Sociology and Space, No. 5-6, 1964.
Original scientific paper
THREE CONCEPTS OF RURAL PLANNING
Rudolf Bičanić
Abstract
In this paper three aproaehes to rural planning are analysed: as planning
of non-urban areas, as planning of the villages and its environment, and finally
rural planning integrated into the national economic structure.
The first approach is based on the high degree of planibilitv of land because
of its unlimited duration, its irreproducibility and divisibility. This is the approach
mainly used in physical planning of rural areas, in planning of land use, in planning
land reforms, in dealing with the use of water, and in forestry.
In the second approach there is consideration of the village as a rural
nucleus, of the rural area gravitating to it, and of inter-rural vaccuums with no
settlements. Planning of this kind is found in the following cases: traditional
three-field cultivation, the closed village community system, based an irrigation
schemes or animal husbandry relying on open fields, common pastures and
forests. It is also found in the transformation of villages from agricultural production
units into service centers; in farm consolidation schemes; in the cooperative
organization of villages following the principle »one village — one cooperative«;
in the organization of kolkhozes; in community development planning etc.
The third approach to rural planning is based on integrative planning of the
socio-economic structure. Rural activities are a component part of social life, and
this has to be remembered in rural planning. Rural activities need to be built into
the general frame of society, in the form of the interdependent action of many
centers of activity and social decision making. The basic underlying fact is that
economic development leads to an ever greater specialization of production and
diversification of consumption in such a way that the former is increasingly locally
bound whereas the latter is more and more freed from locality. This disequilibrium
is the main obstacle which rural planning has to overcome. The magnitude
of the task arises from the immobility and indivisibility of the factors of production,
the magnitude of the spatial units under consideration and of the level of
their economic development. Increase in agricultural production changes the relation
between auto-consumption and the local, regional, national and international
markets. The absolute figures present a somewhat different picture. Auto-consumption
does not change considerably in value, and increase of production is
mainly due to access to ever greater markets. Nevertheless this tendency is neither
radial nor symmetrical. The interdependence is measured with the aid of input
output matrices.
In spite of the integrative progress the author believes that rural planning
ought to preserve its identity as a special kind of planning for the following
reasons: the specific character of land; the fact that the location of activities in
rural areas follows different rules from that in urban settlements; there is a
difference in the degree of local determination of socio-economic activities which
is greater in rural than in urban areas; disequilibrium is greater in the country
than in town because of greater specialization of production and less diversification
of consumption; there is a greater density of population, of traffic of goods
and of capital outlay per area unit in urban than in rural areal.
The aims, the actors and instrument of rural planning are analysed. Emphasis
is laid on the problem of price parity, income parity and the equal opportunity
of mobility, in both the horizontal and vertical sense.
The idea that rural planning is an instrument of the urbanization of rural
areas is rejected as both areas are subject to changes under the influence of the
same forces.
Rural planning has to deal with natural and economic risk. It acts as a
socialized reductor of uncertainties, as a form of generalized market research, and
a universal social insurance scheme. It is optimal when organized in a polycentric
way.
Finally the size of different social groups carrying out various social activities
is discussed.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
121343
URI
Publication date:
21.7.1964.
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