| Main
Questions |
According
to our basic concept of rural development, we will look into
five dimensions of the selected rural development initiatives:
|
| 1. |
A
major focus of our case studies will be the human dimension.
We will ask questions such as: |
|
 |
Who started the
initiative? Was there a single entrepreneur or a group of people? |
|
|
Was there
networking with related initiatives? |
|
|
Did
the project initiate new institutions? |
|
|
Did
the project contribute to rural capacity building (increase level of
education and training)? |
|
|
Did
the project create new jobs? What kind of jobs? |
|
|
Did
the project improve the quality of life? |
| 2. |
Resources
and the environment play a major role in rural development
initiatives. We will study the following questions: |
|
|
What
are the environmental conditions of the area? |
|
|
Did
the project make use of local natural resources (soil, water,
biomass, landscape beauty)? Is this resource use sustainable? |
|
|
What
measures of natural resource management are used? |
|
|
What
is the project's long-range impact on the environment? |
| 3. |
The
economic viability is certainly a most important dimension of
rural development projects. We will ask questions such as: |
|
|
How
is the project financed: private, public, through credits or
subsidies? |
|
|
Where
does the money come from: private investor, bank, European Union,
regional / national government? |
|
|
What
is the total investment into the project? |
|
|
How
is the projects cost efficiency (number of jobs created in relation
to total investment)? |
|
|
What
are the medium and longer-range economic prospects? Is the project
economically viable? |
| 4. |
From
our initial interview we know that political factors may be
quite important for a rural development initiative. We
will study questions such as: |
|
|
Who
are the real players? Who is driving the project? |
|
|
Is
the project integrated into a local, regional, or national
development policy? |
|
|
Which
local political elites supported the initiative? |
|
|
Was
there political pressure to develop the project into a certain
direction? |
| 5. |
And
finally, we will analyze the projects' technological potential
focusing on questions such as: |
|
|
Was
the project technology driven (such as with many projects focusing
on information technology)? |
|
|
Did
the project improve technological skills in its target audience or
among its participants? |
|
|
Would
the project benefit from technology transfer? |
|
|
Are
the technology aspect of the project really vital, or just a
reflection of popular trends? |
