THERE IS MORE TO THE PICTURE THAN MEETS THE EYE. ATTACHMENTS BETWEEN RURAL PLACE AND RURAL VISION

As part of WP2 of the FLIARA project, organising workshops on rural visions brought together different Slovenian stakeholders and actors in rural areas close to the town/city. In identifying the representative participants, we theoretically linked with Halfacree´s model on the three-fold architecture of rural. The co-construction of rural visions included representatives of: 

1. rural practice (local municipalities and regional authorities providing the formal representations of rural) 
2. material rurality (people living and working daily in rural areas – farmers, rural entrepreneurs, several key NGO members and others)
3. imaginative form of rurality (mostly representatives from different national rural associations with their own social constructs on rurality)

The represented and accepted rural visions reflected the participants´ contemporary and potential future role in rural localities and rural communities. Our participants and their civic engagement which was reflected in rural visions (e.g. engaged and vibrant rural areas, digital rural areas, the green belt, food-sustained rural areas), produced and reproduced their experience of rurality in various forms, which have implications for rural communities and the diversity of people that reside in them. 

The principal drivers of participants´ proposals were to maintain vibrant rural places and rural communities with the maintenance of key infrastructure (public, social, educational, ICT, green), in terms of keeping community institutions and services viable. They also advocate for the design and planning of environments and services that fit the needs of rural people residing close to the town/city but with a clear focus on the further development of rural amenities.