Historically, the economic contribution of rural areas to regions was clear: it was the provider of farm produce and other raw materials such as coal. Rural employment was evidently based on the exploitation of natural capital. Today, natural capital still strongly characterises the profile of rural employment in the European Union but its effect now goes far beyond the traditional rural sector of agriculture. There are in fact four drivers of rural employment and rural economic prosperity, and these can be structured by two complementary analytical directions, namely production based on (a)...
Historically, the economic contribution of rural areas to regions was clear: it was the provider of farm produce and other raw materials such as coal....
