UWE Bristol Urban-rural linkages and rural development ESPON-RTPI workshop on ‘Spatial Perspectives for Rural Development in the UK’, 9 December Presentation by Name: Ian Smith Title: Director, Cities Research Centre

Introduction What do we mean by rural-urban linkages? Why might rural-urban linkages be important? What are the outcomes of rural-urban linkages? What are the strengths/problems of this lens on rural development?

What are rural-urban linkages? ‘Substantive’ flows Labour market linkages Rural-urban migration Services and resources ‘Process’ framework Rural-urban partnership working

However…… Defining urban and rural problematic Issues of ‘geography’/contiguity Issues of scale (of vision and unit of analysis)

Why might rural-urban linkages be important? Green paper on Territorial Cohesion (2008) Discussions over funding support within EC What about in the UK?

Impact of rural-urban migration Patterns of rural-urban flows of human and social capital and implications for civil society differentiated and difficult to predict In-migration of urban professionals can create tensions but can add to civic vibrancy Out-migration from rural areas can lead to spiral of decline, although return migration can bring urban knowledge, skills and networks

Small towns, migrant flows and human capital ‘Gentrification’ as a marker of economic growth in small towns in late 90s Plausible stories for linking gentrification to employment growth: Spending and demand Entrepreneurship The importance of age. There remains work to be done.

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

Plausible stories for social cohesion outcomes Cohesion outcomes of rural-urban linkages need to benefit both rural and urban communities Cohesion can be the unintended or secondary outcome of linkages Territorial and social cohesion are generally linked but they do not have to be Linkages are good for dealing with service deficits, migration issues, shared experiences I have not had time to illustrate them all, but the material from the case vignettes and our review of the literature both policy and academic on rural-urban linkages points us towards four propositions that we would like to frame the on-going discussion. These are: read out But before I open the discussion to the floor, I would like to offer the opportunity to comment to our case vignette contributors starting with Jeroen Vis who will take 5 minutes to outline a social farming project in the Netherlands.

Important issues for UK rural development? Potential lens through which to see territorial development (urban and rural)? Where to set the ‘boundaries’? Geographies are complicated UK – issue of inter-agency co-operation rather than inter-municipal co-operation?

In summary…. A potential lens through which to see some aspects of rural development Important because EC policy-makers identify these linkages as important Need to assess impact of linkages Such a lens is not without problems