Sustainable rural entrepreneurship - A case in Hungary -

2. Sustainable rural entrepreneurship- A case in Hungary- Szilvia Luda Department of Environmental Economics and Technology May 3, 2011 Rochester, NY

3. Sustainable development, devote special attention to rural lifestyles and the development of the countryside • The context of sustainable development provides for a new interpretation of the urban / rural categorization • people in rural areas do not necessarily have to make a living out of agriculture any more • the service sector has also grown in importance there • a significant outflow of people from the big cities to smaller rural areas had started, which later brought about radical changes in rural life and caused various conflicts. • Concerning the population, two trends exist: - There are people who live in the countryside and strive to move into a city (urbanization) - There are some who want to leave the city for the outskirts or for some suburban town.

4. Basic Characteristics of Country Life • According to a German study (Duenckmann, 2010), country people can be divided into three groups based on what they think about the countryside: • The first group has an idyllic view of the countryside. This is where „green” city leaders, politicians belong. After the day’s work, most of them return to their small, beautiful, quiet villages, to the suburban towns which we nowadays call sleeping towns. • The second group features those open to new initiatives and reforms, to organic farming. • Those in the third group, however, believe intensive agriculture to be the one and only hope for the countryside.

5. So-called urban regions and, more broadly, rural areas might be developed in two ways • Within a given region, one might develop the rural part by separate programs and initiatives aimed at reducing the differences between rural and urban areas. If we strengthen the separation of rural areas and fail to develop urban-rural relationships through well-focused programs, then the development of these rural areas will have no link to the cities and thus might even lead to an increased degree of separation. • the other alternative is to regard rural areas as an integrated and far more comprehensive form of regional development, which focuses on the bonds between rural and urban areas. In that case, one has to find those development opportunities which maximize common benefits for both (rural and urban) areas. The city and the countryside need to be treated as a whole, in an integrated, holistic way.

6. One of the mistakes present in the majority of Hungarian ecological experiments was that they did not want the countryside to change. They wanted it to remain as it used to be long ago. People should, as far as possible, live, work, earn a living, become self-sufficient and self-supporting in the very same place where they were born. • if all projects focus on cities because of economies of scale, that will lead to villages being abandoned and slowly dying away. The rethinking of rural development is inevitable • social support and the existence of a clear „guiding vision”have a crucial role in the success of rural development strategies

7. “Guiding visions” play a very important role in regional governance strategies. • Meinolf Dierkes et al. coined the concept “leitbild”, meaning “guiding image” in the beginning of the 90’s. The ”leitbild” means the coordination of the participants of technical progress, it describes the coordinative and behavioral role of the key actors. • They expected the “leitbild” to build a bridge between experts of highly differing professional cultures (Mambrey and Tepper, 2000; in Späth and Rohracher, 2010, p. 450).

8. In the Austrian (Murau) case • Nowadays, renewable energy production is a popular regional development vision. If the guiding vision is accepted by the inhabitants of the region, it might guide the region onto a development path towards revitalization. • In 2003, the Energy Agency in cooperation with a few other experts developed a process based on community participation in order to realize the “Energy Vision of Murau”.

9. Figure 2: The development of the Energy Vision of Murau by four different social groups and their relevant network relationships. Source: Späth and Rohracher (2010):, Research Policy 39 p. 454.

10. Guiding visions, as regional development principles, are employed in a number of European countries • A number of similar attempts were made in Hungary, as well, during the first Széchenyi Plan. In certain towns, thermal water spas were established, while others, more recently, opted for the background industries of biodiesel production: oilseed rape production and oil milling. • Somewhere deep, one might recognize the presence of a guiding vision beyond these undertakings, yet it is only a couple of them which have become really successful. • The Villány wine region might be cited as a positive example, where they managed to back the product and the technology with social cooperation, thus implicitly making use of the wisdom from social sciences.

11. The decisive question is whether they cooperate and whether they realize that a cost/benefit analysis is not the only thing • The individual investors were not left to their own but realized that - even though from a strictly economic point of view they might even be considered competitors - the success of their own undertaking was still dependent on whether they are willing to strengthen each other’s business. • Cooperation might become a kind of a vision. Collective benefits from collective efforts may turn out to be an integrating force. Interestingly, Western literature reports that business success (in Austrian Murau, for example) is brought about by priorities and action plans being determined by the community.

12. 5,4 ha (50 434 m2) GPS: 47°58'35.12"É, 19°28'4.85"K Biodynamic farming - based on antrophosophy Herecsény – Hungary 24 city-dwelling individuals provides an example of how a bridge can be built between urban and rural settlements which serves the needs of participants in a more sustainable way.

13. The Herecsény case The primary goal of the members is to receive, in return for their present investment, organic food products in the future. Priorities in their lives: • Creating a livable, ecologically more harmonious future for themselves and their children • Reducing their ecological footprint • The spiritual way, a healthy lifestyle and ecologically sustainable development being important cornerstones of their life • Bottom-up social development and taking individual responsibilitiesare their own personal objectives • Being open to forming communities with others • Supporting not-for-profit undertakings, where making profit is not an objective, but the fulfillment of individual interests is. Community interest is the most important, and it is to become the basis for social interests in a broad sense. • The community intends to operate in cooperation with local residents and other regions.The workshop goes into more depth in explaining the bridging model….

14. Introduction to Q methodology – historical background  (based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman) • Beside guiding vision I tend to examine the value systems of agricultural entrepreneurs and to explore how these values relate to ‘rural sustainability’. • I would like to define the typologies of rural entrepreneurs. • Developed in )1935 by William Stephenson • Physicist-psychologist • A Study of Behavior, 1955 • Most often used in fields of psychology, marketing, advertising, political science.. • Mixes quantitative & qualitative aspects of research

15. Whynotanothermethodtodetermineviews? • Measure something which is subjective: as quality, happiness, satisfaction… things from what people think somehow. • Alternatives for determining perspectives are not as powerful as Q methodology. • Q methodology measures personal opinion regarding a concourse of items (statements) related to a topic, validity is not a consideration (Brown, 1999). • Is one right & the other wrong or are they both just different views? • Subjective Not “It’s raining” (But can be “the rain makes me feel sad” –or- “I love to walk in the rain.”) based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman

16. Q sample of 33 statements Selection from a Q sample of 33 (chosen from a concourse of about 56) The statements are matters of subjective opinion and may mean different things to different people. I used among the others the next statements: „I do not have much trust in contracts, the given word is more valuable.” „I do know who my buyers will be already before starting production. I have what you might call a stable market” „In our society, many are only concerned with themselves while completely ignorant to others’ well-being.„ based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman

17. Factor Analysis • Statements help us to determine the differences among the people who are the subject of our study. • Q-factor analysis groups people (people are in columns, items (statements)are in rows). The factors represent people with similar topologies. (Factor1, Factor2) • Qmethodology is not Q FA but does group people based upon their VIEWS on a subject. Factors represent similar views about a topic.(Rural sustainability) • The workshop goes into more depth in explaining the Q methodology…. based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman

18. The caracteristics of the sampleIn my preliminary study I had a sample with 12 people…

19. Interviewing people… Completely disagree: 21. „Small enterprises have no future as opposed to large corporations.” Completely agree: 2. „I am ready and willing to cooperate with local farmers, we help each other out.”

20. The results of the Q factor analyses – The stars shows those whose opinion are similar

21. A B C

25. Thank you for your attention! szilvia.luda@uni-corvinus.hu

26. Q sample – select items from the concourse to use in the study.  • QUANAL • PCQ • PQMethod • PQMethod • Free download (start at www.qmethod.org) • DOS based • Designed for handling Q sort entry and analyses • Start PQMethod based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman

27. Need software designed for Q methodology • QUANAL • PCQ • PQMethod Factor Analysis • Higher order correlation • Used to determine patterns in a data set • R-factor analysis groups items (people are rows, items are in columns). Factors represent similar items. based on Sue Ramlo ,Joe Jurczyk, Al Herbert, Isadore Newman