Through economic growth to the viability of rural space
Laen...
Kuupäev
2017
Kättesaadav alates
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Abstrakt
Rural areas as a living space for the population has been increasingly explored in
official documents of various EU institutions and in research topics. Both the documents and the
research papers stress the necessity to enhance and maintain the viability of rural areas. The
viability of rural areas is ensured by employment opportunities and readiness of residents for
active and innovative economic activities. The paper presents an analysis of vertical and
horizontal changes in entrepreneurship in the period of 2009–2015 and their effect on changes in
the living space of the analysed territories in Latvia’s regions. The processes in administrative
territories of regions, municipalities were analysed, as the life of residents is influenced not only
by national policies but also by on-going processes in the administrative territories of local
governments. The data of LURSOFT for the period of 2009–2015 and the Central Statistical
Bureau for the period of 2013–2015 were used as the sources of information. The data were
processed by quantitative (growth) and qualitative (structural change) statistical analysis
methods. The Eurostat methodology and the methodology developed by the authors for
classification of industries were employed for the analysis of structural changes in the national
economy. The development level-rate matrix method was used for an in-depth examination of
the research results. The research results showed that, in spite of the global economic crisis, both
vertical growth and positive horizontal change took place in the national economy of all five
regions of Latvia, nine cities of national significance as well as all 110 municipalities that
composed the rural areas of Latvia. The authors arrived at the conclusion that, first, performance
trends contributing to economic growth were observed in the rural space; second, there was no
direct causal relationship between the population density and economic activity in the rural
territories; third, the economic growth in the rural territories was greatly affected by the quality
of local governance and local community residents’ readiness for active, innovative and inclusive
activities.
Kirjeldus
Article
Märksõnad
living space, structural changes, knowledge-based economy, local governance, local community, articles