In the framework of the ROBUST project, a paper on "Rural Service hubs and socially innovative rural-urban linkages: A conceptual framework for nexogenous development" was recently published.
Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK
Theresia Oedl-Wieser, Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research, Vienna, Austria
Ulla Ovaska, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Aimee Morse, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK
Abstract
Co-locating services has become a common solution to the many longstanding challenges of service access and provision in rural areas. Rural service hubs – which offer two or more services at the same outlet – take many forms, typically responding to triggers for social innovation. Despite their growing ubiquity, however, rural service hubs have been little studied in comparative perspective. This article shifts the lens on service hubs from placebased solutions towards a broader, multi-scalar and multi-level perspective on rural connectivity. We propose a five dimension conceptual framework in contribution to the emerging theorisation of nexogenous rural development a model for resourceful reconnection beyond place and across rural–urban space. Drawing on examples from Austria, Finland and Wales, we illustrate how diverse service hub models mobilise social innovation, networks, scale and proximity to support service access and provision.
Keywords: Rural development, rural-urban connectivity, services of general interest, service hubs, social innovation
You will find the article at: https://doi.org/10.1177/02690942221082040
