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TI 312 Geographies of Rural Development

Lecturer: Dr J McDonagh Office: Room 122  Office Hours: Phone: 00 353 91 49 2569  E- mail:  john.mcdonaghnuigalway.ie Lectures:  Mon 10-11, Larmor; Mon 14:00 - 15:00 Cairnes

The Course

The ideal of achieving sustainable rural development has become a key dimension of EU, national, regional, and local policy in recent years. While seeking to achieve this ideal is the norm in contemporary policy and planning the lack of consensus on what would give rise to sustainable development remains contested and ambiguous at best. This is particularly salient given the broader challenges of globalisation, the rapidly changing commodification of the countryside and the increasing, and often competing, demands on rural resources. The scale and accelerating pace of rural change has been a remarkable feature of recent decades. The countryside in Ireland, no less than elsewhere, is now being challenged as never before by issues of agricultural restructuring, declining service provision, depopulation and counter-urbanisation, communication and infrastructural deficits and the degradation of the natural environment. Further, the understanding of development in general, and rural development in particular, is not clear-cut. Suffering from the maxim of meaning all things to all people, the establishment of rural development goals is particularly problematic. Rural development proves to be a complicated arena that involves compromise and conflict between individuals, organisations, political and vested interests. In Ireland rural development has emerged as a major theme in recent years. Now recognised as a multi-dimensional and complex process, this course seeks to address this complexity by investigating different understandings of what rural development entails; different processes and practices of rural development and, at a more conceptual level, the theory and ideas that inform understandings and perceptions of rural development. The main examples and case studies used in support of this course will be taken form Ireland and the UK.

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The Lecture programme

• Geographical Perspectives on rural development
  Classifying the rural etc.
  
• The narrative of rural development in Ireland and the politics of rural sustainability
  
• Polices for rural development and the changing nature of rural areas
  
• Rural Governance – community development and Leader
  
• Multifunctionality, the Rural and Sustainability
  • Agriculture – productivism, post-productivism and multifunctionality
  • Forestry – rural opportunity?
  
• Protecting / contesting the rural
  • De-skilling the countryside?
  • REPS
  • Hunting
  
• Living in Rural areas and conflicting views of Sustainability
  • Rural transport and mobility
  
• The future of rural development
  

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Method of Assessment

The assessment for this course will take three forms: Examination; Individual Essay and Group Fieldwork Report. The emphasis will be on quality and originality rather than quantity.
1.  Examination - 2 hrs - answer 2 questions (60%)
2.  Essay - individual - 2000 words approx. (30%)
3.  Fieldwork - Group (3-4max.) Report – 700-900words - (10%)

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Fieldtrip

There is a non-compulsory fieldtrip as part of this course. The exact date of this fieldtrip will be communicated during the semester and will depend on the numbers taking the course. Students unable to attend the trip will have an alternative fieldwork group assignment to complete.

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Method of Delivery

With a combination of assessments, the delivery of the course will reflect the relative weightings of each assessment. The delivery will combine formal lectures, and discussions in exploring the myriad of issues within the rural development arena.

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Some key texts include

Bartley, B. and Kitchin, R. (eds.) (2006) Understanding Contemporary Ireland. Pluto Press.

Cloke, P. (2003) Country Visions. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Cloke, P.; Marsden, T. and Mooney, P.H. (eds.) (2006) Handbook of Rural Studies. Sage.

Ilbery, B. (ed.) (1998) The Geography of Rural Change. Addison, Wesley, Longman.

McDonagh, J. (2001) Renegotiating Rural Development in Ireland. Ashgate.

McDonagh, J.; Varley T. and Shortall S. (eds.) (2009) A Living Countryside? The Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland. Ashgate.

Woods, M. (2003) Rural Geography - Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural Restructuring. Sage.

An extensive list of suggested readings will be posted on Blackboard – please note lecture notes will not be posted.

    

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