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In recent years, rural residents' participation within their local communities has attracted attention within scientific and political debates that focus on sustaining or improving the quality of life in villages. Retired older people feature centrally in these discussions, as they are perceived to have the time and life experience to participate in various local activities. This paper contributes to the existing literature through an examination of older villagers' participation and non-participation within their communities in a strongly ageing rural area in Germany. Applying mixed methods and using survey data compiled for older residents, we identified six groups differentiated according to four types of participative practices and two main rationales for non-participation within villages in this region, thus introducing nuances and complexity to both sides of the participation/non-participation dichotomy. Our comparison of these six groups, considering their socio-economic characteristics and residential histories, revealed that women were underrepresented in positions of responsibility and that poor health and advanced age were primary reasons for non-participation. There were minor differences in the participation of village stayers and incomers, who accounted for a larger share of non-participants. As strategies to sustain or improve local quality of life should accommodate the interests of all residents, we advocate raising awareness regarding non-participant groups within research and policy contexts. • Around 75% of older people participate in various ways in their local communities. • Health concerns and advanced age are key reasons for non-participation. • Village stayers and incomers equally accept responsible positions. • Large proportions of non-participants are incomers and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on the rural-urban gradient in Serbia has been reinvigorated following the debate on rural bias. Rural-urban classification is essential in observing spatial, demographic, socio-economic, and environmental processes. There is no consensus regarding the definition of rural and rurality and it should not be observed separately from urban issues. In Serbia, it is still a matter of dispute. Rural is most often observed through the urban–rural dichotomy and "left behind" for decades. This paper strives for a new theoretical understanding of the rurality in Serbia by introducing rural heterogeneity and 'continuing' rurality, considering the transformative phase they are affected by. It induces a process of rethinking what rurality in Serbia is and offers an innovative methodological approach for rural delineation and settlement classification based on three main pillars: settlement patterns, functional patterns, and local relevance. The analysis is conducted on the lowest administrative level in Central Serbia. Five types of settlements are identified: two urban, and three characterized by rural features. The combination of abstractions and the methodological opportunities introduced by rethinking rurality offers geographers and practitioners a powerful methodological tool for the understanding of rural transformations and transitional spatial forms, which underpins planning and policy-making in Serbia. • The contemporary conception of rurality strives for complexity. • Settlement type could not be divided strictly as rural either urban. • Rural-urban gradient in Serbia illustrate transformative phase of rural areas. • We fulfil the gap in the official settlement differentiation. • Settlement type will determine the types of appropriate planning approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reconstructive analysis of village research conducted in Germany between 1952 and 2015. For more than 60 years, information was gathered to document socioeconomic and demographic developments in ten West German villages. In the early 1990s, four East German villages became part of that trend study as well. While the material (e.g., surveys, statistics, and field notes) is fragmented and heterogeneous, it nevertheless provides a unique opportunity for reflection on the changing latent concepts, ideas and motives at work in rural research throughout the years. In this paper, we want to reconstruct changing perspectives on the topos 'village' by focussing on three issues: (i) concepts of and attitudes towards village life, (ii) the roles assigned to the inhabitants in developing the village, and (iii) the role of science in providing policy advice. We can show how over time, the focus of the research shifted from an infrastructure-oriented perspective, overcoming 'rural backwardness' to focus on the village by asking about distinct local practices and identities. Concomitant to the changing view on the inhabitants' agency, perspectives on development strategies and policy recommendations changed from exogenous to endogenous approaches. The trend study in retrospect highlights how local development in its complexity is often beyond political steering or researchers' predictions. • Analysis of over 60 years of village research in Germany. • Concept of "village" has gained complexity. • Farming-families' position changed tremendously. • Perspective changes from urban-normativity towards the normality of the village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within just a few years, land-use conflicts have become considerably more acute in Germany, mainly due to recent changes in the national energy policy. Land users have become much more aware that land is a limited resource, and this has led to competition among the following land-use sectors: settlements/transportation, agriculture, forestry and conservation. To tackle the conflicts and to develop measures for multifunctional land-use, it is necessary to know about the conflicting issues. Stakeholders involved in land-use decisions are an important source of information that can be used to explore these conflicts. This paper shows and explains recent land-use conflicts based on stakeholder interviews and notes the central land-use conflicts in Germany on national and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Social capacity building for natural hazards is a topic increasingly gaining relevance not only for so-called developing countries but also for European welfare states which are continuously challenged by the social, economic and ecological impacts of natural hazards. Following an outline of recent governance changes with regard to natural hazards, we develop a heuristic model of social capacity building by taking into account a wide range of existing expertise from different fields of research. Particular attention is paid to social vulnerability and its assessment, as well as to risk communication and risk education as specific strategies of social capacity building. We propose to distinguish between interventionist and participatory approaches, thus enabling for a better understanding of existing practices of social capacity building as well as their particular strengths and weaknesses. By way of conclusion, we encourage more research on social capacity building for natural hazards in the European context which at present is highly diverse and, at least in parts, only poorly investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For decades inner cities in East Central Europe have been characterised by physical dilapidation, ageing in place and selective outmigration. Post-socialist transition added to these developments by further outmigration due to suburbanisation but also provided new opportunities of residential change. In Polish and Czech second-order cities there is selective in-migration by younger households which remains so far almost hidden to the official statistics. Among them a new type of inner-city dwellers can be identified, that is transitory urbanites. They take the inner city as a perfect residential place in their current phase of life and value its characteristics both in emotional and pragmatic terms. But they do not expect to stay there for good and might leave the inner city in the future for another urban area or suburbia. However, while being present now they bring about residential change in the inner city and pave the way for future in-migrants of similar social status and age. From our material and observations, we can formulate the hypothesis that their importance has increased decisively during the last decade. Our paper draws on empirical research from in Łódź and Brno from 2006 to 2009. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]