Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

In this paper the emergence during the 1980s of a water pollution problem associated with intensive livestock production is examined. Farm pollution is socially constructed and is shaped by rural social change. Rural areas are experiencing social and economic restructuring with a resultant shift in emphasis from production to consumption concerns. ‘New’ people are living in the countryside, with ideas about how its resources should be managed that often differ from those with traditional production interests. At the same time, the debates surrounding the privatisation of the water industry opened up the issue of water pollution in the countryside to greater critical scrutiny. It is in this context that pollution from farm ‘wastes’ (termed here ‘farm pollution’) has gone from being a ‘nonproblem’ in the 1970s to an issue of greater public and political concern and regulatory activity since the late 1980s. Based on evidence from a study of dairy farming in Devon, it is argued in this paper that the farm pollution problem and its regulation are as much a function of social change in the countryside as of environmental change in rivers.

Class analysis per se seems to have fallen out of favour in rural studies. In this paper the way in which it might usefully be reinstated as a unitary perspective on rural change is examined. The middle class is used as a focal point for the analysis. First, a short review of recent developments in class analysis within sociology is presented, and it is argued that class should be considered as an outcome of the various processes of collective action contributing to class formation. Second, some recent examples of class analysis in rural studies in the United Kingdom are considered. It is argued that these have been insufficiently attentive to the ways in which the processes of class formation unfold in the rural arena and the constitutive role of rural space. Yet rural England provides a particularly fruitful context in which to study middle-class collective action, for collective action is increasingly dominated by this class. Other forms of action associated with other attributes, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, are only likely to be successfully asserted if they reinforce the general character of this class context. In conclusion, the argument is made for a symmetrical use of class analysis, one which is in a subtle and complex relationship both with empirical work and with other forms of interpretation and analysis. It is proposed that the performative definition which underlies this paper provides such a symmetry.

In this paper, the problem of achieving sustainable development in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other policy suggestions is examined. Sustainable development is defined as a commitment to conserve necessary biological, cultural, and aesthetic capital for future generations. This is not a costless process. Constraints are required on current economic activity, entailing sacrifices by the current generation, if sustainability requirements are to be met. Specific wildlife sites within the farmed landscape are critical to the sustainability programme. Conservation of these sites entails the continuation of specific and often technically obsolete farming practices. Their conservation cannot be ensured by the practice of efficient sustainable agriculture as advocated by the authors Pretty and Howes. Furthermore, those authors are wrong in believing that such agriculture could be profitable without continuing subsidy. The approach of the CAP is to make payments for the practices necessary to safeguard these sites. However, the economic sustainability of the CAP is doubtful. Its costs are excessive and reforms are not reducing the excessive financial burden and resource costs. Alternative reform packages involving conservation through cross-compliance have even greater resource costs. The ability to safeguard these critical sites in the long run is therefore questionable. This suggests there is a need to rethink sustainability requirements for cultural and biological diversity.

In this paper we have tried to develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for analysing contemporary rural change. Initial results from a recent research project on changing lifestyles in rural Wales are used to investigate the potential contribution of regulation theory in rural research. The paper consists of four main sections. In the first and second sections, the main theoretical characteristics presented by a regulationist analysis of contemporary capitalist change are discussed in detail, stressing that regulation is a continuous but highly variable process. In the third section, some key findings from recent work on rural Wales—which highlights the cultural, social, and economic elements of change–are presented. In the fourth and concluding section we discuss the potential contribution which regulation theory might make to rural research, but in addition outline the ways in which an analysis of contemporary rural change might contribute to the continuing development of regulation theory. In particular, attention is drawn to several key issues which a regulationist account of rural change will have to consider.

In this paper some of the main reasons for a renewed examination of the relationships between globalisation, the state, and rural development are analysed. It is suggested that there is a need for conceptual development that will allow a study of transnational and regional ‘food networks’ and an analysis of how these networks are embedded in social and political processes and practices. The approach is deliberately integrative and broad based, with existing tensions in current literature identified.

In this paper a relatively underresearched aspect of Israel's planning policies in the Galilee region is examined: The attitudes of the local Arab population towards these policies. Israel's policies are initially reviewed, with particular attention to their spatial, economic, and procedural elements. Then a report is given on an attitudinal survey conducted in 1990 among 137 Arab councillors in the Upper Galilee region.

Examination of Arab attitudes towards each of the three policy elements mentioned above, shows that these attitudes are clearly influenced by the changing milieu in which the Arabs live, where Israel's policies and their spatial consequences play a key role. Further statistical analysis shows that Arab attitudes are most significantly associated with the following consequences of Israel's policies in the region: The extent of land loss, proximity to new Jewish settlements, and exposure to a high level of combined control measures exercised by Israeli authorities.

Overall, the survey shows that Arab attitudes in the Galilee are characterised by parallel strands of frustration (due mainly to a sense of deprivation), dissatisfaction, and determination, although a measure of pragmatism is also evident. The emotional and factual bases of Arab attitudes point to a likelihood of increasing levels of conflict between Galilee Arabs and Israeli authorities, if future policies fail to address interethnic gaps in the region.

Contrary to many other types of spatial decisions, shopping destination choice behavior is highly repetitive. For the practitioner looking for good predictors of store patronage, for reliable marginal utility estimates and reliable market share predictions, a central concern is with the type of data best suited to the research question, given the existing logistic and financial constraints. Different approaches can be recognized in the literature in which conventional discrete choice models are applied to shopping destination choice problems. In this paper, two of the most common practices are assessed and compared. First, the choice model is estimated with all choices of a relevant destination observed during a certain period of time (pooled cross-sectional data). The alternative approach consists in an estimation with the choice of the destination where the majority of purchases takes place (cross-sectional data). In the particular data set employed here, no evidence is found to support the idea that a multinomial logit model estimated with cross-sectional data does not perform as well as a model estimated with pooled cross-sectional data. Both models are found to be similar in their ability to identity the main predictors of store choice. Models developed on either data sets have marginal utility estimates that exhibit no statistically significant differences. Finally, market share predictions derived from both models are not statistically different. It appears, therefore, that there is no need to collect repeated patronage data over an extended period of time. The practitioner who wishes to use a conventional discrete choice model may avoid spending much time and money by gathering limited data on regular patronage patterns. In addition to this practical implication, the conclusions suggest that regular shopping destinations are chosen in accordance with the same behavioral motives as ancillary destinations are.

In this paper we provide a conceptual framework for categorizing economic instruments relevant to waste minimization. Instruments are categorized as purchase-relevant, discard-relevant, or jointly-relevant. It is argued that a mix of instruments from the above categories will increase the ability of a waste-minimization programme to achieve high waste-reduction targets without imposing excessive cost on the economy. The exact mix will depend on the elements included in the strategy and the focal points for behavioural change. It is likely that the effective participation of householders could be increased by discard-relevant or jointly-relevant instruments such as residential waste-collection fees or potentially refundable product levies. We anticipate that brand owners will call for the implementation of such instruments to help in meeting their packaging-recovery responsibilities.