In this pillar of research the focus is on decision making and processes that shape the framework for development in rural and remote areas from above, below, within and without. The new agenda for rural areas is a subject of great interest for international researchers, and the centre has an excellent opportunity to contribute to this. The interest of the centre in projects concerned with citizen involvement at a concrete level supports the research with inspiring results and perspectives.
The centre will work on research, that follows up on and analyses established rural area policies, including EU schemes, and regional and municipal specific rural area initiatives. There are, in addition to this, efforts that are part of EU’s programmes as part of the regional growth forums and in connection with planning in municipalities. It is a wide array of policies and administrative measures that influence living conditions and business development in rural areas. Projects and processes within these schemes form comprehensive and very valuable empirical data for the centre’s research.
Conditions in rural and remote areas are very much influenced by sector policies, the locally determined as well as those framework conditions determined nationally and in EU. Health policies, housing policies, traffic and infrastructural policies, environmental policies, policies on tourism and cultural policies all have a vital influence on living conditions and business development. The centre works to make visible the consequences of these framework conditions, as well as the potentials attached to these. This should contribute to creating a better insight into the mechanisms of the unequal regional development in Denmark.
The centre’s research on politics, administration and framework conditions draws on traditions of political science, and the centre can contribute internationally to this area. The centre’s real strength, however, lies within the overlapping competencies in following local processes in a sociological and anthropological perspective.