How to assess relation between local flows of agriculture and wellbeing of rural communities?

Abstract

One of the stated goals of the CAP post-2013 and further rural policies in Europe is improving the sustainability of European rural areas, including the wellbeing of rural communities, so that rural areas keep on being attractive as living places. The multidimensional nature of well-being is an important challenge in terms of evaluation and consequently there is a need for developing appropriate evaluation methods based on meaningful information, leading to a broader understanding of the wellbeing in rural areas. Over the past two decades, many rural places have witnessed unprecedented change and transformation of local economies, property and management drivers, including public policies. This has led to a dramatic reconstitution of rural populations, with less people engaged in agricultural production, but with new actors increasingly demanding non-production functions of agriculture, and sensibly the formation of a new set of rural social geographies. It is unambiguous that improving wellbeing in rural territories is beyond the capabilities of the agricultural sector alone. Hence, agriculture still has a vital impact on the economic, social and cultural relationships of their inhabitants, thereby determining the contribution it can make to rural wellbeing and to the sustainability of territories. Agriculture is seen as an active and dynamic component of local flows and different agricultural types can interact differently with specific flows, including resource flows, people flows, natural flows and economic flows. Hence, the principal message of this paper will be the discussion of theoretical and conceptual aspects of place-evaluation approaches to assess wellbeing of rural communities. Especial focus will be addressed to wellbeing dimensions that are in the reach of local agriculture. This theoretical understanding of an overlap between agriculture and wellbeing dimensions are critical for definition of appropriate approaches to measure agriculture’s influence on and improvement of local community wellbeing.