This title was first published in 2002: As rural Ireland undergoes deep-reaching changes, this book critically assesses what the author terms the "renegotiation of rural development" in Ireland through the repackaging, reproduction and representation of suggestions, ideas and alternatives for rural renewal. Deconstructing the process and practice of rural development in Ireland, the author explores the new approaches to development and the so-called desire for creating integrative policy and planning approaches. The main conduits for this investigation are those of partnership and community groups and their involvement in rural development issues. Further, through investigation of the relevant concepts and theories of rural change, the volume delves into the discourses of rurality and development and utilizes the diversity of approaches and understanding of, this increasingly complex issue.

By examining a range of experiences from both the north and south of Ireland, this book asks what the ideal of sustainable development might mean to specific rural groups and how sustainable development goals have been pursued across the policy spectrum. It assesses the extent of commitment to a living countryside in Ireland and compares various opportunities and obstacles to the actual achievement of sustainable rural development. How different sectors of rural society will be challenged in terms of future survival provides an overarching theme throughout.

Participatory Rural Planning presents the argument that citizen participation in planning affairs transcends a rights-based legitimacy and an all too frequent perception of being mere consultation. Rather, it is part of a social learning process that can enhance the prospects for successful implementation, provide opportunity for reflection and create a mutuality of respect between different stakeholders in the planning arena. Accordingly, Michael Murray signposts what can work well and what should work differently in regard to participatory planning by taking rural Ireland as the empirical laboratory and exploring the Irish experience at different spatial scales from the village, through to the locality, the sub regional and the regional levels.

This volume provides an overview of research on seemingly, current and former peripheral areas and on processes of peripheralisation in Europe. Particular emphasis is given to questions of local and regional governance, to multiple actors of peripheralisation and residential revitalisation as well as to economic and ecological transformations. --

This book has been developed from a report of the cross-national PRIDE (Partnerships for Rural Integrated Development in Europe) research project. The research involved focusing on public and private sector rural development experience of six member states of the European Union, namely Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

During the past decade, Ireland’s economic growth has attracted international attention. This book analyses the consequences of that growth on housing and serves as a primer to other countries on the complexities of delivering sustainable housing solutions in the face of economic success. It introduces key housing developments and also reports on the findings of the latest research on the transformation of the sector in the past decade.