Rural-Urban Partnerships: An Integrated Approach to Economic Development

Urban and rural areas enjoy different and often complementary assets, and better integration between them is important for socio-economic performance. This report provides a framework to understand the changing relationships between urban and rural areas. It is focused on one approach that can enhance and better manage rural-urban relationships – the use of rural-urban partnerships. Specifically, it documents the characteristics of these partnerships and the factors that can hinder as well as enable rural-urban co-operation. Different governance approaches to manage rural-urban relationships are identified and discussed.

Finally, recommendations are provided to help national, regional and local policy makers to build effective and sustainable rural-urban partnerships for better economic development.

Contents:

Acronyms and abbreviations13

Executive summary 15

Part I Rural-urban partnerships: A tool for economic development 19
Chapter 1. Understanding rural-urban partnerships: Context and definition 21
- Beyond the rural-urban dichotomy 22
- Trends in urban and rural areas 25
- From linkages to partnership 34
- Annex 1.A1. The effect of proximity between urban and rural regions 39
- Bibliography 42

Chapter 2. Purposes and outcomes of rural-urban partnerships 47
- The purposes of rural-urban partnerships 48
- Benefits and risks of rural-urban partnerships 58
- Bibliography 67

Chapter 3. Taking a functional region approach to rural-urban partnerships 69
- Functional regions: Definition and major identification strategies 70
- The complex geography of rural-urban partnership 75
- Overcoming the challenges of adopting a functional region approach in policy making 81
- Annex 3.A1. Partnership geographies of case studies 84
- Bibliography 86

Chapter 4. Understanding the dynamics of rural-urban partnerships 87
- Overview of the rural-urban partnership process 88
- Factors that could help or hinder rural-urban partnerships 98
- Bibliography 103

Chapter 5. Creating a governance framework for rural-urban partnerships 105
- Rural-urban governance framework derived from the case studies 108
- Drawing lessons from the rural-urban framework 121
- Targeting support mechanisms for rural-urban partnerships – lessons from the framework 123
- Policy co-ordination failures: How rural-urban partnerships can help 129
- Bibliography 132

Chapter 6. A strategy to build effective rural-urban partnerships 135
- The rationale for rural-urban partnership 136
- Strengthening rural-urban partnership: A strategy 137
- Directions for further research 149
- Bibliography 151

PART II. RURAL-URBAN PARTNERSHIP IN PRACTICE: 11 CASE STUDIES 153
Chapter 7. Australia: Geelong Region Alliance (G21) – Geelong

Chapter 8. Czech Republic: Prague-Central Bohemia 173

Chapter 9. Finland: Jyväskylä and Saarijärvi-Viitasaari – Central Finland 185

Chapter 10. France: Rennes Métropole – Rennes 201

Chapter 11. Germany: Nuremberg Metropolitan Region 217

Chapter 12. Italy: Province of Forlì-Cesena – Emilia-Romagna 235

Chapter 13. Netherlands: The BrabantStad partnership – Brabant 251

Chapter 14. Poland: Central Zone – West Pomeranian Region 267

Chapter 15. Portugal: Castelo Branco – Beira Interior Sul

Chapter 16. Spain: Extremadura 299

Chapter 17. United States: Lexington metropolitan region – Lexington, Kentucky 315

Website: OECD iLibrary http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/

Rural-Urban Partnerships: An Integrated Approach to Economic Development (Download) http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/urban-rural-and-regional-development/rural-urban-partnerships_9789264204812-en

---