Amnon Frenkel (p), Aviv Zaks

In this study, we explore the multidimensional structure of exurban sprawl. The literature suggests that exurban sprawl is a complex phenomenon displaying a wide range of spatial development patterns. Despite this, previous research studies have mainly measured its magnitude as a function of density. Thus, there is a gap in the scholarly literature regarding the rise and spread of exurban sprawl as a multidimensional phenomenon. This gap affects the local communities and policy makers, who lack proper ways to respond to the variety of patterns of sprawl.

Although there is no consensus about its definition, exurban sprawl is often described as low-density residential development in rural areas which is inhabited by urban migrants. The definition often includes long commutes to urban centers. Some have investigated the contribution of exurban sprawl to habitat loss, air pollution and farmland loss. Others have focused on its social effects, as in conflicts between more recent and older waves of immigrants, on rural gentrification and on inequality. Economically, exurban sprawl poses threats to food production systems and to the local community’s traditional economic base. Nonetheless, despite its sizable scope, it often receives less academic attention than the traditional urban sprawl.

This study address some of the knowledge gaps regarding exurban sprawl from a multifaceted perspective. The main working hypothesis is that exurban sprawl is a multidimensional phenomenon, with spatial manifestation of different patterns of development.

To examine the exurban phenomenon, a unique set of exurban sprawl measurements were developed. These variables were applied to 690 rural communities in Israel using a dynamic land cover data set for the years 1998, 2007 and 2012, represented in GIS layers. The results show increasing density, farmland fragmentation, accessibility, and changing in land-use composition, over time.

By means of data reduction methods, four distinct dimensions that characterizes exurban sprawl in Israel were identified: land fragmentation, residential expansion, density and isolation of development. These concepts were extracted through Explanatory Factor Analysis, then validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis, using structural equation modeling software.

Paula RJP Pavarina (p), Daltro Cella, Oriowaldo Queda

This paper has the objective of presenting and discussing the methodology used for data collection and analysis that seek to identify the factors that explain the continuity of productive activities in small rural areas in a Brazilian municipality. It is intended to investigate not only the qualitative characteristics of small rural properties but also the quantitative factors that allow describing how a small producer elaborates the strategies to survive in rural areas. In short, how can one ‘small property survive in a world of big'.
This paper is part of a broader research, still under construction, which will investigate the economic and social conditions that can lead to the permanence of people in small rural properties in the municipality of Candido Rodrigues, São Paulo state, Brazil.
There are a large number of variables that may explain the survival of a small rural property. It can be assumed as conditioning variables the fact that the owner is not prepared to act in another economic activity; the inheritance of a rural property; personal attachment to rural activity; autonomy and freedom concerning work by his own; the role of properrty as a financial reserve; and the enjoyment of contact with nature.
It should also be considered that there is a set of factors related to the internal organization of the productive activity: the type of activity developed; the use of a certain technique or technology of production or cultivation; the existence of multiple productive activities; labor structure. These variables are mainly reflected in the cost of production. There are also factors that are exogenous to the property and in very little depend on the rural producer, synthesized in price. Besides these, another variable that can impact on rural property is the economic scale of production.
The analysis of these exogenous and endogenous factors of rural property enables small farmers to adopt productive strategies appropriate to the size of their rural property. Therefore, rural development can be considered as having an interaction and an interdependence with the economic and social factors that interfere in the profitability and survival of these agents in market.
Through the interaction of these factors, questions of sustainability, and economic and social inclusion of the small properties can be improved. Thus small rural producers can increase their participation in economic, social and political life, improving their life conditions.

Joost Gieling (p), Tialda Haartsen, Lotte Vermeij, Henk Folmer

In response to government agencies’ withdrawal from public space, rural communities are increasingly held responsible for the quality and the development of local society. This new culture of citizen engagement assumes that residents are committed to their living environment and would willingly participate in various aspects of village life on a voluntary basis to safeguard village livability. The willingness to become active in village life often results from having some sort of attachment to the village. In particular the number and strength of local social bonds influence intentions to participate in village life. In other words, social place attachment is a key resource in ‘big societies’ as it is often found to predict local engagement, willingness to volunteer and life satisfaction.
This paper draws specific attention on the role of facilities in the creation of social place attachment. Village services perform multiple roles in village societies, which are not always well-understood. Besides a primary function, many village facilities are claimed by residents to also have a social function: they are places where residents meet and interact with each other. The availability of facilities may therefore facilitate social contacts and thus contribute to the establishment of social networks and community ties. A decline in the provision of facilities is hence considered to be one of the main threats to the rural standard of living. The closure of facilities occasionally leads to protests in village communities with residents arguing that a loss of facilities is the deathblow of village community life. More facilities are anticipated to disappear in the near future, which makes it timely to inquire the contribution of several facilities to the social attachments of rural residents.
This study will explore how the availability of facilities may affect social place attachment, recognizing the diversity in social orientation of present-day rural residents. Structural equation modelling (SEM) will be used to estimate relations between facilities, sociodemographic variables, and their statistical interactions on the social dimension of place attachment.

Tialda Haartsen (p), Suzan Christiaanse

The number and distribution of rural facilities and services in the rural areas in North-West Europe is increasingly challenged by depopulation and a changing composition of the rural population, by increasing scale requirements, and by chronically tight public budgets. In the Netherlands, municipalities in depopulating rural areas explore collaborative policy strategies to restructure the spatial distribution of facilities and services. In this presentation, we will present the results of such collaborative strategies towards restructuring rural facilities and services at a regional level. We will discuss two cases in the province of Fryslân, in the north of the Netherlands. In both cases, collectives of municipalities have asked the Faculty of Spatial Sciences to develop an overview of the current distribution of facilities and services in their region, and to develop some ´population decline proof´ scenarios for the next decades.
Data on the number and location of facilities and services, the location of the users (only for some facilities) and projected population decline were analyzed by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). For developing the scenario’s, we discussed what makes the different facilities robust and viable in a longer term by defining minimum numbers of users and maximum travel distances of the users. The municipalities have the intention to use the ‘emotion-free’ facts and figures and the different scenarios in discussion meetings with their inhabitants about the future of facilities and services in their regions. This way they hope to facilitate fruitful and realistic discussions with their inhabitants, aiming for spatial restructuring of facilities and services in a locally embedded way. We will present the way we developed the overviews and scenario’s, and will discuss the difficulties that both regions have to organize the inhabitant discussions. Key issue is how to deal with the discrepancy between the aim for rational choices for less facilities and services in an optimal regional distribution and local level emotions and citizen initiatives that may go against this optimal distribution.