problems have been caused by the following factors: (i) multilevel competition driven by policy emphasizing financial sustainability and efficiency; (ii) lack of an evaluation and monitoring system for members’ welfare; and (iii) a structural problem that exerts significant pressure on the edge of organizational structure, namely, on fieldworkers, and the reduction of fieldworkers’ employment costs in the microfinance industry.28 This study shows that the present microfinance industry has made microfinance exclusive rather than inclusive, and that ‘universal financial access’ led by microfinance is nothing but a myth.

References Ahmad, M. M. (2002). NGO field workers in Bangladesh. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Bateman, M. (2010). Why doesn’t microfinance work? The destructive rise of local neoliberalism. London: Zed Books Ltd. BBS. (1986). Small area atlas of Bangladesh: Mauzas and mahallahs of Tangail district. Dhaka: BBS. BBS. (2005). Agriculture sample survey of Bangladesh 2005. Dhaka: BBS. BBS. (2014). Bangladesh population and housing census 2011: National report vol. 2 union statistics. Dhaka: BBS. BBS. (2015). Population and housing census 2011: Zila report Tangail. Dhaka: BBS. Brix, L., & McKee, K. (2010). Consumer protection regulation in low-access environments: Opportunities to promote responsible finance. Focus Note, 60. Washington, D.C.: CGAP. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/320461468313550731/pdf/ 566260BRI0Box353729B01PUBLIC10FN60.pdf. CDF. (2013). Bangladesh microfinance statistics 2012. Dhaka: CDF. CGAP., & World Bank. (2010). Financial access 2010: The state of financial inclusion through the crisis. Washington, D.C.: CGAP & World Bank. Retrieved from https://www.cgap.org/sites/ default/files/CGAP-Financial-Access-2010.pdf. Chaudhury, I., & Matin, I. (2002). Dimensions and dynamics of microfinance membership overlap: A micro study from Bangladesh. Small Enterprise Development, 13(2), 46–55.

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Chen, G., & Rutherford, S. (2013). A microcredit crisis averted: the case of Bangladesh. Focus Note, 87. Washington, D.C.: CGAP. Retrieved from https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/FocusNote-A-Microcredit-Crisis-Averted-July-2013.pdf. Collins, D., Morduch, J., Rutherford, S., & Ruthven, O. (2009). Portfolios of the poor: How the world’s poor live on $2 a day. Princeton University Press. Cull, R., Demirgüç-Kunt, A., & Morduch, J. (2007). Financial performance and outreach: A global analysis of leading microbanks. Economic Journal, 117(517), 107–133. Datta, D. (2004). Microcredit in rural Bangladesh: Is it reaching the poorest? Journal of Microfinance/ESR Review, 6(1), 55–82. Retrieved from https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1035&context=esr. Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Leora, K., Dorothe, S., & van Oudheusden, P. (2015). The global findex database 2014: Measuring financial inclusion around the world. Policy Research Working Paper, 7255. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from http://gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/ 09/GlobalFindex2015.pdf. Devine, J. (2003). The paradox of sustainability: Reflections on NGOs in Bangladesh. The annals of the American academy of political and social science, 590(1), 227–242. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0002716203257067. Fernando, J. L. (2006). Introduction: Discourse of microcredit: Framing and disciplining the subjects of development. In J. L. Fernando (Ed.), Microfinance. perils and prospects (pp. 1–42). Oxon, NY: Routledge. Fruttero, A., & Gauri, V. (2005). The strategic choices of NGOs: Location decision in rural Bangladesh. The Journal of Development Studies, 41(5), 759–787. Goetz, A. M., & Gupta, R. S. (1996). Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh. World Development, 24(1), 45–63. Government of Bangladesh. (2008). Moving ahead: National strategy for accelerated poverty reduction 2 (FY 2009–11). Dhaka: General Economics Division, Planning Commission, Government of Bangladesh. Government of Bangladesh. (2011). Sixth five year plan of Bangladesh FY 2011-FY 2015 part 1: Accelerating growth and reducing poverty. Dhaka: Planning Commission, Government of Bangladesh. Guérin, I., Morvant-Roux, S., & Villarreal, M. (2014). Introduction. In I. Guérin, S. MorvantRoux, & M. Villarreal (Eds.), Microfinance, debt and over-indebtedness: Juggling with money (pp. 1–23). Oxon, NY: Routledge. Hermes, N., Lensink, R., & Meesters, A. (2011). Outreach and efficiency of microfinance institutions. World Development, 39(6), 938–948. Hossain, M., & Bayes, A. (2009). Rural economy and livelihoods: Insights from Bangladesh. Dhaka: A H Development Publishing House. Hulme, D., & Mosley, P. (1996). Finance against poverty (Vol. 1). Psychology Press. Karim, L. (2008). Demystifying micro-credit: the Grameen Bank, NGOs and neoliberalism in Bangladesh. Cultural Dynamics, 20(5), 5–29. Karlan, D., & Goldberg, N. (2007). Impact evaluation for microfinance: Review of methodological issues. Doing impact evaluation series, 7. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from http:// siteresources.worldbank.org/INTISPMA/Resources/383704-1146752240884/Doing_ie_series_ 07.pdf. Khandker, S. (2003). Micro-finance and poverty: Evidence using panel data from Bangladesh. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 2945. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/319a/d835b69ee29ea9d5ed737c6e040a9d3453b3.pdf. La Torre, M. (2006). A new conception of microfinance. In G. Vento and M. La Torre (Eds.), Microfinance (pp. 1–19). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Ledgerwood, J., & Gibson, A. (2013). The evolving financial landscape. In J. Ledgerwood, J. Earne, & C. Nelson (Eds.), The New microfinance handbook: A financial market system perspective (pp. 15–48). Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank. org/bitstream/handle/10986/12272/9780821389270.pdf?sequence=6.

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Matsui, N., & Tsuboi, H. (2015). Microcredit, inclusive finance and solidarity. In N. Matsui & Y. Ikemoto (Eds.), Solidarity economy and social business (pp. 13–25). Springer. Mersland, R., & Strøm, R. Ø. (2010). Microfinance mission drift? World Development, 38(1), 28–36. Mujeri, M. K. (2015). Improving access of the poor to financial services. A report prepared for the general economics division of the planning commission to serve as a background study for preparing the 7th Five Year Plan (2016–2020) of Bangladesh. Retrieved from http://www. plancomm.gov.bd/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1_Improving-Access-of-the-Poor-to-FinancialServices.pdf. Microcredit Summit Campaign. (2015). Mapping pathways out of poverty: The state of the microcredit summit campaign report 2015. Microcredit Summit Campaign. Retrieved from http:// www.microcreditsummit.org/uploads/resource/document/execsummary2015_text_tabloid_ final_web_99009.pdf. Montgomery, H., & Weiss, J. (2005). Great expectations: Microfinance and poverty reduction in Asia and Latin America. ADB Institute Research Paper Series, 63. https://www.adb.org/sites/ default/files/publication/157174/adbi-rp63.pdf. Paxton, J., Graham, D., & Thraen, C. (2000). Modeling group loan repayment behavior: New insights from Burkina Faso. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 48(3), 639–655. Robinson, M. (2001). The microfinance revolution: Sustainable finance for the poor. World Bank Publications. Sinclair, H. (2012). Confessions of a microfinance heretic: How microlending lost its way and betrayed the poor. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Sugie, A. (2016). Persistence and change in occupational groups among Muslims in rural Bangladesh: A case study of Sanaidar jati in Tangail district. International Journal of South Asian Studies, 8, 73–102. Taylor, M. (2012). The Antinomies of ‘financial inclusion’, debt, distress and the workings of Indian microfinance. Journal of Agrarian Change, 12(4), 601–610. Weber, H. (2004). The ‘new economy’ and social risk: Banking on the poor? Review of international political economy, 11(2), 356–386. World Bank. (1994). Bangladesh: Privatization and adjustment. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/735311468768584845/pdf/ multi0page.pdf. World Bank. (2014). Global financial development report 2014: Financial inclusion. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/ 225251468330270218/pdf/825560PUB0REPL010Box379862B00OUO090.pdf.

Part III

Transformation Processes

Change is a constant in life. It regularly turns up throughout this book, but the contributions to Part III focus explicitly on the dynamics of rural space. Transformations occur everywhere, but we can study them from different perspectives. Sometimes politics plays a major role, sometimes it is economic necessity that calls for new ways, sometimes nature intervenes and forces people to adapt to a new situation (e.g. after landslides, floods, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions). In any case, life will never be the same as before human and natural interventions. The following four chapters illustrate the dynamics of rural areas in a few parts of the world. The chapter by Steve Déry and his co-authors focuses on the adaptation of human societies to the deep transformations imposed by the globalisation of the world economy and related changes to various environments. This constitutes probably the most prominent challenge for the twenty-first century, especially in mountainous and marginal areas occupied by ethnic minorities. In Southeast Asia, modern states are continuing to build their territorial legitimacy, integrating areas inhabited by indigenous groups that have become ethnic minorities. In Vietnam’s Lam Dong Province, the city of Đà Lạt has thus become gradually integrated into national and international economic networks, especially those of tourism and agricultural production (coffee, flowers, vegetables, etc.). This integration has transformed the life of the people living in nearby villages. It appears that there is a differentiation in this process as ethnic minorities are mostly marginalised compared to Kinh (or Vietnamese) people. The chapter examines the general context of the agrarian and urban transitions and how it has affected the three villages of Da Sar, Da Nhim and Da Chais in Lac Duong district. The study is based on fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2012 as a comparison with previous research done since 2007 in the same area. Margarita Schmidt and Claudio Urra Coletti examine the transformations in vitiand viniculture, the dominant productive sector in the three river oases where life and economic activity develop in the province of Mendoza (Argentina). The smallest of these oases, known as Central oasis or Valle de Uco and located in the

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middle west of the province, has always occupied a marginal role in this activity, mainly due to the natural conditions of the area. However, during the last 25 years and under the strong influence of globalisation, it has become the most dynamic and emblematic region of modern wine-growing development in Argentina. The authors apply a double perspective: a vision ‘from outside’, more objective, complemented with a vision ‘from inside’. The results show a very positive example of global influence in a rural area at the local level, despite a few dissonant notes that give us some ideas about difficulties or alternative positions to the general trend. In her chapter, María Eugenia Cepparo reflects upon the different insights and overviews of the concept of marginality, its problems and how they apply to the remote region of Malargüe in the south of Mendoza Province, Argentina. This area, rich in various mineral resources but with a limited agricultural potential, was settled in the nineteenth century only and has always been on the downside of development and politics. She discusses different processes, which are deeply related to environmental, socio-economic, cultural and political issues, considering the relations between local territorial dynamics and provincial, national and international scales of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Another part of rural space are small centres that act as providers of essential services and sometimes also ensure the transformation of local raw materials for the regional, national and even global market. Etienne Nel’s chapter traces the growth and decline of small centres across New Zealand which have suffered from outmigration, loss of state funding and changing market opportunities. Many settlements felt the impact of neo-liberalism and the associated loss of state support. In general terms, towns which developed from the exploitation of primary products (timber and minerals) and manufacturing towns are declining, while towns which rely on tourism or are home to commuters are growing rapidly; rural service towns remain relatively static. Since public money is no longer available for educational and health services, such small settlements risk to disappear from the map. Only towns developing strong local policies to promote local growth and training and to remain attractive for potential emigrants (and potential immigrants) stand a chance of survival. Community initiatives have so far proven valuable initiatives to save small towns from total decline, but not all places stand the same chance to survive.

Chapter 7

Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Lâm Ðô`ng Province, Vietnam: Adaptation or Marginalisation for Ethnic Minorities? Steve Déry, Maëva Lucas and Louis Boisclair

On ne peut parler de la ville sans parler de la campagne, on ne peut évoquer Hanoi sans parler des villages qui l’entourent et qui l’ont organisée. We cannot speak of the city without speaking of the countryside, one cannot mention Hanoi without evoking the villages that surround it and have organized it. Quertamp (2010, p. 110).

This text has been formerly presented at the conference of the IGU commission on Globalization, Marginalization and Regional and Local Response (C08-47) “Geographies of Marginality: The Realities of Physically Marginalized Areas”, University of Zagreb, Dubrovnik, 19–23 August 2012. The portrait of that period remains valid, especially when updates will eventually allow seeing evolution trends. Only some minor updates were made. Thanks are addressed to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for its grant to the project “Intégration des régions montagneuses d’Asie du Sud-Est continentale, 1960–2010: entre adaptation et marginalisation” (CRSH: 410-2011-2439), directed by Steve Déry and that allows fieldwork by Déry from 2011 to 2015, Boisclair in 2011 and Lucas in 2012. S. Déry (B) · M. Lucas · L. Boisclair Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada e-mail: [email protected] M. Lucas e-mail: [email protected] L. Boisclair e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_7

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7.1 Introduction One of the major challenges the 21st century human societies face is probably their adaptation to the profound transformations linked to economic globalization and environmental changes at all levels. This holds particularly good for mountain and marginal regions inhabited by ethnic minorities. One simple reason for this is the lack of power of such groups, power necessary in order to be able to adapt. The modern states of Southeast Asia are constructing their territorial legitimacy by integrating these regions and their inhabitants, people who have become minorities when these states were created after World War II. The only exception is Thailand that has never been a colony. Of course, this integration process is also driven by a variety of actors, individuals, groups, communities, private companies etc. whose programmes mutually reinforce themselves or sometimes even contradict each other. Our study on how the populations adapt to a process they follow voluntarily or by force converges with Zerner’s (2000, p. 6, quoted in Dressler and Roth 2011, p. 851). In order to study the increasing presence of markets in ‘environmental governance’ he examines the types of markets which are promoted, power relations and their expression on the global, national, regional and ‘local’ levels, as well as the consequences of this market integration in specific contexts. This context is somewhat particular in Vietnam, maybe because of the rhythm of these processes (globalization, urbanization etc.), although the visible consequences resemble those we can observe in the neighbouring countries and in the entire region, where countries such as Thailand and the Philippines have not experienced communist rule. In a long-term perspective, Bruneau (2006) considers the integration of the Vietnamese peripheries as a replica of the process that took place when the Chinese Empire integrated its own peripheries. In recent times, the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, the Vietnamese context looks similar to other countries in Southeast Asia where several simultaneous processes contribute to landscape and socioeconomic change. In Malaysia and Indonesia, for example, particularly on the island of Borneo, exists an active pioneer frontier promoting oil palm (De Koninck and Rousseau 2012), modifying interethnic relations (e.g. in Sarawak; Cramb 2007) and the varied relations between the State and local populations, particularly those living along the borders (Ishikawa 2010). In Laos, this transformation concerns particularly regions far from the political and economic centre of the country, that is the north (Luang Nam Tha, Oudomxai, Phongsaly, etc.) and the south (Champassak, etc.), where capitalist enterprises have seized land and its production using large plantations (rubber, coffee and others; Baird 2011). In his 2011 article, Baird speaks of “primitive accumulation” in a Marxist analysis of this process (“Turning land into capital, turning people into labour”). We can observe large plantations of thousands of hectares, sometimes up to 10,000 ha, unimaginable in the region years ago. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, we can observe three more or less concomitant processes. Firstly, agricultural colonization was still very active until the 2000s, but slackened much since the 2010s, as compared to the 1990s. This slowing down occurred around the year 2000, at the same time as, secondly, Vietnam started

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its agrarian transition.1 During this process, the predominant agrarian activities of a region or country (as far as employment, revenue or general economic structure are concerned) are transformed and the other sectors (industry and services) gradually outstripped agriculture (De Koninck 2004). Agriculture became more commercialized, which contributes to the rise in social tensions and conflicts (Phan 2009). Thirdly, the corollary of this agricultural transition, or its most visible manifestation in spatial organization, is the process of urbanization or urban transition. Of course, populations do not experience these transformation and transition processes in the same way as identified by scientists. In daily life, these variations are often hardly visible—a new neighbour arrives and builds a new house, or the old neighbour constructs a new building to sell various products. But as surely as a child is growing, these tiny changes add up and transform landscapes and the whole socio-economic geography. In Lâm Ðô`ng province, the southernmost province of the Central Highlands of Vietnam (Fig. 7.1), the three processes described above are particularly powerful, and they are still continuing, including agrarian colonization, even if it has slowed down somewhat in the past two decades (see De Koninck 1997; Déry 2004). In the 1920s, this province was inhabited by only about 25% Kinh, the majority ethnic group in Vietnam (86% of the total population in the country), whereas nowadays more than 80% of the population belong to this group in Lâm Ðô`ng. Also, mountain ethnic groups of this region, since 1954 officially recognized as ethnic minorities (dân tô.c ít ngu,o`,i) (Koho, Ma, Sre, Lat, Mnong etc.), have experienced the same transitions. After having been pushed around (cf. Boulbet 1967, 2002), they are gradually adapting themselves to the new and different agrarian or environmental ‘rules’ that are constantly being imposed upon them (Déry 2007; McElwee 2016). As concerns the urban areas, the city of Ðà La.t, a mountain resort during the French colonial occupation, has become the capital of Lâm Ðô`ng province. With more than 214,000 inhabitants at the end of 2012,2 it is becoming perfectly integrated into the growing national and international socioeconomic networks, especially tourism and agricultural production (coffee, flowers, market gardening). This integration has contributed to a complete transformation of life and landscape of the people in the surrounding villages. We have developed the hypothesis that a differentiation process has come under way, which contributes to the marginalization mainly of minority ethnic groups (in this case, the Koho Cil) as compared to the Kinh (or Viet). This 1 Field

observations by Déry in 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003 as well as every year from 2005 to 2012. Boisclair in 2011 and Lucas in 2012 have also conducted fieldwork in Lâm Ðô`ng province. Déry has continued its annual visits to the region between 2013 and 2017. 2 On December 31, 2012, there were 214,443 inhabitants according to the Vietnamese Internet site of the city of Ðà La.t (accessed 12 November 2017; http://dalat.lamdong.gov.vn/). The Internet site of Lâm Ðô`ng province provides only the preliminary figures of the 2009 census; http://www.lamdong.gov.vn/en-US/government/Organization/Districts-cities-towns/ Pages/default.aspx. Wikipedia in English lists 406,105 for 2015, but does not give a source. This may be the (badly defined) agglomeration of the population of the city of Ðà La.t combined with the neighbouring districts of Duc Trong (c. 166,000 inhabitants), where is Ðà La.t airport, and of Lac Duong to the north (just under 20,000 inhabitants).

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Fig. 7.1 Vietnam, relief, hydrography and cities

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study relies on research undertaken since 2007 in the region, including specifically in June and July 2011 (Boisclair) and from June to August 2012 (Lucas). Boisclair has conducted 46 interviews, including 36 peasant families, mostly in Lâm Hà district, while Lucas has performed a two-stages set of interviews for a total of 74 peasant families mainly in Ðà La.t city (Phu,o,ng 12) and La.c Du,o,ng district, plus several others from key informants. Questionnaires were related to their individual trajectories, their lands, the way they earn their living and their domestic economy, including how they were related to the outside world, in particular to Ðà La.t. From their observations we can infer that, compared to research in 1996 and 1997, these transitions, agrarian and urban, present modest results in the region: while the general level of living seems to have improved, as we can see with housing, we can recognize a process of marginalization, i.e. that there has been a loss of decisional power as a consequence of this integration. This chapter discusses first some aspects of the agrarian and urban transitions that have been occurring for some time in Vietnam in the last few years. It then follows in some detail the case of Lâm Ðô`ng province, examining the general trends of the recent land use transformations (essentially between 2000 and 2010), trends that primarily continue the transformations that have started in the 20th century and accelerated in the last quarter of that century (Déry 2004). The final part reflects on the integration of ethnic minorities, particularly the Koho, and how they experienced these transformations. While certain members of the community have well adapted, others, often the majority, lose their decisional power and find themselves marginalized.

7.2 Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Vietnam 7.2.1 Gradual Demographic Changes Agrarian and urban transformations in Vietnam appear first and foremost on the demographic level. The population of the country has continued to grow in the 21st century, slightly less vigorously than in the second half of the 20th century. It increased from about 16 million in 1900 to 27 million in 1950 and 80 million in 2000, i.e. fivefold in a century (Déry 2004, p. 543 ), and this despite the heavy toll of lives during the Vietnam wars, particularly the second, with probably more than three million deaths among civilians and military in the entire country. The 2009 census recorded 85.8 million inhabitants (GSO), and estimates for 2016 arrive at more than 92 million (Table 7.1), an increase of 1.07% compared to the 91.7 million of 2015. This means that the growth rate has rapidly declined after the 1970s. The main reasons were a strict family planning policy and a propaganda campaign that

3 Data based on McEvedy and Jones (1978, p. 197), Brocheux and Hémery (1995, p. 247), and GSO.

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Table 7.1 Population of Vietnam during the last four censuses plus 2016, and average growth rates per decade Year Population Growth per decade Average growth rate (number) (preceding decade) 1979

52,742,000

1989

64,376,000

11,634,000

2.01%/year

1999

76,323,000

11,947,000

1.72%/year

2009

85,847,000

9,524,000

1.18%/year

2016*

92,695,100

Preliminary estimates

+1.07% versus 2015

Source GSO (accessed 12 November 2017) *2016 is not a census year. Last data available at the time of publication

praised the merits of the family that has only one or two children. The growth rate arrived at about 2% in the 1980s and dropped further to 1.18% during the period 1999–2009 (Table 7.1). This population lives in a country that has been described as being “the least coherent country in the world” («le territoire le moins cohérent qui soit au monde»; Gourou 1936) where there is no geographic unity («… n’a aucune unité géographique»; Fall 1967). Although the major population centres have remained the same, the distribution of the population has substantially changed in the course of the last hundred years, reducing regional disparities, at least on the socioeconomic level. The mountain regions in the north and the central plateaus used to be less densely populated and more diverse as concerned ethnicity, culture, agriculture and even economy in general, but have nowadays been strongly integrated into the national space (De Koninck 1994; Déry 2004). Large spontaneous or state-sponsored migrations from the lowlands to the mountains and plateaus have certainly played a leading role (Hardy 2003; Tran 2002; Déry 2004; Pham 2009). As a consequence, the demographic weight of the mountainous regions has increased, whereas the delta regions, usually the most densely inhabited areas, have lost “weight”. De Koninck recognized this tendency for the period 1936–1991, when the Red River Delta saw the weight of its population shrink almost by half, from about 40% of the country’s total population to a quarter (De Koninck 1994, p. 286), and it has continued since, though less rapidly (Table 7.2). These changes demonstrate various demographic processes. First, two regions have increased their respective weights from 1995 to 2010, the South-East with Ho Chi Minh City and its urban growth area towards Biên Hòa and even V˜ung Tàu, and the Central Highlands (CH). In the former, the population has increased by more than seven million people in the course of 20 years (i.e. almost doubled) and attained 17.6% of the national population. In the latter (the CH), the number of inhabitants grew by 54% (1.8 million), resulting in a demographic weight of 6% relative to the country, up from 4.1% in 1991 (De Koninck 1994, p. 272), 3.9% during the 1989 census (GSO 1990, p. 5 f.), and only 2.8% according to a 1981 estimate (GSO 1982, p. 11 f.). One notices that, apart from the migration towards the Ho Chi Minh

16,296.6

10,604.5

4246.4

18,218.3

10,204.4

21.0

13.7

5.5

23.5

13.1

23.3

16,859.3

12,380.6

4768.2

18,608.6

10,798.7

18,976.7

,000 inhabitants

20.5

15.0

5.8

22.6

13.1

23.0

%

2005 population

17,272.2

14,566.5

5214.2

18,935.5

11,169.3

19,770.0

,000 inhabitants

19.9

16.8

6.0

21.8

12.8

22.8

%

2010 population

Source De Koninck (2012) and General Statistical Office of Vietnam (Internet site accessed 12 November 2017)

21.6

12.9

4.7

3384.8

9276.3

23.9

17,201.2

15,531.9

13.2

9522.9

Mekong River Delta Total

23.7

17,078.4

18,060.7

,000 inhabitants

%

2000 population

,000 inhabitants

%

1995 population

South-East

Red River Delta Central Region and Northern Mountains Central Region and Northern Coast Central Highlands

Region

Table 7.2 Evolution of the demographic weight per region in Vietnam, 1995–2015

19.2 100.0

91,713.3

17.6

6.1

21.4

12.9

22.8

%

17,590.4

16,127.8

5607.9

19,658.0

11,803.7

20,925.5

,000 inhabitants

2015 population

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City conurbation, the demographic weight of the various regions does no longer shift as much as during the past 20 years. This can be interpreted as a sign that the receiving areas of agrarian migrants are saturated, that the demographic heavy weight regions show considerable inertia, and that the huge migration processes (subsidized or spontaneous) of the 1970s and 1980s have come to an end. Although they were not directly demonstrating the agrarian and urban transitions, these demographic dynamics constitute a general tendency that has reached the most remote parts of the country. Attached to these dynamics were the construction of road infrastructure, electrification of rural areas, building of schools etc., with as a main consequence the creation or consolidation of links between the various regions, particularly those exporting agricultural products, especially if these were destined for the global market: coffee, cashew nuts, rubber. Even regions considered inaccessible during the rainy season have been permanently connected to the outside world. These efforts are illustrated by the construction of Route 723 to Ðamrong in 2004, a district in Lâm Ðô`ng province. This region had been extremely remote and could not be reached during the rainy season because of its bad access road.4

7.2.2 Agricultural Colonisation and Agrarian Change Vietnam still experiences an agricultural colonization process, albeit considerably slowed down in the past decades compared to the 1990s. This is illustrated by the growth of cultivated area types (Table 7.3). On the one hand, perennial cultures have grown rapidly between 1990 and 2010, doubling their share of the total agricultural land and amounting to about a fifth of the total surface of the country. These cultures (coffee, tea, rubber etc.) are largely grown in the plateau and mountain zones, and their increase demonstrates the progress of the pioneer front. On the other hand, urban areas have rapidly expanded during the same period, mainly on agricultural surfaces both in the lowlands and in mountain areas. It is therefore a remarkable achievement that today’s agricultural surfaces are larger than ten years ago. Agricultural colonization has begun to slow down around the year 2000, precisely when Vietnam started its agrarian transition. This does not mean that agriculture is going to disappear. The largest industrial and commercial countries of the world, such as the United States and France, remain agricultural and agro-food giants. These activities are simply losing the position they occupied in the national economy. Since 1990, employment in agriculture has steadily decreased in Vietnam from 82% in 1981 (De Koninck 1994, p. 294) to 72% in 1984 and 65% in 2005 (De Koninck 2005, p. 330), then to less than half of the entire workforce in 2010 (48.7%; GSO Internet). Similarly, the share of agricultural, forest and fishery products that were destined for the export market has significantly declined and stabilized at just above 20% of all exports in 2010, even if their value has increased eight-fold in the same period, which includes a four-fold growth between 2000 and 2010 (Table 7.4). This illustrates the magnitude of the transformation of the Vietnamese economy. 4 Field work by Déry and Boisclair, June 2011. Improvements of the road, particularly those observed

in 2014, have rendered the district capital better accessible.

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Table 7.3 Vietnam. Cultivated areas by culture, 1990–2010 (million hectares and percentage) Year Cultivated area Change Cultures 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Total

%

%

Annual

%

Perennial

%

9.04 10.50 12.64 13.29 13.93

27.3 31.7 38.2 40.1 42.1

n.d. +16.2 +20.4 +5.1 +4.8

8.1 9.2 10.5 10.8 11.1

89.6 87.9 83.4 81.4 79.8

0.9 1.3 2.1 2.5 2.8

10.4 12.1 16.6 18.6 20.2

Source General Statistical Office (Vietnam): http://www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx?tabid=469& idmid=3&ItemID=11783 (accessed 12 July 2012) Table 7.4 Vietnam. Exportation of products from agriculture, forestry and fishing, 1995–2010 Year Exported products 1995 2000 2005 2010

Value (millions US dollars)

Part of total exports (in %)

2521.1 4197.5 7452.4 16,815.9

46.2 28.9 22.9 23.3

Source GSO http://www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx?tabid=472&idmid=3&ItemID=11821

7.2.3 Urban Transformations The third transformation, corollary to the agrarian transition or one of the most visible ones, has been the process of urbanization or urban transition. In this case, the transformation of Vietnam has not been quite as fast as with the other two processes. In 2005, only 26% of the country’s population was classified as urban, a meagre increase from the 19% in 1981 (De Koninck 1994, p. 294; GSO). It must be said, however, that behind this ‘feeble’ growth there is a tripling of the urban population in total number: from about 9.5 million in 1981 to 26 million in 2010. One of the main reasons of this ‘late’ urbanization (currently only about one third of the population lives in cities, Table 7.5) is the presence of a very active pioneer frontier that attracted surplus populations from the densely settled parts of the country (e.g. the Red River Delta or the central coastal plains) like a magnet—similar to the pioneer frontier in the western US that acted like a safety valve. In addition, the Vietnamese government created new (rural) economic zones, first in the piedmont in the north in the 1960s, then, after 1976, on the central plateaus and in the Mekong Delta (Déry 2004). This process was followed by an intensive spontaneous colonisation, which contributed to the demographic change that can only be compared to the pioneer fronts in the United States of the 19th century and of contemporary Brazil. The urban population has increased gradually for about 15 years in all provinces. In 2010, only one province, B˘a´c Giang in the Red River Delta, remained with a degree of urbanization below 10% (9.4%), a situation that existed in 18 provinces in 1995 (Figs. 7.2a, b).

(b)

Fig. 7.2 a Vietnam, urban population (rate by province), 1995; b Vietnam, urban population (rate by province), 2010

(a)

132 S. Déry et al.

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Table 7.5 Vietnam. Urban population, 1995–2010 Year Total population Urban population

1981a 1995 2000 2005 2010

Million

Million

Percentage of national total (%)

72.00 77.63 82.39 86.93

9.5 14.94 18.73 22.33 26.22

19.0 20.8 24.1 27.1 30.2

Source GSO; a De Koninck (1994, p. 294)

A number of authors have studied this process and agree that an urban transition has started in Vietnam, but only from the 1990s onwards (Quertamp 2010; McGee 2000; Gubry and Huong 2005; Goldblum 2010). The Vietnamese government nowadays adopts existing urban models in order to address the territorial transformations in the wake of the urban transition. According to Charles Goldblum, the country takes its inspirations from two key models: the first is associated with “a strategic metropolization, programmed and handled at the cost of a strong control of social change, playing with the effects of anticipation in order to create attractive conditions for foreign direct investment in a globalized and highly competitive economy” («une métropolisation stratégique, programmée et maitrisée au prix d’un fort encadrement du changement social, jouant sur les effets d’anticipation pour créer les conditions d’attraction des investissements directs étrangers dans une économie mondialisée et hautement concurrentielle»); while the second illustrates “a continuing metropolization, based on the market whose dynamism, proven after the 1997 crisis, develops at the cost of frantic property speculation, persistent urban poverty, and economic and political instability.” («une métropolisation processuelle, portée par le marché, dont le dynamisme, avéré par-delà la crise de 1997, se développe au prix d’une spéculation foncière effrénée, d’une pauvreté urbaine persistante et d’une instabilité économique et politique»; Goldblum 2010, p. 177). These two urban models can be associated with the city-state of Singapore and Bangkok in Thailand and appear as sources of inspiration in the building of urban Vietnam. According to Fannie Quertamp, the urban transition concerned particularly the very large and the very small cities (Quertamp 2010, p. 96), a phenomenon to be observed in Lâm Ðô`ng province, our case study. It may be useful to clarify the term ‘urban’ in the Vietnamese context. While there are many definitions of the term, which have also changed over time, the Vietnamese government has since the 1990s gone its own way: “(…) a more comprehensive definition was adopted by the Council of Ministers which raised the threshold size of urban places to 4,000 and introduced a new hierarchy of urban places in which cities above 350,000 would be under central government management and the remainder under provincial or district management” (McGee 2000, p. 8). Still looking at urban processes, the demographer Patrick Gubry and his geographer colleague Lê Thi Huong consider that the urban growth of a country rests on three fundamental pillars: the natural growth of the urban population, growth by migration, and ‘reclassifying’ rural zones as urban. To these spatial components they

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add three evolutionary phases of urban structure. In a first phase, urban immigration is high and coordinated with limited natural growth5 ; in a second phase, mortality diminishes, which entails a natural growth surpassing immigration into the town; the third phase is marked by a new immigration wave whereas the natural growth rate declines.6 According to the researchers, these variables can at least partly explain the differentiated urban growth in the various countries. For Gubry and Huong (2005), Vietnam was then, in the mid-2000s, in the second phase of the urban transition. This urbanization process is also in part related to a number of administrative decisions or decisions that concern primarily agriculture. The reunification of Vietnam in 1976 has been a turning point in territorial management policy. At that time, all national policies were completely overhauled and the Vietnamese economy and society totally revised (Oudin 1999, p. 377). Vietnam was primarily an agricultural country; the target of the reforms in 1975–76 was to increase employment in agriculture, as the authorities requested the refugees in the cities to return to their villages. These State measures have enabled Vietnam to maintain a fragile growth of the agricultural economy until 1985 (ibid., p. 382). When migration control was gradually lifted and new land laws came into force in the 1980s, spontaneous migratory movements developed towards the pioneer regions (e.g. Lâm Ðô`ng province in the Central Highlands; Déry 1999, p. 158). Tran and Déry (1999, p. 158) state that, between 1987 and 1990, “the number of spontaneously migrating families has increased almost every year” («le nombre de familles migrant spontanément s’est accru presque à chaque année»; on these migrations in general see Hardy 2003). After 1985, when the controls of population movements and productive activities were relaxed, employment in agriculture stagnated at 73% of total employment. Its relative decline eventually set in from 1993 onwards for the benefit of the industrial and service sectors (Oudin 1999, p. 382). This profound restructuration has been largely supported by the new national policy implemented in 1986, the Ðôi Mó,i, which contributed to transform and amplify territorial dynamics (McGee 2000) that had timidly started in the middle of the 20th century, i.e. the agrarian colonization of marginal land particularly in the Central Highlands (Hardy 2003; Déry 2004). This agricultural colonization, which experienced a certain renewal, was accompanied by a resolution of the Vietnamese authorities to decentralize industrial production, hitherto mainly concentrated in Hô Chi Minh City and Hanoi (McGee 2000). This decision gradually led to the growth of this sector in small urban centres that had previously displayed a rural character. Since the 2000s, property speculation in Vietnam has in turn propelled the growth of secondary centres. The revision of Article 36 of the Land Law in 2003 contributed to the decentralization of part of the Central State’s power on land use by transferring the decision of land use conversion from agricultural to other uses to the provinces and municipalities (Labbé and Musil 2011, p. 9). Adopting the practices of ‘break the barriers’ (pha rao) also contributed to the valorisation of various urban centres. These practices are defined as the violations of existing rules by public institutions, State enterprises and the administration. Rules imposed by the Central Government during the collectivist period explain part of the urban development in Vietnam (ibid., p. 15). ?

5 Natural 6 Natural

growth is weak because of high fertility and high mortality. growth declines because of the decrease of both fertility and mortality.

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7.3 Recent Land Use Changes in Lâm Ðô`ng Province The agrarian and urban transitions in Lâm Ðô`ng province rest on very drastic transformations of land use and resource management, particularly of the forests. This section wants to demonstrate recent transformations, maybe less spectacular but fundamental in order to understand the current processes. It may be useful to sum up the situation of 1992 and the general trends of the changes that have led to this land use structure.7 The most striking feature in 1992 is the astonishing extent of agriculture (Fig. 7.3). It is extraordinary and results from a rapid expansion during the 1980s, remarkable particularly because it had begun very slowly during the French colonization with the creation of plantations—certain groups such as the Srê and the Lach had cultivated rice paddies in the valley bottoms, a technique learnt from the Cham in the 17th and 18th centuries—and with the arrival of migrants from the north in 1954 (Déry 2004, p. 73). After 1975, the creation of new economic zones (NEZ) contributed to the expansion of cultivation towards the neighbouring plateaus (ibid., p. 104) and the most accessible areas, along the routes

Fig. 7.3 Lâm Ðô`ng, land use in 1992. Source Déry (2004, Fig. 2b, based on De Koninck 1997). Legend Darker green: rainforest and monsoon forest; Olive green: pine forest; Yellowish (fluo) green: bamboo; Orange: Barren lands; Yellow: cultivated and urban (rare) lands 7 For

a more complete and detailed picture see De Koninck (1997) and especially Déry (2004).

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to Dak Lak province or towards the coast and Khanh Hoa province (yellow area in the centre-north of Fig. 7.3). The vast agricultural area in the centre of the map includes mainly the tea and coffee plantations on the plateaus and in the districts of Bao Loc and Di Linh, formerly known by their local names Blao and Djiring. The entire cultivated area, which included the urban areas on the map (insignificant surfaces), covered 22.6% of the province’s area, substantially more than in 1958 (3.5%) and 1979 (13.9%; Déry 2004, p. 144).8 This progress of agriculture is mainly the result of the immigration of pioneer Kinh from the northern plains, the centre and Ho Chi Minh City after 1975. It is also, at least in part, the result of the conversion of land formerly used for slash-and-burn agriculture, land defined as barren lands on the maps of 1958 and 1979 (De Koninck 1997; Déry 2004); this process of ‘sedentarization’ was already well advanced in 1992. Finally, this spectacular advance of agriculture was paralleled by an equally spectacular loss of forested area. Rainforest covered a mere 2,327 km2 in 1992 (22.9%), and pine forests only 1,273 sqkm (12.5%)—the remains of forests that had once covered 4,048 km2 (39.9%) and 2939 km2 (28.9%) respectively in 1958 (Déry 2004, p. 144). The 2006 land use map (Fig. 7.4) is not quite comparable to the preceding one because neither were the same type of data nor the same overall categories available. There is no space to discuss this in the present context.9 However, even if the details of the maps are not comparable, some general trends are visible, especially with two categories that were the same: agricultural and barren lands. Thus, the second map, coupled with observations made over the whole research period, allows us to observe a number of processes that have taken place between 1992 and 2006. First, the core agricultural areas of the province have been consolidated as non-farming areas were incorporated, and formerly forested areas (partly on steep slopes) have been converted to agriculture. As a result, agricultural land covers now 31.6% of the surface of the province. Second, barren or fallow land shrank to a mere 3.3% of the total land surface, a consequence probably of the gradual but irreversible disappearance of swidden agriculture and the resulting sedentarization of minority groups (the Cil in La.c Du,o,ng, the Koho in Lâm Hà and Ðamrong, the Cau Ma in Cát Tiên and B ao Lâm) who had practiced this type of agriculture that was adapted to the environment (see, among others, Boulbet 1967, 1975, 2002). Third, urban areas have grown and become consolidated, even if not always in a spectacular manner. Ðà La.t, for example, has expanded into its periphery, the zones around Ðinh V˘an, Liên Ngh˜ıa (Ðà La.t airport) and Tha.nh M˜y (Ðo,n Du,o,ng district) have almost merged, and B ao Lô.c has experience a rapid expansion. It is true that as urban areas they do not show up on the map, but in the field, the built-up areas now stretch all along the road from B ao Lô.c to Di Linh and to Liên Ngh˜ıa, even if invisible on Fig. 7.4. The map, however, does not allow us to get an exact idea about the changes in forests during the past two decades. Our focus was on other phenomena, hence we decided not to distinguish too many categories. A comparison with 1992 would have been difficult anyway because in the meantime the criteria for classification have changed and are rather based on use and not on vegetation type (pine trees, bamboo ?

?

?

8 All 9 See

land use data have first been published in De Koninck (1997, pp. 68–70). Boisclair (2014) for details.

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Fig. 7.4 Lâm Ðô`ng, Land Use 2006. Source Boisclair (2014). Legend translation Land use: Hydrographie  hydrography; urbain  urban; terres cultivées  cultivated land; terres en friche  barren/fallow land; terres consacrées à la foresterie  land used for forestry purposes; Transport infrastructures: main road; road in construction; airport; Administrative limits: provincial limit; district limit. Elaborated by Louis Boisclair as part of the project IRMA (Intégration des régions montagneuses en Asie du Sud-Est)

etc.), an indicator that forest planning is not always about ecological preoccupation, but rather about socioeconomic and political will; something McElwee called “environmental rule” (McElwee 2016). However, one can observe a general growth in forest area even if they have receded around cultivated surfaces, particularly inside the mountains. The reason may be that in barren or fallow land areas the vegetation has developed in an unrestrained way and turned into forests. 63.2% of the province’s surface was wooded in 2006, a figure that includes all types of vegetation and degraded land combined. The 2006 map tells us another interesting fact: a substantial increase of water areas has occurred, up to about 2% of the total surface. This is mainly due to the construction of dams during the period under investigation. We know that since 2006 more such structures have been added, particularly on the Ðô`ng Nai10 River that marks the northern border of the province in its western part. There are numerous results of this land use transformation that can be observed on the ground. First of all, the land has been much more densely occupied and to a much larger extent, as concerns built-up areas, agricultural lands or infrastructures (roads, dams, electric grids etc.). Secondly, if one draws a second map on top of this 10 Also

spelled Ða Ðâng in Vietnamese publication, and sometimes Ða Ðeung.

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land use map, where certain functions (People’s committees in the communities, that is Uy ban nhân dân or UBND, schools, dispensaries etc.) and the zones delimited for other uses run by different government agencies (protected areas, tourist resorts, etc.), this second map would show that the territory has been almost entirely claimed and covered by the State. For better or worse, the “rebellious fringes” («les confins insoumis» of Jean Boulbet) have been brought under control and theoretically,11 no territory can escape the State’s dominance or sharp look. Thirdly, this map goes well together with the transformations we have identified in the previous section, i.e. the agrarian and urban transitions, integrating at the same time the local ethnic groups that have become ethnic minorities after the creation of the new country in the 1950s. ?

7.4 How to Integrate the Ethnic Minorities? Between Adaptation and Marginalization 7.4.1 Ðà La.t and Surroundings Although the agricultural colonization of the plateaus and mountains of the Tru,o`,ng So,n mountains (the Annamite Range) started in the 19th century under French colonial rule and received a (light) boost after 1954 (Déry 2001), the unification of the country in 1976 appears as the decisive starting point for Lâm Ðô`ng province. It began with an all over the place agricultural expansion, followed almost immediately by an expansion of urban areas. The national development programmes that had been prepared at the time tried to realize the four major objectives formulated by the new socialist government: (1) de-urbanizing the large urban centres in the south for the benefit of rural areas and small towns; (2) attempting to slow down urban growth by imposing construction licenses and other measures; (3) trying to develop small towns; (4) engaging in migration policy that favoured the New Economic Zones, found in several locations in Lâm Ðô`ng province (McGee 2000, p. 4).12 In Lâm Ðô`ng, the policy of ‘developing small towns’ and ‘New Economic Zones’ worked jointly together and contributed to the densification of settlements, road system and all kinds of relations that used the same road network (trade, migrations, various movements etc.). By way of example, one of the first services offered in the Hà Nô.i New Economic Zone (NEZ), which developed after 1976 with migrants originating from the north and which eventually became the district of Lâm Hà, was a bus line between the municipalities of the region and … the capital Hà Nô.i, some 1500 km further north, to create a link between them and their friends and families that had stayed behind.13 11 One

could eventually discuss the “everyday forms of resistance” (Scott 1985), whether of the ethnic minorities or of the Kinh themselves, but this would take us into a different direction. 12 On the New Economic Zones see Déry (2001, 2004) and his sources quoted. 13 Fieldwork in 1996 and 1997 (Déry), see also Déry (2001, pp. 154–159, 2004).

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As for Ðà La.t, the town played a key role during the French colonial period. As a focal point of French Indochina, the town maintained a central role (administration, army, education, and religion) in Vietnam since its foundation (Crossette 1998). “By 1940, Ðà La.t was a provincial centre of education and political administration, an important religious retreat and nexus of Christian missionary activities, a primary hub of transportation and communications, and a strategic market town (…)” (Reed 1995, p. 51). The institutional functions of Ðà La.t go back to the town’s creation in 1899, when the French established an altitude station (Truong and Vuong 1993; Déry and Tremblay 2008); but the socio-economic transformations of the population in the past few decades are the result of the recent process of urban transition of the 1990s. The changes have intensified since the mid-1980s: a drainage system and sidewalks have been constructed, the road infrastructure has been repaired, the number of businesses has increased, and so have tourist activities, the telecommunication service has improved, and a new road (No. 729, changed recently to “National 27”) has been finished in 2009, built across the mountains to reduce travelling time between the coastal resort of Nha Trang and the ‘altitude station’. As a result, the town is now literally flooded with tourists, mainly Vietnamese,14 who enjoy coming here with their own cars from around the country, something almost unknown around 2005.15 This poses a considerable stress on the environment that can be seen in various key tourist locations where high levels of pollution have been registered in 2012 (www.Asie-info.fr, 19 August 2012). Following these transformations, the people in Ðà La.t and surrounding villages had to change their professional and subsistence activities after 1975 to find their place in the new economic system. Their livelihoods and standards of living began to diversify in Ðà La.t and surroundings, given that a major part of agricultural production was now destined for the export market and the economy became increasingly dependent on tourism. The social gaps widened as some people adjusted better than others (see Ducourtieux et al. 2018 about the most recent development). A new urban environment emerged in Ðà La.t, and energy consumption, for industry and transportation, is rising accordingly. Private investments arrive nowadays in Vietnam’s urban centres (Oudin 1999), and along with them come economic, sometimes also ideological influences, modifying in turn the Ðà La.t society and the surrounding population. As local infrastructure has been developed to satisfy the new needs (hospitals, schools, etc.), farmers begin to ask questions about the value of the land destined for urban expansion. In the peripheries of Hà Nô.i, the protest movements in the wake of the displacement of farmers for the benefit of urban development (see Quertamp 2010) resonates with the social problems the minority populations in Lâm Ðô`ng province are confronted with.

14 In 2009, Lâm Ðô ` ng province received 1.6 million tourists, but only a bit more than 260,000 came ?

? 07/09/10, p. 14). from abroad (Tuôi Tre, from being scientific, this statement results from the observation of a larger number of cars within the city, and from the diversity of their origins as visible from their number plates.

15 Far

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In short, the city of Ðà La.t is growing, which helps to integrate the populations at its peripheries and shed its demographic and economic surplus. In 2004, the three neighbouring communes (xã in Vietnamese) to the north and located on this new road, Ða. Sar, Ða Nhim and Ða. Chaïs, had 3459, 2946 and 1105 inhabitants respectively (Table 7.6; Déry and Tremblay 2008). The proportion of Kinh (Viê.t) inhabitants diminished almost proportionally to their distance from Ðà La.t.16 Given the urban transformations in present-day Vietnam and the fact that the Kinh are the majority in cities where they occupy the urban jobs, we can just ask ourselves to what extent the marginal populations manage to adapt their traditional rural ways of live. It is clear that the integration of marginal populations into the national system is partly the result of the urbanization process that ‘re-started’ from the 1990s in Vietnam. The urban transition through a large integration into national and international networks, contributes to emphasize the inequality with the different people in Lâm Ðô`ng province. It marginalizes, to a varying degree, the ethnic minorities of Ðà La.t and even more those of the villages in its periphery, like in the district of La.c Du,o,ng. For the geographer Walter Christaller (1893–1969), a central place exists thanks to its hinterland that was defined as lacking certain facilities, such as goods, services, specialized manpower, population,17 etc.). With surpluses provided by the central place, the hinterland can compensate its deficit. Central place and hinterland made up a specific spatial entity (Christaller 1966, p. 22). Keeping this principle in mind, we can today define Ðà La.t as a ‘central place of a lower and of the lowest order’ offering goods and services influencing the places in its surroundings, complementary to a Table 7.6 La.c Du,o,ng district, communes adjacent to Bi Ðoup-Núi Bà National Park: Total and agricultural surfaces, population density, 2004 Commune Territory Population (xã) Total (ha)

,

Agricultural (ha et %)

Nonagricultural (ha)

Population (inhabitants)

Density (inh./km2 )

Ðung K’Nó

19,390

692 (3.6%)

18,698

1451

7.5

2-Ða Nhim

23,993

613 (2.6%)

23,380

2946

12.3

3-Ða. Chaïs X¯a Lát

34,117

726 (2.1%)

33,391

1105

3.2

20,054

1550 (7.7%)

18,209

3844

19.1

1-Ða. Sar Total

24,820

1628 (6.6%)

23,192

3459

13.9

122,374

5209 (4.3%)

116,870

12,805

10.5

,,

Source Vuon QuÔ´c Gia Bidoup-Núi Bà (2006), Déry and Tremblay (2008)

16 Field

work by Déry in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 et 2012.

17 The population alone cannot be considered a determining factor for the importance or the centrality

of a place (Christaller 1966, p. 17).

7 Agrarian and Urban Transitions in Lâm Ðô`ng Province, Vietnam … Table 7.7 Characteristics of Ðà La.t peripheral communes, 2004 Ða. Sar Ða Nhim

141

Approximate distance from Ðà La.t (in km) Agricultural land (% of total area)

10

20

Ða. Chaïs 40

6.6

2.6

2.1

Total population

3459

2946

1105

Population density (persons/km2 )

13.9

12.3

3.2

varying degree according to their respective economic distance (ibid.).18 From our observations in the field, since 2005, we contend that the integration of Phu,o,ng 12 (the last precinct of Ðà La.t before the next village), Ða. Sar, Ða Nhim and Ða. Chaïs (the three communes of La.c Du,o,ng) during the urban transformation noted in Ðà La.t since 1975 can at least in part be explained with the theory of economic distance. For the populations, the need to adapt to the new urban system, more precisely the one of Ðà La.t, seems to be directly related to its proximity.19 For the three municipalities, the gradient according to Christaller partly works as shown in Table 7.7.

7.4.2 Resource Management and Land Ownership Among the many transformations, several have been initiated by the government that developed the general lines in Hà Nô.i, but where the provinces could define more specific programmes. In 2007, for example, the journalist Ho Lan, working for Lâm Ðô`ng, the provincial newspaper of the Communist Party, reported on details of a provincial programme that had been put in place in 1998 and was promoting the scientific and technological development in the communes inhabited by ethnic minorities. The communities addressed were scattered around the province and included, among others, Ða. Chaïs in La.c Du,o,ng district, one of our study sites. However, it was not quite clear which technical advances were to be promoted or have been applied (Áp du.ng tiê´n bô. k˜y thuâ.t). Also, “these models of application of scientific techniques were destined to create conditions for production organization that could subsequently replace the old farming habits in order to construct a new rural face in the regions of ethnic minorities” («… các mô hình u´,ng du.ng KHKT - ` u kiên tô chu´,c lai san xuâ´t, thay thê´ dâ`n tâp quán canh tác c˜u, xây du,ng nh`˘am ta.o diê . . . . ?

18 The

?

economic distance is determined by the cost of freight, insurance, storage; the time and the weight loss or the transit space; as concerns passenger transport, the cost of transports, the time required, and the (non)comfort of the journey (Christaller 1966, p. 22). 19 Of course, a more detailed analysis would be needed to support this hypothesis and see how strong is the relationship.

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- ` ng bào dân tôc thiêu sô´.»; Hô` 2007). This communist bô. m˘a.t nông thôn mó,i o?,vùng dô . jargon clearly demonstrates the lack of understanding for the knowledge of the local ethnic minorities about their environment and ‘their’ resources, and for their forest practices. It also prefigured the national ‘New rural areas’ program (nông thôn mó,i) that was launched in 2010. Besides, in the wake of this, local populations were forced to relocate along a road that was eventually surfaced (terminated in 2009), when Bi Ðoup-Nui Ba National Park was established. The sedentarized Koho Cil of La.c Du,o,ng were offered some aid as compensation, among others help to start coffee planting, rice for six months, and ‘new’ wooden houses. Yet, many members of the Cil did not have (at the time of the fieldwork—and still now in 2017) the famous red certificate (sô d-o, or giâ´y so?, - ´ t by its official Vietnamese name) that offers them a quasi-private property h˜u,u dâ right on their land, according to the 1993 Land Law. A further compensation was for several people the’ right to work’ for forest protection. They are remunerated for this through the ‘forest allocation’ programme. The amounts vary but, according to families interviewed, may reach a few hundred US dollars per year (see Sikor 2001; Sikor and Thanh 2007 for details and criticism of this programme). The work varies as well. In general, the people have to make rounds in the forests to check if someone is cutting wood. The villages sometimes organize the work collectively and constitute teams. ?

?

?

7.4.3 The Disappearance of Swidden Agriculture: A Gradient Between Coffee Cultivation and High Value-Added Cultures (Flowers) There is a wide variety of results of these general transformations (agrarian and urban), be it the two major ones, those initiated by the Government on the local scales (NEZ, sedentarization, protected areas, infrastructures), or those based on individual choices (particularly by the Kinh, such as migrations in the context of agricultural colonization), but we can discuss them together according to their spatial consequences, particularly in our specific case. Firstly, swidden agriculture had almost completely disappeared from the land use map of Lâm Ðô`ng province by 2010. Eventual remaining areas lie in places remote from the villages and difficult to access, often only by walk, not even motorbike. This process resulted from external pressure, mainly by the State and its sedentarization policy. To these must be added a transformation of life in general that occurred among these formerly shifting cultivators. ‘Modern’ life has caught up with them: Internet cafés, the road to Ðà La.t, or simply the reorganization of their villages along the new road, and, by the way, new churches. Other jobs require more time, and less time remains in the end to spend on the way to the mountains between fields and home. Also, one can notice a deterioration in the economic situation of several families since 2010, due in part to growing debts (cf, Ducourtieux et al. 2018), which eventually

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induced some of them to return to the forest and practice swidden agriculture they had ‘abandoned’ before.20 Secondly, the sedentarization of the Cil in the three villages mentioned has brought about changes in the varieties of crops. In this case, the focus shifted from maize to coffee plantations. This transformation was in part promoted or enforced by the State during the sedentarization programme of the 1990s, particularly programme 327, which was not very successful in the beginning. However, the local population began to adopt it upon the arrival of the Kinh from 2000 onwards and started to imitate them. The changes vary from one family to the other, from one village to the next, but in general there was always a period of transition because new coffee plants (here mostly Robusta) require three years before they carry fruits.21 From 2000 to 2015, the adoption of coffee as a new culture followed the road 729 from Phu,o,ng 12 (in Ðà La.t) and then from Ða. Sar via Ða Nhim to Ða. Chaïs in La.c Du,o,ng. Thirdly, the Kinh arrived gradually in this region, also according to the distance from Ðà La.t: first settling in Phu,o,ng 12, where there are no ethnic minorities, and then in Ða. Sar, Ða Nhim, and eventually Ða. Chaïs. They opened small businesses. Each time Déry visited this area (2007–2017), all shops irrespective of their orientation, belonged to Kinh people. In Da Chaïs, the first arrived around the year 2000, whereas others had moved to Da Sar and Da Nhim a bit before. In 2017, we found that their number in proportion to the population varied according to distance from Ðà La.t. Fourthly, external (mainly ‘urban’) investments have diversified gradually. Among the other activities, the process has not followed Christaller’s model: ecotourism developed in Bi Ðoup—Nuí Bà national park, a salmon farm (now closed) opened in Ða. Chaïs, etc. Another investment, more in line with Christaller this time, all along the road from Ðà La.t is the construction of greenhouses for the production of high quality vegetables or, mostly, flowers (for export or simply to make Ðà La.t more beautiful for tourists). While urban farming has progressively disappeared from Ðà La.t inner areas between 2000 and 2017, it has been replaced either by urban functions (infrastructures, buildings, etc.) or by greenhouses (at the periphery of the centre), which require a considerable financial engagement in the order of 300,000 e/ha according to Ducourtieux et al. (2018). The infilling and urban densification of Ðà La.t pushes farming and greenhouses to the immediate periphery, for example in Phu,o,ng 12, where in the past few years no green space could be seen between the densely built greenhouses. They have gradually spilled over towards Ða. Sar where they replaced the coffee plantations, and eventually to Ða Nhim. There were no greenhouses in Ða. Chaïs during our fieldwork in 2011 and 2012, but they started to appear from 2014 onwards. Fifthly, the transformations described above have also changed socioeconomic practices. A friend who had arrived in the region in the beginning of the 2000s remembers to have walked to Ða. Sar, the first village on road 729 (very recently—2017?—renamed 27c) that was at that time without road connection. For 20 Interviews

by Déry in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. varieties of better quality, like Arabica, can take five years or more before they become productive. 21 Other

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the inhabitants of the villages, particularly those close to the town like Ða. Sar, it has become possible to spend their free time in Ðà La.t. For those living further afield, they can easily travel to the city, although this practice is still rare. Almost all families have purchased motorcycles over the past 10–15 years, important means of transport that are mainly used to take the commodities necessary in farming (fertilizer, pesticides) to the fields and the products home.22

7.5 Conclusion The aim of this chapter was to apply a multiscalar analysis in order to understand the main transformations of the ways of life and of the entire socioeconomic geography of the ethnic minorities in the district of La.c Du,o,ng in Lâm Ðô`ng province. Its starting points were the transitions identified from long-term and broader perspectives: first, an agrarian transition bears testimony to changes of the entire economy, most particularly within the agricultural sector; although it is still expanding considerably, it is no longer its motor. This transition is intimately linked to the second process, the urban transition, which resulted in the growth of the influence of urban activities, functions and populations in the Vietnamese society, and of the interconnectedness between urban areas and populations. For the Koho Cil, living in the villages of Ða. Sar, Ða Nhim and Ða. Chaïs in the district of La.c Du,o,ng in Lâm Ðô`ng province, changes have been dramatic: since 2009, a surfaced road to the coastal plain and the city of Nha Trang crosses their territories. Forced sedentarization and the construction of infrastructures contributed to reorganize their villages, not only spatially but also functionally through the development of plantation agriculture (mainly coffee). The arrival of the Kinh, who purchase land, some becoming traders, shifted socioeconomic relations, leading to new dependencies and also debts. Summing up, Ðà La.t has become closer for these people thanks to the road, but this mainly benefits people from outside the region, who have seen in this opportunity a new space to territorialize. It is much less a window to the world for the villagers of Ða. Sar, Ða Nhim and Ða. Chaïs.

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Chapter 8

The Influence of Globalization to Overcome Marginality in the Uco Valley of Mendoza, Argentina Margarita Schmidt and Claudio Urra Coletti

8.1 Introduction Within a harsh environmental context, conditioned by the presence of one of the highest sectors of the Andes Range in the West and by extreme aridity on the plain areas, the agricultural activities in Argentina’s centre-west province of Mendoza are almost exclusively carried out on the fluvial oases. These are made up of three very similar oases but with some distinctive features each. Several crops co-exist in them, but vineyards occupy the largest area. Together with agro-industries and other related activities, wine-growing constitutes the element to which Mendoza province is directly associated both at national and at international level. It can be said that in Argentina Mendoza is synonymous with wine-growing and, conversely, winegrowing is synonymous with Mendoza. However, the historical evolution of this activity, which was started early in time but whose significant development began at the end of the 19th century, has gone through several stages marked by welldifferentiated aspects. Such heterogeneity is manifested not only in its productive, technical, organizational and qualitative characteristics but also in its orientation towards diverse markets and in its spatial and landscaping aspects. Despite its changes throughout history, this wine-growing tradition, deeply rooted in the landscape and in rural life, constitutes a real cultural heritage that provides the foundations for the lasting presence and importance of the activity in the last decades. These decades have been characterized by a deep structural transformation of Argentina’s wine-growing activity, with Mendoza as its leading centre and whose maximum expression, for different reasons, is found in the Uco Valley. M. Schmidt (B) · C. Urra Coletti Instituto de Geografía, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] C. Urra Coletti e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_8

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8.2 Three Oases and a Succession of Crises and Transformations. The Uco Valley in the Context of Mendoza’s Oases The history of Mendoza’s wine-growing and wine-making is signalled by a sequence of crises that gave rise to important transformations. Several stages can be spatially identified. A number of authors reconstruct this evolution by defining, characterizing and explaining the succession of phases. Briefly, an initial stage can be identified, which extends until the end of the 19th century, with a relatively small production of wine, almost handcrafted in style, and which can be denominated as proto-industrial stage. From 1885 (with the expansion of the railway to Mendoza) until 1930 approximately, a first instance of the activity’s reconversion takes place, giving rise to a stage of industrialization. At this time, local capitals coming from other activities as well as government and foreign funds converge into the sustainment of the activity. Late 19th and early 20th century immigration, essentially from Europe, constitutes a dynamic boost for the primary and secondary sector activities. Immigrants are not only incorporated simply as work-force but also, after a process of capital growth, they invest in vineyards and winery properties. These European wine-growers migrated due to a severe crises in their original vineyards and brought with them their important knowhow in the matter. In the beginning of the 20th century it was Italian, Spanish, and in a lesser degree French migrants who became owners of the largest number of wineries in Mendoza. In 1910, 45% of winery owners were of Italian origin, although it is those sectors of the local elite who initially boosted modernization and soon become the owners of the largest wineries (Neiman 2003; Martín 1992; Bragoni 1993). This change in the configuration of the local society gave rise to a “novel bourgeoisie” (Richard-Jorba and Pérez Romagnoli 1994). Improvements in irrigation and cultivation systems resulted in an increase in yields and in the consequent exponential growth of the wine-growing activity. This growth, however, pre-announced a restriction in production imposed by limitations in the internal market, and by the end of the 1930s, political actions were adopted to regulate the activity (Neiman 2003). This period of modernization was followed by another of industrial expansion and crisis, bringing about the traditional wine-growing landscapes. The trend towards massive production aimed at the national market continued to expand and constituted a successful model interrupted by several crises due to overproduction that were felt with the highest intensity in the 1970s and 1980s. They mark the beginning of a new model of social organization and of production policies accompanied by the abandonment of the productivist model (Neiman 2003). Thus began a second stage in wine-growing modernization that resulted in a revival of the activity since 1990 to the present, with the development of a globalized capitalist model strongly oriented towards quality, which in consequence demands and creates productive, social and labour transformations. Multiple changes occurred that are reflected in the reconversion and the new wine-growing landscapes. A real transformation was experienced with the access to the global market, and changes in capital movement became associated to changes in the technical, economic and social orga-

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nization of the sector (Alturria et al. 2005). In this study, the focus is on this last period which manifests itself in a dominant way in the Uco Valley (Fig. 8.1). Even though this evolution, as broadly described, is common to the whole area of Mendoza province, the three oases can be differentiated by certain particular features.

Fig. 8.1 The Uco Valley (Mendoza, Argentina). Source Uvieta 2017

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The North Oasis, formed by the effect of the Mendoza and Tunuyán rivers, is the oldest, the most densely populated and the most extensive. It has a cultivated area of 159,437 ha according to the latest National Agricultural Census of 2008. The South Oasis follows in area, with 64,530 cultivated hectares, irrigated by the Diamante and Atuel rivers. Finally, the Central Oasis, better known as the Uco Valley, is fed by the waters of the Tunuyán and Tupungato rivers and is the smallest in area: 46,969 cultivated hectares. It is this Central Oasis, however, that in the last decades has shown the greatest dynamics in multiple aspects. It can be clearly seen in the expansion of its cultivated area. Based on the three latest Agricultural Censuses there is evidence that in the whole area of Mendoza province—that is, the three oases taken as a whole- the area of agricultural exploitation has grown by 22% between 1988 and 2002, and by 23% between 2002 and 2008. The cultivated area shows, for the Uco Valley, a dramatic boom in the same period. The three districts forming part of Uco—Tunuyán, Tupungato and San Carlos—show a growth of 170% between 1988 and 2002, whereas during the following six years, from 2002 to 2008, the growth was 41%. These relative figures help visualize a vast and profound spatial transformation that is still taking place at present. In turn, the Central Oasis has always had its particular features in contrast to the other two oases in terms of production on cultivated land. The 1988 Census recorded approximately 45% of its area cultivated with fruit products, 31% with vegetables and only the remaining 24% with vines. These figures show the marginality of the Uco Valley in relation to the predominant activity in the province, since in the three oases together, vineyards occupied 62% of the surface. However, this aspect was soon to change for the Uco Valley. In 2007/08 vineyards already occupied 40% of the area, reaching 47% in 2014/15. The province still kept a stable dominance of vineyards, with 64% of its area both in 2007/08 and in 2014/15. Therefore, a clearly different situation can be observed in the transformation dynamics of the Uco Valley. This change has been determined by the significant advance of vineyard plantation, which combined with the strong increase in the total area of agricultural activities gives ground for deeper analysis.

8.3 The View “From the Outside”: The Area Expansion of the Oasis as a Reflection of the Agricultural Dynamism of Uco Valley The significant transformations in the agricultural activity in the Uco Valley have had a marked spatial effect, as seen in the progressive expansion of the planted area in the last 25 years. The total cultivated area in the districts on the Valley added up to 48,985 ha recorded in the National Agricultural Census of 2002, and 49,021 ha in 2008. It is relevant to add to these statistics the evolution of the vineyard area, since it is the sector that most expanded in the region over the periods studied and which

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is the special focus of this study. The vineyard area has progressed from 8,112 ha in 1990, to 13,024 in 2000, to 22,442 in 2010 through to 26,256 in 2012. This growing movement has been maintained even after those years, since in 2016 the figure was 27,871 ha. The analysis of a series of satellite images shows the spatial effect of the region’s growth. The maps in Fig. 8.2 show the areas that were progressively incorporated during four six-year periods between 1988 and 2012. It can be clearly seen that at each stage the area for the Central Oasis has been expanded; however, the rate of growth has been quite different. The second moment considered—from 1994 to 2000—recorded the greatest area expansion whereas the next stage—from 2000 to 2012—shows the lowest area growth. Nevertheless, during the last stage considered—that of 2006 to 2012—the incorporation of new lands was also considerable. In this way, some alternation of more or less dynamic stages in the growth rates is perceived. In addition, the monitoring of the expansion process also allows the perception of different spatial trends and behaviours. Even though the advance shows, in general, progressive land occupation with a certain level of spatial continuity, some preferential lines of movement can also be identified. During the first period under study—1988 to 1994—the areal extension of vineyards followed a somewhat irregular pattern, with greater area incorporation in the southern half of the oasis, and in most of the cases with an internal location, tending to occupy interstices not yet cultivated. This larger concentration along a central strip clearly marks a difference from the patterns adopted in the three subsequent stages. Starting in 1994, more definite spatial patterns can be distinguished. The clear dominant line of growth of the oasis is towards the west. In the second period (1994–2000), that of the greatest area expansion with the incorporation of some really large extensions of land, a fairly regular distribution along the westernmost sector of the oasis can be noticed. During the third stage—2000–2006—very few new incorporations are recorded, mainly in the southwest. Lastly, the 2006–2012 period once again adopts a pattern similar to that of the second stage. It is again the western stretch of land in the oasis that concentrates the highest amount and area of new incorporations. However, these are of lesser extension than those for 1994–2000. The map in Fig. 8.3 shows the spatial relationship among the lands incorporated during the different stages. Such space-time distribution is in no way random. On the contrary, there is a clear tendency towards a spatial ‘order’ or ‘sequence’ of growth, with a progressive but continuous advance towards the west. The contiguous and articulate shape shows a considerable degree of spatial continuity in the cultivated area. As a whole, the western strip of the oasis constitutes the priority given to the territorial expansion, in a kind of ‘western rush’ similar to the pioneer settlement movements but with different connotations. The relationship between the spatio-temporal expansion of the cultivated area and altitude shows that the sectors incorporated in the first period, between 1988 and 1994, are predominantly situated in the lowest altitude area of the oasis (between 900 and 1,050 m) with only some minor areas located in the intermediate altitude zone (between 1,050 and 1,225 m). During the second stage (1994–2000) the relationship is reversed, that is, the largest portion is situated in the intermediate altitude zone, as

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Fig. 8.2 Expansion of the Central Oasis 1988–2012. Source Uvieta (2017)

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Fig. 8.3 Progressive expansion of the cultivated area in the Uco Valley 1988–2012. Source Uvieta (2017)

happens with the reduced expansion of the third phase (from 2000 to 2006). Finally, the tendency continues during the last stage (2006–2012), since the new cultivated areas appear almost exclusively in the intermediate altitude zone and in a lesser degree in small areas at the highest altitude (1,225–1,600 m). Therefore, this progressive advance of the cultivated area towards the west also constitutes a gradual occupation of lands on higher altitudes with probably steeper slopes. Such an advance is not fortuitous, but rather the result of a conjunction of

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local and external factors that have made this spatial-temporal development possible in the Central Oasis.

8.4 The View ‘From the Inside’: Causes and Characteristics of the Transformations in Wine-Growing in the Uco Valley This section of our study will deal with the transformations in wine-growing and its accompanying activities, its characteristics, causes and explanations from the point of view of the various protagonists involved in the activity. In order to achieve a full understanding of the situation, the views of smaller traditional growers will be accompanied by those of the managers of new wineries and some members of the Chamber that brings together most of Argentina’s wineries.1 This latter institution considers that transformations in wine-growing over the last 25 years have been markedly manifested and differentiated in the Uco Valley. The traditional activity was characterized by ‘mono-production’ of a single type of wine: regular table wine for a single national market, that is, a basic and generic product for low-quality demand consumers. In the 1990s several favourable economic factors occurred: economic stability, low tariffs, exportation financing and long-term credit. All of this made changes possible for a new stage of development. Besides, an additional positive factor was the decision made by the wine-growing sector to modernize itself, in opposition to other activities which resorted to the import of products thus deteriorating the national industry. The wineries, on the other hand, imported technology both for vineyards and for the industrial process. Vine stocks were imported, drip irrigation was introduced, hail protection meshes were installed, the espalier layout was adopted in order to use mechanical harvesting as well as the concept of minimum tilling through the use of herbicides. The irrigation system deserves special mention. The traditional way was flood irrigation or furrow irrigation by using surface water or well water that frequently required to remove the fertile top soil layer to level out the land. In the Uco Valley only low and flat land could be cultivated since surfaces with steeper slopes had only a thin soil layer. On the other hand, drip irrigation made it possible to incorporate the lands on the western strip, with higher altitude and steeper slopes. This system of irrigation significantly improves the efficiency in conduction and application since it needs a much lower water flow. At present, there is a private-public project, by the Irrigation Department, for the pressurized tunnel-channelling of the Villegas Creek, so that the water may reach each property already pressurized, thus reducing energy consumption and achieving higher efficiency. 1 Bodegas

de Argentina has more than 250 associated wineries from all over the country whose production represents over 70% of the internal market and 90% of wine exports bottled in Argentina.

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The plantations in the lower part of Uco Valley very often suffer from the incidence of frost as a result of the descent of cold air. They do not affect slopes at higher altitudes, which have been recently planted with vines that are more sensitive to frost attacks. Another highly favourable climatic aspect is the important temperature amplitude, since it improves the flavour and the aroma, thus providing more concentration and yielding fruit and grapes of good quality. As for the soil condition, the thicker layer of richer soil in the lower and flatter sectors enabled the cultivation of fruit varieties with a higher demand for nutrients. On the other hand, the rocky soils in the higher sectors, with a thinner suitable layer are sufficient to satisfy the physiological needs of the vines, and fertigation incorporates the necessary fertilizer through the drip irrigation system. Being poor soil areas, the grapes reach their maximum expression out of the soil potential. In addition, the traditional yield of 300–400 q/ha2 is no longer sought for but the goal now is for levels between 70 and 100 q/ha of good quality grapes, which are the production levels reached in these areas. The incorporation of uncultivated or ‘virgin’ lands, free from plagues, is an additional advantage. Only varieties of high oenological quality were almost exclusively implanted thus creating a productive profile different from that of the rest of the province. Therefore, in the Uco Valley there was not just a reconversion as in most parts of the North and South Oases but rather a creation of vineyards on new lands with no previous agricultural practices. Transformations in the wineries are essentially associated not only to the incorporation of technology but also to a modernization and updating of knowledge and managing of the production stages. Thus, the modular winery comes into being, with tanks being added gradually, with leading-edge machinery and modern pneumatic presses. Technology of scale is brought in and thus the small, family-owned boutique winery is born. Smaller lines of fractioning are used, together with mobile fractioning trailers that are moved from one winery to another. All of this gave rise to the large number of small establishments that abound in the area. Although some traditional wineries have remained in the lower sectors of the oasis, they have adapted to presentday conditions, becoming modernized and forming part of oenotourism activities. Others have tried to make a difference, for example, by resorting to a totally organic production aimed at foreign markets. The economic stability of the 1990s, at the beginning of the transformation cycle, made it possible for companies to send professional agronomists and wine-makers abroad so that they were able to make contact with other wine-growing areas in the world and to learn how to apply the newest technology in vineyards and wineries. Professional training in Mendoza was not possible due to the rapid evolution of changes; therefore, specialists travelled to other countries in the off-season to bring back new ideas. The primary destination was France, the traditional origin of the activity, but many chose the U.S.A. and Australia; this latter country served as inspiration due to the similarity of its latitude to that of Argentina. However, everything was new to the specialists, such as the infrastructure of vineyards and wineries and the management systems as well as work styles. Production controls and the increasing importance 21

quintal equals 100 kg.

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of commercial management were also a novelty. Thus, these innovations were soon adopted into the local wine-growing ‘culture’ and served to adapt and supplement the pre-existent reality. In the case of the Uco Valley, a major part of the capital needed for this process of modernization came from foreign investors, mostly from France, the Netherlands, USA, Spain, Germany, Italy and Chile, who established their enterprises in the area. They adopted different modalities, such as the purchase of ‘virgin’ land to plant vines and build wineries by entrepreneurs who had no previous business records in the country. Also, some others bought vineyards already in production and modernized and enlarged their properties, and there were investors who bought old wineries and refurbished them to modern standards. Some other projects contemplated the implantation of new vineyards by national and foreign companies who already owned wineries in some other parts of the country. Several joint ventures came into being between old and new producers as well as strategic alliances, distribution agreements, raising of investment funds, partnerships with trans-national companies already operating locally and the strengthening of local business groups (Schilan 2005). In many cases, the entrepreneurs came from the wine-growing world, but in others the initiatives were taken simply as investment opportunities. However, the region became influenced by the action and intervention of visionary people who brought a new particular character to the Uco Valley and contributed greatly to make it come to the foreground of the industry. All the innovations in the industrial process together with the availability of high-quality vineyard varieties have made the wines produced in the region to be highly valued in quality, well priced and destined mostly for export. Another clearly innovative feature identifying this stage is the integration of oenotourism. The conception of the new enterprises contemplated the incorporation of the tourist activity and so the architectural designs play an essential and attractive role. The new wineries in the Uco Valley, from the beginning, were designed and built with tourism in mind. The intention was to make wine known as an attraction for tourist visitors. ‘Know it, taste it and buy it’ is the motto aimed at building up a whole experience around wine. In order to attract the curious consumer some companies include routine activities for the visitors, such as harvesting grapes, pruning and cooking seminars, whereas others offer restaurants and art galleries. This innovative aspect is practiced both in big and small wineries, and older establishments were forced to adapt themselves to the new tendencies since tourism has been definitely incorporated as a strategic tool for the positioning of a particular brand (Bodegas de Argentina 2013). Additionally, producers and distributors have to fit into the changing characteristics of consumer demands worldwide. The influence of globalization in this whole process is essential and markedly evident. The transformation was made possible thanks to a conjunction of conditions at national level that favoured the incorporation of capital and technology and that were particularly attractive for such capitals and facilitated the integration of the new actors into Mendoza’s wine-growing tradition and culture. It has been, therefore, a positive influence, a dynamic drive which would not have been possible by the action of local actors alone. Although initially a large part of the investment came from

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abroad, at present there is total integration among wineries from the operational as well as from the institutional aspects. Managements of foreign-owned wineries are locally staffed and are evaluated for their local production and performance. At the same time, they have become fully integrated into the institutions grouping together all the participants and representatives of the Argentine wine-growing industry; their active participation is permanently appreciated. And also, in the Uco Valley there was no rejection on the part of the local population since the increase in the wine-growing activity meant the creation of numerous jobs. A large part of the work force of the new enterprises is local and several new wineries do not have enough grape production for self-supply and have to buy the product they need from other local growers. These smaller and traditional growers must in turn adapt their practices for production to the exigencies of the wineries and fully comply with the technical and cultivation requirements monitored by their agronomists and technicians so as to guarantee the quality standards required. Some specialists speak of a control-restraint-consensus relationship (Schilan 2005) or of “disciplining” the growers (Neiman 2003). Most of the growers, however, are satisfied with the system since it represents the certainty of selling their production for a good price. With regard to commercialization, investments arrived at the beginning of the 1990s and exports began by the end of that same decade. In the years 2001/2002 there was a profound national crisis, but in 2003 the adequate conditions for resuming exports came back again. In recent years, especially since 2011, there has been a considerable decrease owing to the loss of competitiveness as a result of high inflation rates, low exchange rate of the U.S dollar and retentions to exports, among other reasons. Besides, the national market is becoming smaller on account of the increased consumption of other beverages. Most of the new wineries have their own international trading departments or are integrated into global distribution networks. The main destinations are the U.S.A., Canada, the U.K., Brazil and the Netherlands. At present the expectations to regain the exporting impulse are great due to the elimination of tax retentions and the re-opening of imports of basic elements for the industry. These dynamics require a reduction in inflation rates and a favourable solution to logistics problems, especially in the transportation sector. The Uco Valley’s production is mainly one of high quality, highly priced wines destined for a very restricted niche of consumers, whereas the largest consumption around the world is that of medium-priced wines. Even so, the international recognition and prestige of its wines opens a great potential for the area to increase sales abroad considering that Argentina wine exports are less than 3% of the world’s wine market. With regard to new capital arrivals, at present investments are made only in preexistent vineyards and wineries, but large investors expect a clearer economic picture at the national level. The Uco Valley offers good ecologic conditions, land availability—with water availability being a limiting factor—and markedly low investment costs in comparison, for example, with Chile (70% higher) and California (three times the cost). Considering that global investors look for new and convenient options

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regardless of the geographical location, the scenery is favourable over a mid-term perspective. Despite the small area under cultivation and the relatively small share in the country’s production volume, the analysis of all the features considered by the participants in the Uco Valley’s wine sector allows to position the region as the emblematic and most prestigious one in the national wine-growing sector since it best reflects the effects of globalization and is internationally highly regarded.

8.5 The View ‘from the Outside’: The Results of the Transformations in Uco Valley’s Wine-Growing Activity Under the Influence of Globalization All the transformations described above, their causes and characteristics are reflected in the results of the Uco Valley in ‘objective’ terms. The strongest of these makes reference to a basic and essential variable such as the marked enlargement of the area implanted with vineyards during the period studied. Since 1990, with 8,112 ha of vineyard, there was an almost 60% increase in only 10 years. This tendency was increased even more in the following decade: 85% in the 2000–2010 period. Then, in the last stage it slowed down to 27,877 ha in 2016, which implies an additional growth of 15.5%. Even though the influence of globalization brought about transformations in the wine-growing sector of all three oases of Mendoza province, the case of Uco Valley is absolutely unique. In roughly 25 years since 1990 to the present the cultivated area increased more than 240% while in the total area of the province taken as a whole the figure was a meagre 8%. In the North and South Oases, where vineyards were already dominant, there occurred a process of reconversion, whereas in the Uco Valley new vineyards were incorporated. For this reason, its relative share in the province’s total went from 5.5% in 1990 to 17.6% in 2016. But it has not only been a quantitative but also a qualitative jump, since in those new vineyards only grapes for wine-making are predominant, more than 85% being red grapes of high oenological quality (Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura 2016). In 2016, the area under cultivation with the Malbec variety, Argentina’s emblematic stock, represented almost 22% of the province’s total vineyard area, going up to 50% if only the Uco Valley is considered. If the areas destined to two other varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are included, the province’s share is 32% whereas in Uco Valley the figure exceeds 68%. The same thing happens with production volumes, which reach similar shares. Therefore, the great importance of Uco Valley lies not only on the speed and intensity of its wine-growing growth over the last 25 years but also on its strong orientation towards a highest quality production. Even though the region’s share in the total vineyard area of the province is only 18%, the figure goes up to 40% when exclusively the Malbec variety is considered. The same happens with production: in

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Uco Valley only 15% of the province’s grape volume is harvested, but 45% of the Malbec variety. A different picture is found in the wine production sector. The number of wineries is constantly increasing in the Uco Valley, going from 35 in 2001 to 72 in 2015; they have doubled over a period of 15 years, whereas at provincial level it rose by only 10%. However, part of the grape harvest is transported to other regions. For this reason, the volume of wine made in the region also shows an important growth, but its share in the province’s total is relatively low: with almost 600,000 hectolitres of wine made in 2016 it represents only 9% of all of Mendoza’s wine. This is also due to the type of wine since there is a marked orientation towards quality and not towards quantity. This situation is reflected in the average price of the quintal of grape and the hectoliter in the Uco Valley, which by far surpasses the values of all the other regions of Mendoza. A large part of those wines is destined for export. In 2015 the export from the Uco Valley added up to 15% of the total export of Mendoza, representing an increase of 211% in volume and 392% in U.S. dollars compared to the year 2006 (Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura 2016). The principal buyer was the U.S with 56% of the total. In this phase of resurgence of wine-growing the traditional landscapes are replaced by the reconversion landscapes over a large part of the province. The new landscape in the higher altitude areas, like that of Uco Valley, shows the predominance of extensive vineyards of high quality stocks, with new wineries that incorporated formal and functional innovations reinforcing their identity, with the addition of oenotourism (Girini et al. 2017). They have turned the region into a centre of investment for enterprises of a varied nature. These transformations bring about other changes and innovations that modify the landscape and life in the oasis. Oenotourism plays a significant role. To it are added new restaurants whose cuisine has the objective to promote the matching of local products with the wines of the local wineries. They constitute another attraction for both national and international tourists. Some of these establishments also offer premium lodging facilities to their visitors, most of them from abroad. Other differentiated options for tourism are also available, like that of cultural tourism which takes the visitors to new and remote spots within the extremely attractive geography of Uco Valley, immersed right in the middle of the Andes Range. A variety of sports, leisure and cultural activities along the so-called ‘wine route’ constitutes a highly beneficial factor for specific undertakings both in the hotel and restaurant sectors. All these economic activities are associated to wine-growing either directly or indirectly, and with a progressive interaction among the global (or globalized) actors and the local community, they may help foresee positive effects in the local environment. It must be said that a large number of the work force of the Uco Valley’s wine-growing companies is composed of residents of the region. Many of the traditional small- and medium-sized growers have established a long-lasting relationship with the new wineries; they receive technical counselling in order to optimize their production and are permanently monitored thereby ensuring the sale of their production under more favourable and stable conditions than in the past. The greater

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dynamics in production and tourism has strengthened the sustainability of the local market for service supplies and has promoted the creation of new ones. Therefore, it can be expected that this boost in economic activities may result in an improvement of living conditions of the local population, particularly in those areas where the new business settlements are concentrated. It will not be easily possible to measure such effects due to the lack of updated indicators and the changing macro-economic conditions. However, when comparing the distribution of wineries by district with the living conditions of their inhabitants (according to the latest National Population Census of 2010) a slight correlation between the two variables can be observed. In general, those districts with the larger number of wineries present the more acceptable living conditions when considering unsatisfied basic needs in housing quality and overcrowding, as well as unemployment and illiteracy. It may then be assumed that economic development under global influence contributes to reduce some marginality features in the region.

8.6 Some Dissonant Notes… The transformations in the Uco Valley have meant a significant advance for the region, which has moved from a marginal role to a position of relevance in Argentina’s winegrowing sector, as objective evidence and the view of the actors involved show. Some signals indicating less visible issues, however, are beginning to appear; that is, there are some minor alternatives to the general tendency or even developments ‘in the shadow’ of globalization. In the beginning certain difficulties were assumed to appear in the integration between the traditional agriculture and way of life and the new enterprise settlements (Schmidt 2012), through the abandonment of some old plantations incapable of adapting to the new situation. This problem has been solved to a great extent. The progressive incorporation of the local population into the new enterprises and the interaction between the traditional growers and the modern wineries has generated a model of mutual benefit that has resulted to be, at present times so far, very functional. Nevertheless, a large part of the oenotourism activity has created a universe oriented towards a high-consuming foreign public with no connection to the reality of the local community. In this aspect, there is a marked divergence that is the evidence of strong heterogeneity. In addition, there are other ‘signals’ of resistance or opposition to these dynamic forces of the globalized market. For instance, small-sized organic farms have begun to gain some importance—more symbolic than economic or quantitative—with a novel philosophy of life of the entrepreneurs. They integrate cultivation practices, business dealings and life styles in general (Schmidt and Urra Coletti 2013). They are farmers who not only produce but also ‘practice’ an ecological style of life and who consider that this is the only ethical production practice that respects all: nature, the grower and the consumer. Their conception and the cultivation process practiced markedly differ from those of the big producers oriented towards the world market.

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However, they are not alien to the global trends, since they relate themselves with NGO’s of international volunteer programs and receive a large number of volunteers from around the world who integrate their labour and their everyday life in the farms during a period of time. The association of these organic participants with others from different parts of the province facilitates the marketing of their production, especially at Mendoza City’s BioFair. Secondly, part of the local community feels the need to strengthen their organization ‘from below’. More than one hundred craft growers and entrepreneurs have grouped themselves into a cooperative and market their production at premises of their own located in one of the Uco Valley’s villages. They have named their social organization ‘Crece desde el pie’ (Growing from the foot); they foster self-managed labour, without ‘a boss’, and food sovereignty, trying to show that a different type of economy is possible. The cooperative groups together more than one hundred families of the region who live off their production, which includes horticulture, ecological agriculture, organic wine and juices, nuts, dehydrated vegetables, bottled fruit and vegetables, and poultry among others. They work in community farms and market their products all over the country through a network of fair trade that seduces those consumers who are increasingly more interested in healthy products made outside the food industry. Thirdly, another indicator of a certain resistance to the unlimited expansion of new foreign agricultural settlements is the strong negative reaction generated by the potential sale in auction of an extensive area of land belonging to the Argentine Army to the west of the Uco Valley. This option was availed by the authorization granted in the National Decree 2205/2017 issued in the Official Government Records on the 4th of April 2017. Even though there has not yet been total agreement among the issuers, the portion of land is about 7000 ha, half of which has due irrigation rights and availability. These lands are currently used as the army’s stud farms, grassland for the army’s horses and mules with a part of them rented to local tenants. The Government’s purpose for the sale is to encourage the productive development of the lands by small and medium-sized wine- and vegetable-growers. According to the Agency for the Administration of State-Owned Property this project will enhance the growth of the productive capacity of the region, since the lands have a high agricultural potential for wine-growing. But the local growers, members of the Tunuyán Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture argue that the lands, at least part of them, are already under cultivation and production, which creates local resources and employment. They agree on the fact that the project will generate productive, social and economic development but they fear that the lands may go to foreign investors and may lead to over-concentration of productive units by strong foreign capitals. They warn about the difficulty small growers have to obtain access to portions of land and also about the uncertainty arising among the current tenants, some of whom have rented those properties for more than 30 years. The Chamber also warns against the risk of floods due to massive clearing of scrubland sectors and the uncontrolled use of water resources. In summary, they demand more information

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and participation. This movement has generated great unrest in the local population who have held numerous assemblies, forums, road closures, demonstrations and legal demands. Social, environmental and community groups discuss whether the great private investments in the area will reduce the economic gap or will produce a contrary effect. These three examples show the concern, uncertainty and search for alternatives on the part of those local groups who in some way object the wine-growing model developed in the Uco Valley in the last decades and doubt about its capacity to benefit the community as a whole.

8.7 Conclusion The far-reaching transformations in the Uco Valley during the last 25 years, boosted by changes in wine-growing, are manifested not only in space and in the landscape but also in the life and the positioning of the region in the province and in the world. The changes that have taken place are technological, organizational, productive and strategic, strongly dictated by the global demand and trends and oriented by the central concept of quality. These changes have contributed to reduce marginality. To a large extent, the transformation was possible thanks to the important foreign investments which adopted various modalities and implied an almost entire re-orientation of the area towards the foreign market, thus creating a space where the investments come from abroad and production is primarily destined for abroad. However, owing to the long-term processes the production requires and also to the volume of investments and their degree of settlement, the actors involved in the sector insist on the fact that the decisions are mostly made locally, having reached a strong integration and acceptance as they respond to the requirements of the region. This great incidence of economic globalization represents a considerable innovative potential, greater job opportunities and a new way to relate to the world and to the traditional socio-productive environment, which tries to join the new trend. Integration, complementation, co-existence and confrontation are the underlying concepts that, to different extents and at different moments or places, have expressed the relationship between the local and the global environments. The manifestations in the Uco Valley reveal the existence of two lines of globalization. One is an economic globalization, more encompassing and evident, with a greater and leading impact on the region. The other, a more social globalization, centred on places more than on flows, more modest and deep-rooted in the people. Even though these social movements are still silent and at their early stages, they are no less real and nurture the fruitful interaction between the local and the global factors in this oasis.

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References Alturria, L., Bocco, A., Gudiño, J., & Salvarredi, G. (2005). Trama Vitivinícola: Reconfiguración de actores y transformaciones estructurales. IV Jornadas Interdisciplinarias de Estudios Agrarios y Agroindustriales-UBA, 40p (CD). Bodegas de Argentina, A. C. (2013). VIII Informe Nacional de Enoturismo. República Argentina. Año 2013. Mendoza: Bodegas de Argentina. Retrieved from http://www.observatoriova.com/ 2014/09/informe-nacional-de-enoturismo-en-argentina/. Bragoni, B. (1993). Redes, inmigración y movilidad social en Mendoza. Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, 8(24), 171–204. Girini, L., Medico, C., & Vicchi, M. (2017). Persistencias y nuevas formas de configuración en el paisaje vitivinícola de la Zona Alta del río Mendoza y Valle de Uco. Unpublished manuscript, V Jornadas Nacionales y I Internacionales de Investigaciones Regionales Interdisciplinarias (CCT-Conicet Mendoza). INDEC. (2008). Censo Nacional Agropecuario. Buenos Aires: INDEC. Retrieved from https://www.indec.gov.ar/cna_index.asp https://www.indec.gov.ar/nivel4_default.asp?id_tema_ 1=3&id_tema_2=8&id_tema_3=87. Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura. (2016). Provincia Mendoza. Área Valle de Uco. Mendoza: INV. Martín, J. (1992). Estado y Empresas: Relaciones inestables. Políticas estatales y conformación de una burguesía industrial regional. Mendoza: Ediunc. Neiman, G. (2003). La “calidad” como articulador de un nuevo espacio productivo y de organización del trabajo en la vitivinicultura mendocina. In M. Bendini, J. Barbosa Cavalcanti, M. Murmis, & P. Tsakoumagkos (Eds.), El campo en la sociología actual: Una perspectiva latinomericana (pp. 291–314). Buenos Aires: La Colmena. Richard-Jorba, R., & Pérez Romagnoli, E. (1994). El proceso de modernización de la bodega mendocina (1860-1915). Ciclos, 7(IV), 118–155. Schilan, R. (2005). La actividad agroindustrial en Valle de Uco, provincia de Mendoza. Estudio de la vinculación empresas-territorio. In G. Molina, & M. Furlani (Eds.), Teoría, Método, Práctica. Proceso Metodológico para la toma de decisiones en un territorio local (pp. 163–206). Mendoza: Zeta. Schmidt, M., & Urra Coletti, C. (2013), La interacción local-global en el Valle de Uco (Mendoza): diversidad de modos de producción y nuevas formas alternativas. IV Congreso Nacional de Geografía de Universidades Públicas y XI Jornadas Cuyanas de Geografía (CDRom). Schmidt, M. (2012). Local transformations in mountain areas influenced by globalization. A case in Mendoza, Argentina. In W. Leimgruber, W. Zsilincsar, & E. Nel (Eds.), Mountain regions in transformation (pp. 153–168). Aachen: Shaker. Uvieta, N. (2017). Dinámica espacial del oasis central de la provincia de Mendoza. Unpublished manuscript, FFyL.

Chapter 9

Advances in Marginality Studies in Southern Mendoza, Argentina María Eugenia Cepparo

9.1 Introduction Over the past few decades, the concept of marginality and its triggering processes 1 have been studied in the department of Malargüe, in southern Mendoza, Argentina. The main motivation for studying marginality in Malargüe is the unevenness that this territory has experienced in its socio-economic and political evolution—flourishing times, setbacks and persistence—due to multiple factors. Its isolation and peripheral location, the difficult and restrictive environment, scarce settlement, poor connections and facilities, and environmental and economic differences from the dynamic city of Mendoza, are some of the features that have steered Malargüe into a disadvantageous position (Fig. 9.1). However, this territory has also been gifted with strategic natural resources. Thanks to them, there has been an inflow of capital—co-participation and royalties—, especially following oil extraction and a modest local industrialization. For instance, in this isolated and desert-like area, there is a great number of valuable renewable and non-renewable resources, although geographically very limited, including fertile soils, permanent watercourses, good natural pastures, copper, gold, uranium and hydrocarbons, and picturesque landscapes. They have encouraged the development of 1 It is important to highlight that, since my first years as a researcher in 1982, research was focused on marginal or peripheral areas of Argentina. In southern Argentina, it centred on pastoral activities and agriculture in small isolated oasis, and fishery in the province of Santa Cruz. In southern Mendoza, in Malargüe, we studied the traditional transhumant herding activity and the very recent industrialization of goat meat and the growing of seed potatoes. In San Rafael (also southern Mendoza), we examined the problems related to olive growing and its marginal and peripheral situation compared to viticulture, the main and most prolific activity in Mendoza. All these investigations have contributed to the topics analyzed in this present article.

M. E. Cepparo (B) Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_9

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Fig. 9.1 The study area

activities, valued in various ways throughout the economic growth of the department. The most representative activities are goat breeding, mining and hydrocarbons production, adventure and winter tourism, forestry, and the production of seed potatoes, fodder plants and vegetables. The uneven appraisal of this territory and its resources

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is explained by its irregular growth cycles, characterized by different socio-economic processes and municipal planning, along with the national crisis (Cepparo 2010a). All these aforementioned factors created a different productive profile of Malargüe from the agro-industrial oasis of the north and center of Mendoza province, dedicated specifically to viticulture. In Malargüe, some activities have retained their traditional features or were reluctant to change, but other activities have changed and become diversified. Each one of them assumed different economic behaviors. The main goal of this chapter is to reflect on the different insights and overviews of the concept of marginality, its problems and how it is applied to Malargüe (Cepparo et al. 2013). It analyzes different processes, which are deeply related to environmental, socio-economic, cultural and political issues. Also, it considers the correlation between territorial dynamics at local, provincial, national and international scales during the last decades of the 20th and the early 21st centuries. The topics are linked to structural and circumstantial aspects which have provoked partial policies or recent political decisions regarding local development. The scientific work which is presented here, conveys not only the advances made but also suggests further topics of study. The advances make reference to all the contributions to the concept of marginality in general and of marginality in Malargüe in particular. Also, this analysis wants to motivate future studies of the complex concept of marginality and its implications, as well as further research about different alternatives to face the issue.

9.2 Advances Made Regarding the Knowledge of Marginality and Its Processes Marginality “involves, according to the most traditional criteria, difficulties in accessibility, remoteness from the most dynamic populations, and physical restrictions of the region.” (Cepparo 2010b, p. 20) More recent research also includes “the pressure for insertion in a globalized world, unbalanced political and socio-economic local and regional systems, an irregular sequence of public and private policies, traditional features of the community, and individual or collective resistance of the population to changes and risks.” (ibid.). From this perspective, studies of marginality turn into an intricate task. Marginality, in all its forms, is extremely complex because of the socio-territorial phenomena involved and because of the range of acceptance among people in this situation. However, marginality is not only related to physical distance, but also to social and mental aspects and access to power. The physical distance is only one aspect (Cepparo et al. 2013). Marginality can be seen from two different perspectives, the sociological and the geographical. The sociological perspective can be explained by the interest of sociology in heterogeneous isolated communities, which sometimes suffer rejection and discrimination, among other things. The geographical point of view expands

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and extends the sociological one and proves that marginality involves other features, diverse conditions and implications, beside the social ones. Both disciplines are interested in the situation of territories and communities which suffer socio-economic and political instability or decay, material obstacles—among them environmental limitations, institutional fluctuations, deep social gaps, cultural barriers or personal resistance to changes. Thus, the theoretical framework of this study—and also of previous team research on the topic—was strengthened by different viewpoints of other sciences and by working in the field. This shows that marginality categorization guidelines had to be broadened. The meaning and acknowledgment of what is marginal has increased over the last 40 years. The core-periphery model has been expanded with globalization and regional inclusion and exclusion categories. This can be explained by the present close connections between integration and segregation, between the demands of a worldwide neoliberalism and the subordination of regional and national territories and communities, or between center and periphery. All these situations have already been analyzed in the context of postmodernity. This approach influenced the incorporation of a new set of concepts to geographical fieldwork, such as: diversity, segmentation, border, regions of resistance, remote areas, micro-marginalities, micro-peripheries, empowerment, and “de-marginalization” processes, among others (Cepparo 2010b). The Spanish geographer Capellà Miternique (2010) accurately explains that something is marginal when it presents features which are not between the ranges of what is considered the central model. Uneven situations are explained by the multifarious forms marginal areas assume towards the center and the tight relationship these two territories have. Classifications by means of concepts such as marginality, minorities, and subordination have an impact on communities in general. When a classification is used, it does not mean that it will have a positive effect on the individuals of the marginal communities, because it refers to their social and economic environment, their land, and this may differ from their self-image. The act of categorizing in social research demands great responsibility, because hierarchical situations are considered and differentiation criteria applied, and it can include references to deep socio-economic problems, poor production systems, isolated communities, and cultural pressure. This analysis does not intend to create a polemic or local disagreement with the selection of the concepts of ‘marginality’, ‘exclusion’, or ‘different’, among others. On the contrary, the aim is to examine in depth the characteristics and implications of marginality. In fact, classification and categorization procedures are part of the social sciences researcher’s work, because some distinctions allow the researcher to have a more perfect knowledge of reality, to prove the results of scientific works, and to make contributions in order to solve these uneven situations. Research work which establishes some differentiations—though permeable and modifiable—tends to know better the issue of marginality without falling into the trap of picturing an idyllic and homogeneous image of society, which may encourage difference-denying policies and discursive practices (Dusquenoy 2013).

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It is essential to give sense and content to categories and not to consider them as irrevocable. They contribute to revise and deepen the concepts which should help the researcher to provide alternatives for a solution and for a transformation of problematic situations. Social sciences researchers need to have a serious and responsible attitude to stimulate relevant decision-making from organizations and to evaluate and overcome any identified issue. Sometimes, different categories or typologies can be the starting point to motivate important decisions.

9.3 Advances Made Regarding the Knowledge of the Territory and the Community of Malargüe in the Context of Marginality Malargüe is located at the southern fringe of Mendoza province in central-western Argentina. It is characterized by its isolated location with regard to the most dynamic area of the province, and by its large area without any outstanding urban centers. With 41,379 km2 it covers 26.5% of the surface of the province but has a population density of only 0.66 persons per km2 . It has a diversified yet limiting natural environment: precipitations are just below 200 mm per year and the average annual temperatures is 11.5 °C. The road infrastructure in the department is poor, provincial unpaved and dirt roads prevailing. Some of these roads are linked to the national road n° 40, which ensures the communication towards the north of the province where western Argentine’s most important regional center is located, the city of Mendoza. The most outstanding variations of the territory have to do with three large natural subsystems: the Andes mountains in the west, the plains with the Llancanelo lagoon, and the volcanic massif of Payunia, consisting of volcanoes, basaltic spaces and expanded plateaus in the east center and south (Fig. 9.1). The humid winds from the Pacific leave most of their humidity over the highest mountains, enabling the formation of meadows and swamps with grasslands and leguminous plants; the melting snow allows the formation of more fertile grounds. This potential was highly valued in late 19th century, when these grasslands were used as fodder for the herds of cattle moved to Chile to be sold. Nowadays, they are very valued by the transhumant herders of the south center of the department of Malargüe. They move in the summer to the mountainous area to feed their cattle with the grass of the mountain valleys. Moreover, this area has important and strategic mineral resources and very good landscape conditions, which enables it to foster and strengthen mining as well as winter and adventure tourism. On the other hand, an arid and continental climate prevails in the rest of the department. A xerophile vegetation dominates, and water is limited and of poor quality. These limited conditions are less pronounced in the center of the department, the second natural subsystem mentioned, especially at the bottom of ravines, large valleys, near aquifers and water tables. One of these areas is located near the city of Malargüe, where the best climate, more fertile sedimentary grounds, and abundant superficial

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good quality water have allowed the growth and continuity of natural grasslands and have stimulated the cultivation of fodder plants, forest plants, and vegetables. The growing of seed potatoes has consolidated in this area, making Malargüe the main seed potato production area of the country. Finally, the southern end of the department is characterized by a group of volcanic raised plateaus and plains, endorheic basins, hollows, salt mines, and sandbanks, called the volcanic Payunia region. The poor or non-existing soil, vegetation and rivers; the extreme weather conditions; the isolation and extreme distances, result in the most arid and isolated area of the department. There are only a few pastoral posts still standing there, testimonies of a history of extensive farming activities, and of oil extraction, which offers this area a sort of dynamism. Given this geographical context, the studies focused on the analysis of the socioterritorial structures of Malargüe, with special attention to land-use, activities and people involved, their features and linking elements, cultural pressure, land appropriation and the role of the state, among other things. These analyses were made under the framework of the concept of marginality. Regarding its present territorial structure, Malargüe, on the one hand, is characterized by a slow, irregular or recent dynamism in some of the already mentioned uses of the land, but also by a heterogeneous and poor distribution of accommodation and networks, a limited population, fragmented land-use, and vast uninhabited areas. Different studies have demonstrated that, despite the limited environmental potential mentioned, Malargue’s also has good prospects for territorial development. Thus, a restricted natural environment and high levels of emigration result in slow productive modifications in rural and rural-urban areas and restrain the spreading of pastoralism in many areas of the departmental territory (Cepparo 2010c). However, the installation of the meat processing plant ‘Frigorífico Malargüe’ in 2011, allowed the rural inhabitants to amplify the bid of their production and to obtain different benefits on their sales. The farming of seed potatoes has experienced a slow stabilization process. However, this has become more dynamic thanks to the possibility of irrigation, the proximity to the facilities of the departmental capital and special agronomic protection, which distinguish the plantations of seed potato in Malargüe from the rest of these plantations in Argentina. Tourism, an activity which brings special dynamism to Malargüe, is concentrated in the most attractive places with better facilities. Mining and hydrocarbon exploration are located in specific and highly strategic areas, due to the nature and the destination of this resource, and the money which enters the territory through co-participation and royalties. However, these resources do not create added value for Malargüe as they are exported to places where they can be refined and commercialized. Furthermore, difficult access and bad roads worsen the territorial economic structure of the department and intensify the marginal features in some of the different uses of the land, facilities, and infrastructure (Cepparo et al. 2010a). Regarding the functional elements of the social structure, dynamic relations are generated, related to the socio-economic and political framework, historical processes, and cultural aspects of the community in general or of the most dynamic areas of the territory. The present social structure of Malargüe can be explained by

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the presence of different activities—and the people involved in them—, the relations established with the municipal and the provincial government, and the effects of development plans. In Malargüe, connections and cooperation between different activities and the social actors involved in these activities have been mostly complex, weak and without continuity, especially due to the predominance of one activity, at the expense of a complementary work between all of them. In the late 19th century, the socio-economic prospects of Malargüe were first oriented towards pastoral activities. Once the cattle—brought from the center of the country—had been fed in the mountains, it was moved to Chile, where it was sold. The pastoral activity was subsequently limited to extensive sheep and goat farming by transhumant herders and served the survival of the herders’ families; surplus animals were sold privately. Later, the economy focused on minerals and oil extraction, and recently on tourism (Cepparo 2010d). There has thus been a cycle of prevailing activities throughout Malargüe’s history where the population moved along with phases of growth and decline of each activity, especially with mining. This development pattern is directly related to irregular institutional impulses on the local economy and to sporadic provincial and national aid, along with unevenness due to the implications of globalization. All these factors are crucial to analyze and to see features of marginalization, especially expressed by setbacks not only in the development of some activities, but also in the variations of investments, innovations, and activity or passivity in decision-making by institutions and people in charge. The prevailing characteristics of the territorial structure and the transformation of the social structure show that the department of Malargüe has developed between phases of stagnation and dynamism during the economic cycles and development plans mentioned above. Actually, in the late 20th century, a change occurred in the traditional municipal management. An increment in the growth process was verified since 1990, due to a more harmonious relationship between municipal, provincial and national powers, and also due to development processes in touristic activities, hydrocarbon and agricultural (not pastoral) industries. These circumstances contributed to the development of the Touristic Plan in 1995 and the Strategic Plan of Malargüe (PEM) in the year 2000 (Cepparo et al. 2010b). Regarding the consciousness or the identification of territorial problems in Malargüe by the decision makers, it is demonstrated that the dimensions of these problems are not acknowledged by some politicians, or that many different municipal administrations had to succeed each other until the necessary measures were taken—the same problems are usually transferred from one office to the next. It is also clear that the population, instead of acknowledging and internalizing these conflicts, accepts vulnerable economic and cultural conditions in an almost fatalistic manner; thus, it is not necessary to solve or face problems. Also, institutions in charge of making changes consider marginality as a relative situation, which leads to irregular or random decisions regarding land appropriation in rural areas, deterioration in basic facilities and road infrastructure, excessive reliance on the state to provide jobs, and an uncertain fate of oil exploration royalties. However, among the community, various surveys showed that there was unanimity of opinion regarding development aims, especially during the group work made

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by several sectors of the community before the establishment of the PEM (Strategic Planning of Malargüe). Also, the population has a positive and effective image of its situation compared to other departments in Mendoza, especially regarding development planning and progress in scientific and technological services. The best examples of achievements in Malargüe are the PEM (2010)—although it did not have a continuity nor was fully effective—, the Observatory Pierre Auger (2004), and Malargüe’s Planetary Facility (2008). When Malargüe is considered and defined in the context of marginal regions, there is no doubt that there is some overlap in the criteria characterizing scarcely populated regions, that there is interaction between these two types of areas, which could lead to an even more disadvantageous situation. Paradoxical situations can also be seen in these marginal regions in the context of the transitions in peripheral areas. Thus, when the settling of Malargüe started in the late 19th century in an uninhabited territory, this area was considered essential and played a central role because of its territorial features and its paddocks, which were used to feed the cattle on their way to Chile (Cepparo 2010d). Later, Malargüe’s isolated location has not been an impediment to the establishment of national and multinationals companies, especially tourist and mining companies, which make big investments of unquestionable economic risks. Furthermore, its environmental limitations have neither been an obstacle to the innovating spirit of some local entrepreneurs—who developed intensive and self-managed farming—, nor for the creation of local projects, thanks to some municipal boost, such as the enterprise incubator. These paradoxical characteristics place Malargüe in a particular situation in the general context of marginal and scarcely inhabited regions.

9.4 Some Remarks on Further Potential Studies About Marginality A great deal of literature on marginality, its implications, characteristics and modalities can be found, but not much about alternatives to solve this issue. Surely, there is no definite solution to marginality. However, some individual cases can be solved. In the search for alternatives, we find sciences such as sociology and geography. Since the 1920s, sociology began to study marginality and excluded societies. These types of studies flourished in Latin American countries, and multiplied in the 1960s, due to political tensions between the countries and the economic and financial demands from central countries. Since the 1990s, the Commission of Marginality Studies of the IGU (International Geographical Union) has released relevant studies concerning isolated territories and areas which are not included in economic and political decision-making. Since the year 2000, some studies from this commission have tried to provide viable solutions and new forms of organizations of these territories and communities considered different or marginal (Leimgruber 2010; Capellà Miternique 2010, among others).

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Among the most recent and interesting topics about marginality, Wacquant (2010) mentions two possible interpretations of marginality. On the one hand, some researchers assess marginality as a situation inherited from the past; and, on the other hand, marginality is considered as a transitional stage between economic regimes. Both analyses take marginality as a situation that will diminish or disappear. Nonetheless, Wacquant does not agree with these approaches. He asserts that marginality is deeply related to economic processes which have no regard to the whole social frame, i.e. all people involved in these processes. He also thinks that current marginality cannot be solved with economic growth and job opportunities for the local people alone; as long as necessary measures are not taken, marginality will grow and spawn. Actually, there is the widespread opinion that marginal areas and communities do not have the necessary conditions to become more attractive or to face transformations. But according to research it is also true that more developed countries face a new dynamic situation and now are able to attend the demands of economic growth or commercial demands of the globalized world and therefore to improve living and working conditions. In the context of this complex and paradoxical theoretical framework it is difficult to assume the study of marginality and its different forms and possible solutions. Thus, this chapter will contribute with a series of reflections achieved after many years of work in the field and after the analysis of several texts on the topic. These reflections are: • The growth of marginal areas and the disadvantageous living conditions of their communities cannot be explained only by inherited structural components or by the fact that marginality is only one of the phases in a sequence. A possible and better way to look at marginality is to contemplate less tangible causes which take part in the process. Among these causes, the knowledge of the origins and evolution of marginal features, the existence of internal dichotomies, and the attitude of the individuals involved are crucial to understand better the situation. Philo (1992) accurately asserts the necessity of a deeper study about the persistence and the transformations of relegated communities’ identities, which can be analyzed by the study of their activities, their culture and the way they relate to other marginal communities. • The strengths and weaknesses of the communities in marginal areas must be identified in order to enhance a linkage with its population and thus to create development plans to satisfy their material and immaterial needs. These plans have to be supported by real alternative forms of production which would not interfere with their territorial identity and culture. Thus, in marginal communities near a stronger center, for instance, it is crucial to identify their potential, based on a thorough knowledge of basic facilities, market mechanisms, the ecological system, and attitudes of the community (Cepparo 2013). • The frequencies and continuity of regional policies for integration which consider different factors besides the economy and long-term planning have been essential to the processes of marginalization and de-marginalization. In fact, whichever perspective or alternatives for a solution a study of marginality may present, the state

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will always play an essential role, whether because it has abandoned or reduced its role as social benefactor or as regulator of the economy, or because it has strengthened this role, especially with marginal areas. The state can assume a negative attitude, subordinating or ignoring the aptitudes and weaknesses of one territory, or on the contrary it can assume a positive approach, promoting, strengthening and diversifying progress. The state in Malargüe has not been frequently motivating economic diversification, rather it has manifested passivity and slowness in the promoter decisions of dynamism. • A weak involvement of the state leads to short-term policies. People in charge of making decisions seem to be unaware of the fact that persistence and continuity of long-term policies brings security to the economy of marginal territories and confidence to their communities. These populations lack long-term planning which can guarantee economic growth and the improvement of living conditions—the starting point of any solution. In order to solve marginality, a renewed state is needed, a state which brings consistent though flexible strategies and which assumes full responsibility for the provision of basic facilities. Leimgruber (2010) broadens this idea when he suggests that public intervention—especially regional policies—is essential to reduce uneven situations (which exist regardless of any economic theory) and offer alternatives to the less privileged people. In fact, the state should support potentially productive activities in marginal areas to prevent them from disappearing (see the chapter by Nemac and Pelc in this book). With these objectives, productive sectors can imagine a future and the population can continue to inhabit their territories and keep their identities. • Some of the debates which try to think of solutions should urgently analyze the situation of micro-marginal regions in the context of traditional economies. Leimgruber (2010) emphasizes regional policies as effective alternatives to enhance the full potential of marginal regions. He states that “micro-peripheral islands”—or, paraphrasing his own ideas, “micro-marginal areas” (Cepparo 2013)—, are realities which should be handled as soon as a disadvantageous sign appears. Valenzuela (2007), regarding micro-regions with poverty, unemployment, and underemployment, confirms the idea that these situations should be faced by different policies in order to restrain the growth of uneven socio-economic situations. Precisely the territory and population of Malargue need long-term state policies that value their resources and promote economic diversification.

9.5 Concluding Remarks Malargüe has been an appropriate example and a motivation to study marginality, especially because of the isolation of this territory, the difficult environmental conditions and its traditional cultural features. The research was broadened when the socio-geographical structures of Malargüe were analyzed, i.e. its natural aptitudes and weaknesses, decision-making processes throughout different economic cycles, the use of public funds, its cultural and educational situation, internal connections

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towards the surrounding region, and an overview of a productive scheme based on its pastoral tradition. Even though Malargüe has been categorized as a marginal territory in many aspects, this is not an absolute, permanent and immutable characterization. Exclusion, abandonment, and fragmentation are not simple signs, for they imply environmental, social, economic, and political realities, which may be also perceived by the individuals of these territories. Thus, marginality in Malargüe cannot be considered only as an analytical category, but as a process, which experienced different variations, contexts, and implications throughout the territory, its activities, and the people involved. In this context, the concept of marginality has become richer thanks to the multiple and complex socio-territorial relationships and the multifarious implications this concept adopts in Malargüe. The task of providing a solution to this problem remains a challenge, and it must be based on an analysis of vulnerable and geographically limited areas, socio-economic decline and regional disparities. Providing alternatives is unquestionably a great challenge. This research and previous individual and group research about Malargüe were intended to provide a thorough diagnosis of the situation. Thus, regarding the meaning of marginality applied to the territory of Malargüe, the achievements are: • becoming aware of the fragmented socio-economic and political dynamism in the area, • noticing that cultural features of isolated rural populations and communities represent the main elements to explain marginalization and de-marginalization processes, • acknowledging four unsolved remaining issues: discontinuous alternatives to solve problems related to land titles in rural areas, poor conditions of basic facilities and roads, excessive reliance of this areas on the state to provide employment, and extreme economic subordination to non-renewable resources, and • appraising the organizations and the communities’ intention to analyze and reach other alternatives involving comprehensive strategic planning. Regarding this latter challenge, geographers, historians, economists and sociologists face the challenge—each time more frequently and intensively—of collaborating with their studies on government development projects. Our vast experience in research of marginal areas shows that a state policy is essential to face territorial unevenness and productive setbacks experienced by marginal areas nowadays. This policy should be based on a realistic and accurate diagnosis of the potential of the respective region and should also provide tangible particular and integral mid-term and long-term alternatives. It must be supported by accurate criteria to recognize problems and to provide long-term alternatives. Development planning must focus on short-term and mid-term alternatives for circumstantial issues and mid-term and long-term alternatives for structural difficulties. It needs to be effective and consistent in order to achieve productive reorganization, technological advances, and identification of the communities with the territory and its potential without a big loss in typical lifestyles and traditional activities.

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The proximity of the researcher to these marginal areas and communities makes his/her task easier in order to provide some knowledge which can contribute to the understanding of the difficulties and to more accurate decision making in these areas.

References Capellà Miternique, H. (2010). ¿El margen y la diferencia: un discurso propio? In Cepparo M. E. (Ed.), Rasgos de Marginalidad. Diferentes enfoques y aportes para abordar su problemática. Malargüe, un ejemplo motivador (pp. 73–91). Mendoza: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNCuyo. Cepparo, M. E. (Ed.). (2010a). Rasgos de Marginalidad. Diferentes enfoques y aportes para abordar su problemática. Malargüe, un ejemplo motivador. Mendoza. Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNCuyo. Cepparo, M. E. (2010b). La marginalidad. La complejidad del proceso y de la identificación del concepto. In Cepparo M. E. (Ed.), pp. 19–39. Cepparo, M. E. (2010c). Procesos estructurales y coyunturales vinculados con las dinámicas sociales en áreas marginales. In Cepparo M. E. (Ed.), pp. 239–262. Cepparo, M. E. (2010d). Malargüe. Condiciones naturales y ciclos socio-económicos. In Cepparo M. E. (Ed.), pp. 93–116. Cepparo, M. E. (2013). Avances alcanzados y temas pendientes sobre la marginalidad y sus procesos. In M. E. Cepparo, G. Gabrielidis, & E. Prieto (Eds.), pp. 301–314. Cepparo, M. E., Prieto, E., & Gabrielidis, G. (2010a). Conflictos de un territorio vulnerable para integrarse a la dinámica del siglo XXI. In M. E. Cepparo (Ed.), pp. 215–238. Cepparo, M. E., Prieto, E., & Gabrielidis, G. (2010b). El Plan Estratégico Malargüe y sus iniciativas para el ámbito rural. In M. E. Cepparo (Ed.), pp. 193–213. Cepparo, M. E., Gabrielidis, G., & Prieto, E. (Eds.). (2013). Rasgos de marginalidad. Diferentes enfoques y aportes para abordar su problemática. Malargüe, un ejemplo motivador. Segunda Parte, Mendoza, Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UNCuyo. Duquesnoy, M. (2013). El otro discriminado: minorías subordinadas, estigmatización cultural, categorización social. Aportación desde la antropología. In M. E. Cepparo, G. Gabrielidis, & E. Prieto (Eds.), pp. 147–170. Leimgruber, W. (2010). Marginality and development in the 21st century. Issues of human rights and solidarity. In Cepparo M. E. (Ed.), Rasgos de Marginalidad. Diferentes enfoques y aportes para abordar su problemática. Malargüe, un ejemplo motivador (pp. 41–60). Mendoza: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNCuyo. Philo, C. (1992). Neglected rural geographies: A review. Journal of Rural Studies, 8(2), 193–207, quoted in Murdoch, J., & Pratt, A. (1993) Rural studies: Modernism, postmodernism and the “post rural”. Journal of Rural Studies, 9(4). Valenzuela, C. (2007). Los desafíos para el desarrollo de áreas rurales marginales. Una propuesta de inclusión productiva para los sectores agrícolas tradicionales del Nordeste Argentino. Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, XI, núm. 245 (55). Wacquant, L. (2010). Castigar a los pobres: el gobierno neoliberal de la inseguridad social. Barcelona: Gedisa.

Chapter 10

Demographic and Economic Change in Small Towns in New Zealand and the Responses to Marginalisation Etienne Nel and Teresa Stevenson

10.1 Introduction This chapter seeks to detail recent economic and demographic changes in New Zealand, with a particular focus on events since the 1980s and how, as part of the process of uneven geographical development (Harvey 2015) some geographical areas have naturally benefited due to their location as either a city, market town, tourism centre or through the production of a high value commodity. At the same time, other, usually smaller towns lacking such assets, have struggled to retain populations, becoming marginalised from the central foci of economic growth. While such trends are not unique when compared with other countries in the Global North, what is distinctive is that unlike almost all other countries in the North, the New Zealand state, since the 1980s has pursued neo-liberalism far more aggressively than most, axing all forms of regional support and leaving local authorities almost total responsible for the management of their growth or decline (Peet 2012; Nel 2015). That said, in the absence of substantive external support, New Zealand offers a particularly interesting insight into how communities and local champions in some disadvantaged and potentially economically and demographically declining small towns have been able to respond pro-actively in an effort to reverse the situation which they face. The New Zealand experience is of particular relevance to countries in the North where small towns are experiencing economic and demographic change in a situation of increasing neo-liberalism. In this regard the question posed by Vaz and Nijkamp (in Vaz et al. 2013, p. 3) is pertinent to ask: ‘free market forces will most likely erode the socio-economic and cultural position of rural areas and their historically-grown settlement patterns. But strict government intervention to safeguard towns in rural areas will most likely fail as well. So is there a ‘third way’ in which the self-reliance and self-organization of these towns can be enhanced through smart policies?’ This E. Nel (B) · T. Stevenson University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_10

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chapter will explore what the New Zealand experience in this regard has been. After overviewing international literature on the challenges which small towns face, the focus will shift to an examination of policy and structural shifts in New Zealand, which will lead on to an overview of demographic and economic changes and then an examination of selected evidence of the ‘third way’, as a response to the risk or reality of marginalization.

10.2 Contextual Literature It is apparent that smaller urban centres have ‘for too long been ignored by urban theorists … (and) research has, we suggest been patchy’ in a situation of big city bias (Bell and Jayne 2009, 683). Despite this, a significant proportion of the world’s population continue to live in places of less than 50,000 people (Knox and Meyer 2009) and these centres play a crucial role in the economic sustainability and resource supply of the countries which they belong to. At the same time, these places are often experiencing dramatic change as a result of global, national and structural forces beyond their control, forcing many into situations of economic social marginalization. Causal factors include, global sourcing of produce, economic restructuring and demographic changes, particularly in the countries of the Global North, which are having a profound effect on small towns (Hospers 2014), frequently marginalizing those places less able to compete in the new economy from the social and economic mainstream. In general terms literature on small towns in the Global North has, in recent years, had a focus on the economic and demographic challenges which these places face, the appropriateness of local actions, either as part of the pursuit of new economic and social activities (Knox and Meyer 2009), or as defined, locally driven strategic responses to change and associated risks through existing economic and social mainstays (Kotval and Mullin 2009; Wiechmann and Bontje 2015). In terms of the first theme, the growth of metropolitan areas, static or declining national populations in many countries in the North, reduced rural labour needs and the associated loss of the economic bases on which resource-based communities depended has led to the phenomenon of shrinking towns—which is particularly apparent in countries such as Germany, Poland, Australia and Canada. In Japan it is estimated that some 45% of urban centres are experiencing population decline (Martinez-Fernandez et al. 2016). The net result has been a significant policy and academic discourse on how to respond to this situation, with views varying from abandoning shrinking places to market forces, to endeavours to arrest and reverse decline through the search for new economic drivers and activities, to planning for the inevitability of shrinkage through an approach known as ‘right-sizing’—i.e. adjusting urban facilities and infrastructure to now reduced levels of need (Hummel 2015; Souza and Pinho 2015) which are now becoming common-place. The effects of the loss of resource-based activities, particularly timber and mining and changes in agricultural labour requirements has had a particularly significant

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effect on smaller centres in Australia and North America, presenting challenges which many places have struggled to recover from (Broadway 2000; Perkova and Rodyashina 2014; Martinez-Fernandez et al. 2016). Parallel literature on small towns discusses how, in an era of change, many small towns can successfully adapt to changed circumstances and opportunities, through pursuing alternate economic trajectories provided by tourism, leisure and retirement needs, or the pursuit of new economic activity such as IT (Ratajczak in Vaz et al. 2013), the opportunities provided by culturally-driven development (Lazzeroni et al. 2013) and new life-style opportunities offered by local foods, environmental activity and the slow-city movement as part of what is referred to as the ‘second modernity’ (Mayer and Know 2010). While many well situated towns do benefit from their touristic appeal or their proximity to larger centres, this is not the case for the greater number of remoter centres, lacking touristic potential and experiencing vulnerability to shifts in what is often their situation of mono-economic dependence and marginalization. In this context ‘revitalization’ and the pursuit of sustainability are key themes in policy, practise and associated academic discourse (Perkova and Rodyashina 2014). Local responses to economic and environmental ‘shocks’ aligns such actions with debates on resilience and the associated role which local social capital and leadership can play in helping vulnerable communities engage in strategies to arrest decline and pursue new economic and social trajectories (Besser 2013). The importance of locally-based responses to economic marginalization and change and crises in small towns is a well-established theme in literature with Daniels (1989) arguing for ‘endogenous responses’ to economic crisis, while Stohr (1990) drew on evidence from multiple settlements across the world, to indicate the significant role which local development initiatives can play in arresting decline and promoting new growth alternatives. While future success cannot be taken as given, as Vaz et al. (2013, p. 367) argue it is imperative that small towns have a responsibility, particularly in an era of reduced state intervention, ‘to devise and monitor development strategies designed to make the best use of their territorial resources, to optimise sectoral policies, and to deal with the crucial dimensions of sustainable development’. Their research argues that future development needs to rely on networks and partnerships; knowledge and technological transfer; tapping into the rural-urban continuum; and tapping into their heritage, cultural and ‘creative capacity’ (Vaz et al. 2013, p. 371).

10.3 Structural Change in New Zealand and the Effects on Small Towns Since the 1980s state economic policy in many parts of the world has responded to the perceived limitations of Keynesian interventions and its spatial policies, and embraced more market-based and supply-side solutions to regional and local devel-

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opment (Mudge 2008; Peck 2013), leading to what Chorianopoulos and Iosifides (2006, p. 409) refer to as ‘the neoliberal rationale’. New Zealand was significantly influenced by the ‘neo-liberal turn’ (Shone and Memon 2008), with the government pursuing a more aggressive approach to neoliberal thinking both in general terms and with respect to spatial development policy than many other countries (Peet 2012). This transformed the country from being a champion of the welfare state to one of the least interventionist countries in the world (Challies and Murray 2008; Conradson and Pawson 2009). According to Peet (2012, p. 151) ‘New Zealand is a particularly interesting case because of its well-deserved reputation as a social democratic, welfare state that went neoliberal with a vengeance in the mid-1980s’. Most previous forms of spatial intervention and community economic support were axed in the 1980s, which contrasts with most other western democracies where they have persisted in diluted forms. Regions and small towns have thus, for much of the last 35 years, had to rely on the vagaries of the market for their economic well-being, with the limited capacity of local government obliging many local communities to look inward to their own resources and capacities to ensure the future of their communities (Larner and Walters 2000; North 2002; Haggerty et al. 2008; Peet 2012). The economic and spatial effects of these changes from the 1980s were dramatic. State expenditure fell 25%, the NZ dollar was devalued 20, 30% of manufacturing jobs were shed, and unemployment rose from 2 to 11% by 1991 (Abbott 2007; Challies and Murray 2008; Lattimore and Eaqub 2011). While the national economy did slowly recover in the 1990s and the national economy came to rely more on services, global links and trade, many regions and their small towns, dependent on resource exploitation and rural livelihoods have never fully recovered (Abbott 2007; Lattimore and Eaqub 2011), with the scale of change impacting on employment levels and the overall demographics of such places. The neo-liberal changes led, at one level to the effective elimination of once significant levels of regional development support, whilst at another level the rationalization of state services and operations, such as the railways, timber industry and postal services in particular weakened the economic well-being of dozens of small towns (Wilson 1995) and in some cases, whole regions, such as the West Coast of the South island which had been heavily dependent on state owned resource extraction activities (Britton et al. 1992; Conradson and Pawson 1997). Service Towns such as Gore lost 5% of their population in the 1980s and experienced the contraction of agricultural related business and processing works following the axing of subsidies previously paid to farmers. Unemployment in the town rose to 16% (Wilson 1995). In Reefton, a timber and mining town, closure of timber milling, loss of state employment and contracting mining operations led to a situation in which a third of the workforce left town and 80% of state jobs were lost, with the school enrolment falling 40% (Conradson and Pawson 1997). This loss of state support for local level development and the reality that local governments often lack the resources or political will to engage in local level economic development in

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struggling areas means that civil society is obliged to play a greater role in terms of self-help (North 2002). Very gradually over the next 30 years economic change has provided opportunities for many once struggling towns in areas such as tourism, niche agriculture produce and retail (Conradson and Pawson 2009). The town of Tirau transformed from an effective ‘ghost-town’ in the 1980s which had relied to agricultural processing to a centre of consumption as a result of niche retailers recognising that town’s central position provided opportunities for arts, craft and antique retailing (Panelli et al. 2001). It is however important to note that not all towns have been able to capitalise on new opportunities as statistics on economic and demographic change detailed in the next section suggest.

10.4 Demographic and Economic Change in Rural and Small Town New Zealand While one cannot prove direct causality between the loss of state support and the longterm demographic and economic changes in towns, a degree of impact is inevitable as the above examples suggest. In this section statistical evidence of changing economic and demographic conditions in New Zealand, with a focus on the smaller urban centres is presented. Between 1981 and 2013 New Zealand’s population grew from some 3.2–4.2 million people i.e. 33.6%, but this growth was not uniform across the country. Table 10.1 is based on census data and indicates whether urban centres in the various settlement categories are growing or declining. The settlement categories are based on the New Zealand statistical system classification. Information contained in the Table is striking. It shows that only 56.5% of all settlements are growing. Across the urban classes significant variation exists; with 89% of larger places growing, while only 60% of the smallest centres (minor urban areas) and 50% of rural centres (under 1000 people) are growing. The fact that some 44% of urban centres are declining clearly shows the degree to which New Zealand is experiencing the shrinking town phenomenon noted in Europe, Australia and Japan (Hospers and Reverda 2015; Martinez-Fernandez et al. 2016). The 271 settlements form part of 68 local government units. The fact that some 25% of these units are experiencing population loss is negatively affecting local government revenue which is almost solely reliant on local rates and taxes to meet the service needs of their communities. Figure 10.1 Indicates which centres were growing and which were declining in the period 2001–2013; the size of the symbols for settlements are scaled according to the size of that place. As both Table 10.1 and Fig. 10.1 suggest New Zealand is experiencing the phenomenon of uneven geographical development (Harvey 2015) and as a direct result economically and demographically growing centres, which have been able to benefit from the opportunities provided by service and new economic opportunities provided

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Table 10.1 Urban change by size category and local government areas: New Zealand 1981–2013 Category of settlement No. in class Number growing % Growing Main urban areas (+30,000)

18

16

89

Secondary urban areas (+10,000)

15

9

53

Minor urban areas (+1000)

100

60

60

Rural centres (−1000)

138

69

50

Total Local govt areas (2006–2013)

271 68

153 50

56.5 73.5

Source www.stats.govt.nz

by the more market-driven economy, exist side-by-side with declining centres which have not been able to exploit new opportunities, are still suffering from the loss of historic state support, and are declining demographically. To illustrate how this is playing out, the focus shifts to look at a sub-national part of the country—the regions of Canterbury, Otago and Southland which cover some 30% of the land-surface of the country in the lower two-thirds of the Southland. Demographic and economic data for these regions covers the period from 1936 to 2006 (the earlier cut-off date than the 2013 census was determined by the availability of relevant business data). Table 10.2 details the aggregate patterns of small town (i.e. taken to be places with less than 5000 people) population growth and decline in the period 1936–2006. It is apparent that rural service centres experienced a phase of growth up till the 1980s which has now passed, while mining, timber milling and manufacturing towns have experienced sustained decline over the last 70 years. In contrast tourism towns and commuting towns i.e. those lying within 50 km of the Christchurch metropolitan area, have experienced rapid growth. Figures 10.2 and 10.3 indicate the changing numbers of registered business in the same categories of small towns in these regions. Figure 10.2 shows that the larger centres and those in Canterbury (which currently has a buoyant rural economy based on dairying) appear to have experienced high levels of continued business growth, while business numbers in smaller centres and those in Otago, have either declined or plateaued, with the notable exception of the tourism towns. Figure 10.3 clearly differentiates between the high business growth experienced in tourism and commuting centres and the absolute decline occurring in resource and manufacturing based towns. As argued by the uneven geographical development hypothesis (Harvey 2015) and as evidenced by the statistics presented here, structural changes in the economy, supported by changing demand patterns, the rise of the service economy and commuting have variously led to the demographic and economic decline and marginalization of resource and industrial towns, the lacklustre performance of rural service centres and the dramatic growth of tourism and commuting towns. This evidence helps clarify the processes reflected in Table 10.1 and Fig. 10.1. This in turn raises the very

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Fig. 10.1 New Zealand: Annualised population change in the urban centres: 2001–2013. Source adapted from www.stats.govt.nz

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Table 10.2 Aggregate population change in key categories of Canterbury and Otago/Southland Towns Town categories 1936 1981 1936–81 (%) 2006 1981–2006 (%) Rural service centres Canterbury 28,707 towns < 2000 pop. Otago19,524 Southland towns < 2000 Canterbury 4716 Towns > 2000 Otago4469 Southland Towns > 2000 Tourism and resource towns Tourism Towns 1210 (OtagoSouthland)

55,448

93

55,182

0

45,598

134

45,457

0

9604

104

10,653

11

5943

33

4785

−19

7694

536

14,249

85

Mining Towns (OtagoSouthland)

3052

2374

−22

1530

−36

Timber/Manufac. Towns (OtagoSouthland)

3981

4800

21

3837

−20

Commuting towns (50 km of Christchurch)

4186

6333

51

20,815

229

69,845

137,794

97

156,508

14

Totals Source Nel (2012)

real challenge of how should marginalised settlements respond to the economic and demographic challenges which they face, particularly in the absence of state support in an era of neo-liberal state management and weak local government capacity to intervene, as discussed above. These issues are the focus of the next section.

10.5 Responses to Marginalization The reality of economic marginalization, and the structural and demographic decline of many small towns in New Zealand poses key challenges for remaining residents, local authorities and businesses. Soberingly the situation which prevails matches that which Vaz and Nijkamp (in Vaz et al. 2013, p. 3) identified, as noted in the

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185

Number of Business in the Aggregated Regional Towns

4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 2000 Otago-Southland 1936

1981

2000

Fig. 10.2 Changing aggregate business numbers in rural service centres (in Canterbury and Otago/Southland in all centres with more or less than 2000 people. Source Nel (2012)

Business Numbers in Different Types of Towns (Aggregated) 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Commuter (50km of Christchurch)Towns

Tourism Towns 1938

1983

Mining Towns

Timber/Industry

2000

Fig. 10.3 Changing aggregate business numbers in tourism, commuting, resource and industrial towns in Canterbury and Otago/Southland. Source Nel (2012)

introduction, namely that market forces will impact negatively on many small towns, government support is unlikely and hence, they question if ‘there (is) a “third way” in which the self-reliance and self-organization of these towns can be enhanced through smart policies?’. While sadly, economic decline may be inevitable for some towns, particularly for those places locked in a path-dependent trajectory grounded in their past activities, as Stohr (1990) has shown, some places have the capacity to arrest decline and even find new growth trajectories. In those places where local resilience

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prevails, social capital and leadership is strong and scope exists to embark on new economic endeavours, decline can be arrested and perhaps even reversed. As van Leeuwen (in Vaz et al. 2013, p. 20), notes, ‘towns in particular, are very important places from which to start new economic activities and local development projects, and at the same time, preserve indispensable ecosystem services’. Attention now shifts to examine how various towns have responded to the development challenges which they have experienced in New Zealand, particularly since the implementation of the neo-liberal agenda in the 1980s. Broadly speaking there have been three types of response—community, local government and business. The government cut-backs of the 1980s hit social services particularly hard—rationalization of government service provision in terms of schooling and health care led to the closure of many small schools and hospitals. In rural communities the loss of hospital access was a particular blow, leading many communities to form their own community health trust in an effort to retain key services locally (Webb 2013) and by implication retain the service needed to prevent population loss. The first such Trust was in the town of Lawrence which saw community groups raising the finance to take over the old hospital and, over time, employ staff, set up a Doctor’s practise, and develop an adjacent old-age care facility. The Trust receives a limited degree of state funds for care of hospitalised patients, but beyond that the operation has to be self-funded, requiring continuous local commitment, fund raising and volunteer support (Key Informant {KI} 1, 2, 2017). This model has since been replicated in other small towns such as Tapanui, Clyde, Cromwell, Te Anau and Roxburgh which have variously undertaken community-driven projects to retain hospital services or convert old hospitals to old-age care facilities and/or to provide high levels of primary medical care. As an extension of the notion of resourceful community-led action, following on from this community-based approach and the closure of the old council run swimming pool, the Lawrence community in 2017 raised funds to open a new community-run swimming pool and gymnasium complex (KI 2, 2017). The M¯aori community constitute a very important element of society in New Zealand, particularly in rural North Island which has been affected by high-levels of unemployment. This has galvanised the actions of particular M¯aori Community Trusts focussed on providing employment opportunities for their members. One of the most impressive operates near the small town of Mokai. The initiative was established in 2013 and employs 45 people engaged in the production of high value agricultural produce—tomatoes and capsicum—in geo-thermally heated hot-houses (The New Zealand Herald 2003). A similar initiative also based on the use of geothermal energy by a M¯aori Trust near Miraka employs 30 people in milk drying facility (Wairarapa Moana News 2017). Local action to create local jobs while working within the constraints of a market-based economy has clearly bene critical in the case of both of these initiatives. In terms of local government responses to change, reducing economic opportunities in the two small towns or Kawerau and Otorohanga galvanized local government response, in collaboration with other stakeholders. In Kawerau the progressive loss of state support for the town, population decline and scaling back on the operations of the

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local timber processing plant led the mayor to initiate a project to generate bio-fuels from the timber mill complex. He also engaged in negotiations with a neighbouring municipality which was experiencing labour shortage in its agricultural processing facilities to provide temporary employment for those left unemployed in Kawerau (LGNZ (Local Government New Zealand) 2016). In the town of Otorohanga, the loyal Mayor, conscious that unskilled youth were leaving the town, even though jobs existed in the town’s industrial sector set up a shared services arrangement to provide technical skills training in the town, mentorship support for young people on life skills and job placement. The net result has been the drop in the number of unemployed youth and many local firms have been able to expand their operations with many young people now opting to stay in the town (OECD 2017). From a business perspective numerous examples exist of business-led redevelopment. These include the above-mentioned example of Tirau where business interests have seen the rebranding of the town as a centre for consumption and antique sales as a result of astute marketing and the town’s central location which made it a logical place to cite new businesses (Panelli et al. 2001). Other examples include running competitive national or regional industries from small towns and setting up small shopping malls geared to respond to the retail needs of tourist traffic. While being driven by business interests, such growth has often been based on local expertise, vision and partnerships—often involving the support of local government. Examples include towns such as Lawrence, Roxburgh, Arrowtown and Shannon (Nel 2012). A particular interesting case is that of the small town of Pio Pio where, following the continual haemorrhaging of people and economic activity since the 1980s, local farmers, business people and community leaders saw the need to work in partnership to arrest the decline, create local employment and retain the town’s facilities which they valued. As a result, over time, this group gradually acquired properties in which they set-up paying businesses to employ local people and relying for income on passing traffic and tourism. After 10 years, some 37 people are employed in community established but now privately-run motel, restaurant, café and gift shop (KI 3, 4, 5, 2017). While initiatives such as these are to be welcomed, the experience is selective and not all towns have had the resources or social capital to attract new investment or the capacity to self-initiate novel regeneration approaches. As such, whether it is a result of market forces or selective local action and initiative, the geographical landscape in the country remains economically uneven, a situation which is unlikely to change in the near future.

10.6 Conclusion The experience of small-town New Zealand shares many similarities with that of many other countries in the North in recent decades. These include the rationalization of former levels of state support, shrinking towns, depopulation and economic loss compared with selective growth of those centres able to capitalise on new economic

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activity and locally-led development. The fact that the loss of state support and the associated loss of local services and population was so rapid in New Zealand small towns, serves as a salutary warning to other countries, where even though state support may still persist in such states, that long term structural change, population decline and the loss of services will inevitably lead to closure and rationalization. That said, even in the absence of state support, as the above case-studies show, local action can go some measure to arresting decline and pursuing new development trajectories to stave off the risk of marginalization. Clearly such action requires local commitment and support and the buy-in of key local role-players. Unfortunately, as the information revealed in the Tables and Figure suggests, many places have struggled to respond to change, locking many places into a situation of continued marginalization and uneven development.

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Larner, W., & Walters, W. (2000). Privatization, governance and identity. Policy and Politics, 28(3), 361–377. Lattimore, R., & Eaqub, S. (2011). The New Zealand economy. Auckland: Auckland University Press. Lazzeroni, M., Bellini, N., Cortesi, G., & Loffredo, A. (2013). The territorial approach to cultural economy. European Planning Studies, 21(4), 452–472. LGNZ (Local Government New Zealand). Employment initiative wins local government economic development excellence award http://www.lgnz.co.nz/news-and-media/2016-mediareleases/employment-initiative-wins-local-government-economic-development-excellenceaward/. Accessed 23 January 2018. Mayer, H., & Knox, P. (2010). Small-town sustainability. European Planning Studies, 18(10), 1545–1566. Martinez-Fernandez, C., Weyman, T., Fol, S., Audirac, I., Cunningham-Sabot, E., Wiechmann, T., et al. (2016). Shrinking cities in Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA. Progress in Planning, 105, 1–48. Mudge, S. L. (2008). The state of the art: What is neo-liberalism. Socio-Economic Review, 6, 703–731. Nel, E. (2012). Responding to changing fortunes: The recent experience of small town New Zealand. Paper Presented at the New Zealand Geographical Society Conference, Napier. Nel, E. L. (2015). Evolving regional and local economic development in New Zealand. Local Economy, 30(1), 67–77. North, P. (2002). LETS in a cold climate. Policy and Politics, 4(1), 483–499. OECD. (2017). Engaging employers in a apprenticeship opportunities. Paris: OECD. Peck, J. (2013). Explaining (with) neoliberalism. Territory, Politics, Governance, 1(2), 132–157. Peet, R. (2012). Comparative policy analysis: Neoliberalising New Zealand. New Zealand Geographer, 68(3), 151–167. Panelli, R., Stolte, O., & Bedford, R. (2001). The reinvention of Tirau: Landscape as a record of changing economy and culture. Sociologia Ruralis, 43(4), 379–400. Perkova, M.V. and Rodyashina, K.Y. (2014). Main features of functioning and development of small towns. World Applied Sciences Journal, 8, 1028–1034. Ratajczak, W. (2013). The role of small and medium sized towns in local and regional economies. In Vaz et al. (Eds.), Town in a rural world. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 25–65. Shone, M., & Ali, Memmon P. (2008). Tourism, public policy and regional development: A turn from neo-liberalism to the new regionalism. Local Economy, 23(4), 290–304. Sousa, S., & Pinho, P. (2015). Planning for shrinkage: Paradox or paradigm. European Planning Studies, 23(1), 12–32. Stohr, W. B. (1990). Global challenge and local response. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. The New Zealand Herald. (2003, 31 October). Hothouse idea puts some steam in Mokai village, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3531865. Accessed 23 January, 2018. van Leeuwen, E. (2013). Towns today and their multifunctional activities. In Vaz et al. (Eds.), Towns in a rural world. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 11–24. Vaz, T., & Nijkamp, P. (2013). Small towns of hope and glory. In Vaz et al. (Eds.), Towns in a rural world. Farnham: Ashgate: pp. 3–10. Vaz, T., de Leeuwen, E., & Nijkamp, P. (2013). Towns in a rural world. Farnham: Ashgate. Wairapa Moana News. (2017). Groundbreaking Maori milk powder plant official opened, http:// www.wairarapamoana.org.nz/page4fcf6d4a8f7a671c1c48ba5f. Accessed 23 January 2018. Webb, A. (2013). Dunstan Hospital Clyde. Cromwell: Central Otago Health Inc. Wiechmann, T., & Bontje, M. (2015). Responding to tough times: Policy and planning in shrinking cities. European Planning Studies, 23(1), 1–11. Wilson, O. J. (1995). Rural restructuring and agriculture-rural economy linkages. Journal of Rural Studies, 11(4), 417–431. www.stats.govt.nz, various years, StatsNZ: New Zealand Census. Accessed 23 October, 2016.

Part IV

Primary Activities

Agriculture has always been one of the key activities in rural space, and rural areas are usually identified with it. Farmers are therefore also considered the typical representatives of rural populations and furnish our food, fundamental for our survival. However, non-urban areas house also other activities that are of a similarly primary nature to humans. Forests yield timber and firewood, quarries sand and rocks for the construction industry, and mine all sorts of mineral raw materials for the manufacturing industry. This part is therefore devoted to three contributions that focus on the primary aspect of rural areas. We first focus on farming and forestry in rural areas before turning to urban agriculture, an old phenomenon that is currently conquering the urbanized world. In his chapter, Chiung-Wen Chang illustrates how a marginalized indigenous community manages to secure its survival by resolutely turning to organic farming. By organizing themselves in a cooperative and focusing on a niche market, the farmers (most of them elderly) have managed to keep the village and their culture alive. Their process of demarginalization was aided by an external advisor and by the advent of the Internet and modern communications technology. This example demonstrates that agricultural practice can be renewed by using the wisdom of traditional knowledge and solidity of collective action. Instead of following a market-based economic philosophy, the farmers privilege an ecological approach and market their products through a network of friends and followers. The second chapter by Yasutaka Matsuo describes the ups and downs of forestry in Japan. While traditionally forests served the domestic market, the inclusion of Japan during the Meiji restoration opened the country up to the world market. As a result, timber could be imported that was cheaper than Japanese wood. This process was aided by the gradual ageing of the rural society and the rural exodus. However, local and regional initiatives are sprouting and hope to revive local and regional timber production within sustainable forestry practices, also attempting to retain jobs and the value chain in the regions.

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Farming in towns may look as a contradiction in itself, but it is not new. In certain parts of Europe, allotment gardens have served as small-scale providers of vegetables and places of weekend relaxation since the nineteenth century, and they are usually situated right at the edge of cities. In the Global South, similar phenomena can be observed, as the chapter by Tony Binns and Etienne Nel illustrates. Urban farming may not be decisive for many people’s diet, but it can be a welcome supplement, providing in addition the satisfaction that one has grown one’s own carrots, potatoes, apples, etc. In areas with low food supply or during periods of scarcity, it may be the only way to provide urban populations with a minimum nutrition.

Chapter 11

An Alternative Agricultural Space in an Indigenous Community: Kalala, Taiwan Chiung-Wen Chang

The world wouldn’t stop running even though Kalala were gone… It is so minor among the mass [of indigenous communities]. There seemed no matter if it disappeared. But what you can do is merely to watch the place fading away.

11.1 Introduction 1

This initial statement was made on December 14, 2012 by Sra, a practitioner, who has conducted community empowerment around indigenous communities, especially in Kalala, for quite a long time. His words seem to show a sort of pessimistic fatalism with regard to one tiny village—Kalala, in east Taiwan, where he had been engaged in his action research between 2004 and 2011. This aging community looks as an angle mort, to use Reynaud’s terms (Leimgruber 2007, p. 2), running into a cul-desac in development. Unfortunately, Kalala is not singular of its kind. In retrospect, indigenous people in Taiwan have seen a long-term loss of land since the Chin Dynasty (Yen and Chen 2012), followed by colonialist suppression and expropriation during the Japanese occupation (Fujii 1997). After World War II, they remained in financial straits owing to local underdevelopment. As a great deal of indigenous

1 Sra’s autonym is Yan Jia-Chen, who is an ethnic Han. For he had stayed in Kalala for a couple of years and been enthusiastic over community building and agricultural development, he was given an Amis name, Sra, indicating ‘soil’, by Kalala’s chieftain to celebrate his friendship with Kalala’s inhabitants.

C.-W. Chang (B) National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_11

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youth moved out for jobs2 from villages, lasting out-migration has hollowed out their communities’ strength and brought their livelihoods to a standstill (Wei 2000). It is so-called ‘systemic marginality’ (Mehretu et al. 2000) that wrecks indigenous people’s self-correcting mechanisms, restraining both their socioeconomic welfare and the potential to bring prosperity to their own areas. Current studies on their situation in Taiwan mainly focus upon two issues: the first is to unfold their predicaments in urban life, and the other refers to incomplete social services and medical care in indigenous regions. Compared to an intensive concern with the deprived situations, less attention is paid to some subtle but substantial changes happening within some indigenous communities. However, the emphasis upon their marginality tends to ignore potential capacities of de-marginalization generated by local agents’ resistance to socially constructed inequities. As Leimgruber rightly argues, ‘marginality is not an end state without hope’ (2007, p. 8). This chapter is to explore a dynamic, but arduous, process during which the inhabitants living in indigenous regions have made an effort to find a way out. I intend to draw upon the developmental trajectory of organic agriculture in Kalala to reveal a process of ‘economic subjectivation’. The discourse of economic subjectivation is proposed by Gibson-Graham who argues that the locals should ‘assume moral force political priority’ (2003, p. 50) to restore their identity and capacity in order to resist a global imaginary of neoliberalist hegemony. It derives from what Foucault accentuates a moral task of tackling ‘relationships with the self’ by self-cultivating as ‘an ethical subject’ (Foucault 1985). Put in a practical context, one indigenous community, which is marginal to the mainstream vision in both social and economic senses, can have a chance to de-marginalise itself if only it cultivates its own subject by means of self-awareness and self-formation. Kalala certainly typifies most of the withering villages considering structural weakness, although the inhabitants, with financial and technical assistance from external agents, have initiated a participatory project of alternative agro-food production since 2009. But, it is not my purpose here to evaluate whether it is successful for the inhabitants to get rid of marginalization by developing organic agriculture. Rather, I intend to shift the question of ‘either/or’ towards ‘how-to’ do with marginalization by themselves from a post-structuralist perspective (see GibsonGraham 2000). The rest is divided into four parts. I shall first look into potential influences of market-oriented organic agriculture upon indigenous communities—which presumably aggravates their marginal situation. The second subsection turns to a changing agro-scape in Kalala. The third subsection discusses an alternative way to organic agriculture which demonstrates ways of ‘enacting the economic otherwise’, to use Leyshon and Lee’s terms (2003). A conclusion is made in the fourth subsection.

2 The indigenous people used to make up a deficiency of bottom-layer workforce during the period of

economic take-off. However, they have been continually expelled from the labour market, although only the lower level, owing to the transfer of industries and the immigration of guest workers over last three decades.

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11.2 An Organic Turn in Declining Indigenous Communities Compared to other sectors of the economy, agricultural production in indigenous communities is taken as a feasible way to make a living given their weak economy (Yen et al. 2011, 2012). However, its development is often restricted by certain arduous limits, including less capital capacity, distance from the market, as well as ecological frailty. Organic farming presents a shift from a ‘productivist logic’ to a ‘logic of quality’ on a base of social values involving public concerns with health and environmental sustainability, an expanding demand for food safety and local responses to global agribusiness (Conner 2004). Furthermore, premium prices in the organic sector are undoubtedly a substantial attraction to many farmers and merchants. Therefore, a transition from conventional farming towards organic one is widely acknowledged as a solution to the agricultural dilemma faced by indigenous farmers. However, it is worthy of note that the commercialization of organic agriculture has led to some adverse impacts upon the farmers. Organic certification is specially a controversial issue. According to the Agricultural Production and Verification Management Law launched in 2007, no product can be labelled as ‘organic’ in Taiwan without passing through verification. It is true that verification as a guarantee of organic authenticity has become institutionalized to win consumers’ trust. However, not only would the verification fees add to considerable cost, but a great deal of time-consumed red tape is also an invisible barrier for the farmers (Chen and Hsiao 2010). The implementation of verification management brings about a similar problem found in Mexico that the organic certification schemes, as González and Nigh criticize, “may introduce mechanisms of exclusion, creating an elite group of certified smallholders while putting non-certified farmers at a distinct disadvantage” (González and Nigh 2005, p. 449). The certification systems are ‘a top–down fashion’, and “[s]mallholder have relatively little control over the institutions shaping agriculture” (Holt-Giménez 2006, p. 2). The original claim of the organic movement for developing agriculture locally and sustainably is consequently held back. Especially, indigenous people’s traditional ecological knowledge can be institutionally depreciated by the so-called ‘scientific’ verification management. It is found that quite a few indigenous farmers, forcedly or voluntarily, practice farming irrelevant to local agro-ecologies in order to meet the standardized agronomic norms (Chang 2012; Hsieh and Wu 2010). As a result, indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge, labour value and even their bodies would be ‘disciplined’ again under a commercial force of green capitalism, which has been critically interrogated (Chang 2012). Considering a tendency that market-oriented organic farming enrolls indigenous farmers in a neo-liberalist modernity, there is a pessimistic attitude taken towards the development of organic farming among indigenous regions in Taiwan. This point of view, however, seems to be caught in a so-called capitalocentrism, as Gibson-Graham (2006) critically states, and which leads to some blind spots in analysis. First, the

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discourse of capitalocentrism is to equate ‘the economy’ with the capitalist logic which is an external force separate from the rest of our lives but bearing down upon everything (cf. Davis-Floyd 1992). From this perspective, the observation on organic farming in indigenous communities is confined to production, delivery, marketing and consumption in a functional sense, and focuses upon power relationships among nodes. Consequently, indigenous communities as a production site are merely a fixed node locked to production chains by putting the analysis of farming practices in an aspatial structure. However, agriculture is more than an economic sector; rather it is also socially embedded in a locality since its “spatialities intrinsic to actors’ actions that are themselves a mirror and reflection of the information, the prejudices, and foibles and the traits of the agents that perform them” (Taylor et al. 1997, p. 60). In other words, the locality where indigenous farmers are engaged with organic agriculture should be seen as ‘articulated movements’ (Massey 1994, p. 28) of social networks. If embeddedness of economic activities in social dynamics is overlooked, the diversity among indigenous communities would be largely ignored and the effort that an indigenous community makes in the context of its marginal status would only be partially analysed or even underestimated (cf. Granovetter 1985; Polanyi 1944). This is not to say that the commercial orientation of organic market and exclusivism of verification mechanism have little influence upon the development of organic agriculture. However, an overemphasis upon the domination of the capitalist market over the economy of indigenous communities is to presume the indigenous people as ‘the others of deficiency’ who are impotent to transform themselves to be an ‘economic subject’, to use Gibson-Graham’s terms (2007). The following reveals local engagement in Kalala to demonstrate a process of self-formation in response to a status of marginality.

11.3 Re-Labelling Kalala as ‘Coffee Basket’ Kalala is an ancient settlement belonging to the Amis people. It is located in the central area of east Taiwan (Fig. 11.1). In Amis language, Kalala signifies a ‘basket’ which refers to its terrain feature as a valley. It is one of three indigenous communities on the Wuhe Tableland around which the inhabitants’ land was expropriated for the purpose of developing a tropical plantation under Japanese colonial rule (Dai 2003). One Japanese entrepreneur obtained a reclaiming concession in 1930 and, accordingly, an area of about 400 hectares was planted with coffee for an increasing market demand in Japan (Huang 1953). The inhabitants, both adults and children, were enrolled as producers to grow coffee, together with some guest workers (who were the Han people, the ethnic majority in Taiwan) recruited from western Taiwan. The production of cash crops, in place of autarkic farming, has subsequently transformed the local agro-scape quite radically. The coffee plantation had become the largest one in Taiwan and experienced an increasing output exported to Japan one decade later, but it soon fell into disuse due to the outbreak of the Pacific War (Huang 1953).

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Fig. 11.1 Location map of Kalala

Coffee planting was abandoned after the War, chiefly for two reasons. Firstly, the scale of the coffee market shrank severely because the Japanese colonial government retreated from Taiwan after the War, and secondly the producers were not proficient in coffee roasting. To replace coffee, various crops were planted around Kalala and were changed frequently—from citronella to pineapple, cassava, then tea and so on—always in pursuit for higher-value commodities demanded in various periods (Chen 2008). This is an indicator that farming in this region has been highly commercialized, subjecting its output to market fluctuation. Kalala has not resumed coffee growing until 2002 owing to a rapid growth in domestic coffee consumption.3 Drawing upon the potential profit of its agricultural output, coffee planting on the Wuhe Tableland was greatly promoted by public sectors—although they provided little assistance in marketing. Kalala is part of Wuhe Village, administratively under the Ruisui County. According to the 2016 census, the population of Wuhe Village amounted to 1063 (of which some 60% are Amis), while the population in Kalala was 401 (of which some 80% are Amis). The Village has participated in the Rural Rejuvenation Programme4 for local development since 2005. Two years later, it was designated as one of the ‘Ten 3A

disaster occurred in Gukeng, a small county in the west of Taiwan, which was devastated by the 921 Earthquake in 1999. Coffee planting was one project to revive the local economy after the catastrophe. In 2001, the 1st Taiwan Coffee Festival was held in Gukeng successfully. This event contributed greatly to a coffee fever around Taiwan. 4 The Programme was sponsored by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau under the Council of Agriculture. The Bureau was originally in charge of infrastructure in rural areas and subsequently

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Classic Rural Villages’5 by the Council of Agriculture. Although Kalala’s inhabitants had been enthusiastic about the programme from the very beginning, they considered their endeavour had been largely ignored because most rewards and benefits were taken by the Han. The village thus became the victim of a subtle ethnic politics, which upset Kalala’s inhabitants. They received advice and support from some scholars based upon the National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), a local university, and decided to break away from the community association of Wuhe Village. An Amis-based association was set up in 2008. Based upon his long-term collaboration with Kalala, Sra undertook a comprehensive diagnosis and helped the association to propose a project in 2009. The association received a three-year grant under a programme exclusively for developing indigenous communities, funded by the Council of Indigenous Peoples. For Kalala, this was undoubtedly a crucial moment ‘to realise and to embark on seeking and acting some possible future in a process of praxis’, as announced in Kalala’s Community Log.6 Along with an in-depth survey for cultural revival, the project intended to improve community economy by practicing organic farming jointly. A cooperative farm was set up in 2010 by the association to take charge of agricultural production and marketing, starting with 15 members. Kalala had made several modifications in planting over the last 70 years, and a current ‘fashion’ has turned back to coffee, the first cash crop here, since 2002. Coffee has a unique association with Kalala’s historical memory, and the year 2009 was just about the time for the first harvest of coffee cherries, so it was chosen as the first produce for ‘brand’ promotion. The methodology for regaining Kalala’s prestige was participatory actions, and learning by doing together was the force at the core to move forward. The first thing was to turn conventional farming into a more ‘natural’ one. It was not simply a consideration of marketing. Actually, the ecosystem around Kalala had deteriorated seriously owing to a long-term undue artificial intervention in farming. By consulting with agricultural experts, the farm introduced two eco-agricultural approaches. One was Permaculture, which develops self-maintained agricultural systems that are modeled on natural ecosystems. Another was ‘bokashi’ (ぼかし) composting, devised by a Japanese agricultural expert, which nurtures beneficial bacteria to manure land so as to increase fertility via circulatory ecosystems. Besides, all members of the cooperative were instructed to carry out intensive field management in place of pesticide and herbicide—although the strenuous routine of field management was a tough job for the farmers, especially as most of them were aged. According to the agreement between the farm and its members, the farm would purchase all the produce from each member only if no pesticides or herbicides were applied to his/her field.

has been put in charge of rural revival since 2004. Therefore, the programme tended to focus more resources on the built environment than on community empowerment. 5 http://www.coa.gov.tw/ws.php?id=9826 [accessed 2017-05-23]. 6 ‘The logo of Kalala: The life in the Basket’ was a booklet published to demonstrate how the association was going to map out Kalala’s community building. It was subsidized by the Council of Indigenous Peoples.

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For the farmers, to grow coffee could be an easy thing, but to sell coffee is quite another matter. The farmers had proficient experience in growing coffee, but most of them have never sipped a cup of coffee. Sra believed that the farmers were able to produce quality coffee if they realized how to taste coffee. Therefore, the farm invited managers from two famous coffee shops in Hualien to provide a series of workshops to impart knowledge about coffee. In addition to provide a complete picture of the coffee commodity chain, the farmers were instructed to understand various flavours of coffee by tasting famous coffees from all over the world and also learned how to make a cup of coffee. Furthermore, the farm also arranged a couple of ‘fieldtrips’ to visit coffee shops, a completely new experience. By sitting in a coffee shop, it was the first time that the farmers experienced how a cup of fine coffee was served (and presented) at the consumption end of the product chain. Consequently, the farmers felt more confident in what they produced and in being coffee growers as they got a better idea about the market and their niche in the coffee industry. The cultivation of coffee was certainly an alternative training far beyond agricultural production itself, rendering the farmers’ knowledgeable producers.

11.4 Farming Otherwise There are quite a few inherent deficiencies in farm operations owing to the status quo of the community, among which three dimensions are particularly tricky. Firstly, the farmers are aged. Similar to most indigenous communities, Kalala has been suffering population decline population with an accelerating outmigration since the 1980s. According to my fieldwork, some inhabitants migrated to industrial parks around Taoyuan (in north Taiwan), Zhanghua (in central Taiwan) or Xizhi (at the periphery of the Taipei metropolis), and some, mainly male, worked in construction industry. Actually, most current members of the cooperative farm are returnees who came back around the 2000s because they were too old to work in factories or on construction sites. However, most members of the younger generation will stay outside the region. Out-migration of the young people implies a loss of manpower. The second refers to the scale of cultivating land. The land of the cooperative farm is an aggregation of individual fields belonging to each member. As farmers join or leave it, its scale changes.7 As mentioned, 15 farmers joined the cooperative farm in the first year, and the total land area was about 10 hectares. In the second year three passed away and three withdrew, although there were three other farmers joining. Therefore, the land area tilled was reduced to less than three hectares in 2012. Besides, most of the fields are odd pieces dispersed around the community. The scale has been enlarged year by year with the expansion of coffee growing and some other crops. Although it is now up to 10 hectares in total again, the production 7 The

alternation of members represents micro-politics within the community, but there is no space to discuss in this chapter.

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volume is not big enough to attract wholesalers. In the current scale economy, a limited production cannot be marketed easily. Thirdly, as discussed in the previous section, the farmers have insufficient capital to pay the fees for organic certification. Therefore, compared to a capital-intensive farm, it is not easy to get access to the mainstream market. From a productivist perspective, all three points above are unfavorable for the farm to compete in the market. Because those productive problems were too thorny to cope with by following the ordinary business logic, the farm and its members decided to take alternative ‘solutions’. First, ‘malapaliw’, a traditional custom to exchange labour during the rush season, was carried out to deal with labour shortage. The members contributed their time and labour to each other by turns. Owing to their joint efforts, they were able to collect the coffee cherries on time. Second, with regard to agricultural output, the farm has persuaded its members to give up one-crop farming. Instead of running after maximum productivity by focusing on monoculture, an ecological concept of ‘food forest’ was introduced to encourage the members to diversify their planting. What we can see in the field is not merely coffee trees, but also rice, pineapples and other fruits. Various products were collected at different times according to their growth periods. By doing so, the members could make sure to yield various products all year round and reduce a risk of fluctuant prices. It is worthy to mention that, although the production volume was really not as abundant as on other farms, revenues were basically sufficient to the members—because most of them were elderly and needed not to provide for the livelihoods of an entire family. For Kalala’s farmers, marketing is the most difficult task to handle. It is much more than an issue of geographical distance from the market. Rather, the productivist model pursuing commercialization, commodification and industrialization of agriculture is not compatible with autarky and collectivism of indigenous cultures. Generally speaking, farmers often sell their products to wholesalers. This is partly because they have no idea about retail prices and partly because the latter can pay directly by cash. But the products are always unreasonably undervalued by wholesalers. The common trick is that traders come to visit the farmers when the products are already ripe for sale so as to persuade them to reduce the price. One impressive example occurred in the year of 2009. One trader bid NT$4000 for a batch of pineapples, but the farmer refused at that time and turned to the cooperative farm for help. Eventually, the batch of pineapple was sold out for NT$40,000 in total. This incident confirmed the farm’s resolve to get rid of wholesalers. In order to give up merchant access to the retailer market, the farm had to build up its own channels. Sra’s friends, several staff from NDHU and members of some NGOs (i.e. the Hualien Permaculture Association and the Association of Taiwan Public Life) were the first group of consumers. They have been a great help not merely by ordering the farm’s produces. Of more importance, their personal network was conducive to selling promotion because the farm was able to reach potential customers through extensive social networks. The farm also received some visiting groups to understand how the farm worked with its members committed to recover the local ecosystem by farming in a more natural way.

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Sra left Kalala in 2012, and this pushed the farm to contact customers—maintaining current customers and developing new ones—by itself . The farm manager, Harosang, a young returnee, took charge of marketing. In addition to finding some friendly sale channels, the farm embarked upon making use of the Internet to release messages so as to reach distant consumers directly. Harosang was keen to be a storyteller to share the experience of daily farming on a Blog and on Facebook. This attracted many regular customers to follow the up-to-date news (including in-season products, ecological records, or even pictures of community life) about what was happening in Kalala. For example, the farm and its members could not afford the payment of organic certificates, but the farm tried to post many nature photographs to deliver an image of farming in Kalala—‘all the products are certified by birds’ because the local ecosystem was well preserved. Consequently, ‘to watch birds in our field’ has appealed to peculiar groups of customers via websites to visit Kalala in person, and which responds to the concept of participatory guarantee systems (PGSs) that the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has proposed on the base of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange. In addition to information delivery, the farm could also receive comments and suggestions from its customers directly and immediately. A direct contact via the Internet has become the best and the cheapest promotion by linking to friend-like customers. This is certainly an edged instrument for smallholders to strive for a niche market, although agri-business enterprises and retailers still dominate the major part of market. For the farm, on the one hand, their strategy of direct sale was not run on a commercial basis, but carried out by developing an intense long-term relationship and trust with its customers. On the other hand, the fact that the farm engaged with marketing by itself presents a transformation towards self -reliance. It can be evidenced by a changing structure of interactions among various agents. Figure 11.2 illustrates the change with a dividing line in the year of 2012. Figure 11.2a reveals that the intermediary agents had played a critical role in supporting the farm since 2009. The agents—Sra, the practitioner, in particular—introduced external resources (up-to-date agricultural knowledges, market channels, public funding, etc.) to Kalala and helped the planning of development. The farm operation was basically directed by the agents, while the farm staff learned on the job. After 2012, the staff had to run the farm independently. They continued to encourage their members to farm organically and maintained an original access to the market

Fig. 11.2 A change of interactional structure among agents (Own elaboration)

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and external resources; at the same time, they were keen to extend their networks in order to “reduce a risk of dependence on a single source of resources” (Huang 2013, p. 64). Additionally, a change occurred in the dimension of the information flow. Two aspects were involved in farm operations. One was farming knowledge, including techniques of field management and know-how of cost control; the other was the preferences of consumers and feedbacks from customers. As shown in Fig. 11.2b, the farm is no longer a passive receiver who obtains information indirectly. The staff made an effort to exchange information with external agents in more direct ways and diversified the objects. To sum up, the farm operation in Kalala has gone well beyond a productivity orientation. By understanding and accepting the local deficiencies, the farm has keenly turned its unfavourable conditions into a niche market. Besides this, the farm made good use of untraded networking with regard to dynamic learning via information exchange.

11.5 Concluding Remarks Organic farming can be a possible way to improve one’s livelihood, but it is uncertain. If farmers fail to get rid of the capitalist logic in production, the dynamics of the market may easily lead less-gifted farmers into worse marginality. But is there any possibility to promote locally-based livelihoods when linking farming to the mainstream market? The study reveals that the case of Kalala is a possible answer to this question. It is true that external support is significant to beef up a tiny community, but the effort made collectively by the inhabitants is the most crucial way to create a dynamic chance to overcome the disadvantages. Some inhabitants are keen to contribute to the development of the community economy by practicing organic farming as an alternative. All the strategies are developed along with the uncertain process of selfexploration, which contributes to cultivating ‘subjects’ for a community economy.

References Chang, W.-C. (2012). Reflections on indigenous people’s becoming as organic farmers: Knowledge, food sovereignty and body discipline (in Chinese). Taiwan Indigenous Studies Review, 12, 245–290. Chen S.-Y. (2008). The study of the agriculture development in Wuhe Area: A historical perspective (in Chinese). Department of Public Administration Hualien, National Dong Hwa University. Chen J.-T., & Hsiao K.-S. (2010). Development and prospect of organic agriculture in Taiwan (in Chinese). Agricultural Extension, 233–238. Conner, D. (2004). Expressing values in agricultural markets: An economic policy perspective. Agriculture and Human Values, 21, 27–35. Dai, Z.-F. (2003). Cultural production and cultural consumption—Taiwan’s coffee during Japanese colonial period (in Chinese). Newsletter of Taiwanes Historical Association, 17, 23–43.

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Davis-Floyd, R. (1992). Birth as an American rite of passage. Berkeley: University of California Press. Foucault M. (1985). The history of sexuality, Vol. 2: The uses of pleasure. Pantheon: New York. Fujii, S. (1997). Japanese policy towards Taiwanese aboriginals (in Chinese). Taipei: Wen Ying Tang. Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2000). Poststructural interventions. In E. Sheppard & T. Barnes (Eds.), A companion to economic geography (pp. 95–110). Oxford: Blackwell. Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2003). An ethics of the local. Rethinking Marxism, 15, 49–74. Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2006). The end of capitalism (as we knew it): A feminist critique of political economy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2007). Cultivating subjects for a community economy. In A. Tickell, E. Sheppard, J. Peck, & T. Barnes (Eds.), Politics and practice in economic geography (pp. 106–118). London: Sage. González, A. A., & Nigh, R. (2005). Smallholder participation and certification of organic farm products in Mexico. Journal of Rural Studies, 21, 449–460. Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91, 481–510. Holt-Giménez, E. (2006). Movmiento campesino a campesino: Linking sustainable agriculture and social change. Food First, 12, 1–4. Hsieh, J., & Wu, H.-X. (2010). Cilakaiyan’s happy farm: A turning point and straits (in Chinese). Taiwan Watch, 12, 33–39. Huang, B.-C. (1953). Coffee in Taiwan (in Chinese). Quarterly Journal of the Bank of Taiwan, 6, 90–105. Huang J.-A. (2013). A study of the relation between community economy and social capital of community worker—A case of Kalala community (in Chinese). Hualien: Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University. Leimgruber W. (2007). Geographical marginality—Past and new challenges. In: G. Jones, W. Leimgruber, E. Nel (Eds.), Issues in Geographical Marginality. Papers presented during the Commission Meetings 2001–2004, CD-Rom, Rhodes University, Grahamstown/South Africa. Leyshon, A., & Lee, R. (2003). Introduction: Alternative economic geographies. In A. Leyshon, R. Lee, & C. William (Eds.), Alternative economic spaces (pp. 1–26). London: Sage. Massey, D. (1994). A global sense of place. In D. Massey (Ed.), Space, place and gender (pp. 146–156). Cambridge: Polity Press. Mehretu A., Pigozzi B. W., & Sommers L. M. (2000). Concepts in social and spatial marginality. Geografiska Annaler, 82B, 89–101. Polanyi, K. (1944). The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press. Taylor, M., Ekinsmyth, C., & Leonard, S. (1997). Global-local interdependencies and conflicting spatialities: ‘Space’ and ‘place’ in economic geography. In M. Taylor & S. Conti (Eds.), Interdependent and uneven development: Global-local perspective (pp. 57–71). Aldershot: Ashgate. Wei, M. (2000). A preliminary study on the basic structure of aborigines’ employment security system (in Chinese). Taiwanese Journal of Sociology, 24, 281–326. Yen, A.-C., & Chen, T.-Y. (2012). A study and analysis of the indigenous land system (in Chinese). Journal of the Taiwan Indigenous Studies Association, 2, 1–25. Yen, A.-C., Fu, X.-Z., & He, X.-F. (2011). The practice of sustainable agricultural development in indigenous community—A case study in Shi-Lei indigenous community, Jianshih Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan (in Chinese). Journal of Taiwan Land Research, 14, 67–97. Yen, A.-C., Lo, E.-C., & Chen, Y.-A. (2012). Incentives crowding out effect and the agricultural development of indigenous community: A case study in Quri Community, Jianshih Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan (in Chinese). Journal of Geographical Science, 65, 53–78.

Chapter 12

Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability of More Advanced Forestry Regions Yasutaka Matsuo

12.1 Introduction 12.1.1 Background and Aim This chapter examines the development and restructuring of Japanese forestry and the sustainability of more advanced forestry regions. Severe depopulation has made forestry difficult and marginalized forest regions. Regarding the population issues the countries in East Asia experience similar symptoms: ageing of the society, an uneven population distribution, i.e. overpopulated metropolitan agglomerations versus depopulated remote and mountainous rural areas, and a rapid decrease in persons engaging in primary industry. As they occurred earlier in Japan than in other countries, this research will be instructive for the prospects of forestry and the community under similar circumstances in the East Asia. The Yoshino forestry region serves as case study area. It has been the largest forestry region in Japan since the middle of the Edo era (18th century) to the second half of the 20th century. Though imported wood generally caused a decline of the domestic forest industry, the Yoshino forestry region retained its high position until the 1980s because it was appreciated for its high-quality timber and wood products. However, after the restructuring of the Japanese forestry regions since the 1990s, the sustainability of more advanced forestry regions including Yoshino became uncertain. This chapter aims to examine these processes and to explain the causes of decline, current conditions and struggles for the sustainability of more advanced forestry regions.

Y. Matsuo (B) Senshu University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_12

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12.1.2 Characteristics and Actual Conditions of Forests and Mountain Villages in Japan In Japan, land tax imposition on forests arrived rather late. Low-level taxation and tax upon the community were imposed by the government in the early modern days. Private and modern ownership of forest parcels was established in the modern days, that is, in the 1870s/1880s after the Meiji Restoration. In the early modern days, the usufruct system of the share by respective households in sato-yama (inner forest area) and the community’s direct management in okuyama (outer forest area) was devised and established in most rural villages in Japan. It was maintained until the introduction of the forest ownership and tax system in the 1870–80s. The transition from the usufruct to tenure system was under way in modern Japan, and the exclusive ownership right was strengthened in the course of time. Multitudinous forest uses prospered in mountain villages. In rural communities of mountain villages, two- or three-tier communal units were often active and shared their communal functions respectively: group-units of households, larger sectionunits of a modern village or village-unit in the feudal days, and group-units of larger sections. Forest uses are generally classified into two types; some are valley-units, where the unit was constructed by the river-valley communities, the others are hillunits, where the communities located on one mountain form a unit of social cohesion. However, since the late 1950s the decline and shrinking of multitudinous forest uses got under way and monopolization also progressed in silviculture. Silviculture means the artificial planting and growing of sapling. Depopulation in mountain villages usually occurred at the same time as the decline of various uses. Until the 1960s or 1970s silvicultural forestry advanced steadily, but imported timber gradually took the place of the ordinary domestic timber due to cheap prices and a change in lifestyle. The consumption of domestic timber declined to less than 30% in 1988, and dropped under 20% between 1997 to 2004. After then it has recovered step by step and its percent in 2017 is 31.5%. After the 1990s, new uses began to develop such as aromatherapy products, foresttherapy tourism including forest bathing and walking, and other kinds of wood products. Their economic importance is increasing. However, because the demand and importance of timber and silvicultural industry are still superior to the new economic activities, stable and enduring forestry and forestry regions must remain sustainable through innovative management. However, the actual conditions show that in many mountain villages it is not easy to secure forestry as a profitable industry. The retirement and withdrawal from the management of forestry and the ageing of its employees have continued since the 1970s until today. Since 2000–2010, the government began to take account of the environmental and welfare value of forests because it became politically and physically difficult to support forest and forest management from an economic point of view alone. Most mountain villages have lost their relative position since the late Meiji era. In spite of the increase in total population, the absolute number of population in

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mountain villages has stagnated until the 1950s, and in relative terms it decreased gradually from the 1890s onwards. Since the late 1950s depopulation has characterized mountain villages. Their share of population amounted to about 15–17% of Japan’s total population in the middle of the Meiji era, but is currently 4% or less. Abandoned fields and forest parcels whose owners are not clear are spreading.

12.2 Forest, Community and Silvicultural Forestry in Historical Dynamics 12.2.1 Land Taxation Epochs and Forest Mountains occupy a unique position in the Japanese land system. This becomes clear when the land system is examined by two criteria; the period of tax imposition and the degree and nature of wilderness/civilization. Land tax imposition depended upon whether the land belonged to the government or was in private ownership and was undeveloped wilderness or had been developed. Land taxation occurred in various phases (Fig. 12.1). The land tax was first imposed upon government-owned developed land and government-controlled developed land. Paddy fields were the typical government-controlled developed land. Later, a land tax was imposed upon privately developed land, particularly uplands and premises. As more premises than upland fields were developed/controlled privately, their land tax arrived later. Mountains were regarded as undeveloped wilderness until medieval days and no land tax was imposed upon them. At the beginning of the early modern time, mountains were partially incorporated into developed land. A part of the forests was used to get firewood, timber and food. But as the majority was still regarded

Fig. 12.1 History of land taxation epochs and epoch-making determinants. Source Takeuchi (1973), Kitajima (1975), Watanabe and Gomi (2002)

208

Y. Matsuo

as wilderness, the land tax was communally collected and its amount was low. In some places where mountains were periodically used for shifting cultivation, a land tax began to be levied. Currently, the government regards mountains as privately developed land, and the same land tax is imposed upon them as for fields. Sea and rivers have not been taxed upon as they are undeveloped wilderness.

12.2.2 Forest-Based Communities The communities that depend on forest resources usually have regulations within a community and among the communities because the sustainable use of forests often requires the management of wide forest areas. When the resources are exploited and are taken away from the mountain forest, the river valley generally becomes the mutual management unit among the communities. This is called the river-valley type. When the resources are consumed within the mountain forest, the whole mountain generally becomes the mutual management unit among the communities. This is the mountain type (Fig. 12.2). The forestry region is typical for river valleys, whereas grazing is typical for mountains. Within a community, the mountain area is divided into two sections; sato-yama (inner forest area, II in Fig. 12.2) and oku-yama (outer forest area, III and IV in Fig. 12.2). Oku-yama is again divided into two sections, the III and IV areas. The III area or nearer outer forest is managed and used by the community itself or by all of its shareholders, whereas the IV area or remoter outer forest is managed by the community and is usually used by those who pay the price and gain the right to collect specific forest resources for commercial profit. After the Meiji Restoration, the sato-yama (inner forest area) usually became the property of the households and the oku-yama (outer forest area) was usually taken over by the community.

12.2.3 Silvicultural Forestry Regions in the Early Modern and Modern Days Forestry from the 17th to the end of the 19th century is not same as current forestry. The methods of cultivation differed according to the volume of demand, use, physical conditions, and so on. In the Edo era, it was common to foster naturally grown trees of cedar, cypress or pine, record a periodical inventory of standing trees of each forest plot by height, diameter at eye-height and number, and do selective cutting when necessary. When the resources of standing trees were abundant, the forests were exploited but under careful management. Afforestation occasionally occurred in suitable plots, but the simultaneous planting of clearings was rare. Planting from seeds or in a clearing was selected according to quality, use, and climate. As the selective cutting of old trees was common, planting was restricted and complementary. Only

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

209

Fig. 12.2 Two types of the combination of mountain communities. I: premises and fields, II: inner forest (household’s holding), III: nearer outer forest (originally community’s direct holding), IV: remoter outer forest (originally community’s direct holding)

in the most advanced silvicultural forestry regions the clear-cutting of the standing trees and the ensuing simultaneous afforestation of a whole plot has been practiced since the Edo era. In the core area of the Yoshino forestry region it was probably done since the late 18th century. The forestry regions in Japan were founded in the Edo and Meiji eras, that is, during 17th and the end of 19th century, as shown in Fig. 12.3. The map is based

210

Y. Matsuo

on existing research, historical documents, and the compiled historical data of forest systems by the Forestry Agency and the commemorative books published by the Forest Owners’ Cooperatives, the District Forest Offices and the municipal offices. In the Edo era, exploitative forestry was managed by all the feudal domains, but it served the domestic and subsistence needs of each domain. These are not shown on Fig. 12.3, which displays only forestry with commercial transactions. Exploitative forestry was possible through strict management. The largest was the Kiso forestry run in Kiso and surroundings under Shogunate control. After the Meiji era, exploitative forestry disappeared due to the lack of control and the thorough consumption of the standing-tree resources. Several silvicultural forestry regions existed in the Edo era: Kitayama/Yamaguni in Yamashiro (Kyoto), Yoshino forestry in Yamato (Nara), Owase in Kii (Mie), Tenryu in Toutoumi (Shizuoka), Nishikawa/Naguri, Hanno and Oume in Musashi (Saitama and Tokyo), Sanbu/Sanmu in Kazusa (Chiba), and Obi in Hyuga (Miyazaki). Most of them were privately managed by many farmers, craftsmen, and merchants. Many cooperatives were organized and the respective production, processing and distribution structures and systems were created. Therefore, after the Meiji era, almost all forests were privately owned by the inhabitants and the rural communities. Only in the case of Obi in Hyuga (Miyazaki), the commitment by the feudal domain in the Edo era resulted in government-owned forests. After the Meiji Restoration, the confirmation of land ownership and the compilation of land register took place from 1872 to the 1880s. This land register was the first and of decisive importance for mountain ownership. The government demanded every persons, communities and organizations to present the proof of his/her/its exclusive land use or economic activity in each specific parcel to decide upon its ownership. As proof was difficult to obtain when subsistence use such as collecting firewood and grass for manure was practiced, not a few mountain parcels were enrolled in government-owned forest. Its areal differentiation reflects the degree of commercial use of forests in the Edo era in large (Fig. 12.4). Silvicultural forestry regions emerged in the Meiji era in the regions adjacent to the advanced forestry regions or the regions where woodcraft industry had prospered during the Edo era. Except for the regions mentioned above, it was not common in the Meiji era. Silvicultural forestry didn’t continue significantly in Japan until after World War II. Afforestation took place and was recommended to protect the regions from disasters and floods. The enactment of the Forest Law in 1897 had been along this line. Its revision in 1907 made management plans compulsory for state and public forest owners, and its revision in 1939 extended this to private owners with forests above 50 ha. These laws encouraged the creation of several new silvicultural forestry regions, but with limited effect. After World War II, the gap widened between the amount of cutting and planting, and frequent disasters and timber shortage resulted with the

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

211

Fig. 12.3 Historical Forestry Regions in Japan. Source Matsuo (2012), Nourin-Sho (1930–1934)

212

Y. Matsuo

Fig. 12.4 Areal differentiation of government-owned forest. Source (Rin-Ya-Cho 1970)

growth of afforestation and the expansion of new silvicultural regions. The decline of multitudinous forest uses and the monopolization to silviculture accelerated this movement. The area of planting in new mountain plots increased considerably since the 1950s and continued until the 1980s. However, after the 1960s imported timber gradually began to take the lead in timber consumption. As the domestic timber market and the craftsmen and carpenters did not respond well to the change in lifestyle of the people and their new taste in post-war Japan, the builders and the building companies purchased imported timber from the trading companies and thus became the major providers of houses and woodworks. This prompted the recession of traditional stakeholders of domestic timber business.

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

213

12.3 Fluctuations of Forestry After 1970’s and Its Areal Differentiation 12.3.1 Outline of the Depression The long-term change in timber consumption and tree planting, replanting and new planting in Japan is presented in Figs. 12.5 and 12.6. Figure 12.5 shows the total log production. It is the sum of total production of timber and non-timber.1 Until 1973 it exceeded 40 million m3 ; subsequently it declined to above 30 million m3 until the 1990s. However, between 1990 and 2002 it dropped to 15 million m3 , but demand gradually rose to about 20 million m3 in 2014. Figures 12.6a, b show that annual afforestation in state/government-owned forests has considerably decreased since the 1980’s compared to the waning but remaining afforestation in public and private forests, and that the expanding afforestation and planting in the new areas diminished considerably from the 1970’s to the 1990’s compared to the constant replanting rate in the cutting area. The lowest amount of log production was recorded in 2001. After 2001 to today, log production gradually began to increase. The area of afforestation was lowest between 2010 and 2012, but after 2012 it began slowly to increase. Anyway, the current amount of log production is less than half that in the 1960s and early 1970s, and the current area of afforestation is less than one fifth of that in

50000

3.5

45000

3.0

40000 35000

2.5

30000

2.0

25000 20000

1.5

15000

1.0

10000

0.5

5000 0

Total Timber

Total Non-Timber

Total Log

% of Nara Timber

2011

2013

2009

2007

2005

2001

2003

1999

1995

1997

1991

1993

1987

1989

1985

1983

1979

1981

1977

1973

1975

1969

1971

0.0

Fig. 12.5 Change in total log and timber production and the fall of share of Nara’s timber. Source Rin-Ya-Cho (1969–2015) 1 Examples

for non-timber are firewood and mushroom bed log.

214

Y. Matsuo

(a) 450000

2.5

400000 2

350000 300000

1.5

250000 200000

1

150000 100000

0.5

450000

2012

2008

2010

2006

2004

2002

2000

1998

1996

1992

1994

1990

1988

1986

1984

1980

1982

1978

1970

0

1960

50000

State-owned afforested forest

Public and private afforested forest

area of afforesta on ha

% of Nara'spublic and private afforested forest

0

(b)

400000 350000 300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 0

1960 1965 1970 1975 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

50000

area of replanring at the cut area

area of plan ng at the new area

area of afforesta on ha

Fig. 12.6 a Change in the area of afforested forest. b Change in the share between replanting and expanding planting. Source Rin-Ya-Cho (1969–2015)

the 1970s and early 1980s. The policy of expanding afforestation after World War II was extended even to less favorable forests. During this time, as imported timber superseded domestic timber and dominated the timber market, expanding afforestation and newly planted standing trees lacked economic prospects but continued until the 1990s and was inappropriate from the viewpoint of forest environment. In 2001, the Forestry Basic Law was revised and became the Forest and Forestry Basic Law. It reconsidered the place of silvicultural forestry among the various functions of the forests. In short, after the 1970s, especially after 1980, Japanese forestry has passed through a long-term depression. In the middle of the 2010’s the actual conditions of forestry show symptoms of regeneration and clues to overcome its difficulties, but it is still partial and selective. Even when forestry gets out of its difficulties, the annual log production will remain below 30 million m3 .

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

215

12.3.2 Comparison of Vitality Among Forestry Regions Figures 12.5 and 12.6a also contain the annual rate of total timber production and of total afforested area in Nara prefecture. Nara dropped the rate from three percent in the late 1960’s to 1% and from 2 to 0.5% respectively. This suggests that once Nara used to be the most advanced forestry region but lost its advantage and superiority. In this subsection, it is examined whether more advanced forestry regions in Japan have generally reduced their vitality or not and the reasons why the Nara forestry region reduced its superiority. Tables 12.1 and 12.2 show the changes in rank of standing cedar and cypress tree prices by prefecture from 1997 to 2010. The national average prices of standing cedar and cypress trees were highest in 1980 (22,700 yen/m3 , 42,900 yen/m3 ), afterwards they dropped radically (3600 yen/m3 , 12,000 yen/m3 in 2005). Their prices in each prefecture follow almost exactly the national average. In Tables 12.1 and 12.2, the prefectures that advance in their rank above 11, and those that obtain or maintain their position within the first six are evaluated as vital forestry regions. To the contrary, the prefectures whose rank drops beneath 11 and those within the bottom six are evaluated as forest regions in decline. The prefectures with vital forestry are written in bold and the ones with weakening forestry are written in bold italic. “rs”, that is, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ) is 1-6D2/(N3-N). D is the difference of place/rank at time 1 and time 2. “Numerator”, that is, 6D2 and “Denominator”, that is, (N3-N) and “rs”, that is, ρ are calculated and indicated below in Tables 12.1 and 12.2. The “rs” value of 1 means no change in rank occurred between time 1 and time 2. A “rs” value of 0 refers to a complete reversal of rank. Hokkaido (1) and Okinawa (48) are climatically unsuitable. Both tables show that the period 2001–2002 experienced the largest and the period 1999–2000 the second largest fluctuation. Current vital prefectures of cedar and cypress forestry lie in Tohoku, Kita-Kanto/North Kanto and Kyushu regions, and Fukui (18) and Shiga (25) prefectures (see Fig. 12.7). On the other hand, declining prefectures of cedar and cypress forestry lie in Tokyo and its adjacent prefectures, a part of Kinai/Kansai and Seto-Naikai (Seto Inland Sea). This means that although some prefectures maintain vital forestry like before, recent forestry locations shifted from the adjacent areas of the densely inhabited main timber-consuming areas to the remoter peripheral areas such as the Tohoku and Kyushu regions. Regarding cedar, Chiba (12) as well as Nara (29) were historically the most advanced forestry regions (Table 12.1 and Fig. 12.7) and once occupied the first rank but lost this position in the early 2000s and in the latter 2000s respectively. However, Yamagata (6), Ibaraki (8), Niigata (15), Fukui and Shiga didn’t lose their high positions and Saitama (11) shows resilience to maintain its position until today. Among them Ibaraki and Saitama are the most advanced forestry regions. Regarding cypress, in ten prefectures the transaction volume of cypress has become too small to evaluate its standing tree price since the early 2010’s. It means in ten prefectures cypress is not grown in sufficient quantity in the villages to retain its standing tree market. This includes Aomori (2), Akita (5), Yamagata, Chiba, Tokyo

216

Y. Matsuo

Table 12.1 Change in rank of standing cedar tree price from 1997 to 2010 and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient code no.

prefecture

1997 rank

1998 rank

1999 rank

2000 rank

2001 rank

2002 rank

2003 rank

2004 rank

2005 rank

2006 rank

2007 rank

2008 rank

2009 rank

2010 rank

97– 99– 00– 01– 02– 03– 04– 05– 06– 07– 08– 09– 10– Σ of 14-year 98 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 variations

Aomori Iwate

12 20

12 18

12 20

11 19

13 18

12 15

16 19

19 22

15 18

22 13

11 9

11 10

8 7

7 8

Miyagi

31 16 9 10 6

29 14 8 9 6

36 17 8 7 6

35 16 9 6 8

31 17 4 5 7

32 10 2 4 11

32 14 4 3 12

29 20 5 6 11

23 13 4 8 10

23 17 3 6 9

25 17 3 4 10

22 19 3 4 8

16 12 3 10 4

19 12 1 9 5

13 30 4 1 39 19 7 3 16 5 15 28 21 23 27 10 11 26 24 37 2 22 33 41 17 32 34 25 35 40 38 43 44 20 45

13 28 5 1 45 19 11 3 14 4 15 27 21 29 26 10 9 23 25 42 2 22 32 40 16 30 37 24 31 38 34 41 44 18 43

12 28 13 5 45 43 10 4 14 2 15 29 21 25 24 7 3 23 31 40 1 17 27 36 18 26 30 22 33 37 32 41 44 20 42

10 25 3 12 45 42 11 9 14 8 19 29 22 20 23 6 2 26 33 38 1 15 30 32 16 24 36 21 28 34 35 39 43 27 41

18 38 9 21 41 27 8 7 20 1 17 43 31 13 19 6 5 37 45 40 3 30 25 26 16 24 34 14 44 33 35 22 42 28 39

13 39 8 27 43 35 7 10 18 2 26 42 34 9 29 6 5 37 45 40 1 21 22 17 15 20 31 11 44 30 33 25 41 28 38

10 38 9 40 43 31 7 17 12 1 26 42 34 8 32 4 2 37 45 36 3 15 21 14 16 39 28 13 44 27 30 24 41 23 33

7 31 6 38 43 34

8 41 5 35 43 38

8 37 6 42 43 34

7 35 6 42 43 33

6 34 9 42 43 33

4 0 0 1 4 64 33 0 4 0 9 169 10 1 1 64 100 36 42 0 0 16 49 81 43 225 36 0 0 16 34 16 0 576 1 225

Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi Tokushima Kagawa Ehime Kouchi Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki Kumamoto

13 30 5 1 24 15 7 3 17 4 14 28 23 25 29 11 8 27 21 38 2 22 33 40 18 34 37 26 35 41 39 43 44 19 45

5 17 19 1 24 40 32 12 35 9 2 33 45 41 3 20 27 14 16 42 26 11 44 25 37 36 39 22 29

4 16 18 2 24 39 32 15 36 10 1 31 45 40 7 20 27 12 14 42 26 11 44 25 34 33 37 21 29

5 15 16 2 24 35 31 22 36 12 1 28 45 40 7 20 30 14 18 41 29 19 44 32 33 38 39 26 23

5 15 13 2 32 38 31 28 34 12 1 25 45 39 9 23 26 18 16 41 29 17 44 30 36 40 37 27 20

5 24 13 1 28 37 29 38 36 14 2 22 45 40 19 21 17 31 20 41 26 15 44 30 32 39 35 25 18

6 25 13 2 29 36 30 38 37 15 3 26 45 41 18 24 23 27 14 39 28 20 44 31 32 40 35 16 22

0 16 0 0 1 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 4 0 4 36 4 1 1 0 9 4 1 9 9 1 1 25 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 9 9 1 1 0 16 1 4 1 16 0 4 0 0 1 4 0 4

Oita

42

42

39

39

40

23

23

25

28

30

21

21

27

21

0

9

0

1 289

0

4

4

81

Miyazaki

36

36

35

38

37

29

24

18

21

19

13

14

11

11

0

1

9

1

64

25

36

9

4

36

1

9

0

195

32

31

33

34

44

36

36

35

30

28

27

24

23

17

1

4

1 100

64

0

1

25

4

1

9

1

36

247

1758 1680 5676 3660

16236

Akita Yamagata Fukushima Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama Chiba Tokyo Kanagawa Niigata Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu Shizuoka Aichi Mie Shiga Kyoto Osaka Hyogo Nara Wakayama Tottori Shimane

Kagoshima numerator denominator rs *1

0 4

0 4

4 49 4 9 1 0 1 4 0 0

1 1

4 1

1 9

16 16

9 9

16 16

49 121 25 16

9 9

1 1

227 112

9 36 4 49 0 0 0 36 4 16

9 0 4 1 1

174 234 42 67 47

1 4 0 0 0 1

1 1 9 1 0 0

4 1 1 0 0 1

119 355 225 414 281 941

4 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 81 49 1 4 9 0 0 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 64 16 4 1 16 9 1 4 0 1 0 4 16 9 49 36 100 9 1 0 4 4 25 1 4 0 4 0 1 0 0 1 16 4 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 25 1 0 1 1 0 16 0 4 100 25 0 0 9 4 36 0 9 16 81 0 4 4 16 169 0 4 16 4 16 9 0 1 0 0 4 0 9 0 9 4 0 64 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 49 4 0 49 9 1 9 16 144 9 25 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 1 1 25 1 4 16 0 36 9 4

1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 16 0 1 1 9 36 16 36 4 4 25 0 1 0 1 0 81 16

35 172 144 96 187 234 105 357 154 50 71 203 194 83 134 418 248 369 88 419 151 170 301 92 127 491 23 197 117

1 16 1 0 9 36 0 1 1 49 16 36 49 16 1 25 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 4 4 4 1 16 1 1 1 1

1 1 0 4 0 4 0 16 4 9 36 0 36 4 1 25 25 16 4 16 49 4 4 1 4 0 0 4 1

1 25 0 36 16 0 1 25 1 1 1 9 4 4 0 4 9 16 4 4 36 1 25 9 9 4 1 49 1

9 4 36 49 4 196 81 49 16 0 9 121 144 4 4 225 25 36 0 0 4 49 256 1 0 289 1 1 4

25 9 1 1 1 1 36 169 4 0 64 16 1 9 4 1 81 1 9 16 100 0 0 0 0 0 4 81 9 81 1 16 9 9 0 9 4 9 1 0 1

0 49 36 1 0 0 0 1 9 4 9 0 0 16 4 36 1 9 1 361 9 4 0 9 9 1 0 25 25

9 1 49 100 9 1 4 9 0 0 9 16

9

4 0 0 4 1 0 16 1 49 0 16

0 1

0

36

36

469

3996 5580 4188 1824 4044 1500 5082 2112

91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080 91080

0.98 0.98 0.94 0.96 0.82 0.96 0.94 0.95 0.98 0.96 0.98 0.94 0.98

Note (1) “rs” means the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Prefectures in bold Arial keep or raise their economic status, but those in bold Italic fell down it Source Rin-Ya-Cho 1969–2015

(13), Kanagawa (14), Niigata, Toyama (16), Osaka (27) and Kagawa (37) prefectures. They lie outside the range of silvicultural forestry of cypress, and it seems difficult hat they can recover under current conditions. The more advanced forestry regions such as Kyoto (26) lost their positions, and Nara and Saitama are at the peril of losing but are trying to get back their previous status. On the other hand, Iwate (3), Fukushima (7), Tochigi (9), Fukui, and Shiga kept or ascended to a higher place. Among them Tochigi, Saitama, Shizuoka (22), Mie (24) and Nara bear the more advanced forestry regions and make efforts in order not to drop from their upper positions. Vital forestry regions are composed of two types; the first type wants to maintain its high rank and even wants to achieve a higher position. Yamagata, Fukui and Shiga are examples for this type. The second type wants to improve its rank step by step although it was not superior before. This is characteristic for Iwate, Miyagi, Tochigi,

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

217

Table 12.2 Change in rank of standing cypress tree price from 1997 to 2010 and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient Code no.

prefecture

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

(Aomori) Iwate Miyagi (Akita) (Yamagata) Fukushima Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama (Chiba) (Tokyo) (Kanagawa) (Niigata) (Toyama) Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu Shizuoka Aichi Mie Shiga Kyoto (Osaka) Hyogo Nara Wakayama Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi Tokushima (Kagawa) Ehime Kouchi Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki Kumamoto Oita Miyazaki

Σof 14-year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 98–97 99–98 00–99 01–00 02–01 03–02 04–03 05–04 06–05 07–06 08–07 09–08 10–09 rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank rank variations

38 34 32 27 17 19 13 12 9 10 32 29 31 31 24 37 39 42 43 45 45 45 45 14 11 11 12 12 15 18 16 30 27 17 15 20 15 9 35 36 36 33 34 3 6 6 5 7 24 19 14 38 39 26 33 33 34 33 22 26 26 25 20 18 22 21 17 30 39 38 34 19 29 20 20 15 8 11 6 4 2 3 6 12 12 18 21 21 16 16 19 22 19 10 10 10 7 5 30 32 27 23 22 29 27 25 28 26 2 2 4 2 2 5 3 5 6 4 8 8 8 10 13 4 5 7 13 18 21 23 22 32 28 1 1 1 1 1 7 7 3 4 3 13 14 13 14 14 25 21 23 16 16 9 9 9 11 8 11 17 17 20 25 28 25 29 26 23 27 24 24 18 15 33 28 28 24 32 31 37 37 35 35 23 31 35 36 37 44 44 44 44 43 43 43 43 42 42 34 30 30 29 31 40 40 39 37 36 42 41 40 41 40 41 42 41 40 41 36 35 38 39 38

3 9 18

5 16 13 30 4 42 20 29 15 14 10 7 19 24 8 21 28 6 2 12 35 1 11 22 26 17 25 38 23 31 37 39 36 40 27 33 32 41 34

2 12 16

8 14 10 27 5 40 22 24

11 14

5 13 9 19 6 37

10 13

4 11 8 19 5

9 12

5 13 3 17 8

7 11

5 12 3 17 6

5 8

4 12 3 13 6

3 7

8 10 4 15 9

4 13

6 12 2 10 7

16

4

36

1

9

1

1

9

1

1

1

4

4

4

1

73

9

4

0

49

36

4

4

1

1

1

9

1

36

155

4

9

1

0

0

0

9

0

1

0

49

9

9

1

1

0

1

16

4

100

9

4 196

9 121

4

1

4

4

1

0

4

4

361

36 1 11 19 21 25 17 35 15 26 32 37 33 39 30 34 29 38 31

11 2 10 15 4 14 21 6 1 18

13 2 15 16 4 10 24 8 1 19

10 2 18 15 9 17 19 7 1 24

16 1 11 17 6 14 21 13 2 26

16 1 11 14 9 17 21 8 3 26

34 1 10 17 23 24 22 31 16

30 1 15 22 21 27 26 28 18

30 7 16 19 23 25 27 28 20

33 9 14 18 21 23 30 31 26

32 11 14 16 21 22 30 31 26

32 5 19 12 20 22 31 29 30

33 5 18 15 19 20 27 30 28

28 35 29 36 27 30 20 33 32

29 35 34 33 24 31 23 25 32

29 35 34 33 22 31 24 26 32

28 34 35 29 20 27 22 25 32

29 34 35 28 20 27 25 23 33

27 35 34 28 18 24 25 23 33

29 34 35 31 22 25 23 24 32

0

25

25

36

16

9

1

1

25

0

0

1

4

147

0

9

1

16

9

64

0

4

0

16

4

25

149

0

1

4

9

1

1

1

9

4

0

9

4

25 576

1

9

4

9

1 169

4

16

9 3 14 16 7 12 17 6 2 20

14

9 49

7 4 15 18 8 12 21 3 2 25

342

1

16

9 7 18 23 6 13 28 4 3 20

1

4

25

26

25 100 196

0 0 1

1 1

25

81

25

52 649 224

4

152

16 169 225

427

1

16 225 100 225

0

25

49

9

1

1

4

4

4

4

9

36

0

4

4

1

9

1

0

9

1

1

0

0

1

0

567 31

0

36

9

0

4

1

9

1

16

25

9

49

0

159

0

9

9

9

25

1

25

4

1

1

1

4

9

98

0

0

9

4

9

4

9

0

25

9

9

83

4

25

16

1

1

64

1

0

4

16

49

9

9

199

4

4

9

4

4

0

49

16

16

9

25

4

0

144

0

4

4

0

16

9

0

4

1

36

25

104

4

4

1

1

146

4

4

1

4

4

1

1

0

1

0

0

1

1

22

0

0

4

9

1

64

25

25

4

1

25

4

0

162

1

4

36

25

1 100

16

4

66 16

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

36

4

4

36

0

80

0

16

1

1

64

49

0

1

25

1

4

0

25

1

139

1

1

1

0

64

9

4

25

9

1

4

16

9

144

16

4

49

1

212

1

0

1

202

4

4

4

0

1

0

4

9

81

64

1

9

4

4

1

0

4

0

9

25

0

64

25

16

1

9

0

1

16

202

9

16

9

9 225

9

16

9

0

9

0

4

1

316

9

0

36

9

64

1

4

4

36

0

16

4

247

25

0

16

64

1

25

36

0

4

0

4

25

16

1

0

1

1

4

4

64

16

1

1

4

4

4

0

0

1

0

1

1

97

0

0

0

1

49

9

16

25

0

1

0

1

1

103

0

0

1

0

4

1

9

9

0

16

1

0

9

16

0

1

4

16

9

9

9

4

4

0

4

16

92

0

1

4

1

9

1

16

1

0

16

0

9

1

59

1

1

1

1

64

9

81

9

1

4

9

0

4

185

9

131

25

64

1

1

4

0

96

50

1

0

1

109

1

9

1

1

16

9

1

0

0

0

1

0

1

40

45

45

43

42

40

37

35

35

35

35

35

35

numerator

2640 1620 8832 4278

12198

denominator

91080 91080 91080 79464 74046 63960 50616 42840 42840 42840 42840 42840 42840

rs

0.97 0.98 0.90 0.95 0.84 0.95 0.95 0.96 0.98 0.97 0.97 0.96 0.97

*1

1

181

45

Kagoshima

number of objects

1

4

9

0

64

25

4

36

1

0 100

1

3336 2730 1776 996 1164 1200 1860 1236

Note (1) “rs” means the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Prefectures in bold Arial keep or raise their economic status, but those in bold Italic fell down it Source Rin-Ya-Cho (1969–2015)

Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima, that is, the prefectures in Tohoku and Kyushu. Current silvicultural forestry is becoming an industry suitable in the regions remote from urban areas.

12.3.3 Reasons for the Decline of More Advanced Forestry Regions: The Example of the Yoshino Forestry Region in Nara Compared with the national average price of standing trees per m3 , its price in Nara prefecture was several thousand yen higher. However, the difference began to

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Y. Matsuo

Fig. 12.7 Prefectures of Japan and prefectural code numbers

diminish since the late 1990’s and the price almost returned to the level of 2008–2009 (Fig. 12.8). Log prices on the log market are much higher than of the standing trees in the mountains. In 1980 when both standing trees and logs recorded the highest price, the national average and Nara prefecture prices of standing cedar trees were 22,700 and 28,700 yen per m3 respectively, while the cedar log prices were 38,700 (national average) and 78,300 yen per m3 of (Yoshino market). This log market was a famous producer-oriented log market. However, after that time both prices fell considerably. In 2008, the price of standing cedar tree became 3200 and 3800 yen per m3 , and the cedar log price 11,800 and 23,600 yen per m3 respectively. Nara’s rank of standing cedar price went down to rank 19 of 45 prefectures in 2009. Both prices of standing tree and log have fallen sharply, which made silvicultural forestry difficult to manage economically. Nationally, the price for standing trees fell by 14%, in Yoshino by 13%, and for logs by 30% in both cases, i.e. practically parallel. However, the net/real-amount price difference between the national average and Nara/Yoshino decreased from 6,000 to 600 yen (standing cedar tree), and from 39,600 to 11,800 yen (cedar log) respectively. Therefore, the decline of the net amount due to the price fall was larger in Yoshino forestry region. In this way, the

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

219

90000

20

80000

18 16

70000

14

60000

12 50000 10 40000 8 30000

6

20000

4 2

0

0 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009

10000

standing tree na onal average price (1 ) standing tree Nara price (1 ) log price at the Yoshino market (1 ) log transac on volume at the Yoshino market (

)

transac on amount of money at the Yoshino market (0.1 million yen) Nara's place

Fig. 12.8 Prices of standing trees and logs and the transaction volume of logs, Yoshino forestry region in Nara. Source Yoshino Mokuzai Rengoukai (1965–2008)

high evaluation of Yoshino forestry in the market collapsed, which made its forestry managers and owners refrain from cutting. The transaction volume of Yoshino log and timber decreased massively. As mentioned above, though similar symptoms were common at the national scale, the damages caused by the price fall was more serious in Nara due to the larger loss of the net amount. In addition, the high labor costs weighed heavier in Nara. Weed clearing, planting, thinning and felling were more expensive in Nara and the cost increased proportionally due to the steep slopes of the afforested forests and the existing employment structure that had been established for a long time. This worsened the profitability of forestry and the shrinking of forestry-related occupations, to which must be added the ageing of workers and retirement from forestry. Due to the conditions mentioned above, the status of Nara’s forestry in Japan declined in spite of the original high advantage and superiority.

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Y. Matsuo

12.4 Current Struggles to Recover the Economic Vitality of Kawakami Village: The Most Prosperous Silvicultural Village in Central Yoshino Forestry Region Since the Edo Era to Ca. 1980 12.4.1 Differentiation Among Central, Semi-developed, and Peripheral Areas The Yoshino forestry region comprises three areas, a central, a semi-developed, and the peripheral areas. Kawakami municipality is its core, Tenkawa municipality belongs to its semi-developed, and Nosegawa municipality to its peripheral area. Figure 12.9 shows the change in population of these three municipalities. The figures before 1960 reflect the population potential of each forestry area. However, they all have suffered from severe depopulation since 1960. As a consequence of such a long-term population decrease, many mountain regions in the peripheral area have almost completely lost their inhabitants. More than two-thirds of the original communities in Nosegawa municipality are at risk to become extinct within twenty or thirty years. An increase in second homes and the spreading of waste dumps and uninhabited land are currently occurring. Many large forest managers went bankrupt or gave up forestry activities. In the semi-developed area, many forestry-related establishments suspended their management. Few people currently manage and are engaging in forestry in Tenkawa village. As there are few possible alternative occupations due to the region’s remoteness, some municipal offices are eager to revitalize forestry, such as e.g. Totsukawa municipality. In Kawakami municipality in the central area, although the traditional structure and mechanism have been largely dismantled and many local managers have left

18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1900

1920

1940 Kawakami Totsukawa

1960

1980

2000

2020

Tenkawa Nosegawa

Fig. 12.9 Yoshino forestry region, Nara (29) and population change of three municipalities. Source Soumu-Sho (1920–2015)

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability …

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their profession and moved out to urban areas, the municipal office and a certain number of forest managers are eager to revitalize forestry.

12.4.2 Conditions so Far and Current Revitalization Activities The inhabitants in Kawakami village were traditionally engaged in various kinds of woodworking jobs and silvicultural forestry. Geological and rock-layer structure as well as the climatic conditions and steep slopes in the outer belt in south-west Japan favored the cultivation of cedar and cypress. Afforested forest was cared for by local managers named Yamamori (mountain caretaker) and their employees. As social cohesion was tight, the territory of each rural community was managed by its inhabitants, and as forestry required the participation of the entire river valley, the communities within the valley founded several associations to enhance their economic, social and environmental conditions. Local managers have succeeded from father to son for a long time since the Edo era. However, due to the decline in forestry and the preference for an urban and modern lifestyle, degradation and severe depopulation and ageing have threatened the existence of the Yamamori system which is nowadays approaching extinction (Table 12.3). Under these circumstances a certain number of local forest managers and the local authorities have made mutual efforts and executed policies to revitalize forestry. Local forest managers established the timber enterprise and cooperative Kawakami Sapuri in 2003. They intended to manage the forests and timber straight from planting through cutting, processing up to marketing. Regarding the latter aspect, they formed an alliance with the carpenters in the city who agreed to admit the quality of Yoshino timber. This activity has two striking points; one is the ingenuity to compensate the shrinking profits due to the lower prices of standing trees, logs and timber by growing seedlings to trees, cutting standing trees, processing logs to timber and using timbers straightaway, the other is the creation of job opportunities and keeping forestry-related profits and employments within Kawakami village. In this way the entire value chain remains in the region. Forestry business conditions are not secure yet. Kawakami Sapuri raised the number of takings and transaction volume once, but since 2007 business dropped again (Table 12.4). Kawakami Sapuri therefore strengthened publicity activity and became affiliated with new carpenters in the 2010’s who understand and utilize Yoshino timber, which improved its business conditions again. Moreover, in 2014 Kawakami municipal office established the Kawakami Shachu/Syatyu organization jointly with several forestry-related organizations in Kawakami village including Kawakami Sapuri. This means the Kawakami municipal office itself set about the task to re-activate forestry in earnest in order to overcome current difficulties and continue to exist as a more advanced forestry region. As they believe that the traditional elaborate production skills of Yoshino forestry and woodworking are important and involve irreplaceable possibilities in spite of the great change in the situations of Japanese forestry, they will continue to practice serious efforts and attempts for the future.

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Table 12.3 Decrease in local forest managers in Kawakami village Settlement/community Forest manager ca. 1940

2010 A

1940

2010

8 2 4 3 1 3 14 3

5 0 0 0 0 0 3 1

1 1 3 3 1 2 4 1

2 1 1 0 0 1 7 1

165 78 69 23 18 80 100 43

158 86 69 14 10 55 79 20

Shiraya

6

1

2

3

65

9

Ido Takegi

2 4

0 1

2 3

0 0

35 61

19 33

Ikari Simotako Shirakawado Sogio

4 8 4 3

0 2 1 3

2 5 3 0

2 1 0 0

58 55 37 32

55 21 36 23

Nakaoku Sedo Kitawada Kounotani Kamitako Kashiwagi

2 5 4 2 4 1

2 2 1 0 1 0

0 3 2 2 1 1

0 0 1 0 2 0

29 29 55 23 61 65

27 17 41 14 42 60

4 5 4 3 103

1 2 1 1 28

3 2 3 1 51

0 1 0 1 24

22 20 17 68 1308

4 9 7 19 927

Unokawa Nishikawa Ohtaki Terao Kitashiodani Sako Takahara Hitoji

Koudani Ohsako Obatani Shionoha Total

B

C

Households

Source Kawakami Municipality (1943) Note A: active, B: nominal, C: retirement

12.5 Concluding Remarks: Current Elements Required in Mountainous Rural Japan The restructuring, difficulties and the current development trends of more advanced forestry regions were explained above. In this last subsection, current elements or readiness required for the sustainability of mountain villages in Japan are considered. Due to depopulation and ageing, communities in mountainous rural Japan commonly have less power than they had previously. Domestic demand of log and tim-

0.8 1.8 2.8 4.2 3.4 2.8 2.5

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

– – 2350 2800 2500 2300 2200

Transaction volume (m3 )

– – 12.0 15.0 13.6 12.0 11.6

Price per 1 m3 (10,000 yen) – – 65 80 70 65 60

Number of contracts

Source Kawakami Sapuri Cooperative (2003–2009) Note A: Yoshino county and adjacent cities, B: Nara prefecture, C: Kinki region

Takings (hundred million yen)

Fiscal year

Table 12.4 Business conditions of the timber enterprise “Kawakami Sapuri”

4 5 7 8 8 7 6

Number of employees

110 91 86

Number of customers

78 76 74

A

86 79 82

B

% of total takings

99 89 89

C

12 Restructuring of Japanese Forestry and the Sustainability … 223

224

Y. Matsuo

ber will no longer reach the levels of the 1960–70s. Therefore, the people need to combine forestry with other businesses and also rely on outside support and help. The following three points will constitute important elements for revitalization measures: the relationship between communities and the municipality/municipal offices, the interaction between the inhabitants and the voluntary/subsidized supporters, and new local/regional values and identity. Firstly, the policy dimension of the community and the municipality, in a large sense, has to be observed. The feasibility of local/regional advancement policies considerably depends upon the relationship between them. Relationship between a community and the municipality is classified into four types; (i) Conflict: When a community belongs to the minority in a municipality, it often suffers a loss and falls in conflict with other communities and the municipality. (ii) Trade off: When a community has enough power, or has even a little influence on other communities, it can take its own way though it cannot expect any support from others. (iii) Case by case: Rural policies by the state, prefecture and municipality sometimes match sometimes, and sometimes not. Therefore, communities should set their activity priorities and prepare selective responses through regular discussions among community members in advance in order to enable a prompt response to external policies. (iv) Synergy: When the municipality is composed of similar communities, smooth synergies can occur among them. Kawakami village and its constituent communities are a case in point. Substitution has progressed since the traditional communities/municipalities of the Edo or Meiji era were merged to the current larger municipal unit. The current municipalities make use of the various subsidies of the state ministries in order to implement local vitalization policies. Therefore, traditional communities need to acquire the opportunities to participate in this scheme. In this sense, rural communities are expected to establish their current local identity in harmony with the larger municipality. It is also important to struggle how to make the purpose of current communities compatible with the intentions and interests of their inhabitants. Secondly, the dimension of the interaction between inhabitants and supporters must be observed. It is important to improve the economic and social conditions for rural life and the conditions of forest resources. Mingling with outside partners is necessary in order to secure enough people for work and life. Regarding occupation, individualization is under way. A certain amount of workforce is indispensable to keep the quality of the work. As a propensity of silvicultural regions, exclusive ownership has been kept by the inhabitants for private and communal forest and exclusive attitude was strengthened. However, flexible responses are indispensable under the severe depopulation. Immigrants, temporal residents of second homes, and outside supporters are precious. Policies began to introduce subsidized supporters in order to maintain and manage the facilities of rural communities. As Granovetter (1973) insisted, in the present days the function of ‘weak ties’ between the persons in the different surroundings, their lifestyle and sense of values is increasing in impor-

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tance. ‘Weak ties’ function as the bridge to combine ‘strong ties’. The ties between inhabitants and supporters have the possibility to create an alternative management system of rural communities and a new local/regional value and identity. The interaction between the inhabitants and the outside supporters is indispensable not only for forestry but also for new businesses and for creating rural communities with an adequate local identity. Thirdly, the new local value will necessarily relate to living conditions. The case of Yoshino forestry region illustrates that the transformation of the living conditions is under way. ‘What is to live’ as well as where to live and how to live are the indispensable targets to reconsider. Pursuing local identity is important for the future, and it is necessary for the thinking of local identity to touch upon ‘what is to live’ or what should we regard as the substantial living space in the present lifestyle.

References Granovetter, M. (1975). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78–6, 1360–1380. Kawakami Municipality. (1943). List of Households. Kawakami Sapuri Cooperative. (2003–2009). Data of timber transaction. Kitajima, M. (Ed.). (1975). Tochi Seidoshi II, Yamakawa Shuppansha. (History of Land Institution II). Matsuo, Y. (2012). Nihon-niokeru Ikurin Seisan Tokka Izen-no Rinya Riyou Zu. The JinbunkagakuNenpo 42, 1–30. (Forest Use Map in Japan at the Period prior to the Modern Afforestation, The Annual Bulletin of the Humanities/ Senshu University). Nourin-Sho (Ed.) (1930–1934). Nihon Rinseishi Siryo, vol.1–30, Rinsen Shoten. (MAFF; Historical Data of Japanese Forest Management System). Rin-Ya-Cho (Ed.). (1969–2015). Sinrin & Ringyo Toukei Youran, Rin-ya Kousaikai. (Forestry Agency; Annual Catalog of Forest & Forestry Statistics). Soumu-Sho. (1920–2015). Kokusei Chousa. (Ministry of General Affairs; Population Census). Takeuchi, R. (Ed.). (1973). Tochi Seidoshi I, Yamakawa Shuppansha. (History of Land Institution I). Watanabe, T., & Gomi, F. (2002). Tochi Shoyushi, Yamakawa Shuppansha. (History of Land Ownership). Yoshino Mokuzai Rengoukai. (1965–2008). Sozai Torihiki Shiryo. (Yoshino Federated Timber Market; Data of Log Price, Transaction Volume and Amount of Money).

Chapter 13

Urban Agriculture in Zambia Tony Binns and Etienne Nel

13.1 Introduction Rapid urban growth in many parts of the Global South, coupled with growing concerns over long-term environmental stability and food security in particular, have brought to the forefront questions of human nutrition and survival, particularly for the poorest urban residents. As this chapter will argue, with particular reference to the Copperbelt mining region of Zambia, in times of economic stress and job loss, and in the absence of welfare support, issues of access to the means of producing food have become a critical dimension of human survival and resilience. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2012) has recognised the key role that self-provisioning plays in terms of food for poor households in African cities in particular. What is now commonly known as ‘urban agriculture’ (UA) refers to the production of food crops and the raising of livestock within and around urban areas on either private property or common land (Mougeot 2000, 2005) In the countries of the Global North UA is also practised, and is associated with ideas of food sovereignty, organic and local production and sustainability (Thornton 2008). Research suggests that urban agriculture can make a significant contribution to ensuring food security, particularly among poor households. Estimates regarding the amount of food produced within cities vary widely. Within this context, urban agriculture (UA) has long been recognised for the critical role that it plays as an urban survival strategy in the cities of the South. UA plays a key role in supplementing the food budget, and often serves as a source of income, as well as playing a key role in livelihood diversification. This role has been further enhanced in the context of structural adjustment, the phenomenon T. Binns (B) · E. Nel University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] E. Nel e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_13

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of jobless growth, de-industrialization and rapid urban growth in the South. It is estimated that UA accounts for 20–60% of household income in Africa, while in some eastern and central African cities it is thought to account for nearly half of all vegetables and maize consumed by urban residents (Lee-Smith 2010). In terms of the number of urban households practising UA, estimates vary significantly, with Crush et al. (2011), suggesting that on average 22% of urban households in Southern Africa engage in the practice, with participation levels between individual cities varying widely from as low as 3% to as high as 64%. The UN estimates that some 800 million people are engaged in the process globally, which has generated over 150 million jobs, and which is particularly critical in cities experiencing low or even negative economic growth together with high population growth rates (LeeSmith 2010; Zezza and Tasciotti 2010). There is considerable evidence to show that a significant proportion of the products of UA are sold in urban markets, helping to satisfy growing consumer demand in burgeoning cities, and also generating financial returns for producers (Binns and Lynch 1998; Ellis and Sumberg 1998; Lynch et al. 2001; Simatele and Binns 2008). A survey conducted in the late 1990s by Smith in a number of West African cities found that urban agriculture accounted for between 20 and 60% of urban household income and savings (Smith 2001). Despite the significant role which UA plays as a food supplementation and employment strategy, some authors argue that its role has been overstated and that statistical evidence regarding its incidence is unreliable. Critics refer to seasonal variations in production levels, and the reality that in most cases local production only supplements what is bought in commercial markets (Webb 2011; Ruysenaar 2013). While there is no doubt that the actual role played by UA is not fully appreciated and understood, as we will argue in this chapter, in those cities which have been subjected to severe economic shocks with associated job loss and both food and economic insecurity, this role is particularly important. This is especially true in ‘mono-economy’ towns and cities, such as those on the Zambian Copperbelt—the focus of this chapter. In this region, the collapse of the mining industry since the 1990s has forced tens of thousands of people into poverty and economic distress, with the majority resorting to UA and the informal sector in order to survive (Fraser and Lungu 2009). Within this context, there is clearly a role for the state and local and international agencies to provide support, either through direct support, or by addressing structural and legal barriers, such as land access, which may be impeding the development of UA. This chapter overviews current research debates regarding UA, before moving on to detail the crisis in the Zambian copper mining industry and its mining centres, examining the findings of research into the nature, scale and incidence of UA in the urban centres of the Copperbelt region. As we will demonstrate, UA can play a significant role in livelihood sustainability for people of all social classes, who are desperate to survive and feed their families in times of extreme stress. Particular challenges are identified relating to land tenure and water supply, which could be alleviated through policy interventions to enhance productivity and security of tenure.

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13.2 Literature Review: Urban Agriculture in Africa ‘Urban agriculture’ in African towns and cities has received much attention in recent years, and usually involves the growing of crops (grains, vegetables and fruit) within the built-up area, most commonly in ‘gardens’ within family compounds, or in vacant plots (Mougeot 2005). Evidence suggests that UA can make a significant contribution to ensuring food security, particularly among poor households, as well as providing work in situations where there are high rates of unemployment. This has been particularly noticeable where structural adjustment programmes, leading to retrenchment of civil servants and others, have been a feature of the local economy. Research has shown that some of the food produced through UA is sold in urban markets, helping to satisfy growing consumer demand in Africa’s burgeoning cities, and also providing valuable financial rewards for producers and sellers (Binns and Lynch 1998; Ellis and Sumberg 1998; Lynch et al. 2001; Simatele and Binns 2008). A survey undertaken in 1996 in the rapidly growing northern Nigerian city of Kano, then with a population of about 3 million, revealed that considerable amounts of fruit and vegetables were being grown in and around the city. Most cultivators in Kano were men since, according to local Hausa Muslim law, women of child-bearing age must remain in seclusion. Whilst wealthy households and businessmen regarded fruit trees as a form of investment, resource-poor cultivators grew vegetables and fruit mainly for home consumption and sale. One large area of cultivation in the city was located underneath the Federal Aviation Authority’s transmission masts, an area that was opened up in the early 1980s with permission from President Shagari under his ‘Green Revolution’ initiative. Prospective cultivators must first seek permission from the Aviation Authority’s officers and land is allocated on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis. Vegetables and fruit were generally head-loaded or transported by bicycle to a local market on the southern edge of the production site, though in some cases crops were sold directly to local consumers, market traders and middlemen (Binns and Lynch 1998; Lynch et al. 2001). As in Kano, plot sizes in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city, vary considerably in size, but are generally between 5 and 15 m2 . The most popular crops grown are maize, cabbage, pumpkin, tomatoes, groundnuts, okra, beans, cucumber and sweet potato. As in Kano, household sustenance and income generation are the main objectives of UA in Lusaka. In Chilenje, a planned medium/low-cost housing area, 30% of respondents interviewed between October 2004 and December 2006 reported that urban agriculture contributed 65% of their vegetable requirements. In the poorer centrally located settlement of Garden Compound, 48% of respondents said that urban agriculture provided 75% of all their vegetable requirements in the rainy season when these crops are mainly grown. A female respondent commented, ‘Life in Lusaka has become difficult. Although my husband and I do not own land, growing our own food has helped us a lot because we are now able to feed ourselves and to save a bit of money for other things’ (Simatele and Binns 2008: 11). Meanwhile, in Grahamstown, located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, one of the country’s poorest regions, with an estimated 72% of the population

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living below the poverty line (Southern African Regional Poverty Network 2004), Thornton found 1080 occurrences of urban agriculture, some 947 of which were located in the ‘black township’ of Rhini, where most of the poorest and unemployed households live, and where 71% of households were subsisting on social welfare grants (Thornton 2008). Urban agriculture, on small plots averaging 1–2 m2 , was providing subsistence for the ‘poorest of the poor’, many of whom were trying to survive on less than US$100 per month. Among the poorest households, there could be a saving of up to US$25 per month from growing food in their gardens, though social grants, and particularly old age pensions, provided the majority of poor households with the means to purchase food. These grants were especially important in communities with a high proportion of people with HIV/AIDS who were unable to work. In Kampala, Uganda, Maxwell (1995) also found that poor and very poor households participated more in UA. This was confirmed in later research by Prain and LeeSmith (2010), who found that poor households in Kampala (Uganda) and Yaounde (Cameroon) were most represented in their study. A further study by Zezza and Tasciotti (2010) showed that in Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria, the poor had the highest participation rates, whilst the high income households generally participated the least. However, in Nakuru, Kenya, Foeken and Owuor (2006) found that the number of non-poor households (middle and high income households) participating in UA was about three times greater than poor households. Similarly, in Lilongwe and Blantyre, Malawi (Mkwambisi et al. 2011), and Harare, Zimbabwe (Nugent 2000), field research revealed that high income households dominated the practice. Recent literature has also drawn attention to the gendered nature of food insecurity, and the reality that female headed households are the most vulnerable to marginalization (Dodson et al. 2012). Greater female participation in UA has been reported in Accra, Ghana (Obuobie et al. 2004; Maxwell et al. 2000), Freetown, Sierra Leone (Idowu et al. 2012) Lilongwe and Blantyre, Malawi (Mkwambisi et al. 2011) and Enugu, Nigeria, where as many as 85% of farmers were found to be women (Chah et al. 2010). Cadzow and Binns (2016) found that in the aftermath of the decade long civil war in Sierra Leone (1991–2002), many of the women urban farmers in Freetown were war widows, who were often responsible for supporting orphaned children in addition to their own families. The overall significance of UA in Africa has been questioned in recent literature. Authors such as Crush et al. (2011) and Webb (2011) point out that many of the claims about participation rates in UA in South Africa, and a selected set of cities across southern Africa, seem to have been exaggerated. However, our detailed field evidence from the Zambian Copperbelt region, as presented below, suggests that such claims cannot be supported, and that the sheer burden of job loss and economic transformation has forced people into higher levels of dependency on UA than seem to be the norm elsewhere. A number of recurring themes feature in many field-based studies of UA, most notably the issues of tenure security and the need for better water supply in areas of cultivation.

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13.2.1 Security of Tenure Issues of legality and security of land holding are common in areas where UA are practised in Africa (Lynch et al. 2001). In some areas permits and leases are in place, but there are many locations where no formal agreements exist between cultivators and landowners (Smit et al. 1996). When public or private land is used without permission, cultivators can be seen as illegal squatters and may be evicted (Smit et al. 1996). A survey in Kampala (Uganda) found that 60% of participants used public land for cultivation, but only 10% had secure tenure (Smit et al. 1996). In Kano (Nigeria), tenure security was a major problem for cultivators across the city, with very few sites having security of tenure (Lynch et al. 2001). In Kampala, a ‘use-rights’ land market system exists where maintaining occupation has become an acceptable form of short-term ownership (Lynch et al. 2001). Meanwhile, in Kano, Binns and Lynch (1998, 785) found that land acquisition was largely on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Such informal systems of ‘ownership’ can cause conflict between the formal landowner and the informal tenant. A survey undertaken in Freetown, Sierra Leone, concluded that, ‘land hunger and insecure tenure arrangements are serious constraints for all UA farmers in Freetown, particularly as there is currently a lack of well-developed policies in place to regulate the use and management of municipal land for agriculture’ (Maconachie et al. 2011, 198). While tenure insecurity is most common among low-income farmers, in places where urban agriculture is officially prohibited by law, no farmers have rights to security of tenure. In Lusaka, urban agriculture is considered as an illegal activity within the city boundaries, and if public or private landowners choose to develop a site cultivated by an urban farmer, there are no avenues through which the farmer’s rights may be protected (Simatele and Binns 2008).

13.2.2 Water Quality The issue of water supply and quality has been identified in many studies of UA (FAO 2012). The contamination of water sources through inadequate sewerage provision or industrial wastewater discharge was a significant problem in Kano (Binns et al. 2003). In Kano, and elsewhere in Africa, it seems that financially strained governments, at municipal, state and federal levels, can no longer manage the environment effectively. Urban farmers often prefer to draw less-polluted groundwater from hand-dug wells or boreholes, where available (FAO 2012).

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13.3 The Zambian Copperbelt and Economic Crisis Zambia is a landlocked nation in sub-Saharan Africa, probably best known for its mineral resources, particularly the rich copper deposits situated in and around the Copperbelt Province. Today, although the economy shows some signs of renewal, Zambia is a poor country, ranked 139 out of 188 countries according to the Human Development Index (HDI), though it is classified by UNDP as a country of ‘medium human development’ (UNDESA 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016). Since the early years of the 20th century, Zambia’s economy has been dominated by the core industrial and mining zone of the Copperbelt Province (see Fig. 13.1). Despite the dangers of having a virtual mono-economy, by the 1960s the Copperbelt was regarded as the continent’s core economic zone outside of South Africa, playing a key role in giving Zambia a per capita GDP which was nearly three times that of other states in the region (Ferguson 1999). The net result was the emergence of one of the most urbanised areas in Africa and one characterised by considerable wealth and opportunity. However, this situation was not to persist, and by the 1990s economic decline set in, prompted by the falling price of copper, structural adjustment and state control of industry and mining (World Bank 2004). Ferguson (1999, p. 6), commented that in the case of Zambia, in what had been a ‘middle-income country’, ‘the African Industrial Revolution (had) slipped off the track’. In the 1990s, the privatization of state assets, including the mines and manufacturing industries, led to significant job losses, which in the case of the primary economic centre of Ndola amounted to the loss of approximately 75% of its manufacturing plants and some 9000 jobs in manufacturing by 2000 (PADCO 2001). Unemployment in the city rose from 13.5% in 1990 to 33.2% in 2000 (CSO 2004), and by the end of the 1990s it was estimated that 86% of the poorest people were engaged in the informal sector (NCC 2000; Fallavier et al. 2005). In the neighbouring Copperbelt city of Kitwe between 1992 and 2002, some 317 companies closed with a total job loss of 3499 (CSO 2007). Unemployment rose to 45%, and poverty rose to 75% in the early 2000s (KCC 2005a). Of the 47% of household heads who were economically active in 2005, only 36% were in formal employment, the rest being self-employed, including in farming and non-farming activities (KCC 2005b; Fraser and Lungu 2009). Another feature associated with economic decline in the Copperbelt has been the net out-migration of people, making the area a unique case of counter-urbanization in Africa (Potts 2005). Within this context, many thousands of people have resorted to UA as a form of livelihood support and to ensure household food security (Fallavier et al. 2005). Given the scale of the crisis in the Copperbelt, UA is beginning to receive formal recognition and support (Hampwaye 2008), thus justifying research into the role which UA currently plays and the potential for further strengthening this role.

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Fig. 13.1 Zambia and the Copperbelt

13.4 Methodology Using funds from the New Zealand Aid programme (NZAID), a field-based investigation was undertaken in the Zambian Copperbelt between 2010 and 2013. Collaborative links were established with the Copperbelt University in Kitwe, the University of Zambia in Lusaka, the Ndola City Council, the Ndola branch of the national Ministry of Agriculture and local NGOs. A research team of seven local students was recruited to assist with survey administration in the three cities of Kitwe, Ndola and Luanshya (see Fig. 13.1). Interviews were undertaken with a total of 61 key informants and 679 households were contacted to discover whether they were practising UA. Key informants were mainly representatives from local government agencies, such as the City Council or the Ministry of Lands, and NGOs working in the area. Further sources included local business owners, members of community organisations, church groups and school teachers.

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Of the 679 households surveyed for their urban agriculture status, questionnaire surveys were conducted in 326 households. In each city, one low income and one higher income residential area (based on municipal wards) was purposively selected and a smaller study site was identified within each. Questionnaire participants included both households who were engaged in urban agriculture and households who were not. A questionnaire was administered to every second household that indicated participation and to every third household that did not. This process was continued until a target of 45 completed questionnaires with households practising urban agriculture were obtained. In total, 4% of households within the six wards selected were approached and asked whether they engaged in urban agriculture, and 1.7% of households within these wards completed questionnaires.

13.5 The Urban Agricultural Response 13.5.1 The Role of UA in Households Table 13.1 indicates that 84% of the 679 households surveyed are practising UA, with a figure of 93% being recorded in Luanshya. These figures are very significant and indicate practising rates far higher than those found in other surveys in Africa (see Crush et al. 2010), suggesting that the level of economic stress in the Copperbelt has forced a very significant reliance on UA. This finding is in line with the conclusions of Mususa (2012) and Macmillan (2012), that the severity of the economic crisis, especially in Luanshya, has led to an increase in food self-provisioning and the resultant ‘greening’ of urban areas. The study found UA practising rates averaging 84%, which is significantly higher than levels reported from any other locations in Africa based on comparisons with available sources (see Crush et al. 2010). In Luanshya, some 93% of households surveyed practiced UA (94% in low density areas {i.e. middle or higher income}; 91% in high density {i.e. low income}). In Kitwe, the participation rate averaged 83% (low density 94%; high density 72%), whilst in Ndola the average participation rate was 78% (low density 81%; high density 76%). The remarkably high figures in Luanshya and Kitwe are probably directly attributable to the serious loss of mining

Table 13.1 Incidences of urban and peri-urban agriculture in households Area surveyed No. households No. households Total households practising UA not practising UA surveyed

Households practising UA (%)

Luanshya

187

15

202

93

Kitwe Ndola Total

196 188 571

41 52 108

237 240 679

83 78 84

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jobs (Mususa 2012; Key Informant (KI) interviews, KI 1, 2), whereas Ndola has a broader economic base with some important regional administrative functions. As interviews with municipal and government officials (KI 3, 4, 5) suggested, the practice of UA is widely regarded as one of the few logical responses to the scale of economic collapse which has affected the area. One Key Informant (KI 7) commented that, ‘there is a definite link between the decline of the formal sector and the rise of urban agriculture’, while another reported that ‘ex-mine employees didn’t want to work, but desperation made them resort to farming, and with time they have learnt to see it as worthwhile’. While there has been some improvement in economic conditions and employment levels over the last decade, particularly in the more diversified economic centre of Ndola, in the mining centres of Kitwe and Luanshya, while some mining jobs have been reinstated, high levels of unemployment remain, as does a continued acceptance of and reliance on UA (KI 8). The survey revealed that high levels of economic insecurity prevail, with 50% of respondents indicating that they suffered from economic stress, including that precipitated by job loss, while 56% believed that they are not economically secure. Some 90% of respondents practice UA to produce food and save money, and 50% of practitioners were forced into UA because of economic stress and/or job loss. As a result of practising UA and other livelihood strategies, 67% of respondents commented that they are now ‘food secure’ and 63% could meet their basic needs from UA and other sources. These considerations emphasize the value of UA as a viable alternative in times of economic crisis and job loss.

13.5.2 Employment In 51% of surveyed households UA is regarded as an important source of employment. From the sample of just over 300 UA practitioners, 111 full-time employment opportunities have been generated and 346 part-time/seasonal/casual opportunities created (see below). Rather than just being seen as a marginal activity, the employment generating capacity of UA is clearly significant. Key informant interviews clarified just how important UA was in sustaining employment and economic well-being at a time of economic transition, but also emphasised the key role which UA continues to play in the present context: – In Kitwe ‘60% of people resorted to farming and were earning an income by selling crops’ (KI 12). – ‘Ndola was a heavily industrialised town but, with the coming of privatisation, industry was paralysed and people resorted to farming’ (KI 13). – In Luanshya, mine closure ‘was prompt and everyone was taken by surprise… The only thing available for them (the ex-miners) to find an income was to fall back on farming’ (KI 14).

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Interviews with key informants and survey participants also found that even in cases where a stable income had been secured, many households, even middleincome earners, continued to practice UA out of fear of future potential job losses, and to ensure that a food ‘safety net’ is in place.

13.5.3 Class, Gender and Income One of the more surprising findings of the study is that UA is practised by people of all classes—varying between 72 and 79% of households in low income areas and 78–94% in higher income areas. High practising rates in the wealthier areas are accounted for by the better land access which this section of the community enjoys and, as multiple informants indicated, the precarious economic situation has forced all people, irrespective of income levels, to pursue alternative options, whether or not they have lost their formal sector job, or in anticipation of potential job loss (KI 2, 6, 9). Women were the heads of 45% of the 185 UA practising households in the survey, indicating the key role which women play in the domestic economy, often in the context of being the key breadwinners and heads of households. Survey results suggest that UA can be used as a means to enhance the livelihoods and well-being of women-headed households. The number of dependents per surveyed household ranged from as low as zero to noteworthy highs of 14. The average of 3.8 dependents per household would be considered high by western norms of approximately 1.7, and reflects on the low levels of formal employment in the area. Households tend be large, with an average size of 5.8 members, and many households had more than 12 members, reflecting prevailing dependency levels and perhaps the degree to which the extended family derives support from household heads. In terms of income streams, while on average households have 2.1 incomes, a significant proportion of this income is derived from informal sector and casual activities which are generally poorly remunerated and lack employment security, making UA activities all the more important to ensure stability. Table 13.2 indicates the employment status of household heads. Even though the unemployment level is relatively low at 8%, this needs to be seen relative to the high level of self-employment at 48%, and the reality that in the absence of a state welfare system in Zambia, the unemployed are forced to secure alternative forms of livelihood. Following on from Table 13.2, Table 13.3 indicates the significance of the informal sector, which contributes some 35% of all employment opportunities. The final tally of 451 is derived from instances where there was more than one income source available to the household.

13 Urban Agriculture in Zambia Table 13.2 Employment status of household heads

Table 13.3 Economic sphere of employment

237

Employment status

Total

Unemployed

29 (8%)

Employed

154 (44%)

Self-Employed

168 (48%)

Total

351

Luanshya

Kitwe

Ndola

Total

Formal

78

117

84

279 (62%)

Informal

61

42

55

158 (35%)

Unemployed

10

4

0

149

163

139

Total

14 (3%) 451

13.5.4 UA as a Source of Employment UA is both a family activity and a source of employment in 51% of surveyed households. 80% of households in wealthier areas employ someone to help in the garden or on the off-plot farm, while 24% have their family helping. By contrast, 23% of households in poorer areas employ someone to help in the garden or on the farm, and 76% of households have their family helping. Out of a sample of just over 300 UA instances, some 111 full-time employment opportunities have been generated and 346 part-time, seasonal or casual opportunities. Rather than just being seen as a marginal activity, the employment generating capacity of UA is by no means insignificant, indicating the diverse role of UA in providing a source of employment, food and income.

13.5.5 Sale of Products Among 269 reporting farmers, 37% indicated that they sold produce, suggesting that UA makes a useful contribution to household income. However, very few farmers were willing to estimate income derived from sales, but among those who did, it is apparent that income levels of over 1 million Zambian Kwacha (approx. US$200) were being earned per annum. In 39% of cases (among the 100 respondents selling produce) UA was the primary source of income, whilst for 44% it was a key secondary source of income.

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13.5.6 Food Security The majority of respondents (63%) stated that UA helps them to meet their basic household food needs, and, in terms of food security, two thirds of respondents argue that they are ‘food secure’ as a result. While allowing for site-specific variations, it is apparent that nearly half of vegetable and maize (the staple food) requirements were being met through self-production, suggesting the key role that UA plays in nutrition and food security in this income insecure area. It is apparent that nearly three-quarters of produce is consumed by the producing households, with less than 20% being sold, and the balance being given away. Once again, this emphasises the key role that UA plays in family nutritional intake and the lesser role played in income generation.

13.5.7 Land Access and Water Supply Most UA is undertaken around the house on the plot of land (214 cases), although off-plot farming is also significant (118 cases), while 64 respondents practised both. In terms of those engaged in off-plot farming, only a third are in urban areas, while the balance are in peri-urban and rural areas. The use of land for livestock is not a significant practice, with only 22 respondents (8.5%) indicating that they kept livestock. In terms of plot size, while size was difficult to assess accurately, backyard plots are generally less than 200 m2 , whilst off-plot farms are larger, averaging 3 ha and above. Respondents reported that most off-plot farms were accessed through family connections, though some 24% of those farming on off-plot sites admitted that they were effectively ‘squatting’ on the land. In this process the government had effectively no influence, supplying land in only 3% or cases. A shortage of land was identified by many respondents. A lack of planning in this regard was seen as an issue, with the Ministry of Lands criticised for not allocating urban land for farming or accepting the need for city-based farming. Several informants suggested that a system was required to allocate the limited available land and to manage land competition from other farmers, and also from urban authorities who perhaps wished to allocate land for housing or other purposes (KI 18, 19). The space available for backyard urban agriculture was indicated to be insufficient to address most household food requirements, hence the requirement for larger areas of land. One informant noted that plots are often now shared by more than one farmer, thus making farming unviable (KI 20). In Kitwe, inner city land is in short supply, whilst land on the periphery lacked transport to access it (KI 21). In all cases urban farmers rely on rainfall for production and occasional access to a reticulated water supply, or they farm in wetland areas. Whilst the latter can suffer from flooding, rainfall is often unreliable and there is a strong risk of drought, whilst reticulated water is not available in all areas, and where it is, it is often metered, which becomes unaffordable to use for watering crops by low-income households.

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As a direct result, accessing water emerges as one of the key constraints impacting on farming and is as significant a barrier as land access (FAO 2012). Water quality is an equal concern as wetlands and streams are often contaminated by urban waste, as are shallow wells which some farmers use (KI 22, 23).

13.5.8 Support for and Barriers to UA Only 15 out of 269 respondents indicated that they had sought support for their activities and only 14 indicated that they had received any. However, 80% of all respondents believed that UA activities deserved official support. In addition to lack of support, securing land access was a key problem for 80% of households. Support for the marketing of produce and with food handling was mentioned as a requirement which could increase both sales and income. Informants noted that production is dominated by particular traditional crops such as maize, fruit trees and the keeping of small animals. As a result, sales to formal sector retail outlets are limited, which often seek more specialised products, although a few respondents in Ndola mentioned sales to a supermarket (KI 22, 23, 24). In terms of environmental concerns, clear challenges exist. Several respondents mentioned the official discouragement of UA on river banks due to erosion damage, siltation and fertiliser run-off. Despite this, UA still occurred in these locations due to the need to produce food. Chicken waste and treated sewage were reported as being used as fertiliser, however, several interviews raised concerns regarding the threats from bacteria, including typhoid, the misuse of pesticides, heavy metal contamination from the mines (Kitwe), and UA creating malaria breeding conditions. Luanshya had specific restrictions on maize and chickens, because of their risk in encouraging mosquitoes and the spread of disease, noise and smell. Contamination was an issue from boreholes, broken sewage pipes, and from mining effluent seeping into running streams and aquifers, while the release of sulphur in the air mixing with rain and turning the land acidic are other concerns. A lack of education regarding fertilisers, composting and contamination was also mentioned (KI 22, 23). Irregular water supply and contamination of rivers and boreholes was a frequently raised problem in many areas and also, according to officials, a consideration which raises serious health concerns. In addition, the cost of reticulated water is a barrier to its use by many UA farmers. In terms of financial support, the absence of both state or private sector loans and investment in what are seen as marginal enterprises was regarded by many informants as a barrier to expansion (KI 24, 25). In terms of policy support for UA, the respective local governments have not been particularly forthcoming, varying from outright discouragement in the case of Kitwe and Luanshya, and the removal of farmers from centrally situated land, to a somewhat half-hearted effort in 2012 to support UA in Ndola. Lack of funds and technical staff prevented the implementation of identified support options, such as addressing key obstacles including land access and water supply, and supplying extension support and advice.

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13.6 Conclusion From the detailed surveys undertaken in Kitwe, Luanshya and Ndola it seems that UA plays a critically important role in urban livelihoods on the Zambian Copperbelt. Significant economic challenges and job losses have forced many thousands of people into unemployment, and a forced reliance on UA, and informal sector activities more generally, in order to sustain their livelihoods and to ensure their families’ food security. UA practising rates in the Copperbelt are clearly higher than those noted in many previous studies (e.g. Crush et al. 2011), which reflects directly on the extreme nature of the economic shock which the cities and their population experienced when the mines started to close. In this context of extreme poverty and disruption, UA has clearly come to play a far more important role than it has in some other cities and regions in the Global South. UA provides jobs and income, and helps the families who practice it to meet a significant proportion of their household food needs. The fact that well over two thirds of households engage in UA, including wealthier people, indicates just how important it is for all urban residents. The activity is, however, constrained by a range of variables, in line with what the international literature identifies—including land access and water supply. There is clearly an urgent need for urban authorities in the Copperbelt, and indeed in other developing cities too, to offer significant levels of support, in terms of ensuring access to land, affordable water, market facilities, and through extension support. Such measures would go a long way towards supporting what is clearly a critical form of self-help in poor, and perhaps not so poor, urban environments.

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Part V

Towards a Multifunctional Rural Space

As has been emphasized before, rural space is not limited to agriculture. Craftsmen were part of village populations and furnished an essential service for farmers. Mills transformed the corn into flour. Butchers and bakers furnished their products to people active in other services such as the clergy. Itinerant workers (carpenters, millers) were also part of the rural (sometimes also of the urban) scene. Nowadays, the rural space is becoming multifunctional (see also the chapter by Heffner in this book) while still retaining some of its traditional traits and helping to preserve local and regional identity. The three chapters in this part show the way rural areas are taking by including alternative energy production and nature protection as relatively recent activities in rural areas. Nature protection, while present in a specific form since the Middle Ages, has developed in a highly diverse way. The role played by craftsmen in our time is presented in the chapter by Kristijan Nemac and Stanko Pelc. They discuss the current situation and future potential of these activities in a small region in Slovenia. At one time, it looked as if mechanization and automatization had rendered crafts superfluous and that they were dying out. However, factory-made goods seem to have reached a certain point of saturation, and many people turn again to products made in a traditional way. They not only have an emotional value, but they also tend to last much longer than cheap factory-made items. A recent addition to rural activities is the generation of electricity through alternative sources (wind, solar panels, biogas), although they are not entirely novel. The use of water has a tradition that goes back for thousands of years, wind has been used in places close to the sea, and solar energy made trees grow which in turn produced firewood. Only biogas is a real innovation. Creating such new installations is controversial, however. In her chapter, Céline Burger presents a case from north-eastern France. Wind farms are a new element in rural areas and their arrival has been viewed with mixed feeling by the habitants. They need substantially large areas and cannot be placed at random. Installing a wind farm requires the mobilization of numerous stakeholders with different ambitions and varying interests. A discourse analysis of the stakeholders and the confrontation with

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observations in situ reveal potential conflicts. The projects are created in the common interest to comply with the energy transition, but benefits are defused and there are direct nuisances for the residents. To define the roles of the stakeholders in the decision-making process can help to understand the limits of energy governance and to identify the points of conflict. Urbanization as a global process has led to new demands on the rural potential, as can be seen from the last chapter by Steve Déry, Lucie Dubé and Bakham Chanthavong. The urban population is losing contact with nature and the rural space, and urban demand for resources often has detrimental effects on the natural ecosystem. Conservation seems therefore to be an ideal strategy to maintain nature quasi-intact, but it is not always beneficial to the local populations, particularly to indigenous people who are minorities and usually marginalized. Conservation as well as new potential income sources (cash crops, ecotourism) are external concepts, and the fast implementation of such innovations will result in the marginalization of local populations.

Chapter 14

The Role of Traditional Handicrafts in the Development of Rural Areas: The Case of Ribnica, Slovenia Kristjan Nemac and Stanko Pelc

14.1 Introduction Handicrafts played an important role in the economy of the pre-industrial era as they provided all the commodities required by people for daily life. However, specialized craftsmen were usually situated in the cities, where handicrafts were their main or only source of income. The majority of the rural population more or less relied entirely upon agriculture. The bare existence of those within this category was largely dependent upon natural conditions and the amount of land in use. In the areas with unfavourable natural conditions, such as the Ribnica valley, and other parts of what is today Slovenian territory, people were forced to find additional sources of income and therefore, started to practise handicrafts that are now considered traditional and part of the country’s immaterial cultural heritage. This heritage is often considered a developmental potential for the aforementioned regions that usually remained undeveloped and more or less marginalized. In this chapter, we present our research with the following goals: • To discuss important Slovenian traditional handicrafts, their spatial distribution, and past and present significance. • To analyse the present importance of traditional handicrafts through their inclusion in developmental plans at national and regional levels. • To present the importance of traditional handicrafts within the local economy (handicrafts in terms of traditional and globalized market demands, present traditional handicrafts, opinions of those involved locally)—the case of Ribnica. K. Nemac Science and Research Centre Koper, Garibaldijeva 1, 6000 Koper, Slovenia e-mail: [email protected] S. Pelc (B) Faculty of Education, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_14

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• To hypothesize the potential of traditional handicrafts for local development. One of the major problems that we encountered during our research was the lack of available data about the number of craftsmen. The secretary of the Regional Chamber of Crafts and Small Businesses of Ribnica admitted in an interview that now, following the introduction of new rules on personal supplementary work, even he does not know the total number of all craftsmen. He mentioned just 24 individual entrepreneurs that are at present cooperating with the Chamber. The resulting confusion has also been caused by the different status that craftsmen hold nowadays. Therefore, we had to adapt our methodological approach and so, firstly we conducted a literature review, before analysing the strategies for rural and regional development, and finally carrying out several interviews. The interviews enabled us to obtain more information and hear the stories of craftsmen and other important actors in the field. We focused on the Regional Chamber of Crafts and Small Businesses of Ribnica and the Handicrafts Centre in Ribnica, as they are the main institutions in the local area, which are responsible for the promotion and development of handicrafts. The former is more active in the field of legislation and assistance for entrepreneurship, while the latter care more about education and the promotion of local traditional handicrafts. We interviewed individuals from different generations, the first of which was a craftsman, Anton Govže, who has been working in this field for almost seventy years. Four years ago, he was awarded the honorary title “the oldest craftsman”. We talked to him about his experiences, memories, and asked him to compare the present with the “old days”. The second interviewee was France Jakliˇc, who retired one year ago. He attracted our attention, because he was able to perfectly adapt an old handicraft by finding new uses for its application. He first started by creating a big vessel for daily life (e.g. washing clothes), but with the development of washing machines and increased use of plastics, he had to find a way to survive in the market. As a result, he decided to change the size of his products and consequently, also their functional value. The next interviewee, Janko Marinˇc, is a member of the “middle generation” and a teacher at the secondary school in Koˇcevje. As a teacher, he has spent much of his time with the new generation of craftsmen. Marinˇc wanted to be creative and have a practical job besides teaching, so he enrolled in a course organized by the Handicrafts Centre. After only one year, he was thus able to engage in plaiting as a supplementary activity. Finally, we interviewed two representatives of the Ribrand, a brand that was founded by the Handicrafts Centre and the design studio Mashoni. This brand is important, because it has introduced a new innovative and design-based approach to traditional handicrafts. In the first part of the chapter, we briefly present the history of handicrafts and stress the influence that they have had on the local environment. Then we analyse the impact of globalization and reflect on the changes that it has produced at local level. Finally, we provide information on the role of traditional handicrafts in developmental plans before presenting some of the more interesting viewpoints of our interviewees from the area that is commonly known as “the Woodenwareland,” an area that received its name due to the long tradition of making wooden products for everyday use. The

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Fig. 14.1 Map of the “Woodenwareland” area

“Woodenwareland” includes the municipalities of Velike Bloke, Sodražica, Velike Lašˇce, Dobrepolje, Ribnica, Loški Potok, and Koˇcevje (Fig. 14.1). We conclude with an attempt to synthesise all presented facts and opinions.

14.2 Slovenian Traditional Handicrafts Throughout History One of the most noticeable long-term characteristics of Slovenia or ‘constants’ as Gams (1991) calls them is that the country has unfavourable conditions for agriculture. There are very few flat areas and even there, the level of fertility within the soil is often low due to the abundance of water. Some areas have harsher conditions for agriculture than others, the worst being in the area of the Dinaric karst. Despite such conditions, the land was settled in the past, but came to be a kind of settlement on marginal land—land that barely covers the cultivation costs and provides no revenue. It was possible to cultivate it and obtain yields sufficient enough to survive, although always at the edge of starvation. Any rise in population numbers led to a shortage of food, forcing people to search for an additional source of income, as there was no possibility of additional yields from the land available. There is no doubt that there is a lack of fertile land in the areas of the Dinaric karst, but on the other hand, there is certainly an abundance of wood. Farmers used it to make all kind of tools and many became quite skilful in the production of woodenware. During winter time, when they were not occupied with work on the land, they were able to produce wooden-

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ware—not just for their own needs, but for those of others too—and thus gained the possibility to sell some of their products and earn an additional income. However, it is not just the quality of agricultural land that pushes people towards the margin of existence, but also the quantity. Those small farmers who were dependent on a small piece of agricultural land were not able to survive on farming alone, even if the quality of their land was good, and therefore, they had to find additional sources of income, too. They could work for their wealthier neighbours who owned larger plots of agricultural land, or they could practice some kind of handicraft that brought them the necessary additional income. Different parts of Slovenia witnessed the evolution of various kinds of handicrafts that were largely dependent on local resources and cultural practices. It has now been more than 500 years since Frederick III issued the Peddler patent on 23rd October 1492, which was valid for Vojvodina Kranjska (Duchy of Carniola). The patent allowed farmers to trade with coats, canvas, butter, oil, livestock and wooden products. The inhabitants of Ribnica and the Koˇcevje area (two karst poljes in the area of the Dinaric karst that are surrounded by karst plateaus covered with vast forests) were pleased to get this opportunity, and with the proclamation of the patent, the economy of the area improved and provided small farmers with a modest, but constant additional income. (Bogataj 1999, p. 279). Trading with craft products had already been present earlier on. Janko Trošt (1950–1951, p. 36) mentions that woodenware was documented in Lož’s market document as a trading good almost more than a century before the patent was issued. Craft industries had already been developed in the Middle Ages where they, as Bogataj (1989, p. 7) claims, evolved with the development of markets and cities after the 13th century. In the 14th century, craftsmen started to unite and form guilds with the desire to protect their benefits. These guilds were very important for the regulation and development of craft industries in the cities. Crafts developed relatively fast in the cities, leaving craftsmen in rural areas unable to compete with the skilled professionals and their products, and accordingly, the practice of making handicrafts remained a complementary activity for them. In particular, they were mainly engaged in the winter months, when they could not work on the field. The interest in craft products produced by craftsmen from rural areas, who operated under the Peddler patent regulation, quickly spread beyond the borders of Vojvodina Kranjska and was not limited to sales at local fairs only. According to Trošt (1950–1951, p. 39), the products were also sold in Croatia, Koroška (Carinthia/Kärnten), Štajerska (Styria/Steiermark), Upper and Lower Austria, and Hungary. With the expansion of trading on foreign markets, the quantity of production had to increase, while at the same time it was also necessary to expand the range of products. As international trading increased, cultural contacts diversified and foreign workers immigrated, new crafts were introduced, which over time became traditional features, lacemaking being one such example (Bogataj 1989, p. 8). The mercantilist economic policy of the Habsburg Monarchy supported the development of trade and crafts, taking into account the importance of professional education for effective development. Under the rule of Maria Theresa, Austria tried to raise the level of education for its population, and as a result, also called for young and

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talented craftsmen to attend crafts school in Vienna. Interestingly enough, as Trošt (1950–1951, p. 37) notes, for some reason craftsmen were not searched in Ribnica or in the Koˇcevje area, where woodenware handicraft was most developed, but rather in other areas. The attempt was unsuccessful, because none of the craftsmen that entered the crafts school returned to their local environment to apply their acquired knowledge and practise his handicraft skills. In the 19th century, handicrafts experienced a major crisis since it could not compete with imported products that overflowed the local markets. The craftsmen were not organized and were therefore unable to act effectively for a better market position. Furthermore, institutional care for local craft industries was no longer a priority for the state, due to industrialization, technological changes and the establishment of commercial facilities (Bogataj 1989, p. 10). Due to the unfavourable situation of agriculture and handicrafts and because of unrealistic expectations, many people began to leave these marginal areas and migrated to America. Accordingly, the Austro-Hungarian Empire searched for a way to stop the flow of emigration. An attempt to improve the situation and social protection of working people and craftsmen was made in 1883 with the Craft Act. It introduced the concept of “domestic industry”, which declared that handicraft was no longer just a supplementary activity, but could also become the main occupation, if it was a traditional craft activity for a specific area and as long as craftsmen used local raw materials for production (Mohoriˇc 1950–1951, p. 15). After the First World War, the political map of Central Europe changed radically and these changes to the political map exacerbated declining economic conditions for crafts. Craftsmen from the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) were faced with a series of new obstacles. Selling their products on foreign markets became difficult if not impossible due to the system of import licenses and import duties. This created a serious issue, because for centuries they had focused on certain markets that suddenly were politically cut off in the light of the new national borders. Export and access to foreign markets was crucial for them and the loss of traditional markets came as a severe blow. The Craft Act of 1931 strictly separated domestic and professional crafts, and allowed the free sale of handicraft products at fairs and on market days. This improved the economic situation of traditional part-time craftsmen practising so-called ‘domestic crafts’ and thus, the act at least partially limited the damage caused by the loss of foreign markets (Bogataj 1989, p. 11). The interwar period also marked the time when the mechanization and electrification of production significantly changed the working process of those craftsmen, who started to use machines in their production (Mohoriˇc 1950–1951, p. 18). The period after the World War II was again unfavourable for craftsmen and the handicrafts they practised. After the war, the political and economic system changed and socialist Yugoslavia primarily invested in industrialization, and especially in the big industries. Anton Govže noted that the working area of all those craftsmen who had more than 70 m2 of commercial space was nationalized and organized into cooperative workshops or industry. This occurred as it was a political priority to electrify and industrialize a country that used to be backward and in large parts, very agrarian.

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Slovenia was an exception within the new federation, but the political priorities were the same for all entities. The federal and the republic’s government bodies were therefore neither interested in the training in nor the proliferation of local crafts production. Nevertheless, in 1946, a state-owned commercial enterprise collecting and selling handicraft products was established in Ljubljana.1 Bogataj (1999, p. 279) wrote that this came into effect with the aim of preserving and promoting local arts and crafts. In 1969, the Union of Craft Associations of Slovenia2 was founded, within which the Committee for Home and Art Crafts3 operated. In 1977, the year that Bogataj (1999, p. 280) marked as the beginning of a more promising period, this committee organized the first exhibition of Slovenian home and art crafts in Slovenj Gradec. The exhibition became traditional in the years that followed. Today’s Chamber of Crafts and Small Businesses of Slovenia has 30 sections, of which the Domestic Arts and Crafts Section is one. In the past, this section set up an expert committee, which was responsible for the development of professional standards for the products, paving the way for manufacturers to obtain certain privileges such as tax relief, as well as for improving the organisation of this field of economic activity. In the 1990s, the Chamber established the brand “Rokodelstvo—Art & Craft Slovenia”. This brand could only be used for handicraft products that had passed a rigorous technical evaluation by the committee, and for this reason it was also a synonym for the quality of products (Bogataj 2014, p. 41).4 At the beginning of the new millennium, handicraft centres were established in several places in Slovenia in order to regulate and improve the situation in the field of art crafts and handicrafts. It was intended that Ljubljana should become the main centre and thus play a connecting, promotional and educational role. On the other hand, regional centres were to focus on the development of handicraft activities, which were specific to each respective region (Bogataj 2014, p. 45). At present, there are a number of handicraft centres in Slovenia, but there is no network of centres as described above. There is a Consortium of Handicraft Centres that tries to connect some local and regional branches, but it is generally a private initiative of the Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia Ltd. The Chamber’s Domestic Arts and Crafts Section (Obrtno-podjetniška zbornica Slovenije 2017) has a commission that evaluates the products and issues certificates, thus enabling craftsmen to obtain certain benefits in the process of registering their economic activity and when selling their products with the issued certificate. The commission’s stance is that tradition must not be ‘conserved’ as this would lead to a certain decay, but it does acknowledge the need for innovative approaches to traditional materials and products, and accordingly its list of home and art crafts includes 46 different activities, the last one being “other unique products produced as an interpretation of heritage—or under the influence of new, including foreign, creative approaches and technologies in our culture or national territory”. The list 1 Državni prodajni zavod za domaˇ co in umetno obrt later renamed into ‘Trgovsko podjetje za domaˇco in umetno obrt »Dom«’. 2 Zveza obrtnih združenj Slovenije. 3 Odbor za domaˇ co in umetno obrt. 4 One of our interviewees does not have the same opinion as we present later on.

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starts with the most common traditional handicrafts such as pottery, ceramics, plaiting, weaving etc. The list of craftsmen and small businesses on the web page “www. rokodelstvo.si”5 contains about 160 addresses, but the page has not been updated for a long time, so it probably reflects the situation around 2010 or 2011. Nevertheless, it also exhibits a great diversity of activities that are considered to be domestic and artistic (handicrafts), most of which are traditional, even though they may have been modernized in the sense that they are now produced with the use of modern tools, but not through large scale industrial production. As can be seen from the map (Fig. 14.2), the spatial distribution of some of the most important traditional handicrafts follows a certain pattern. Pottery is more often present in the areas with an abundance of clay that is usually found in the valleys and on the planes. It is clearly visible that there is a concentration of pottery in the northeast of Slovenia, along the Drava and Mura rivers, as well as in the southeast, on the plane where the Krka flows into the Sava river. Lace-making is concentrated in the western pre-Alpine hills, with the most important centre located in Idrija. This former mercury mining town has a lace-making school that was established in 1876.

Fig. 14.2 Spatial distribution of traditional handicrafts in Slovenia in 1995 (Map adapted from original by Bogataj (1998, p. 247) (The location of icons showing certain handicraft is approximate and only serves to indicate the areas where the places where certain handicrafts are practised are. Due to the difference in scale the adapted map cannot present all the handicrafts with their location and the placenames as on the original). Map of Slovenia source Geodetska uprava Republike Slovenije, D96 1:1,000,000) 5 The

webpage of Art and crafts Slovenia.

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The most widespread handicraft is plaiting, present in almost all areas of the country. The most famous area for making woodenware is in central southern Slovenia, with the main centre in Ribnica (see location in Fig. 14.1), but this activity is also present in many other places. Woodenware includes many different products made of wood: from toothpicks to rakes, there are twenty different products altogether. Several places are very well known for a certain type of handicraft. To the northwest of Ljubljana, Škofja Loka and Dražgoše are famous for gingerbread hearts, and Kropa for blacksmithing. There are also several places, for example on the coast, where gift-making is common, while Gorjuše in the Alps, is known for pipe-making. In this chapter, we devoted more attention to the role of handicrafts in the Ribnica valley, where woodenware used to play an important role as an additional economic activity for centuries, a role that was maintained until recently, despite the changes of government, tax policy and other setbacks over history. Bogataj (1989, p. 41) wrote that the steady development of woodenware in this area was allowed to take place due to the overpopulation of the area. This resulted in a considerable workforce that was a prerequisite for the expansion of this activity. Besides, this area has all the necessary conditions for quality woodenware production, including raw materials, preserved local know-how and an open market for woodenware products.

14.3 Handicrafts and Globalization Globalization is a very complex process that is still the subject of debate in terms of the cultural, political and economic consequences it brings about, and there is no general consensus about its duration. Some authors argue that this is a relatively recent phenomenon that only developed during the 20th century, while others estimate that it has lasted for at least 500 years (Moˇcnik 2006, p. 9). Supporters of globalization are confident that it will bring about economic progress, wealth and prosperity for all those involved, whereas opponents argue that non-regulated globalization will create an even greater gap between richer and poorer countries. While extra profits are channelled into developed countries, thus increasing their wealth, the economies of peripheral countries are stagnating. As a consequence, they can provide lowpaid jobs only. The process of globalization gives us a sense of integration with the global environment and the accelerated creation of a homogeneous global society. Distances are shorter, time is getting faster, and it seems that we can jump to the other side of the planet with just one “click”. The development of new technologies has greatly facilitated communication and transportation between different parts of the world and consequently, enabled the creation of a global market, thus leading to an increased awareness of cultural differences and the spread of common aspirations. Nidhi Vats, who analyses how globalization has affected local handicrafts in India, also emphasizes the importance of the internet and new technologies. She writes: The Internet has helped this process, enabling business to communicate more smoothly and efficiently and sparking what some have called the “Third Wave” of economic growth. Even in India, in the local supermarket, different products of foreign origin catch the attention

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of its home consumers. The information flows so fast that many foreign fashion shows are run these days with models wearing the sarees designed by Indian fashion designers. This shows how tradition meets with modernity these days. Globalization has put both east and west into one compartment and makes a single village – a global village. (Vats 2014, p. 40)

We devoted the following text to the discussion on the impact of globalization and the creation of a so-called global village on the future development of traditional handicrafts. Vats (ibid.) notes that the crafts sector is very effective and important in economic terms, because it has very high added value in terms of low capital investments, as well as great potential for export. In fact, there is a high tendency to export in the sector, as both Vats (ibid. p. 41) and Jena (2008, pp. 19–20) note in the case of India; trade figures demonstrate an increase in the export of handicraft products. With the liberalization of the market, the cost of international trading has dropped and local products have also become attractive for more distant customers. Nevertheless, there is a downside to market liberalization. While local craftsmen have gained the opportunity to sell to new markets, they do now have to compete with cheap products from China. Chinese products have much lower prices than others due to the low cost of the labour force and mechanization of the production process. The United States Agency for International Development noted that Chinese companies excel at mechanizing the production process (cutting, sorting, packing, and so on) and using advanced technologies for machine finishing and coloring. Such innovations enable Chinese producers to create, by machine, near-exact copies of handcrafted designs brought in from other countries. According to buyers, it is now possible to produce almost any product more cheaply and efficiently in China than anywhere else in the world. (United States Agency for International Development 2006, p. 18)

For craftsmen, especially those from more developed countries, it is really difficult to compete with China, as well as with other states, where labour costs are low. In this regard, Pavle Hoˇcevar, secretary of the Regional Chamber of Crafts and Small Businesses in Ribnica,6 described the interesting experience of a local craftsman with an important customer. This customer demanded a lower price for the craftsman’s products, because he had an offer for the same type of products at a lower price. This is an explicit example of undercutting or unfair competition that forces craftsmen to lower the prices of their products, no matter how high their quality may be, so much so that their revenues become too small for a decent life. However, reduced prices are not necessarily the only nor certainly the best solution. Hoˇcevar suggested to the local craftsman above not to reduce the price, unless unavoidable, as the customer that asked him to lower the price had already really decided to buy cheaper products from the competitor. After a while, the customer returned and was ready to accept the normal price, because he came to the conclusion that the products he had received at a lower price were of so much lower quality, that in the end they did not bring him the expected profit. In this case, the proverb “We are not rich enough to buy cheap things” was proven correct and the customer returned to his original craftsman, paying him a fair price for his products and acknowledging the importance of quality. The growing 6 Obmoˇ cna

obrtno-podjetniška zbornica Ribnica.

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importance of quality over price has also been detected in interviews with craftsmen, who mentioned that there have been some shifts in attitude among certain peddlers and retailers that sell Chinese products, as they began to feel ashamed of selling products of inferior quality; as a consequence, they returned to selling the products of local craftsmen. The craftsmen should therefore be more focused on the production of high added value products, and as Hoˇcevar said, Slovenia should also concentrate on high quality “boutique production,” not cheap mass production. This ought to be an adequate strategy due to the lack of craftsmen and the fact that the demand for certain products is often greater than the production capacity of those craftsmen—a statement by both Pavle Hoˇcevar and Polona Rigler Grm (director of the Handicraft Centre in Ribnica). As already noted, the interviewees highlighted a certain change in customers’ behaviour who are now more oriented towards buying local products with a specific cultural identity. As a result of the neoliberal mantra, the economy moved away from Fordist norms of standardized mass production to more heterogeneous and specific products. This could now represent a great opportunity for craftsmen that come from an environment rich with stories and a strong tradition of handicrafts, like the Ribnica valley. This type of economy requires constant adaptation to market trends and therefore, “handicraft producers must be more responsive in adapting designs to buyer requirements, provide timely production and delivery, and improve quality and efficiency in view of increased price competition and consumer expectations” (United States Agency for International Development 2006, p. VII). However, according to our interviewees, this is certainly not a problem in our area of study, as it has often been stressed that Ribnica craftsmen constantly adapt to the market and consumer preferences, a trait considered to be part of their identity. It is exactly such an identity and the message that different products bear that are extremely important nowadays. Bogataj (2014, p. 40) highlights that the serial production of modern and globalized products completely ignored local identity, which could prove to be an important comparative advantage of handicrafts over industrial production. Handicrafts are strongly influenced by the local environment and therefore, craftsmen should seek different solutions to conserve and upgrade the local and regional specifics and integrate them into the global creative process. Hence, on the one hand, they should retain their local essence, but on the other, try to be globally comparable in a technological, aesthetic and qualitative way.

14.4 The Role of Traditional Handicrafts in National and Regional Development Plans As we have already mentioned, handicrafts have always primarily served as a supplementary activity that enabled people to earn extra money that either helped them to survive without starving or improved their living conditions. It was especially important during periods of crisis, and as several interviewees have pointed out, in

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particular for the period following the disintegration of Yugoslavia, when many big companies in the area went bankrupt in the early nineties. At that time once again, the production of woodenware was viewed by many people from Ribnica as an activity that could help them substitute the missing income from a lost job. The integral rural development program that began in the first decade of Slovenia’s independence in the mid-nineties, showed that people in rural areas did not consider agriculture as an activity that was able to contribute much to the development of their locality. It has been and is partly still seen as a basic rural activity that has to improve and become more efficient, but not as one that can play a developmental role, or that can greatly improve the economic position of certain rural areas. One reason for the attitude described may be the fact that Slovenia has unfavourable conditions for agriculture; another reason being that agriculture during the socialist period was not supported because farmers, as private owners of their land, were always looked upon as opponents of the system of social ownership. In socialist times, people in rural areas often demanded that the authorities build them a factory in order to make jobs available near their homes. Through the system of polycentrism and economic aid for underdeveloped areas, it often transpired that their demands were successfully met. Many important enterprises opened their branches in marginal rural areas, but most of them were closed soon after the introduction of the market economy as they were a political venture rather than a real economic investment. Therefore, people from rural areas did not see industry as a means of development for their area. The highest rank in their evaluation of developmental potentials has been allocated to (rural) tourism and of course, to their immaterial cultural heritage, including the knowledge of some old craftsmen, who still knew how to make different kinds of things. How traditional handicrafts play an important role in the development of their area (local community) has remained a mystery, but there did exist a certainty of the importance of preserving and further developing this part of their immaterial heritage. After accession to the EU in 2004, Slovenia also implemented the EU system of planning. The development of rural areas falls under the domain of the Ministry of Agriculture, with the plan for the development of rural areas between 2007 and 2013 having received an important role to traditional handicrafts, as can be seen from the following quotation: To raise the quality of life and increase the economic diversification of activities in the rural areas, it is necessary to make optimum use of the following advantages of Slovenian rural areas: • infrastructure availability, rich architectural, cultural and natural heritage as the basis for the development of alternative economic activities in the rural areas; • traditional handicraft as the basis for the development of entrepreneurship based on the advantages of the rural areas; • diversity of cultural landscape and the conservation of the natural environment as the opportunity for the development of rural tourism. (Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2007–2013 2007, p. 51)

In 2003, there were 1,262 family farms in Slovenia that were engaged in some subsidiary activity, mostly with tourism (337) and different kinds of services (261),

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while only 36 of them were engaged with a certain kind of handicraft. Two years later, the total number had almost doubled (2,148), and the number of farms with handicrafts almost quadrupled to 143 (ibid. p. 49). However, at that time in Slovenia, there were 77,042 family farms altogether and therefore the share of those having a subsidiary activity was still considerably small. The next rural development plan does not specify subsidiary activities, but the total number has risen considerably (Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2014–2020 2015, p. 44): “In 2013, there were 12,103 subsidiary activities registered in Slovenia, mostly for services with farm and forest mechanisation, activities related to food processing and farm tourism.” Traditional handicrafts were therefore not among the most common, hence their importance according to number cannot be evaluated as high, and their contribution to overall development is not very considerable either. However, without the ‘stones’ representing traditional handicrafts, the ‘mosaic’ of developmental changes in rural areas would not be complete and would lack the necessary picturesqueness and integrity. In the future, handicrafts could occupy a much more important role—not just at the individual level, but also at the level of the local economy. The neoliberal shift brought certain changes in the economic sphere that favour the development of small businesses and a constant search for niches. The modern market consistently demands more and more unique, healthy, “green”, and other kinds of special products. Traditional knowledge and innovative approaches to traditional products and materials represent a good potential, not only for farmers who have the talent and the need for additional income, but also for those who want to practise handicrafts as their primary economic activity, either in rural areas or in the cities. As globalization has facilitated access to cheap products from China, it has also increased the value of “homemade” products (Fig. 14.3). These products may have a higher price, due to a more expensive local labour force, local materials, and a low number of produced units. Given the higher prices, craftsmen have to choose a different approach to marketing and selling, and so must invest much more in the creation of the story that will be attached to their products and their unique identity. One of our interviewees, Janko Marinˇc, explained that he sells his products only at fairs, because in this way, he can explain the idea and story behind each product. A very interesting example of how to create a story that gives added value to the product is that of the ‘Ribrand’ trademark. Janez Mesariˇc, together with the Handicraft Centre in Ribnica, developed the idea to create a brand that would be an example of what can be done, with the knowledge they possessed and through locally available materials. However, to ensure the success of such a project, a story is required because, as the representatives of ‘Ribrand’ said in the interview. “If you want to sell a set of wooden spoons for 30 e, you need to give the customers something more than just the spoons”. Therefore, it is essential to create a brand that goes hand in hand with a particular story, so that people can easily recognize the identity of the product, which is of crucial importance for the successful sale of higher priced goods. ‘Ribrand’ is a successful mixture of tradition, design, innovation and youth, and as such, it can also be seen as a connection between generations. The lack of young craftsmen is one of the biggest problems in this sector, and the greater involvement

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Fig. 14.3 Traditional wooden plates and a woodenware bouquet “Ribniški pušeljc” made by Anton Govže (Photo K. Nemac)

of young people should certainly be one of the primary goals of every development program. Without that, sooner or later, more and more traditional handicrafts will simply become extinct. The inclusion of young people in traditional crafts through new designs and innovations, seems to be essential for the long-term preservation of handicrafts. This was taken into account in the preparation of the Regional Development Programme for the period 2014–2020 for South-Eastern Slovenia (2015). The main focus of the program is on the development of business incubators and on the education of young people in the spirit of enterprise, where the aim is to facilitate and speed up the opening of new start-up companies. The emphasis is also on the integration of handicraft skills into new enterprises, so the program concentrates on the lifelong education and training of the workforce in the field of traditional crafts. Education is important for the development of this field and essential for the expansion of handicraft skills among young people. The second key focus area of the program of regional development, with regards to handicrafts, is the vital role that traditional handicrafts play in the cultural heritage of South-Eastern Slovenia. In the program, the importance of cultural heritage in the construction of local identity is emphasized, as well as the role of traditional handicrafts for the development of sustainable tourism in this area. Strengthening local identity and an awareness of the importance of natural and cultural heritage preservation also play an important role in the Rural Development Programme of the

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Republic of Slovenia 2014–2020 (2015). South-Eastern Slovenia has many forests, which offers perfect natural conditions for the production of woodenware. Due to the long tradition, there is also enough general knowledge as well as a supportive environment for the opening of small businesses. A rich cultural heritage provides a good basis for the creation of a specific local identity, which could prove to be an important factor for new business opportunities. However, despite the fact that development strategies give great importance to the indication of geographical origin, such as “Ribniška suha roba” and other local brands like Art & Crafts Slovenia, the interviewees did not find it significant. They mentioned that the responsible institutions did not adequately carry out the project, and also that they did not see any sense in these certificates. They agreed that both indication of geographical origin and the certificate ‘Art & Craft Slovenia’, had a good potential, as they should guarantee the authenticity and quality of products, but as often happens, in practice matters were quite different. The expert committee that was entrusted to choose who should receive the geographical indications had met only once, so many applications remained unprocessed. On the other hand, the ‘Art & Craft Slovenia’7 certificate lost its importance, because almost all craftsmen who applied to get their products certified and paid for such certification, were granted it. Janko Marinˇc admitted that he was very happy when he got the certificate for his first three products, but when he saw what was happening and that it had no value anymore, he removed the mark. Another problem was that the responsible institutions did not sufficiently propagate the awareness of the significance of the trade mark ‘Art & Craft Slovenia’, as well as the importance of local and hand-made products. Franc Jakliˇc, for example, told us that this certificate should demonstrate that a product is not only more than just a craft product but also emphasize that it is handmade, traditional and is part of the regional cultural heritage. At the end, the interviewees also admitted that they do not need any special certificate if it does not bring them any financial advantages or other direct/indirect benefits. One important role of the state also needs to be taken into consideration when the possibilities of the development of rural areas are questioned. This role has been criticized by the interviewees, because they feel that the national authorities are not aware of the importance of handicrafts and do not do enough to facilitate development. One of the most problematic areas concerns the status of personal supplementary work. Anton Govže and Franc Jakliˇc (Fig. 14.4) stated that they would like to continue to work, but unfortunately the fiscal situation does not allow them to do so. They mentioned the fact that when they had the status of a sole trader, the state recognized normalized expenses to be as high as 80% of the price of the product. However, now they are retired, if they continue to practise their handicraft as a supplementary activity, the normalized expenses will only be recognized at 10% of the product’s price, which means that they have to sell their products at higher prices to cover all the expenses. Anton Govže also told us an interesting example of bureaucratic inadequacy. The wooden spoon does not get a certificate that it is handmade, if it is made of the wood of a tree that was cut down with a chainsaw. 7 It

is a certificate that proves the quality and the authenticity of the product.

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Fig. 14.4 Franc Jakliˇc’s Workshop. Years ago, the workshop was open to tourists and Jakliˇc demonstrated the manufacture of a vessel (Photo K. Nemac)

He agreed that for certain products which are in contact with food, some chemicals cannot be used, but that a chainsaw cannot be used to cut the tree was a completely absurd condition for him. Nevertheless, the opinion about the role of local authorities is rather positive. The municipality of Ribnica is considered to be at least trying to do something for the handicrafts industry. It financially supports the fair of “Wooden objects and pottery” and offers a free stall for local craftsmen. An important step was the establishment of the Handicraft Centre Ribnica, which is also funded by the municipality. This institution is certainly of utmost importance for the preservation of handicrafts in the local area. It organizes courses and workshops in order to transmit and develop traditional knowledge (Fig. 14.5). The director of the Handicraft Centre Ribnica, Polona Rigler Grm, admitted that the majority of the participants are usually older than 50 years whereas just a few are younger than 25. She also stated that almost none of them opened a business after the course, but that the majority were just there to learn something new. Janko Marinˇc pointed out the existence of the opportunity to socialize and spend free time with other participants, which is another important role of these courses, because it forms the basis for social development within the local environment.

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Fig. 14.5 Janko Marinˇc shows children how to make hazel “Vitre” used for weaving baskets (Photo K. Nemac)

14.5 Conclusions It is not possible to make a quantitative evaluation of the importance of traditional handicrafts for the local economy, partly because of a lack of adequate data and partly due to the fact that this is a very difficult task, considering that the importance does not only include the quantitative but the qualitative dimension as well. Our concluding statements are therefore a result of analytical introspection of the written sources about the topic, and the interpretation of the viewpoints and statements of our interviewees. We believe that it is possible to state that the pure material effect of traditional handicrafts has a marginal share in local economies, even in the regions famous for their traditions, such as the so-called “Woodenwareland”. The developmental potential of these activities measured in the number of new (part-time) jobs and their contribution to the total income growth of the local population is also very moderate. However, according to experts, as well as to those involved in handicrafts production, the social and cultural role of these activities is much more important than their economic function. They help to build the regional identity that is today, in postmodern times along with increased globalization, even more important than in the past. They connect people to their past and help them understand their origin.

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Besides, they can also play a cohesive role in society, by connecting people that are practising traditional handicrafts as a creative hobby, in a pristine humanistic way—which is crucial in a time of overwhelming virtual social networks. It has also been noted that people involved in handicrafts, either from an organizational or production side, acknowledge the fact that traditional handicrafts cannot survive in a conservative way, where they become a kind of living museological artefact and certain handicraft activities are performed only to be shown to a specific section of the general public. One of the authors of this chapter recalls a school visit to the blacksmith village, Kropa, at the beginning of the seventies, where one of the remaining blacksmiths presented how they used to produce nails in almost every house in the village. The blacksmith’s workshop had then already been transformed into a museum and the blacksmith was engaged in demonstrating the activity that had vanished, because of the industrial production of cheap nails. However, the local knowledge remained and some people still practise blacksmithing there, because they have found a niche in the market for handmade products. In 2013, we also conducted an interview with a blacksmith from another region, who had achieved great success with his artistic blacksmith products. He had developed new techniques and also started to organize workshops to disseminate his knowledge that were based on tradition and his innovative ideas. This is a perfect example of how exactly traditional handicrafts can be preserved. They have to be based on tradition, using traditional materials and the skills of predecessors. However, there has to be development, the innovative use of modern tools and the search for new niche products that also have a practical use and are not simply decorative. Only in this way can the market for handicraft products be enlarged and therefore, space for new craftsmen and handicraft businesses opened up. This is also the basic idea behind the brand Ribrand, although we cannot report that there has yet been any major shift in this field. However, there are some cases of good practice and we can claim that a major developmental potential of traditional handicrafts does exist in the innovative use of traditional knowledge for new products, which bear a strong local identity, thus reminding the user of the story behind. Our final conclusion can be that traditional handicrafts are often overrated in terms of potential, because they are considered to be an opportunity for new jobs in the same manner as they used to be in the past, which is of course false. The past cannot return and cannot be repeated. Therefore, it can be said that there is actually a hidden potential, because handicrafts can only provide decent earnings for innovative craftsmen that master the traditional skills and have ideas for new products, and who can find a way within the globalized market—even if it is just at a local or regional level. Taking this into account, it is therefore important to preserve the knowledge and pass on the skills from the older to the younger generation in order to have the opportunity to use this potential for the development and demarginalization of rural areas that have a lack of job opportunities.

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References Bogataj, J. (1989). Domaˇce obrti na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. Bogataj, J. (1998). Domaˇce in umetne obrti. In J. Fridl (Eds.) et al., Geografski atlas Slovenije: država v prostoru in cˇ asu, Ljubljana: DZS, pp. 244–247. Bogataj, J. (1999). Mojstrovine Slovenije: sreˇcanja s sodobnimi rokodelci. Kranj: Gorenjski tisk. Bogataj, J. (2014). “Rokodelstvo je gotovo jelstvo!”. In M. Korun Hoˇcevar (Eds.) et al. Delavnica, polna nereda: sodobni rokodelci in oblikovalci v Sloveniji, Ljubljana: Zavod Lab laar: Javni sklad RS za kulturne dejavnosti, pp. 39–49. Gams, I. (1991). The Republic of Slovenia—Geographical constants of the new Central-European state. GeoJournal, 24(4), 331–340. Jena, P. K. (2008). Globalization of Indian handicrafts: A human development approach. Orissa review 65(4), 19–25. http://www.orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2008/November-2008/ engpdf/19-25.pdf. Accessed June 06, 2017. Moˇcnik, R. (2006). Svetovno gospodarstvo in revolucionarna politika. Ljubljana: Založba/*cf. Mohoriˇc, I. (1950–1951). Problematika domaˇce obrti v zadnjem stoletju. Slovenski etnograf, ¾,1, pp. 9–27. http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-SF6A2HPM. Accessed June 06, 2017. Obrtno-podjetniška zbornica Slovenije. (2017). Predstavitev sekcije za domaˇco in umetnostno obrt. http://www.ozs.si/Zaˇclane/Sekcijeinodbori/Sekcijazadomaˇcoinumetnostnoobrt.aspx. Accessed June 04, 2017. Regional Development Programme for the period 2014–2020 for South-Eastern Slovenia. (2015). http://www.ribnica.si/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/5_rrp_jvslo_2014-2020_februar2015-2.pdf. Accessed June 06, 2017. Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2007–2013. (2007). http://www. arsktrp.gov.si/fileadmin/arsktrp.gov.si/pageuploads/Aktualno/Aktualno/2010/RDP2007-2013_ en.pdf. Accessed August 12, 2013. Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2014–2020. (2015). https://www. program-podezelja.si/images/Programme_2014SI06RDNP001_4_0_sl.pdf. Accessed June 06, 2017. Trošt, J. (1950–1951). Ribniška suha roba v lesni domaˇci obrti. Slovenski etnograf, letnik 3/4(1), 28–67. http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-3TM9KIAJ. Accessed June 06, 2017. United States Agency for International Development. (2006). Global market assessment for handicrafts. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADN210.pdf. Accessed June 06, 2017. Vats, N. (2014). Indian handicrafts and globalization: A review. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) 19(1), 40–43. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol19issue1/Version-4/H019144043.pdf?id=8721. Accessed June 06, 2017.

Chapter 15

Wind Farms in Champagne-Ardenne Region, an Assessment of the Acceptability and Local Governance Issues Céline Burger

15.1 Introduction In France, the law of decentralisation has been strengthened and, accordingly, energy transition issues are addressed at the local scale. However, the debate about energy policies has been established at the national level but should be implemented by local authorities. The ‘energy transition’ law endorses public authorities that want to delegate the competences to the local scale. Ségolène Royale, former Minister of the Environment, made it clear: “I want that the energy transition gains strength on 1 the ground in a very operational manner in the TEPOS (Positive Energy Territory)”. Such political discourses illustrate how competences are delegated to local authorities and competitive procedures between territories are used. Confronted with these responsibilities and needs to develop attractiveness and innovation, local governments try to include energy infrastructure projects in their development strategies. 2 In the Champagne-Ardenne Region, nowadays a part of the Grand-Est Region, local governments deployed energy transition policies by supporting renewable energy. This backing concerned particularly wind power, a branch of industry qualified as the ‘future chain’ by public stakeholders. This support and the massive development of wind farms in this region have caused us to question the territorialisation of such projects. We are confronted with a sparsely populated rural area that totally collapsed due to the project, partly because the coordination between local authorities on that issue is rather poor. For example, in the implementation process of

1 Tirs

Croisés itélé, 9 March 2015 retewetter by FrancEcologiEnergie 9 mars 2015. Region was created in 2015 by merging the former administrative regions of Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne, and Lorraine. 2 This

C. Burger (B) Laboratory HABITER, Reims Champagne-Ardenne University, Reims, France e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_15

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a wind farm, the decisions by the local authorities are often dominated by financial interests. The Grand-Est Region represents an interesting case study as it is a leading region in terms of power capacity installed in France with approximately 2.5 MW (estimation September 2015). The majority of wind farms are localised in the Champagne-Ardenne Region. This particularity is the result of incentives through regional policies in Champagne-Ardenne to develop wind power. Across a process implementation analysis, including conflicts and adhesion, we can better understand the social dynamics and policies following the energy transition in rural areas. Our purpose is to understand the role of local authorities in the implementation of the wind energy regulations. The lopsided relationship and the multi-scale decisionmaking process appear to compromise the sustainable integration of this policy. In the Champagne-Ardenne Region, the energy transition model is based on the development of renewable energy. And throughout the decision-making processes between stakeholders, a process of ‘negotiated territory’ is carried out through which it emerges that some stakeholders have difficulties to legitimate our expectations (Burger 2013). This chapter focuses on the Champagne-Ardenne government’s policy for a ‘new energy paradigm’. A lot of programs are emerging to ‘transform’ energy production, such as, for example, by developing wind farms. Focusing on those projects in rural areas is a typical example to study the interactions between stakeholders. The chapter has two aims: (1) To analyse the implication of stakeholders in the process of decision-making in order to understand the social effect of this project development. We suppose that economic globalization influences practices and processes during negotiations between stakeholders. This is a consequence of neoliberalism and raises questions about the limits of horizontal governance.3 (2) We want to question the development of this renewable energy and its appropriation by the citizens and if the local stakeholders will be capable to defend global interests in the decision-making process. This work is based on a doctoral thesis and post-doctoral research, aiming at understanding the evolution of governance in the case of energy policies deployment. For this purpose, we choose to study wind farm projects between Châlons-en-Champagne and Troyes in the Champagne-Ardenne region (Fig. 15.1). The methodological framework is based on studies using a qualitative approach with semi-directive interviews, participant observation, and data analysis (illustrations, discourses, media etc.). Afterwards, a crossover study of stakeholders’ discourses determined the role of each and revealed contradictions.

3 Horizontal

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governance provides to integrated all the project stakeholders in a decision making-

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Fig. 15.1 Wind farms studies in Champagne-Ardennes. Sources Conception Céline Burger, elaborated by Piantoni (2017)

15.2 Stakeholder Claims in a Negotiating Space Wind farm development in the Champagne-Ardenne Region is particular. The region does not have a good wind potential but despite of this is the primary wind farm region. The political ambition of local authorities was decisive for the development

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of renewable energy. The objective was to induce innovation and promote local development, but the articulation of scale decision-making could eventually limit the locale initiative.

15.2.1 Wind Farm Development: Innovation Policies Wind farm development is sustained by local authorities in Champagne-Ardenne. Throughout his discourses, the president of the Region exposed his ambition to sustain this energy. He considers green growth a new way of the economy and wants to promote the spirit ‘it is better to live together’. Furthermore, global energy production is important in Champagne-Ardenne: the region produces more energy than it consumes. The proximity with the Ile-de France Region (the Paris conurbation) explains this strategic positioning. Energy production in Champagne-Ardenne amounts to 42,246 GWh, against a consumption of 9,852 GWh (RTE 2014). Its approximatively 9% of the national energy production compares favourably with its demographic and economic weight (about 2% of the country’s population and its GNP respectively). The contribution of the Champagne-Ardenne Region to energy independence is important. Even if electricity production is predominantly based on nuclear power stations, the development of wind energy recorded exponential growth in the region since 2007. Thus, the Champagne-Ardenne Region has been the leading region of wind farms since 2010 (INSEE 2011). Long considered an industrially weak region, the local authorities want to change this image through the development of renewable energy and position themselves in this innovate branch. In 1987 already, even before plans for nuclear power stations and storage facilities for nuclear waste were implemented in the 1990s, a journalist qualified the Region as “Gold waste” region (Grosrichard 1987). The choice to promote renewable energy meant to seize development opportunities to provide an impulse for a new economic impetus. In the case of the ChampagneArdenne Region, this development not only fitted the national authorities but was a real willingness of local authorities. They understood the opportunities and menaces to the territory and accordingly developed a new activity (Woessner 2010). This is innovation policy according to Schumpeter’ definition (1942) and is a long-term growth strategy. To determine the innovation branch on the territory is to find the branch that is needed for sustainable growth. Technological capacity and technical progress are important indicators to identify a territory’s growth potential. The technological capacity is territorialised (Prager and Thisse 2010). Such territories of innovation change over time and in space. The vision of economy by innovation involves institutional adjustments. This is the sense of the Champagne-Ardenne development policies. The wind farm projects are a pivotal point of this strategy developed with tools for counselling, urban planning, training, thematic events, support by local authorities etc. The wind farm projects are a policy, projects that showcase local development. The evolution of the relationship between stakeholders during

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Fig. 15.2 Decisions making-process (own elaboration)

the decision-making process is useful to understand the spatial reorganisation that will follow the project. The coordination of stakeholders is therefore an important element in the new territorial planning (Fig. 15.2).

15.2.2 Local Initiative: A Difficult Way to Develop Projects In my study case in France, wind farm construction needs massive investments because the sector is structured like an industry and involves a lot of stakeholders. Wind energy stakeholders are manifold and the territory becomes a negotiating space between them. I call wind farm projects structured urban planning in rural areas (Burger 2013), structured because they need a new form of territorial organisation. Indeed, wind farm projects involve negotiations with many partners: financial, local, institutional, residents, contractors, and developers, but to find common ground

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and reconciliation between economic, environmental, and financial arguments is not self-evident. In our case studies, the implementation of wind farms has attracted new stakeholders (financial, economic) on the territory. The majority of the projects are installed and financed by companies and private investors. Outside developers are often called for the realization of wind farms projects. From an operational viewpoint, the rural municipalities do not have the resources and technical means to develop projects. An outside investor, aware of this, sums it up as follows: “At the local scale, studies can be realised on the municipal scale by a developer (on tender) or with a contract between the municipality and the developer (useful for a small municipality that does not want to invest but whose interests can be different from those of the developer because of a lack of transparence)” (Conseil régional de Champagne-Ardenne 2012, p. 25). In our case studies, the absence of competences of the municipalities as to the realization of wind farms led them to resort to external developers, but of course the price is also an argument. The cost for one wind turbine is approximately three billion euros in France; about 72% are for the turbine and its construction, 5% for feasibility and impact studies, and the remainder for all other expenses (connection to the grid etc.; Burger 2014, p. 203). This investment would be hard to meet financially by an individual investor or a small rural municipality, of which there are quite a few in our study area. Developers are emerging as an easy solution to develop projects. On average, a wind farm becomes profitable after fifteen years of operation. That time frame is not the same for an individual investor; the solution is to sell one part of a wind turbine to a financial investor and keep the other. A new purchaser often subcontracts the operational part of the wind turbine because the investor often lacks the competences in the field of wind energy. The differences between the cost of subcontracting and the sale of electricity represents the benefit for the investor. Investors often choose developers who sell the wind farm to subcontract the commercial exploitation: this is a win-win agreement. In the Champagne-Ardenne Region, more and more wind farms are redeemed by holding companies; for example, the Swiss municipality of Lausanne holds four wind farms via EOS, a holding mainly owned by private shareholders. The regional authorities have acquired the resources needed to develop wind farms by setting up a proactive political programme targeted at the creation of planning tools like SRE.4 At the local scale, the authorities sparsely used that tool because of their lack of competences, they often do not assume the role of ‘controller’ in the process of development. In the Champagne-Ardenne Region, the part of population employed in agriculture is 6% (against 2.6% in Metropolitan France), and agricultural land represent 67.8% of total area (in Metropolitan France 59.8%; Agreste 2013). The rural municipalities in our cases studies are often traditional with a large part of local farmers sitting on the municipal councils. Most of them are large landowners, real land managers, familiar to the needs of capitalization. The development of wind farms represented for them the possibility to diverse their activities and an opportunity to increase their

4 Wind

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yields. The first wind farm had been developed by a farmer, but now the increasingly complex regulations and the cost induced him to sell it to a developer or an investor. The development of the Chapelle-Vallon wind farm is a good indicator for the first implementation by farmers. In 2003, approximately twenty cultivators met to develop a wind farm in Chapelle-Vallon, a rural municipality in Aube department (around 200 residents, 19 km2 and a density of 11 persons/km2 in 2014). The capital was raised locally through the emission of shares; a minimum of 10,000 e was required. Only 30 local people participated, and no companies were among the investors. The manufacturer of the wind turbines proposed a contract with maintenance for 12 years, which was also a condition for the bank to grant a loan; the bank therefore became the owner of the turbine. For the little story, one farmer said “the project needed to deposit 80 kg of paper and to see 20 administrations” (Burger 2014, p. 177). The process was long; however, the procedures were simpler than nowadays. The farmer group benefitted from the economic, geographical and organisational proximity to develop the project. They engaged in communication with the residents of ChapelleVallon and neighbouring villages to explain the project and present the localisation of turbines: 9 turbines on the land of the initiator (greatest investor with 40%), three in the land of other important farmers. They also organised a visit to another wind farm. Thereafter, the public inquiry was positive with just two persons voicing their opposition. After the development, the group continued to promote green energy with a pedagogic approach: they created the association “Grange d’éole” and put in place a didactic path (Fig. 15.3) with thematic panels on renewable energy and the flowers around the wind turbines. The objective is to valorise the wind farm and promote its spatial insertion. Chapelle-Vallon wind farm is a specifically local initiative, which guarantees strong acceptability and support by the ‘novel’ and ‘original’ character of the project (the second in the Champagne-Ardenne Region). Chapelle-Vallon appeared like a territorial project before the creation of the wind farm. It was put in place by the stakeholders who participated in the project and who, through this local initiative, wanted to structure the territory.

15.3 Energy Transition and Wind Farm Projects: Which Conciliation? The progress strategy of energy transition of which wind farm projects are a part requires horizontal governance, i.e. the recognition of different stakeholders based on their legitimacy. Legitimacy is a central argument for stakeholders to be heard in a decision-making process, and they use a variety of arguments on many levels to reinforce it.

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Fig. 15.3 Chapelle-Vallon wind farm. Source Burger (2013)

15.3.1 Land Acquisition, the Important Step Associated to Wind Farm Development If a wind farm project can be considered sustainable, it can be based on negotiations between stakeholders, which requires the ability to discuss. The project is therefore influenced by discourses (Gumuchian et al. 2003) and it is a manifestation of the stakeholders’ circumspection (Di Meo and Buleon 2005). They have different ambitions, functions, objectives and various, sometimes ambiguous strategies to build the project through their own vision. Sometimes they are in contradiction with their various social roles in the decision-making process. For example, a stakeholder is both a farmer and an inhabitant and can have two different points of view according to his social roles. The conflicts of interest between stakeholders are a substantial part of the project development and necessary to the construction process. The territory of implementation of the wind farms is a ‘very small rural area’ where the social links are often highly structured. In the municipalities studied (Fig. 15.1), the projects had social impacts whether they were realized or not. “Socials impacts arise upon the first steps of the projects; environmental impacts appear with the construction. If a project has failed, the socials impacts remain.” (Maille 2012, p. 57). The comments obtained from the interviews confirm this. Residents stated, for example, that “the arrival of the project caused great trouble in the municipality, you cannot make

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friends when you do not agree with the development of the wind farm”—“I have a friend, who does not want the development of the wind farm but said if a private developer consulted him he would accept a wind turbine on his land because if he does not accept, the wind turbine will be built on the land of his neighbour.” This part of the interview illustrates the tensions that followed the project. In fact, as soon as a project is made public, there are movements of adherence or conflict, tending to crystallize the opposition between the stakeholders, and opposition movements can emerge. The association opposed to a project is frequently established immediately after the first information meeting. Throughout our participant observation, we observed how, at the end of a project presentation, small groups held informal meetings. They are usually the opponents who quickly form a group, creating tension between residents, as one interviewee said: “The arrival of the project caused big trouble in the village. You make enemies if you do not want a wind farm in your village.” These tensions are exacerbated in rural areas where the wind farm projects are developing on the close proximity between the stakeholders. The limits of the territory are often blurred and induced stakeholders to confuse the limits with the political-administrative scale (Moine 2006). In our case study where the wind farm is supported by private stakeholders (economic, financial), the politicaladministrative scale is a constraint but not a limit, our project territory is determined by impact studies not by the creation of a physical and human environment by stakeholders, the necessary condition for the emergence of a territorial project (Debarbieux 2007). When an area is identified by developers as potential land for the creation of a wind farm, the relationships between stakeholders (local and economic) turn into ‘negotiations’. Certain developers considered that 95% of potential sites are already exploited, thus causing tensions between them. A few developers used practices that are considered unethical. During the process of land acquisition, farmers, local authorities and developers normally can be consulted according to the principle of horizontal governance. Local authorities in that stage play the role of ‘regulator’, which is very important for the stabilisation of the project, but this step (acquisition) is most politically sensitive: “energy production has always been strongly associated with the question of land” (Dubois-Maury 2010, p. 255). This stage is commonly called ‘securing land’ by the developers, and conflicts emerge during this phase. Collective and individual identities are voiced during this phase, and when the expression of these identities is in agreement with the policy aspects, the project is facilitated (Di Meo and Buleon 2005). Communication is another means to promote the acceptation of the projects. But at the project scale, the developers control all the communication and information concerning the project. They are the first link between stakeholders (local and economic), but forecasts are difficult to make, as one local administrator admitted: “Wind farms offer less benefit than promised. The older municipality council has been persuaded too easily”. Funding is often proposed by developers in the shape of sponsorship, a practice that was observed with all developers interviewed. This puts a local authority in a complex position as it has to assume the role of ‘regulator’. Although the projects do not always cause conflicts, they participate in the restructuration of power. In our case studies, the majority of the municipal councils were

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not renewed. One mayor formulated it as follows: “The role of the mayor is complicated, if he agrees he can be criticized in the future, but to disagree is also difficult.” The project represents a source of income, as one member of a local authority said: “It was ridiculous not to agree (…), we do not hesitate to make money”. The horizontal governance is difficult to be effective, not all stakeholders (local particularly population) have the same capacities.

15.3.2 Legitimate Participation in the Decision-Making Process The aim of horizontal governance is to enrich the debate on the project. However, the different levels of information and the different levers for the stakeholders’ actions contributed to creating an imbalance during the decision-making process, subject to other stakeholders and depending on the stages of the project. The stakeholders’ rules along the decision-making process changed in function of the increasing professionalization of the actors. Quickly, both political and the private stakeholders became more professional but the progress was less effective for the civil society. In the latter context, Pinson (2009) used the term “exclusion of the mass”; this process of powerlessness weakens horizontal governance. Individually, it is more difficult for citizens to be legitimated; to participate in the debate, they need catalysts for action to be active in the governance project. However, citizen mobilization allows them to develop their knowledge for having valid claims. The anti-wind energy movement raises awareness on the need to unite in order to be heard. Many members of this movement (Association Opposed to Wind Farms) sum this up in the slogan ‘we can win when we fight’, or ‘if we are able to federate, decision-making bodies must listen to us’. Conflict voiced dissatisfaction in the form of resistance, and it commonly assumes a spatial extent beyond the territory concerned by the change (Torre et al. 2006). Wind farm protests have found resonance at the national scale with the creation of the association ‘Vent de colère’ (Wind of anger), operating as a national structure for local problems. The association has legal, financial, and technical means and makes them available to the local groups. Its principal objective is to help local associations to legitimate their roles in the decision-making process. Legitimation is a social contract between organisation and society (Garric et al. 2007, p. 7). That theory is interested in understanding the kind of means the organisation uses to promote adherence to a project. In our case studies, in the communication about environmental issues, the collective interest in renewable energy is particularly present, as one developer expressed: “Thanks to natural wind energy, with wind farms in our municipality our dependence on fossil energy is limited. We participate actively in fighting climate change”. A lot of positive discourses about renewable energy are weakened in the media while the public opinion displays a heightening awareness of environmental issues. In this context, it is very hard for the opponents to legitimate their discourse. However, contrary to exogenous stake-

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holders like developers (in the context of growing financialization of the projects, the developers are increasingly external stakeholders), the opponents of projects are mostly internal (local) stakeholders with a territorial legitimation. Therefore, their participation in the decision-making process does not affect the global legitimacy of a project because they have a territorial legitimacy justifying their participation: “the legitimacy of the project is not reconsidered (…) opponents have a direct and rational interest to disagree with the project (they are neighbouring residents and land owners who fear a loss of value)” (Jobert 1998, p. 72). Throughout the process, negotiations are more and more dominated by stakeholders (financial, economic) outside the respective territory. This is a consequence of the financial capital inflow in urban planning, as a result of institutional reforms, which privilege market principles and competition between territories (Theurillat 2011).

15.4 Discussion and Conclusions Champagne-Ardenne might be considered as a marginal region, outside of economic, social or cultural processes (Leimgruber 2004, p. xiv) and the dustbin of the Paris region and France as a whole. Economic and social conditions (identity building, territorial affiliation) are still developing. Local authorities try to reverse the trend with green energy development. In fact, the aim has not been realized so far for multiples reasons. The wind farm projects are ‘financialized’ projects characterised by the intervention of economic and financial stakeholders. Although they have no territorial competences, they must be embedded territorially in order to respond to the local context of a project. Also, sustainability issues are increasingly present and the stakeholders should answer to these preoccupations. Series of solutions are proposed to reach this objective, often financial compensation, infrequently also accompanying measures. For example, the animal protection association LPO (League for the Protection of Birds) considered that financial compensations are not adequate to ensure the conservation of birdlife habitats. They raised the choice of a consultancy firm for impacts studies and also regretted not having been consulted. Challenged or not, compensation proposals rarely exceed the regulatory obligations, that reduced the sustainability of a project concerning environmental rules and public inquiries. At the local scale, international issues in terms of energy transition are therefore forgotten by a confrontational interest of all stakeholders. The financialization of the projects when a municipality becomes a financial stakeholder is negotiated with the developers’ financial measures of wind farms. The financial measures are sometimes reviewed for personal and private profit, creating tensions between stakeholders. This was voiced by a resident: “At a public meeting new and old local authorities disagreed. The old agree with the implementation project of the wind farm because they are directly concerned by the implementation of wind turbines on their land.” In our case studies, a lot of residents denounced these practices. Far from concerns about the energy transition, the scale of the project became the negotiating space, dominated

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by external stakeholders (financial) without territorial ties, motivated by market principles where financials incentives can be attractive for local authorities with a small municipal budget. The intervention of financial stakeholders in energy infrastructure projects raises the question of the synergy between their actions and sustainable development. As has demonstrated in this paper through the example of wind farm projects, this synergy cannot be taken for granted. Developers have implemented standardized solutions that are not always suitable. These solutions take account of only a few dimensions of sustainable development. ‘Standardized offers’ for the territory are a result of financialization, and developers applied the same management approach for governance in whatever local context. This has led some stakeholders (local, particularly population) to be excluded from the decision-making process. Yet, to be sustainable a project is partly dependent on opening the decision-making process to all stakeholders. Locally, the wind farm project studies have not been developed by applying horizontal governance, in this sense we cannot qualify these projects as sustainable projects in a process concerning the energy transition.

References Agreste. (2013). Memento de la statistique agricole en Champagne-Ardenne. Reims: Agreste. Burger, C. (2013). Les nouvelles formes de négociations du territoire, pour une approche durable? Le cas de la financiarisation de l’éolien, Urbia 1, 53–81 (hors-série). Burger, C. (2014). L’éolien est-il soluble dans le territoire? Territorialisation d’une politique d’aménagement durable (Ph.D. thesis (thèse)). Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne. Conseil régional de Champagne-Ardenne. (2012). Plan Climat Air Energie Régional. Châlons-enChampagne, Conseil régional de Champagne-Ardenne. Debarbieux, B. (2007). Territoires, territorialité, territorialisation : aujourd’hui encore, et moins que demain. In M. Vanier (Ed.), Territoire, territorialité, territorialisation (pp. 15–30). Rennes: Presses Universitaire de Rennes. Di Meo, G., & Buleon, P. (2005). L’espace social: lectures géographique des sociétés. Paris: Armand Colin. Dubois-Maury, J. (2010). Le droit face à l’urbain. In J. Dubois-Maury & T. Paquot (Eds.), L’abc de l’urbanisme (pp. 57–60). Institut d’urbanisme. Ed. Créteil. Garric, N., Léglise, I., & Point, S. (2007). Le rapport RSE, outil de légitimation? Le cas TOTAL à la lumière d’une analyse de discours. Revue de l’organisation responsable (Vol. 2, pp. 5–19). ESKA. Grosrichard, F. (1987). Voyage à travers l’Aube : l’or du rebut. Le Monde, 17 novembre. Gumuchian, H., Grasset, E., Lajarge, R., & Roux, E. (2003). Les acteurs, ces oubliés du territoire. Paris: Anthropos. Jobert, A. (1998). L’aménagement en politique. Ou ce que le syndrome NIMBY nous dit de l’intérêt général. Politix, 11(42), 67–92. Leimgruber, W. (2004). Between global and local: Marginality and marginal region in the context of globalization and deregulation. Aldershot: Ashgate. Maille, M.-E. (2012). Information, confiance et cohésion sociale dans un conflit environnemental lié à un projet de parc éolien au Québéc. Québec: Université du Québec à Montréal. Moine, A. (2006). Le territoire comme système complexe: un concept opératoire pour l’aménagement et la géographie. L’Espace géographique, 35(2), 115–132.

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Pinson, G. (2009). Gouverner la ville par projet. Urbanisme et gouvernance dans les villes européennes. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po. Prager, J.-C., & Thisse, J.-F. (2010). Economie géographique du développement. Paris: La Découverte. Schumpeter, J. (1942). Capitalisme, socialisme et démocratie. Paris: La petit bibliothèque Payot. Theurillat, T. (2011). La ville négociée: entre financiarisation et durabilité. Géographie, économie, Société, 13(3), 225–254. Torre, A., Aznar, O., Bonin, M., Caron, A., Chia, E., Galman, M., et al. (2006). Conflits et tension autour des usages de l’espace dans les territoires ruraux et périurbains. Le cas de six zones géographiques françaises. Revue d’Economie Régionale et Urbaine, 3, 415–453. Woessner, R. (2010). La territorialisation: proposition pour la compréhension du phénomène par une entrée systémique. Revue d’économie régionale et urbaine, 4, 669–685.

Chapter 16

Protected Areas and the Integration Process of Mountainous Areas in Mainland Southeast Asia: The Case of Luang Nam Tha, Lao PDR Steve Déry, Lucie Dubé and Bakham Chanthavong

16.1 Introduction In mainland Southeast Asia, although links between lowlands and highlands are ancient and multifaceted (Boulbet 1967; Hickey 1982; Bruneau 2006; Scott 2009; Sikor et al. 2011), it is only with late colonial states, from the 19th century on, that state authorities have started to durably intervene in and settle in the highlands of this region, integrating them within their territorial projects through administrative (military or non military), social or communication infrastructures as well as agricultural 1 colonization. In Laos, the infrastructure network built by the French from the beginning of the 20th century “intended to sever the closeness of Laos to Siam” (Ivarsson 2008, pp. 93–94), in order to give ‘meaning’ to their Indochina project. From the 1970s onwards, the new independent Southeast Asian state apparatuses started to 1 See

Thongchai (1994) for the case of Thailand, and Déry (2004) for the case of Vietnam.

This text was first presented at the conference “Critical Issues of Marginalization in a Globalizing World and in the South in particular”, organized in Kuala Lumpur, by the IGU Commission on Marginality in 2009. Data and bibliography have been updated for the present publication, but no fundamental change has been made to the original paper. Further reasons for this choice is the fact that, since 2008, Chinese people have been increasingly active in the province, and that the conversion of household activities towards cash cropping has accelerated. This chapter can be viewed as a momentary snapshot that could be used for eventual comparisons. S. Déry (B) · L. Dubé Department of Geography, Laval University, Québec, Canada e-mail: [email protected] L. Dubé e-mail: [email protected] B. Chanthavong Faculty of Forestry, National University of Laos, Vientiane, Laos e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_16

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add environmental components to their territorial strategies, including in mountainous areas where they delineated national parks, forest or natural reserves, biosphere reserves (McElwee 2000; Déry 2008). In the wake of rapid forest exploitation endeavours (McElwee 2016), they also implemented forest allocation programmes (Sikor 2001; Sikor and Tan Quang Nguyen 2007; Hall et al. 2011). Concomitantly, there was also a shift in the research agenda. From the 1990s, critics of inequalities in access to and control of resources (Peluso 1993), environmental change or management (Parnwell and Bryant 1996), impacts of deforestation (Hirsch 1987, 1995; De Koninck 1999), gradually shifted also to add conservation (Collins et al. 1990) in multiscalar analyses (West and Brechin 1991), to better understand the impact on indigenous or ethnic minorities communities, especially when populations were relocated (Wells and Brandon 1992; Peluso1993; some chapters in Parnwell and Bryant 1996; Colchester and Erni 1999). Recalling that in the mid-19th century Marx already described this ‘environmental’ enclosure process in the Scottish Highlands where “British soldier evicted people to create space for deer parks for the exclusive benefit and pleasure of the gentry”, Geisler coined the term “conservation refugees” to describe current situations where peoples are relocated to the benefit of conservation areas (Geisler 2003, p. 692 ). Colchester and Gray, on their part, schematized the stakes around protected areas as “protected areas and their shadows”, the shadows being the various stakeholders (indigenous peoples, donors, governments, private sector, NGOs, academics, etc.; Colchester and Gray 1999, p. 301). McElwee, studying thoroughly the forest question in Vietnam called it “environmental rule (…) when states, organizations, or individuals use environmental or ecological reasons as justification for what is really a concern with social planning, and thereby intervene in such disparate areas as land ownership, population settlement, labor availability, or markets” (McElwee 2016, p. 5). During the same period (end of 1990s), the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas held its first two regional (Southeast Asian) meetings, in Bogor, Indonesia (1996) and Pakse, Lao PDR (1999); the latter conference papers have been published by Galt (2000). Despite this growing concern, and an increasing number of publications, research remained focused more on indigenous rights and access to resources, as well as on related agrarian transformations and deforestation, its causes and consequences, and less on the sociogeographic impacts of protected areas. A study published in 2006 showed that, until that time, amongst a vast number of studies on this topic worldwide, that is social impacts of protected areas, less than a quarter were trying to measure genuinely, through a qualitative or quantitative analysis, this impact (West et al. 2006, p. 287). In their conclusion, West and her colleagues were asking questions our research project started to address at the same time and which are at the center of this specific study: We would like to see more analysis of the ways in which protected areas produce space both discursively, as Brosius (1999a) suggests, and materially. How do protected areas bring particular types of space into being? What does the creation of new places through conservation intervention do to the places being symbolically and materially remapped by conservation 2 The

term “conservation refugees” appeared originally in Geisler and De Sousa (2001).

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topologies? How do these productions of space alter local social relations with people’s surroundings? How do they alter how people use and make meaningful their surroundings? (West et al. 2006, p. 264)

As anthropologists, West and her colleagues were asking very important geographical questions. At the same time, in their literature review, most of the studies were about Africa, very few addressing Asian or even less Southeast Asian issues. Though, one can note that the body of literature has grown significantly since 2000 regarding conservation issues in mainland Southeast Asia. Since the vast majority of the protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia are delineated in hills or mountainous areas (Déry and Vanhooren 2011), several of the authors insist on the conflictual relations and visions emerging mostly from national State conservation projects entering ethnic minority areas, projects that are sometimes environmental only by name. Authors often using a Foucauldian approach: for them conservation is a “technology of power” (Vandergeest and Peluso 1995), or a way to promote a program—creating ‘socialist citizens’ like in Vietnam (McElwee 2000, 2004); but ethnic minorities are sometimes involved in constesting these territorializing strategies using the same tools of power, like maps—something called counter-mapping (Pinkaew 2002; Roth 2004a, b, c). For sure, local livelihoods are transformed (Dressler 2014), sometimes drastically, when resettlement occurs (Morris-Jung and Roth 2010). More recently, Derek Hall and his colleagues, Philip Hirsch and Tania Murray Li (Hall et al. 2011), have integrated this topic into a more comprehensive study of exclusion in its manyfold manifestations in Southeast Asia. For them, four different powers are at play, regulation, force, market, and legitimity, and can be used to analyze how exclusion is occurring and why, and who are the winners and losers. Whatever inclusive a politic or a program may be, there is always someone excluded, a phenomenon they called “exclusion’s double edge” (p. 7). Also, when they discussed more specifically of conservation and protected areas, they call it “ambient exclusion” (Hall et al. 2011, Chap. 3), referring to “how environmental rationales and conservation ideology—(…) framed in terms of inclusive notions of the common good—promote exclusionary outcomes (…)” (Hall et al. 2011, p. 60). “Ambient environmentalism” (p. 64) refers to how the ‘environment’ permeates states, NGOs, development banks and all the various actors involved in landscape transformation, an idea Michael Goldman, in his Imperial Nature, an ethnological description of the World Bank in which a specific chapter concerns Laos, described as “ecogovernmentality” (Goldman 2005; an idea used by Hall et al. 2011). In Laos, researchers have focused on relocation (Évrard 2006; Rigg 2007), agricultural and land tenure transformation (Ducourtieux et al. 2005; Ducourtieux and Castella 2006; Baird 2009, 2011), especially in ‘frontier’ areas (Barney 2009) or on the management or the marketization of forests (Rigg and Jerndal 1996; Rigg 2005, 2006), mostly without trying to establish links with the protected area system.3 Though, in the entire Southeast Asian region, conservation has expanded during the last two decades hand in hand with the neoliberalist agenda, and a clear ‘market3 Sarinda

Singh analyzes the Lao bureaucracy in its implementation of environmental measures funded by the World Bank (Singh 2012).

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oriented conservation’ agenda has been identified (Dressler and Roth 2011; Roth and Dressler 2012; Dressler et al. 2013), or the ‘rise of capitalist conservation’ (Dressler 2011).4 And as such, Rigg’s observations and conclusions about Laos could certainly be used as a guideline and inspiration for this research. He said firstly that the modernisation process as well as the increasing integration of Laos villagers into the development mainstream has resulted in the creation of poverty (Rigg 2009, p. 712), while, secondly, the non-minority—minority dualism “is the most powerful in explaining patterns of economic differentiation and social exclusion in the country” (Rigg 2009, pp. 711–712). Our research aims to make two interrelated contributions to this growing body of literature concerning the increasing integration of mountainous areas in Southeast Asia to various and more or less intermingled national and international socioeconomic systems.5 Since protected areas are never coming alone, we want, firstly, to portrait the context of protected areas development in mainland Southeast Asia, and how Laos fits within this process. Specificities of the Lao PDR case are drawn to contextualize the protected areas development within the broader land use and planning transformations that occurred in the country since the beginning of the 1990s. We mostly stress that, not only protected areas are clearly part of a development strategy, but that they are, first of all, part of a national territorializing strategy. In Raffestinian words, this means a change in how information and energy, that is labour, are spent by the State to organize its system. Secondly, we then analyze how this integration has been materialized—we mean here the other socioeconomic aspects coming alongside protected areas—and what are some of the consequences for people affected by the demarcation of that kind of area. We draw some preliminary conclusions regarding how this integration/territorialization process actually translates into a process of marginalization. To do this, we use the following methods. Firstly, we will use a Raffestinian geographical framework in order to better understand how the various territorializations are competing for the same space.6 Claude Raffestin is a French born Swiss geog4 Geisler

(2003) does not talk specifically about Southeast Asia, but it is clear for him that conservation and development have “affinities” (2003, p. 70): “protected area policies often constitutes a development strategy” (p. 70). A complete issue of Geoforum (May 2012) addresses the ‘Local Implications of Market-Oriented Conservation Governance’, using case studies worldwide (Roth and Dressler 2012). Sodhi et al. studied what kind of knowledge local people around forested parks have about ecosystemic services provided (Sodhi et al. 2010). 5 We used systems as defined by Von Bertalanffy (1968), comprising (1) elements, (2) links between these elements, (3) and the overall system representing more than the sum of its components. Also, we understand these systems with a more specific geographical meaning as “geographical systems” (Brunet 2001). 6 H. Lefebvre’s The production of space (1974, translated in 1991 in English) was written a few years before Raffestin’s works and, because of the personage and the kind of work (using categories—thanks to Jean Michaud for this hint), etc., got a better audience internationally, especially in the Anglo-saxon realm, while Raffestin was mostly confined to its French academic parish. Not being a geographer, Lefebvre tumbled on some key geographical concepts, while, according to us, Raffestin was able to produce a richer portrait. There would be a need to explain more this idea but there is no space for that here.

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rapher. He wrote a lot about territorialization from the 1970s on (1977, 1980, 1984, 1986, etc.—i.e. before and with more depth than others like Vandergeest and Peluso 1995; Vandergeest 1996; Elden 2005, 2010). For our purpose, two of his main ideas are useful. Before we get to territory, the first conceptual important tool is labour (travail in French; Raffestin and Bresso 1979). For Raffestin and Bresso, labour is produced when the head (information) tells the hand (energy) to do something. Information plus energy equals labour. For them, this is the basis of human life, especially its socioeconomic life (ibid.), and we can use it to understand every single socioeconomic situation. The second important conceptual tool develops further the use of labour and answers the question: from where does territory come from? For Raffestin, territory is generated from space, the result of a program undertaken by an actor; territory is space into which one has poured labour (energy plus information; Raffestin 1980, pp. 129–130). Thus, being a production from space but not being the same as space, a territory is caught within a field of power. Representing or even just naming a space involves power and is already an appropriation, thus a control, thus a territorialization (ibid., p. 130). But for our purpose, we need to go further with this tool. If we use these conceptual tools in a multiscalar analysis, we should be able to contribute to better understand how competing powers over a same space are in fact competing territorialization projects occurring within ‘competing’ geographical socioeconomic systems at various levels. Some systems may be embedded in others (e.g.: administrative hierarchy), but some like states cannot suffer competition (Déry 2004). Secondly, we use the case study of Luang Nam Tha province where we interviewed villagers in three districts, with two types of questionnaires: the first was prepared to get information on how the integration process has been unfolding during the last two decades; the second was used to obtain a portrait of how individuals in villages are living these changes triggered by the integration process. The term ‘integration’ is used here to bear testimony to the process into which a population—here highland populations—either by its own will or by force, start to participate in socioeconomic systems that have national or international ramifications.7 It could be: going to (a national) school, selling agricultural products on the national market, benefiting from agricultural extension services, etc. In this context, our general hypothesis is that this integration process in which the demarcation of protected areas is used as an integrating and territorilizing tool contributes to the augmentation of marginality for some people affected. For us, marginality depends on a particular system of reference, and it is shaped through perceptions and representations (Leimgruber 2004; Déry 2010; Déry et al. 2012). Thus (bis), with Raffestinian conceptual tools in mind, we can infer that, when local people are integrated in larger systems (regional, national, international, etc.) they have to change the way they produce labour (energy + information); if they cannot function or learn fast enough to function within these systems, if they cannot produce 7 Frontier integration has been studied widely worldwide in China, Europe, the USA, Brazil, and in

Southeast Asia. The current Lao case study is interesting because the process is occurring before our eyes.

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enough or the right energy or get the right information, they loose decision power and their marginality increases. In this chapter, we want to contribute to document this process by tracking as much as possible the transformation of labour through the following questions: what it was, what is it becoming, in which systems, how long does it take to be able to use this “new” labour, etc. This chapter is organized into four parts. In the first, the general context of transformation of mainland Southeast Asia by protected areas is presented. In the second part, we turn to the specific Lao context before, in the third part, we document our case study in Luang Nam Tha province. The fourth part examines how we can improve our understanding of marginality from this study.

16.2 Protected Areas and Marginality in Mainland Southeast Asia Worldwide, the craving for conservation has continued unabated from the 1990s, even with the reduction of fundings in many countries, especially in bilateral development agencies budgets. As we can see on the UNEP-WCMC home page where one finds the link to the database on protected areas: “The number of designated protected areas rose between 1990 and 2014 from 13.4 to 32 million km2 of the total area covered” (Protected Planet 20178 ). It means that the area covered has been multiplied 2.4 times during this period, even if the increase during the previous quarter of century had been quite high already. In mainland Southeast Asia,9 most modern protected areas have been created from the 1960s onwards (Déry and Vanhooren 2011). The current overall portrait has been painted through differentiated state trajectories, mostly resulting from wide discrepancies in varying state capacities in time. Burma (Myanmar), for example, is the only country in this sub-region to have ‘kept’ the protected areas created during the colonial era, at least on the map and in its legal framework. However, its government has never been fully in control of the country’s space demarcated in 1948 when independence was declared. Thus, in 2001, amongst the 3310 areas identified as ‘protected’, representing 3.2% of the land area, thirteen were considered as paperparks, leaving only 2.1% of the area as “effective total protected area size” (Myint Aung 2007, pp. 195–196).

8 Protected planet website (WCMC database on Protected areas), access, 24th May 2017, https:// www.unep-wcmc.org/featured-projects/mapping-the-worlds-special-places. 9 Considered here as comprising the five following countries: Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. 10 U. Myint Aung’s list comprises 31 parks (2007, p. 196), though the nearby graph on the same page added up to 33 parks. Our own list, taken from the WCMC database (WDPA) also for 2005, included 39 parks for 31,972 km2 (4.7% of the national area; Vanhooren 2006).

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Thailand and Vietnam, the latter separated in two countries in the 1960s, launched their own national park systems at the outset of the 1960s. In North Vietnam, the first forest regulations were issued in 1956, followed quickly by a national forest survey—in order to measure how much resource they had at hand to exploit (McElwee 2016, p. 67). During this period, forest exploitation was the main concern (idem, pp. 67–72). Apart from Cuc Phuong national park created in 1962, the scientists’ lobbying for more forest protection was not successful until 1977 (McElwee 2016, p. 110). We can guess that the war until 1975 removed all preoccupation for standing trees from the governmental agenda—except for the cover they provided to guerrilla soldiers, or the wood to the industry. The unified Vietnamese government renewed its environmental protection programme in 1977, when it delineated eleven new protected areas in the southern part of the country. Between 1963 and 1975, during the Vietnam war period, Thailand managed to create 21 protected areas of various kinds, a trend that accelerated until the end of the 1990s (Déry and Vanhooren 2011). Today, both countries have the highest number of protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia (Table 16.1), though in proportion of their respective national area, Cambodia is well in front (26%), while Vietnam still lags behind with only 8% of its territory in some form or another of protection. The overall result for mainland Southeast Asia is that both numbers and areas protected were multiplied manyfolds during the last five decades (Table 16.1) to reach a total of 347 different areas covering almost 21 million ha of land in 2005, an area representing 11% of the total land surface11 and 584 different areas covering more than 25.6 million ha in 2017, up to 13% of the land area. Most of these areas have been delineated in mountains or plateaus more than 200 m above sea level (Fig. 16.1, Déry and Vanhooren 2011). This figure is important to grasp the importance of the territorialization projects by the states as we will see more with the Lao case study. This evolution of protected area networks leads us to make three comments at this point. Firstly, clearly, as areas protected or ‘enclosed’ for one purpose or another are still expanding in each of the five countries, they reduce the land available for other management purposes. Considering that in each country infrastructures are ‘eating’ agricultural lands, usually the best surfaces, that conservation is seldom amalgamated with other land management objectives, and that population figures have increased significantly in all five countries, there is no doubt that pressures on the land have been exacerbated between then 1980s and the 2010s, even with improvements in agricultural yields (De Koninck 2003). For the region as a whole, more than 4.7 million ha have been newly delineated between 2005 and 2017, an area similar to the whole Cambodian network. Vietnam is the country to have augmented its percentage the most: it has almost doubled its network, from 4 to 8% of its land area between 2005 and 2017 (Table 16.1). Secondly, not only the area but also the number of areas delineated for some kind of protection has increased. Actually, during the 1965–1992 period, the rate of creating new protected areas attained 10.1% per year on average. The pace of new 11 Which is 193,856,300

ha or just below two million square kilometres; De Koninck (2012, p. 26).

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Table 16.1 Protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia (in numbers, areas—in thousand hectares—and percentages), 1965–2017 Country/Year 1965 (n) 1977 (n) 1992 (n) 2005 (n) 2005 (area)

2013a

2017b (n)

2017 (area)

Burma

12

14

19

39

3197 (5%)

39–56

59

4837 (7%)

Cambodia

0

0

0

29

4341 (25%)

29–44

45

4750 (26%)

Laos

0

0

0

21

3499 (15%)

21–34

33

3858 (17%)

Thailand

4

34

125

161

8594 (17%)

194–207 238

9739 (19%)

Vietnam

1

12

83

97

1313 (4%)

77–160

2499 (8%)

17

60

227

347

20,944 (11%)c

360–501 584

Total

209

25,683 (13%)

Sources of data (1965–2005) ICEM (2003a, b, c, d), WCU (1992), Collins et al. (1991), UNEPWCMC database Source of Table (1965–2005) Déry and Vanhooren (2011) a 2013: Protected Planet database (terrestrial only). For 2013, the left number refers to areas with an IUCN status (category Ia, Ib, II, III, IV, V or VI), the number on the right represents the total number of areas listed in the Protected Planet database. For example, for Laos, in 2013, there were 21 areas identified as category VI of IUCN, probably the same areas identified in 2005. The remaining 13 areas are named either “conservation area”, “hunting reserve” or have no specific name reported in the database. Marine protected areas have not been counted b 2017: Protected Planet database (terrestrial only). Sum of country reports (https://www. protectedplanet.net/) c Total area for the five countries (2013 and 2017): 1,939,623 km2

creations has slowed to an average of 3.3% per year between 1992 and 2005, but increased again to 4.4% per year during the last twelve years (2005–2017), mostly thanks to Vietnam that has more than doubled the number of its protected areas during this period (Table 16.1). This might seems trivial compared to the evolution of areas, but when coupled to the fact that most areas are located above 200 m above sea level, their high number, such as in Vietnam (second only to Thailand), multiplies the management activities by the state; it multiplies the number of state ‘flags’ on the territory, bearing testimony to its national projects; this is a powerful territorializing tool (see Déry 2007, 2008). Thirdly, the five national networks differ in shapes and forms. In Laos and Cambodia, protected areas are vast, on average, respectively 117,000 and 106,000 ha (Table 16.2), while in Vietnam they are the smallest on average. Save for Burma,12 12 Oddly,

the average for Burma is still the same in 2017 at 82,000 ha, compared to the same figure in 2005, even if the country has delineated 20 more areas in the meantime.

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Fig. 16.1 Protected areas in mainland Southeast Asia, 2005. Note This map has appeared first in Vanhooren (2006), but without the 200 m line. Later, it has been published in French in Déry (2008) and as an English version redrawn by the editors of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography in Déry and Vanhooren (2011)

this average has been shrinking quickly between 2005 and 2017. In Vietnam, protected areas have always been small on average compared to all other countries in the region, but they are getting even smaller: on average, each protected area extended

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over 14,000 ha in 2005,13 a figure that was down to less than 12,000 ha in 2017. The regional average was 4.3 times bigger in 2005 at 60,000 ha per area (five states) and attained 167,000 ha per area for Laos (Déry and Vanhooren 2011, p. 193), while the average for the whole region was reduced to some 44,000 ha in 2017 (117,000 ha for Laos). In Laos, the 4th Congress of the Party in 1986 (13–15 November 1986) launched the New Economic Mechanism along with the Second Five-Year Plan (1986–1990; Phraxayavong 2009, p. 165), very likely a movement in the wake of the Soviet Union’s perestroika and glasnost (from April 1985); Vietnam’s doi moi, started officially one month later, 15–18 December 1986 (Kham 2007, p. 84). At the turn of the 1990s, international and national events added up to create a better climate for the implementation of protected areas in Laos. In Cambodia, the withdrawal of the Vietnamese army in 1989, leading to the Paris Agreement of 1991 and the subsequent arrival of the UN Blue Beret peacekeepers in 1992 certainly contributed to improve security in the country and in mainland Southeast Asia, though the civil war with the Red Khmers, started in 1967, did not end completely before 1999. At the international level, the end of the cold war diminished the tension in the region, while the ASEAN members decided, after the 1992 summit in Singapore, to negotiate with the non-member Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma) the condition of their admission to the association, especially with Vietnam, which became the first to join in 1995. Also, significant funding coming from international agencies was poured into Laos and Cambodia, accelerating after the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992; in both countries, protected area networks were drawn from 1993 onwards. Internal peace, generally speaking, and international money allowed to initiate the establishment of these networks. Organisation and management of their respective protected area networks were defined and justified, through an international paradigm according to which nature and humans cannot cohabite; though one can say, that this paradigm is rather North American and calling it a “Yellowstonian approach” appears appropriate. Evidence comes from case studies (Pinkaew 2002; Leblond 2011; McElwee 2016) as well as from visits by Déry (first author) to many national parks and forest reserves in Thailand14 and in Vietnam between 2001 and 2017.15 Of course, in these two countries, one may still find many villages inside

13 This number has been obtained simply by dividing the total area protected by the number of protected areas. 14 This idea (of a Yellowstonian approach) was coined by Steve Déry when he saw photographs of Yellowstone park in the director office of Doi Khun Tan national park, 70 km southeast of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand (June 2005). The director of the park had visited Yellowstone national park in the US and was showing photographs of this park all over the walls of his office. His discourse was clear enough to understand that it was the best way to organise and manage a national park. Others are also using this idea—of a Yellowstonian approach to protected areas—which is not original in itself. For example, Robin Roth described more specifically how the shift from British to US influence happened in Thailand after World War II and in the 1960s (Roth 2004b, p. 19).

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Table 16.2 Agriculture and forest areas according to various sources, Laos, 1965–2017 (in km2 ) Year Agriculture Agriculture Forests Forests Forests Forests according according according according (other to FAO to FAO to FAO to Bernard sources) (2010) or (2010) or (c1995) and De (2013 for (2013 for Koninck 2011 2011 (1996) figure) figure) 1957

10,000a

1965

150,000

165,900 144,700e

1980 1990

8500b

1995 2000

18,000d

173,140 Q

17,000 F

169,230 Fm

124,350e

18,360 Q

165,320 Q

99,540c

124,600

98,000f

2002 2005

19,590 Fm

161,420 Q

2008

22,230 Fm

159,074 Fm

2010

157,510

2011 2015

129,000

131,770e

16,000 F

23,780 23,690g

95,000h

156,728 187,617g

Sources a Fisher (1966) b 1991, Veilleux and De Koninck 1993, p. 115 c 1999; the number is 42%, according to an estimation made by Bounthavy and Taillard (2000, p. 20); it was based on 70,000 ha lost per year from the inventory of 1989, lost mostly at the expense of shifting cultivation and firewood in their calculation. Although this estimation does not take into account that, within the cycle of shifting cultivation, most of the land is not converted to another usage. In a recent study in Laos, Seidenberg and his colleagues showed that, in the province of Houaphan, although on shifting cultivation land 13% of it had been cleared (déboisé in French), only a mere 1% was in the end deforested (déforesté in French—see Déry 2002 on this nuance). Also, probably, it did not include the main culprit in Laos, which was, at least until the 1990s, forest exploitation, especially by Thai companies, who rushed in after the 1989 logging ban in Thailand (McKinnon 1997, pp. 119–120). Now agricultural expansion has certainly gained weight among the various causes of deforestation in Laos d De Koninck (2005, p. 277) e World Resource Institute (1998, p. 293), cited by Greer and Perry (2003, p. 154) f Messerli et al. (2009, p. 8) g The figure given in the source is 81.29%, which has been “translated” to the area in the table, with a total country area of 230,800 km2 . Trading Economics (using World Bank data): http://www. tradingeconomics.com/laos/forest-area-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html h Forest Trends, reporting data from the Department of Forests: http://www.forest-trends.org/ documents/files/doc_4677.pdf Note F  FAO estimate; Fm  Manual Estimation; Q  official data reported on FAO questionnaires from countries

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parks or reserves; but the “conservation coalition” remains very active (Leblond 2011); “ambient environmentalism” is pervading (Hall et al. 2011). Nonetheless, in Laos, the government, even if it had this paradigm in mind (see Goldman 2005; Singh 2012), had no choice but to adapt to its own specific context, as we shall see in the next section. How do protected areas constitute a territorial tool in the hands of governments? Firstly, they emerge mostly (not only) from strategies designed at the national level, with a national concern and a vision to organize things, thus as national territorial projects (see Vandergeest and Peluso 1995, for Thailand). The consequences have been, secondly, that the communities affected by these ‘environmental measures,’, legitimated by ‘environmental discourses’ or ‘environmental rule’ (McElwee 2016), be they autochthonous or ‘allochthonous’, (not coming from the land where they live; see Fortunel 2003) have often been obliged to rebuild their livelihoods, a large part of their spatial landmarks, their bearings (repères in French), and more generally, the geography of their lives. Also, they often had to revise their values about the landscape, especially forestlands, that used to be part of their territories. In brief, they had to rebuild new local territories that fit the national one imposed by the state, embedded in it. The motivation for conservation is often low, like in Vietnam, given that they see a lot of corruption around them, including forest rangers or local elites involved themselves in forest exploitation in areas supposedly protected (Déry 2004, p. 14; McElwee 2016, Chap. 3). And while spaces targeted for conservation or preservation are, or were, mostly forested,16 forests which are or were inhabited much more densely than any other tropical forest regions in Africa or in the Americas (Collins 1990), thirdly, thus, territorial integration of these forest zones raised complex issues: taming forests was also for a long time taming forest people (De Koninck 1994); it still applies where we can find forest people. Fourthly, it is clear that in most situations where conservation projects have been implemented in mainland Southeast Asia, local people were hardly involved in their definition (Pinkaew 2002), and it was often at their expenses, like in Thailand where the State created protected areas in ancient communist strongholds (Leblond 2011, p. 531). Even when projects were supposedly framed to tackle this shortcoming, as in the Cat Tien National Park area (Vietnam) where a World Bank project was implemented in the year 2000s, local involvement had remained, all things being considered and, in the end, cosmetic (Morris-Jung and Roth 2010). And, in this specific park, now that the Java rhinoceros has become extinct in 2010,17 funding had dropped, leading to a fast degradation in the management capacities.18

15 Although,

in some Vietnam national parks we can say that the recent portrait is becoming more nuanced. But there is no space to discuss this idea here. 16 Not all of course… There are a lot of “political forests” (Hirsch 1990; Hall et al. 2011), zoned as such but with no trees on them (see also Durand 2002 for Indonesia and Déry 2002 about Vietnam). 17 See for example: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/oct/25/javan-rhino-extinctvietnam. 18 Fieldwork in Vietnam, January 2017.

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16.3 The Lao Context: Underlying Trends19 At the turn of the 1990s, Laos undertook the building of a protected area network on its territory. We shall discuss it by trying to answer two questions: first, where does it come from, that is what is the convergence of factors leading to the delineation of protected areas at the beginning of the 1990s; and second, how can we compare the Laos experience with the same processes in the neighbouring countries which are building their own protected area networks. First, let us examine how a growing environmental ‘concern’ propped up in Lao PDR in the 1980s and 1990s from a convergence of at least three factors. The first factor at the national level to justify this kind of state intervention has been the fact that its forests vanished rapidly between 1970 and 1990, even though the country remained at that time one of the most forested in the region. The loss amounted to about 41,000 km2 , 25% of the country’s forests, according to a cartographic assessment prepared by Bernard and De Koninck (1996, p. 8; Table 16.2), a trend that accelerated after the logging ban in Thailand in 1989.20 More recently, “[the] national Forest Strategy includes a commitment to increase forest cover to around 70% by 2020 through sustainable forest management and restoration. However, this goal may be unattainable based on the current rate of legal and illegal forest conversion” (Saunders et al. 2015, p. 1). Having a 70% forest cover objective, that is enlarging it to this point, means that the current forest cover cannot extend over more than 80% of country area in 2015 (cf. Table 16.2). A second factor has two intertwined sides at the international and national levels. Between 1975 and early 1990s, it is almost certain that the state had lost most of its technical capacities, due, on the one hand, to the massive number of people fleeing after 1975: about 412,000 people in 12 years according to Taillard (1989, p. 97),21 mostly technical staff. This was aggravated, on the other hand, by the sending of the rest of the technical staff22 to re-education camps (ibid., p. 99). As relationships in the peninsula eased a bit, in 1989, the FAO funded the writing of a National Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP) while a joint IUCN and Department of Forestry 19 We

use here Jean-Philippe Leblond’s distinction between “underlying” (sous-jacentes) causes of a dynamic (deforestation in his case), compared to “proximate” (proximales) causes, which are more direct causes (cf. point 4) (Leblond 2011). 20 In Laos, like elsewhere, data on forest lands must be read with caution. In the FAO database, as consulted in November 2010, all estimations before 1990 have been removed, if compared to the 1990s yearbooks. According to these FAO yearbooks as reported by Déry (1996, p. 39) and Bernard and De Koninck (1996, p. 7), the forests extended to only 129,000 km2 around 1990, compared to some 173,000 km2 according to the current Internet database (FAOSTAT). According to the latter database, forests would have covered about 159,000 km2 in 2008, though it is more likely that the recent and current forest figures stand well below 100,000 km2 as other sources are showing (Table 16.2). This latter number represents an “official data reported on FAO questionnaires from countries” and most likely includes what has been named “unstocked forests” in the Socio-Economic Atlas of the Lao PDR (Messerli et al. 2009). 21 Pholsena puts the number at “more than 300,000” (Pholsena 2011, p. 97). 22 Taillard does not provide specific numbers.

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(DoF) survey located the best forests to be protected (Galt 2000, p. 47).23 This process culminated in 1993 with the demarcation of eighteen National Biodiversity Conservation Areas. A third factor (national vs. local) is the state’s permanent disquiet and dislike regarding shifting cultivation, supposedly based on deforestation rates (see note c in Table 16.2) but without taking into account nuances between cutting a tree and deforesting, the question of forest regrowth, forest exploitation by the logging industry and more recently the expansion of plantation agriculture. This posture has been translated into various kinds of programmes—not necessarily related to protected areas24 —most of them involving the relocation of villages as well as increased difficulties for people targeted (Pholsena and Banomyong 2006, pp. 176–178). For example, in his detailed study of the Khmou people in Luang Nam Tha province—north of the country (Fig. 16.2)—Olivier Évrard even discovered that, in some villages relocated between 1975 and 1985 for ‘safety’ reasons, the living conditions have degraded severely, including in one of the villages, where a sharp increase of the mortality rate occurred after relocation, due amongst other things to poorer access to safe water (Évrard 2006, pp. 329–332).

Fig. 16.2 Luang Nam Tha province in Laos. Captions Lao provinces; neighbouring states; study area

23 The

World Bank was also involved according to Pholsena (2011, p. 98).

24 This is precisely the point made convincingly by McElwee about “environmental rule” in Vietnam

(McElwee 2016).

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Compared to its neighbours Vietnam and Thailand, Lao had a very low capacity to implement a conservation strategy in the first years after 1975. Although the Soviet Union assisted the Laotian government in 1980–81, providing aerial photographs for the whole country, they were not involved in projects dealing with deforestation (Collins et al. 1991, p. 172). This means that the 17 forest reserves declared (it is not clear when) were never implemented (ibid., p. 171, citing a FAO/UNEP report of 1981).25 This is because the Lao government simply had not the budget to implement that kind of project. After the first protected areas were created in 1993, 70% of the National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCA)—the name of protected areas in Laos—has begun some form of management “under donor funded projects” (Galt 2000, p. 46). Another distinction is that the Lao government was not able to enforce conservation programmes the same way as other countries. At the time of the 2nd Southeast Asia Regional Forum organised by the World Commission on Protected Areas in Pakse, Laos (Dec. 1999), 1100 villages were identified as being located inside or within a five kilometres radius of a NBCA (Galt 2000, p. 46), even though many efforts had been made to resettle as many mountain dwellers as possible in the plains and valleys from 1975 onwards. For this reason, the NBCA network in Laos is ‘only’ equivalent to IUCN Category VI, that is a “Managed Resource Protected Area: protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems”; the definition adds the following: “Area containing predominantly unmodified natural systems, managed to ensure long term protection and maintenance of biological diversity, while providing at the same time a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs” (www.iucn.org). It is likely that this category is far less prized by IUCN ‘environmental developers’ because of the intrinsic cohabitation between human and nature. Though it does not constitute a problem in the European context, or wherever countries are not dependent on donor funding,26 in Asia, donors tend to favour only categories I and II when it is time to disburse money (e.g. Knudsen 1995, with an example from Pakistan). This means that, on the ground, there were and still are elements of local ‘adaptation’ with regard to national objectives and strategies. For example, we have observed that Luang Nam Tha provincial authorities have allowed villages located inside a protected area to grow rubber trees, in cooperation with Chinese companies.

25 Collins

and his colleagues reported that 17 forest reserves covering 1280 km2 had been declared “in the past”, citing a FAO/UNEP report of 1981, but protective measures were never implemented (Collins et al. 1991, p. 171). Nothing has been found elsewhere regarding these ‘reserves’. 26 An hypothesis that would need to be researched.

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16.4 Protected Areas, Integration and Marginality in Luang Nam Tha Province In Luang Nam Tha province, the Nam Ha NBCA was created by the central government on March 22nd 1993 by Decree 164, in the immediate aftermath of the January 1st announcement creating nineteen of the actual 33 protected areas in Laos (World Database on Protected Areas—WDPA27 ). The initial area of 690 km2 was extended to 956 km2 in 1995, and then to 2,230 km2 in 1999 when neighbouring areas of Nam Ha West and Nam Kong were merged to draw the Nam Ha NBCA limits (Dubé 2010, p. 91). These extensions were made in order to ‘connect’ the Nam Ha area with the Siang Yong area in the Chinese province of Yunnan to the north (ibid., p. 92). In Luang Nam Tha province, 104 villages were located inside or at less than five kilometres of Nam Ha NBCA, including 33 villages within Luang Nam Tha district (Table 16.3). According to a provincial official, this is the only district in this province where some villages were to be found completely enclosed within the NBCA. Also, more than half of the villages were found having territories straddling over the NBCA limit (54 of 104; Table 16.3). Even for the villages outside the limits of the NBCA, people have now to cope with its limits, regulations, forest rangers, and so on.

Table 16.3 Villages located inside or within a five kilometres radius of Nam Ha National Biodiversity Conservation Area, 2001 District Villages (number in each category) I

II

III

IV

Luang Namtha Viengpoukha

Total 33

14

18

1

0

24

0

10

2

12

Nalae Long

10 14

0 0

3 9

2 5

5 n.d.

Sing

23

0

14

6

3

Total

104

14

54

16

20

Source Government of Laos (2001, p. 35) Note Categories defined by Southammakhot (2000, cited in Robichaud et al. 2001, p. 29) Type I: Completely enclosed village: all activities are found within the limits of the NBCA Type II: Village straddling over the NBCA limit: the village is usually located outside but land belonging to the villagers could be found inside the protected area Type III: Adjacent village: the village and the land belonging to the villagers are located beside the NBCA Type IV: External village: the village and the land belonging to the villagers are located outside the NBCA, but some villagers’ activities are affecting the area protected (agriculture, fishing, hunting, gathering)

27 At

the time of our research, data were to be found on this database. In 2010, the entire map database has been moved to Protected Planet (http://www.protectedplanet.net/).

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For this specific case study in Luang Nam Tha province (Fig. 16.2), the authors spent almost four months together or separately in Vientiane and Luang Nam Tha for fieldwork.28 Professors Sithong Thongmanivong and Bakham Chanthavong of the Faculty of Forestry of the National University of Laos contributed to the realisation of this project, the latter acting as an advisor and translator while in Luang Nam Tha. During the survey in thirteen villages of Luang Nam Tha province, two types of questionnaires were used. The first one was used to get information from chief or vice-chief in the villages visited. The idea was to get as much information as possible from the administrative point of view on the resettlements when it happened, livelihoods, various economic and social conditions, and so on, before and since the implementation of the protected area in 1993. It is important to note that, most of the time, the resettlements were not directly related to the implementation of the protected area. A second questionnaire was used with local people in these same villages to build individual trajectories and to improve our understanding of how people are integrated to the new socioeconomic and political systems, for example the international market. As it is common in Laos—also still sometimes in Vietnam—we were at all time during the interviews accompanied by, at the minimum, a provincial official, usually from the communist party, at least from what we were told. This, of course, has created a bias in the analysis because the people we met were never free to speak out. For this reason and the fact that Dubé and Chanthavong, who did most of the field interviews, were respectively a graduate student and a new local scholar at the time, we focused the research on gathering more “neutral” facts than representations or how people felt regarding this or that specific issue. In the villages we visited, the integration process has been studied through four main components (I–IV): livelihoods and revenues, land use, state interventions, and link to the protected area.29 I. Livelihoods and revenues. For almost every village surveyed during the 2008 fieldwork (11 of 13), villagers had no revenue at all at the time of the relocation, most of them in the mid-1990s. In 2008, all of them had revenues coming from either agriculture or animal husbandry (chicken, pigs). Two villages mentioned revenues from trekking and tourism, while four others mentioned handicraft as a source of income. But even when villagers started to intervene on the market, selling agricultural products and handicrafts, only in two villages, people were selling their products in Luang Nam Tha, Sing or further. No major changes were identified in the way people bought the various products they needed for their daily lives; mostly, the same local markets were used; and as before, district markets were used at times to complete their purchasing of things not available locally. In March 2017, villagers in Nam Sa (inside) and Nam Lü (outside), villages not in the 2008 sample, both in Luang Nam Tha district, had a large part of their domestic economy related to selling products, and sometimes their labour, to the market through various intermediaries, mostly middlemen or 28 Main fieldwork for this research was done from January to March 2008 (Déry, Dubé and Chanthavong, then Dubé and Chanthavong), then in June (Déry) of the same year. 29 For the details of this analysis, see Dubé (2010).

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‘middlewomen’, and Chinese rubber or banana companies. In 2017, in Nam Lü, some women were selling handicrafts through a group organized by a Japanese women. Revenues from tourism have stopped after 2013 in Nam Sa because there was not enough ‘jungle’ anymore—the word used by Laotian guides to translate ‘forest’ in English—around the village for the tour companies. Villagers had mixed feelings regarding this situation because these revenues were not substantial. Here, integration has occurred both at the regional and international level, even though, for the latter, it would be fairer to say ‘Chinese’ or even better, the ‘Yunnanese’ level, at least for the agricultural portion. II. Land use. The local situation (13 villages) observed can be defined as a transition. Only three villages were practicing nothing but shifting cultivation while in seven of them, local people were practicing a mix of sedentary and shifting cultivation and three were already completely sedentary. This transition is confirmed for the entire Luang Nam Tha province: according to government data, highland ricefields have been reduced by more than half between 1976 and 2005 (Table 16.4). Also, more recently, this transition has been followed by the expansion of plantation agriculture in the form of rubber plantations, a trend that accelerated and diversified after 2008: rubber areas have enlarged, to which have been added banana plantations, as for example in Muang Sing, often to replace lowland ricefields (Rolland 2017). During the same period, one has also witnessed the growing of ‘domesticated’ cardamome, compared to the ‘wild’ one, still collected in some forested areas in 2017. All the villages surveyed in 2008 had rubber plantations established or sites in preparation for their establishment at that time: 18 of 25 individuals interviewed in Luang Nam Tha district; 8 of 19 in Sing; 7 of 15 in Vieng Pou Kha. The March 2017 interviews revealed that almost all families had or were somehow related to rubber plantations. Between 2004 and 2006 (data available at the time of the 2008 fieldwork), a total of 9,764 ha of rubber plantations had been started in Luang Nam Tha province, most of them (8,714 ha) with investment coming from Chinese companies, the remaining from local investors.30 Data from the agricultural census of 2010–2011 show a sharp rise to 17,932 ha (Lao government), while Vincent Rolland reported a total of 22,740 ha for the period of 2001–2015 (Rolland 2017), more than twice the area less than 10 years before. III. State interventions. In every village, there has been some state intervention in the social field since relocation. There has been some improvement in the education infrastructures in 12 of the 13 villages surveyed, i.e. more grades are offered or a new school has been built, or a new cycle is provided locally. Our surveys in 2008 were not deep enough to allow the evaluation of the quality of these ‘services’. As for health infrastructures and services, access in 8 of the 13 villages surveyed has improved; this means that health facilities have been built or the number of services or of nurses in the villages surveyed has increased. Here we can talk about regional/provincial and national integration. 30 The source of this information is a non-published document obtained from the Provincial agriculture and forestry office (PAFO) in 2008.

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Table 16.4 Luang Nam Tha, area of rice production according to the type of cultivation, 1976–2005 1976 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010–11 ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Lowland rice Inundated rice Highland rice

7689

11,600

4056

4460

5802

7850

12,695

8

50

20

18

25

740

683

16,033

22,562

14,610

14,266

13,370

10,576

6650

Dry season (na sèng) Source MAF (2006) Agricultural statistics, 1976–2005. Vientiane a The Lao Census of Agriculture 2010/11 calls this category “upland rice” Total–lowland  ; total–highlands  ; rainy season–lowland 

12,131

16,522a 670b

; rainy

season–highlands  looks as if the “dry season” data of the census could refer to what was called “inundated rice” in the 2006 report of MAF

b It

IV. Protected area. As for things related to the Nam Tha protected area, six of the surveyed villages (13) were located within the borders of the park. In three of the thirteen villages, the head was not able to situate accurately the limits of the park versus the limits of the village. These villages were either straddling the limit (2) or completely outside (1). Only two of the villages were involved in tourism activities related to the park. In addition, unsurprisingly, the impact of the protected area has been deemed mostly ‘excellent’ by the villagers; this is certainly related to the fact that we were accompanied by officers from the province during our interviews and does not reflect the exact feeling of local villagers. All villages surveyed at that time (2008) were also involved in some form of forest ‘protection’ in Nam Ha NBCA, which means management at two levels, district and province. Moreover, for the two villages involved in ecotourism, Ban Done Xai and Ban Prang, we can add that in 2008 they had links with the international tourism system. As for the relocation programmes, it was organised by the provincial authority under various national programmes. The overall situation of integration is similar in the thirteen villages. At the local level, they all have a local market to sell their agricultural production, mostly to other villagers and to people from neighbouring villages. In a few of them, they sell their products to companies who buy the production on site: cassava or sugar cane for three villages; corn in three others. To buy the various daily essential products, they frequent the district market, either in Sing, Vieng Pou Kha or Luang Nam Tha except for Ban Prang, where a vendor from Luang Nam Tha comes regularly. The last element of integration in these villages is the rubber plantations that are cropping up everywhere, thanks to Chinese companies. At the time of the fieldwork (2008), local people did not feel overrun—yet. To those who contracted with Chinese companies to plant rubber trees, we asked what they would do when trees would

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eventually be ready for production; most of them did not know. Save a very few exceptions, they had a wait-and-see attitude, which, in the context, was not promising for them. Two other issues were identified from the investigations, even if they were not measured precisely. Firstly, although education services could be seen at first sight as an improvement in local well-being, this is an obvious geopolitical issue. Ethnic diversity in the province is such that imposing a national language education for all may induce tensions and conflicts of various kinds: self-identity, generational, ethnic, religious, ideologic preference, etc. Given the bias created by the presence of an official during the interviews, we did not try to investigate this issue specifically, although we can infer at least two points from our research. On the one hand, the decision to build educational infrastructures was not in the hand of villagers, nor the decision of what types of services were needed and implemented. This could also mean that, in the mid or long term, the education in Lao language would increase the possibility of acculturation, which could result in marginalisation. On the other hand, those who are not able to speak fluently the Lao language, often women in our study, bear the risk of being left behind those who may have access to a more extensive number of choices, access to more types of information, an asset for those who want to adapt to the new systems in which they are involved. Multilingual skills certainly will remain an asset in the region (see Scott 2009). We can add that this improvement in education services has at times been implemented through a kind of blackmail, as in Heuay Hôk where the relocation was the prerequisite to receive a new school (Table 16.5). In the end, promoting education backed by conservation and development legitimacies could result in two opposite trends: sometimes augmenting marginality, sometimes contributing to less marginality. A closer follow-up would be needed. Secondly, as of 2008, a market with international ramifications, or the way people sell and buy the various products they are producing or they need, has been integrated in the daily life of the local people during the last two decades. For sure, it remained local for a lot of daily consumption products, but industrial products, mostly manufactured in Yunnan province, are quickly making their way to village households. In all villages or small town, Chinese already owned most of the shops. For example, in Vieng Poukha, a couple had lived there for eight years; there were only three Chinese families at that time. They were selling various products that they bought in Mengla (Yunnan—just over a hundred kilometres from Luang Nam Tha), where they had been living before. In 2008, a trip cost 30 million kips (truck rental, driver, goods, taxes) and they were able to import goods to sell for about three months. However, the main change in the way people were earning their living at this time had been the planting of rubber trees, trees that were not meant to enter production before 2014. In the meantime, candidly, local people did not feel (not yet!) that their integration in the ‘international rubber system’ has made them more marginal. Most were still seeing this development as an opportunity to exploit. Of course, where production had started, observations were already different: land has started to be turned into capital and people into labour, to paraphrase an old saying Ian Baird re-used to describe the situation in Laos (Baird 2011). In this wake, observations made in 2017,

16 Protected Areas and the Integration Process of Mountainous … Table 16.5 Establishment of the thirteen villages District Village Year of Main reasons for Help from the relocation being relocated government Luang Namtha

Sing

297

Villagers relocated

Hong Leuay 1975

No

All the villagers

Phin Ho

No

5 households

Done Xai

Get closer to the road 1899 Lack of land and forest 1999–2000 Government regrouped villages scattered along the road

Yes (school, access to water, funding for rubber plantations)

Villagers along the road

Lakkamai

1995

Government told to regroup along the road

Yes (trucks to move, access to water, funding for rubber plantations)

All the villagers

30 households

Tha Se

1969

Security

No

Nong Boua

1990

No health centre, not enough land available, no road, no school

Yes (200 kg of rice, as a loan, for the first year)

Pangthong

1995

Lack of land

No

3 households

Thin Tad

1899

Lack of land

No

10 families in B. Kouang and 15 families in B. Sipsong

Sop Oe

1994

Mortality rate No too high and village far from the main road EDPa proposed Yes (school and a new school in access to water) exchange for the moving

Viengpoukha Heuay Hôk

Nam Kap Thai

2006

1997

After a government demand, to get closer to the road

All the villagers

All the villagers (gradually)

Yes (from 1999: All the villagers school, access to water, health centre) (continued)

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Table 16.5 (continued) District Village

Year of relocation

Main reasons for Help from the being relocated government

Villagers relocated

Namsing

1997

The new site was appropriate for the settlement of a village

All the villagers

Prangb

1994

They joined No another group of 4 villages

Yes (area prepared by the government; 400,000 kips)

All the villagers

Source Fieldwork (2008)—interviews with the chief and vice-chief in each village a EDP means Education Development Project, a project funded by the Lao government and the World Bank in 1991. The objective was to develop school infrastructures throughout the country. In 1997, a Swiss organisation, SKAT, joined the project b In the case of Prang village, it has been relocated twice since 1969, for “security” reasons and war. The last relocation occurred in 1994 and they say it was a free move

in other villages, have shown increasing inequalities between villages, and within villages, something Évrard already identified in his study of Khmu villages: there is a differentiation mechanism according to the degree of proximity with the trade network as well as according to the political influence of Tai principalities (Évrard 2006, p. 241).

16.5 Contribution to the Understanding of the Marginalisation Process Our study of integration and marginality in the province of Luang Nam Tha, in the northern part of Laos was made through the study of individual and collective trajectories, to seek how local villagers have been, individually and collectively, integrated into national and international systems during the last two decades. Since, according to our hypothesis, marginality varies according to the system in which an individual or a community is part (Déry 2010; Déry et al. 2012), these trajectories show some patterns. When individuals or communities are integrating new systems, we could try to see how they navigate the various systems and thus how their marginality evolves in the process, that is, to follow the evolution of their decision power in various domains concerning mostly their daily lives (see for example Déry and Tremblay 2008). Of course, no system is completely closed, independent, or even static: they interact in different ways, being at times juxtaposed, at times embedded in each other, and, more importantly, they change all the time because of the interactions of their elements. The most difficult part of our task, not yet resolved, is to balance these various systems: to which system should we, as researchers, give more value in our

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analysis to reach a ‘final’ marginality assessment? The World Bank attaches more value to the international market, while local people would prefer their family or local systems. How to balance the various forces? This difficulty is augmented due to the fact that values given, and energy devoted to the various systems differ from one individual to the other—this we can call ‘subjective marginality’ (Déry 2010). An interesting example given by Évrard illustrates perfectly this ‘tension’ between systems. In a specific village, he was telling the story of a young chief elected because of his knowledge of the Lao language. This means that, at the moment of his election, the villagers gave more value to the spatial national system, that is their specific village integrated into the national administrative structure. However, when the time arrived for a new election, he was not re-elected, presumably on the basis that, after he was elected the first time, he built a new house without accomplishing the normal ritual buffalo sacrifice. In this latter situation, the same villagers changed their priority and gave more importance or value to the ‘thickness’ of time within their village system, that is to their traditional system. Thus, the Laos case invites us to apply more nuances in the study of the marginalisation process. In some cases, like in Lam Dong province of Vietnam, it may look straightforward: local people were relocated, forced to change the way they earn their living, and thus in their majority marginalized (Déry and Tremblay 2008). This specific case in Luang Nam Tha province reminds us that time is also an important variable (see also Déry and Vanhooren 2011). People are integrating into new systems with different skills and knowledge, a personal health trajectory, networks, human and social capital; some of this capital is rejected, while some is used as it is and some is transformed, being still useful in the end (Fig. 16.3). From this, we can add a small contribution to the understanding of modernisation theory: the faster the process of integration/change, the least the capacity to adapt, which implies that more people are increasing their marginality; the slower the process of integration, the better the capacity to adapt for people involved, thus reducing the number of people affected by marginalisation. In both cases, change is shaped by the way people are adapting to their new situation. A slower pace of change will (should?) allow people to use their skills and knowledge or improve them to be able to cope with the new situation, while, conversely, a faster pace of change will benefit only those who already have skills (language, training) or other kinds of advantages or capital (Fig. 16.3). We can understand in this way the necessity of anchoring the villagers in the highlands, as described by Baird and Shoemaker (2007): “upland development thus being a tool communities could employ as a strong justification for resisting government-initiated resettlement” (Baird et al. 2009, p. 609). This would be a local territorialization that would fit the national territorialization project but would be ‘worked’ (labour  energy + information) from the village, with help coming from outside if needed and demanded, ensuring a softer and longer transition for the integration/modernization process, resulting thus with less marginality in the end. At least, it could be an ideal situation. Also, the process is not circular; neither we can add feedback loops, since individuals and communities are constantly pushed through or are throwing themselves, more or less coerced (Baird et al. 2009), into new ‘integration boxes’. In the dia-

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Fig. 16.3 A model of integration and marginalisation after the creation of a protected area (own elaboration)

gram (Fig. 16.3), the situation at the end of the first box, more or less marginalised than before, becomes the new situation with ‘entering conditions’. For example, in Ban Lakkamai, the villagers faced an ‘integration box’ when the Nam Ha protected area was created in 1993; they were relocated close to the road in 1995 (new bigger adaptation needed); in 2003, some Chinese companies started to sign contracts with individuals in the village, etc.

16.6 Discussion and Comments In this chapter, our aim was to examine the integration process in mountainous areas of mainland Southeast Asia, using a case study in Luang Nam Tha province in Laos. First, we described the general context and how, in the region, modern states, mostly from the 1960s onward, created protected areas especially in mountainous areas. Laos has been part of this movement of state actions in the respective mountainous areas, although contrary to its neighbours, Vietnam and Thailand, it moved mountainous dwellers to lowland areas, in relation or not with the implementation of protected areas. In this process, Laos relied very much on international donors like the World Bank and NGOs, causing some to call this state an ‘environmental state’ (Goldman

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2005). Given the level and depth of international integration, we may even go further and call it an ‘integrated state’, even if local forces—including ‘bureaucratic migrants’—do play an important role in shaping local territorialization (see Singh 2011). In Luang Nam Tha province, we have surveyed only 13 villages for our purpose, but various trajectories document several paths of integration. Of course, our results do not allow us to balance well the various integration changes that happened in the province and in the villages we surveyed. For sure, during the last two decades, the relocation of villages along the main roads has had the stronger and more direct effect on people’s livelihood, though it is not yet sure whether, in the long run, rubber plantations will represent a more drastic change for them. Relocation has contributed to integrate villagers into the local and regional economy: people now sell their production; they go to bigger district markets to buy the products they need. Rubber changes the scope of these systems. However, dependency on middlemen has not been observed as often as in the Vietnam Central Highlands. It has yet to be seen how the rubber market will be organised and what power the local people will retain. For sure, local people will be more integrated into regional, national or international systems. The change from food crops to industrial crops that do not produce food (at least not directly for them), like rubber in Luang Nam Tha or coffee, tea, cashew nuts, fruits trees, pepper etc. elsewhere, will increase the dependency of local people on the market for their survival. Whether they will adapt to this new system remains to be seen and will depend on how fast they will be able to acquire the necessary skills to take care of and harvest (no easy task) a rubber plantation as well as to manage it. Still in some villages like Ban Sop oe, where few people were able to speak Lao in 2008, chances of further marginalisation are high. Some of the villagers were still experiencing very difficult situations, mostly because of their relocation, which happened for some villages (5 of 13) before the creation of the NBCA. This means that they have not yet been able to adapt to their new environment, even if more than fifteen years have passed since. For these villages, the relocation has certainly contributed to their marginalisation. Our observations and informal inquiries confirmed that people are experiencing what Rigg has called “a twofold livelihood squeeze from ‘below’ and from ‘above’. From below driven by the declining productivity of the environment, whether cropland or forest; and from above by government policies” (Rigg 2006, p. 130). For the eight other villages, it is not clear enough whether their relocation was directly related to the creation of the NBCA, even for the six villages that benefited from ‘government’ aid (Table 16.5). In any way, relocation has often triggered more problems than solutions in this province. This is shown by Évrard’s study (Évrard 2006), and our study confirm it in other areas. In addition, for now, we cannot differentiate the results on a gender basis but it has been shown elsewhere (Huynh 2006) that, in the sedentarisation process, women are more marginalised. The overall preliminary conclusion of this research is that what contributed to the integration processes, such as relocation, state investments, protected areas, livelihood and land use changes, have all created a very difficult situation: in none of these domains, save maybe education and health, local people have been seen gain-

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ing power; at best, in 2008, they were just catching up with changes. Déry’s fieldtrip in 2017 contributed to nuance this statement a bit and will require more analysis: some were able to cope with the changes, and inequalities are now seen between and within villages. Thus, we can say that there is a very high potential for increasing marginalisation in this area for most of the people.

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Scott, J. (2009). The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press. Sikor, T. (2001). The allocation of forestry land in Vietnam: Did it cause the expansion of forests in the northwest? Forest Policy and Economics, 2(1), 1–11. Sikor, T., Nghiem phuong tuyen, Sowerwine, J., & Romm, J. (Eds.). (2011). Upland Transformations: Opening Boundaries in Vietnam. Singapour: National University of Singapore Press. Sikor, T., & Tan Quang Nguyen. (2007). Why may forest devolution not benefit the rural poor? forest entitlements in vietnam’s central highlands. World Development, 35(11), 2010–2025. Singh, S. (2011, June). Bureaucratic migrants and the potential of prosperity in upland Laos. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2, 211–231. Singh, S. (2012). Developing bureaucracies for environmental governance: At the interface of state authority and World Bank Conditionality in Laos. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong, SEARC Working Papers. Sodhi, N. S., Lee, T. M., Sekercioglu, C. H., Webb, E. L., Prawiradilaga, D. M., Lohman, D. J., ... Ehrlich, P. R. (2010). Local people value environmental services provided by forested parks. Biodiversity and Conservation, 19, 14. Taillard, C. (1989). Laos. Stratégies d’un État-tampon. Montpellier: RECLUS. Thongchai, W. (1994). Siam mapped. A history of the geo-body of a nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. UNEP-WCMC. (n.d.). World database on protected areas. http://sea.unep-wcmc.org. Vandergeest, P. (1996). Mapping nature: Territorialization of forest rights in Thailand. Society and Natural Resources(9), 159–175. Vandergeest, P., & Peluso, N. L. (1995). Territorialization and state power in Thailand. Theory and Society, 24, 385–426. Vanhooren, R. (2006). Les aires protégées en Asie du Sud-Est continentale, 1962–2005: Une étude des parcs Cát Tiên au Viê.t Nam, Si Lanna et Doi Suthep-Pui en Thaïlande. Department of geography, Québec, Université Laval, Unpublished master dissertation. Veilleux, C., & De Koninck, R. (1993). L’état et les besoins de l’agriculture au Cambodge, au Laos et au Viêt-Nam. In Collective (Eds.), Présence et priorités canadiennes en Indochine (pp. 75–123). Québec: GÉRAC. Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General system theory. New York: George Braziller. Wells, M., & Brandon, K. (1992). People and parks: Linking protected area management with local communities. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. West, P. C., & Brechin, S. R. (Eds.). (1991). Resident peoples and national parks. Social dilemmas and strategies in international conservation. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. West, P., et al. (2006). Parks and peoples: The social impact of protected areas. Annual Review of Anthropology, XXXV, 251–277. World Conservation Union (WCU). (1992). Protected areas of the world: A review of national systems (Vol. 1). Gland et Cambridge: International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Part VI

Conclusion

Chapter 17

Perspectives of Rural Space Chang-yi David Chang and Walter Leimgruber

Rural areas fulfil both material and immaterial functions (Table 17.1), recalling the values of diversity (Figs. 1.2 and 1.3). The former concern their (economic) usefulness, whereas the latter refer to emotions. Both are in their way important for humanity: we have physical as well as mental and emotional needs, body, mind and soul must be in balance to ensure our survival. The chapters in this book address primarily the former functions but often implicitly also touch the latter. Human perceptions of the (rural) reality are very important in this context. As long as our ‘mental filter’ was geared towards the material function, particularly production, the countryside was the supplier of the population with food. The introduction of new techniques since the 18th century has enabled the farmers to supply the growing populations. The advent of synthetic fertilizers following the research by the German chemist Justus von Liebig and colleagues boosted yields, and the application of synthetic pesticides prevented crop losses. The down-

Table 17.1 Functions of the rural space (based on Elsasser 2003) Material functions Immaterial functions Production (of food and raw materials)

Existence

Living space (land for various uses)

Options (for future uses)

Regulation (biodiversity regeneration)

Bequest (for future generations)

C. D. Chang (B) National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] C. D. Chang Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taipei, Taiwan W. Leimgruber University of Fribourg/CH, Fribourg, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 W. Leimgruber and C. Chang (eds.), Rural Areas Between Regional Needs and Global Challenges, Perspectives on Geographical Marginality 4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04393-3_17

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side of the indiscriminate use of synthetic substances is the gradual degradation of the soils (Rozelle et al. 1997) and the progressive mismatch between input and yield (diminishing returns; Aubert 1996). Another result of the focus of the material perspective is the growing allocation of land to non-agricultural uses (settlements, transportation routes etc.), particularly serious when it concerns prime farmland. It is only after the post-World War II economic boom that one began to realize what we were about to lose. In Switzerland, for example, settlement areas increased by 23.4% between 1985 and 2009 (584 km2 ), whereas agricultural surfaces diminished by 5.5% (850 km2 ) in the same period (FOS). Urban sprawl has resulted in the sealing of large surfaces with consequences for the water regime. In agriculture, horticulture and forestry, there is a continuing trend to standardize the species cultivated for the market. There are, for example, hundreds if not thousands of varieties of potatoes, but only a fraction are commercialized.1 To plant many varieties in the same field may not be profitable from a neoliberal perspective, but extremely positive when it comes to pest control. Still marked by the material function are many reforestation practices, where trees were often planted in a military-like manner with little to no space for spontaneous development. From an ecological point of view, such woodlands are tree plantations, not forests, and they do not favour biodiversity. Pine and poplar plantations are in that respect not far from oil palm estates. Planting water intensive trees like Eucalyptus will negatively affect a region’s water balance. The ideal would be to systematically use native species, irrespective of the time they need to grow, because they are adapted to the local environment. Costa Rica has chosen this way in her policy with financial incentives through the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme (FAO 2016, p. 61 f.). There has been a widespread recognition of the importance of forests and agricultural land to enhance food security, not only in Costa Rica but also in Chile, Ghana, Tunisia and Viet Nam, leading to respective policies (ibid., p. 80). Also, their role for tourism has been increasingly realized (ibid., p. 82). We can add to these (social) benefits those for the environment: through erosion control, forests can prevent floods and the silting up of water reservoirs (as has been shown for Tunisia; ibid.). Even if these examples point to the material functions of forests, the change in policy demonstrates that immaterial values have gained ground even in political thinking. Farmers follow the ideas of the material functions as production and the sale of land ensure their livelihood. They can contribute to regulation if they take care of the soil, respect the biological diversity and use water sparingly. In this case, they will be also aware of the immaterial functions or the non-use value of the land, because only in this way they can ensure the long-term survival of the rural space. This becomes manifest in high-level discussions about ‘agroecology’ as a response to the degradation of the environment through farming and in the increasing popularity of organic products (Leimgruber et al. 1997; Leimgruber 2004). It is not existence that dominates these debates but rather the options that open the road to the future. 1 There

are also many genetically modified cultivars which, however, can hardly be found on the market due opposition to GMOs, particularly in Europe.

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Olivier de Schutter, Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on the right to food, calls it “a coherent concept for designing future farming systems as it is strongly rooted both in science and in practice” (UN Human Rights Council 2010, p. 7). In this context he likens it ‘ecoagriculture’, ‘evergreen agriculture’, ‘ecological intensification’ and ‘conservation agriculture’, but not to organic farming. He only mentions “organic farms” on one occasion, admitting that their soils “improved the drought resistance of crops.” (ibid., p. 13). Agroecology is praised as “a successful concept which promotes farming methods that are attuned to local ecosystems. It is already used for growing rice worldwide” (Heinrich Böll Foundation et al. 2017, p. 36). Its value lies in the fact that it comprises “diversified farming systems that produce high yields without damaging the environment and are in tune with the social systems in which they are embedded” (ibid., p. 36). The contributions to this book demonstrate the breadth of functions and the future potential of rural space, although the material aspects prevail. Rural areas are developing into truly multifunctional spaces: as productive spaces they continue their traditional role as providers of food and raw materials, to which must be added the production of energy through wind and solar farms and biomass. They are also becoming living spaces for formerly urban populations that prefer the quieter atmosphere of the countryside to hectic town life—even if they may have to commute to cities, which offsets a part of the ‘rural benefit’ and risks to draw rural areas into the urban lifestyle. This population, however, may be more aware of the ecological value of the rural world and contribute to the regulatory function. They have at least to some degree internalized the immaterial functions. One domain, however, has not been treated at all, and it is not of little importance. Rural areas are also spaces for leisure and recreation. Weekend walks, summer hikes, and holiday trips benefit of the services provided by rural areas: open land, forests, rivers and lakes. Saving them from destruction is a noble task, as the above remarks about reforestation illustrate. Including the leisure function into our considerations, we can affirm that the perspectives for rural areas look good.

References Aubert, C. (1996). Chinese agriculture, the limits of growth. In Itinéraires, Notes et Travaux (No. 46, pp. 3–34). Geneva: Institut Universitaire d’Études du Développement (IUED). Elsasser, H. (2003). Realitäten in den ländlichen Räumen, Seminar on the future of rural spaces, Fribourg, 28 August 2003, organized by the Stiftung Landschaftsschutz Schweiz und Metropole Schweiz (in German). FAO. (2016). The state of the world’s forests. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization. FOS (Federal Office of Statistics). Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz (Statistical Atlas of Switzerland, online https://www.atlas.bfs.admin.ch/maps. Accessed March 15, 2018). Heinrich Böll Foundation, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation & Friends of the Earth Europe (2017). Agrifood Atlas. Facts and figures about the corporations that control what we eat. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Foundation & Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Brussels, Friends of the Earth Europe.

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Leimgruber, W., Dettli, W., & Meusy, G. (1997). Organic farming: A solution to marginality? In Proceedings of the symposium ‘Issues of environmental, economic and social stability in the development of marginal regions: practices and evaluation’, Glasgow, pp. 160–169. Leimgruber, W. (2004). Organic farming—A promising future for humanity. Malaysian Journal of Tropical Geography 35, 1 + 2, 1–15. Rozelle, S., Veeck, G., & Huang, J. (1997). The impact of environmental degradation on grain production in China, 1975–1990. Economic Geography, 73(1), 44–66. UN Human Rights Council. (2010). Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. Document A/HRC/16/49.