Pter Tth Knowledge society from the point of view of rural sustainability Rural sustainable development in the knowledge

society. (Ed: Bruckmeier, Karl, and Hilary Tovey) Ashgate Pu lishing, !td., "##$. ISBN !"#$!#%"&' (!& !"#$!#%"% )ength* %(# pages

The theory of sustainability con+uered the world of developers appro,imately % years ago- But transformation is not an easy tas. since changes in economy in the last % /%" years creating global mar.et/oriented' mass production industries fi,ed the rules in every aspect of everyday life- 0nd another obstacle e,ists while each place has its own climatic' geographical' political' social and economical bac.ground the process of transformation cannot be unified- Neither in alchemy nor in practice of sustainable development e,ists the Philosopher1s Stone' moreover during the process of intervention on national level one must ta.e into consideration the regional or micro/regional spatial differences of a country- That1s why Karl Bruc.heimer and 2ilary Tovey the two writers and editors of the boo. had to ma.e an enormous effort to synthesi3e and create global trends of 4uropean rural sustainable development out of different case studies from several 4uropean countries- Their wor. was supported by researchers and academics from 5% 4uropean countries- The boo. is based on $th 6ramewor. 7esearch Program last for 8 months and between % and % # !- The aim of the research was to reveal how the certain .nowledge types

embedded in the conte,t of rural development who are the actors of the development process which actor of the development possessed with these .nowledge types and how these .nowledge types interact or counteract with each other- The pro9ect name is :;70S;N <:onditions for 7ural Sustainable =evelopment>- The countries were advisedly chosen into the pro9ect to represent the 4uropean border region considered to form the so called ?reen 7ing where the strong conventional agrarian traditions survived the waves of industriali3ation and the up to the bottom approach

of collectivi3ation in the case of e,/socialist bloc countries- This theory was introduced and e,plained in % 5 in the boo. 4urope1s ?reen 7ing edited by )eo ?ranberg' Imre Kov@ch and 2ilary Tovey- :ountries involved in the :;70S;N Pro9ect were ?reat Britain <Scotland>' ?ermany <4ast/?ermany>' Spain' Portugal' Italy' :3ech 7epublic' 2ungary' Poland' Ireland' Sweden' ?reece- :ountries e+ually represented new and old members of the 4A' e,/socialist countries and countries with a long tradition of mar.et/based economies- In the case of core countries li.e ?ermany the chosen territory also represented the afore/mentioned ?reen 7ing in the case study from 4astern ?ermany- This idea led to s.ipping 6rance which bears the classical agrarian traditions- The main point in each case study was the e,amination of a process in each country where the focus was on how the theory of sustainability reaches people involved in rural development and the local inhabitants7ural development and rural areas are the common point in each case study but these studies deal with waste range of sub9ects in this field as local entrepreneurship development' green energy production affecting the agrarian practices' traditional clam fishing' reproduction of traditional agrarian practices' rural tourism and the case of local products- Bualitative techni+ues such as content analysis and interview and observation were used during the preparation of the case studies- The research teams also used statistics and content analysis in the pre/research phase when they1d drawn the self portrait each nation1s created while formulating and it1s role in sustainable rural development by policies' laws and actions and how these countries give a definition to the terms of development' rural development or sustainable rural development- The overview of these determinative actions shows there are hardly any similarity between development policies on governmental or on the developer1s level- In most cases only one from the essential sustainability pillars <ecological' social' economic> was ta.en into consideration and each pillar will lead to different approaches in practices- This colourful picture has one unifying element that can be discovered behind these policies- It is the supranational policy creation of the 4uropean Anion which is used as a guideline for the member states and especially for the new members whose ac+uaintance with these theories is a rather new phenomenon- 0ppearance and diffusion of the idea of sustainability in 4astern 4uropean countries is definitely a result of the enlargement process of these countries-

The research process of :;70S;N used seven different approaches to interpret the processes- These seven approaches were merged into two core chapters in the boo.- ;ne deals with diversification and innovativeness in rural areas the other gives interpretations of theory of sustainability and the possibilities given by the environment- 4ach topic contains si, case studies where 4ast and Cest North and South of 4urope are represented- <In the case of missing case study of Spain a second Polish case study is used from a different part of Poland which represents the wor. of another Polish research group-> The boo. contains a frame story with articles written by the two editors- These articles try to lay to course to the case studies and what is more important try to define the common core elements in the process of rural sustainable developmentThe introduction deals with the general trends of .nowledge transfer and gives a brief presentation of each nation1s rural policies and images of sustainability- The case study section is followed by a summary of how the innovation processes can be classified which are closely related case studies with lots of references to the practices- 0s a conclusion the editors summari3e the whole boo. with a reali3ation of an important element in the process of development which operates as an immanent and everlasting part of rural communities* .nowledge and local .nowledge transferIn most cases local .nowledge is not ta.en into consideration as an important element- 6rom the .nowledge society1s view codified .nowledge which lies on scientific base outweighs all the other type of .nowledge- :odified .nowledge is an important and irreplaceable building bloc. in sustainable rural development but not the only type of .nowledge that should be used- )ocal traditional .nowledge or pre/ industrial or lay .nowledge is as important as codified .nowledge which has to complete codified .nowledge in order to get an applicable approach which suits the territorial needs- These two .nowledge types have to use in a balanced way which is easy in theory but really hard to do in practice- This is the point where local inhabitants and the outsider developers have to wor. together and cooperate- ;ne useful solution can be the appearance of an insider outsider' an outsider e,pert with local roots in the area of development6inally we would li.e to emphasi3e two merits of the boo.- ;ne is a different way of using the phrase of .nowledge when the writers tal. about the .nowledge types used and needed in development and innovation- This new construction of .nowledge is a

way different .nowledge formulated by academics in the discourse and research of .nowledge society- The usual term is a product of views generated by post industrial development practice- Dodern .nowledge society needs only these terms- But in the case of a rural .nowledge society which lac.s of elements li.e modern technological or scientific .nowledge more terms and .nowledge types should be ta.en into consideration so the process of moderni3ation and development can be followed described and compared- ;nly this broader concept of .nowledge will let us understand how rural areas become a part in modern .nowledge society and ma.e it possible to formulate the re+uirements of sustainability- The authors e,panded the term .nowledge into the locally produced tacit or traditional .nowledge types unfamiliar to former scientific practice- 0nd because of this attachment the daily practice of development observed locally led to a different e,perience what the reader could imagine from the details of the national policies and the scientific theories listed in the introduction of the boo.- The framewor. one can interpret the term sustainability is built in the different ways of .nowledge can be transferred where scientific' managerial or organi3ational and local .nowledge plays different part in the process0nother great improvement is the fact that the authors emphasi3e that all the .nowledge types are fluid categories since the border between different .nowledge types can be easily transformed and reconstructed- The authors recogni3e this phenomenon but they don1t give more information on how these li+uid categories should be used to ma.e a new classification of s.ills and .nowledge types used in rural conte,t for development- I suspect this will be the ne,t topic of their forthcoming research which will be a good base for a new boo.I .indly offer this boo. for those who would li.e to pee. into the rural development processes in 4urope to get a wider picture on what are the main building bloc.s of rural .nowledge society-