Objective
This purpose of this project is to analyse the effects of policies on young people (aged 16-25) across rural areas of Europe, focusing particularly on their integration into or exclusion from labour markets. The policies considered will be at various geographical levels, including EC (CAP, Social Chapter), national (labour market policies and welfare regimes), regional and local (rural development programmes). As such it is a study of policies affecting rural development. It adopts an analytical approach to identifying the key mechanisms which affect this important and neglected group, who are the future of rural communities. Its focus is the effect of policies on how labour markets and welfare regimes interact with changes in the nature and duration of the youth transition. Because rural labour markets differ from those in urban areas, while welfare assistance may be less available or acceptable, and because 'young people in rural areas are likely to lead a qualitatively different kind of youth from those in towns'(Jones 1992), policies may impact quite differently on young people in rural areas. The OECD has highlighted the need to improve young people's ability to make a transition into the world of work. This research will therefore have important implications for the future of rural development policy. The emphasis is on comparative case studies of how policies impact on real-life conditions, and on linking personal narratives with macro processes of economic, social and institutional change. No such comparative studies have been conducted across rural areas of Europe, and our knowledge of how policies affect young people in rural Europe is small. Yet rapid changes affect their lives as a result of European integration, CAP reform, economic and social restructuring, changes in welfare systems, and globalisation, as noted in the Cork Declaration. Such a study is needed to assist the EU's formulation of effective and integrated rural development policies.
Amongst its goals, rural development policy seeks to promote empowerment and cohesion and to combat exclusion, especially in relation to labour markets. These aims are reflected in the Cork Declaration. Social exclusion is a multi-dimensional, dynamic concept wh¡ch refers to a breakdown or malfunctioning of the major societal systems that should guarantee the social integration of young people. These include the legal and democratic system, which promotes civic integration; the labour market, wh¡ch promotes economic integration; the welfare state, promoting social integration; and the family and community, which promotes interpersonal integration. Recent work in Scotland (Shucksmith et al 1996) provides evidence of the processes and system failures lying behind exclusion in rural areas. A key issue in this research is the articulation of social policies and economic development policies in a rural context. The methodology is based upon that tested successfully in a 2-year study of rural disadvantage (scotland) This relies upon a combination of complementary research instruments (contextual work, analysis of secondary data, in-depth qualitative interviewing, and group participative interviews) in case study areas in 8 countries, selected to include a range of types of rural area (CEC 1988). The participants are highly experienced in research in rural areas and in the management of international collaborative projects. They will be assisted by a distinguished international advisory group. Close links with user-groups through the Rural Observatory, the REAPER network of academics and practitioners, and the VIRGIL network of rural associations will also ensure effective dissemination and practical outcomes. Output will include an interim report in June l999 to assist with early policy formulation; papers from an international review meeting in September 1999 containing results of national and cross-national analysis of survey results and a final report in August 2000.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologysocial issuessocial inequalities
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- social sciencessociologyglobalization
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
AB24 3UF OLD ABERDEEN
United Kingdom