The Role of Intermediate Actors in Transmitting Rural Goods and Services in Rural Areas Under Urban Pressure

Abstract

This paper seeks to review the role of intermediate actors in transmitting rural goods and services (RGS) to urban consumers in rural areas. The central questions are to identify intermediate actors and their capacity to conciliate, bridge and connect actions between rural and urban actors. Comparing the case studies of five European countries (Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain), the interpretation of the term ‘intermediate actors’ is rather dissimilar. The transformation of administrative structures and development policies and the rise of the culture economy are important factors to explain the emerging number and strengthening role of intermediate actors. To reflect the intermediate cooperation between the urban and rural actors, three types of conceptual structures may be relevant for analysis: the French ‘multiple’, the Finnish and Dutch ‘organized’ and the Spanish and Hungarian ‘adaptive’ models. Finally, it has been argued that rural development and its power structures could be more considered in terms of encouraging certain activities and enabling mediators to be primary actors of new urban–rural relations.

Keywords:

• Intermediate actors
• rural–urban relations
• rural development
• rural goods and services

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