Small towns as ‘sub-poles’ in European Rural Development: Policy, theory and methodology

Topics

• Governance capacity
• Policies and instruments

Abstract

As Rural Development assumes greater importance in European policy, there is a growing need to identify the most appropriate mechanisms through which to stimulate economic activity across a broad range of economic sectors in rural areas. One strategy is to use small towns as ‘sub-poles’ in rural economic development but the effectiveness of such a strategy depends not only on the size of the various multipliers but their spatial distribution. This paper discusses the policy context and theoretical underpinnings of some recent and on-going studies which are examining the potential role of small towns in rural development. An operational framework is described which aims to examine the sectoral and locational variations which may affect the success of any small town sub-pole strategy, using some developed empirical tools to measure economic linkages. It then goes on to describe a current EC-funded trans-national study that is assessing the potential role of small and mediums-sized towns as sub-poles in rural development in five countries across Europe (QLRT-2000-01923). The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research in this field.

Reference to the original publication

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