ARTICLES THE IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION IN RURAL AREAS OF SLOVENIA: EXAMPLES FROM THE POMURJE AND GORIŠKA REGIONS AUTHORS Barbara Lampič, Irena Mrak, Irma Potočnik Slavič University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Geography, Aškerčeva 2, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia barbara.lampic@uni-lj.si, irena.mrak@siol.net, irma.potocnik@ff.uni-lj.si UDC: 911.3:502.131.1:005.44(497.4-22) COBISS: 1.01 ABSTRACT The impacts of globalization in rural areas of Slovenia: examplesfrom the Pomurje and Goriška regions Globalization processes have restructured rural areas enormously: their impacts in European rural areas were studied in order to define the balance in opportunities and reality as well as threats. In Slovenia two border rural regions were selected: the Pomurje region and the Goriška region. In the first one the main research focus was: (1) environmental capital and sustainable development of economic activities based on the region's preserved environment (i.e. tourism); (2) migration/lows in rural areas, in particular amenity migrations; and in the second one the project objectives were implemented through a study of rural business. KEY WORDS globalization, rural areas, rural businesses, sustainable development, amenity migration, Pomurje region, Goriška region, Slovenia IZVLEČEK Vplivi globalizacije na podeželje v Sloveniji: primer Pomurja in Goriške Prispevek prikazuje izsledke raziskave, v kateri so bili preučeni procesi globalizacije in njihovi učinki na evropskem podeželju z namenom prepoznavanja ravnotežja med priložnostmi in realnim stanjem ter grožnjami, ki jih predstavljajo različni globalizacijski procesi. V Sloveniji je preučevanje potekalo v pomurski in goriški statistični regiji, in sicer je bil v prvi podrobneje preučen (1) okoljski kapital in sonaravni razvoj dejavnosti, ki slonijo na ohranjenem naravnem okolju v regiji (npr. turizem) ter (2) selitveni tokovi na podeželju, predvsem priselitev tujcev zaradi privlačnosti pokrajine; v goriški statistični regiji pa je bilo podrobneje preučeno podjetništvo na podeželju. KLJUČNE BESEDE globalizacija, podeželje, podjetništvo na podeželju, trajnostni razvoj, priselitev tujcev, Pomurje, Goriška, Slovenija The article was submitted for publication on July 15, 2011. 1 Introduction According to the European Commission »globalization is seen to touch every walk of life - opening doors, creating opportunities, raising apprehensions« (The European Interest: Succeeding in the Age of Globalization 2007). On the EU level, the absence of an integrative analysis of globalization processes has been recognized as an obstacle to effective regional development strategies capable of meeting globalization challenges, especially in European rural areas. For this reason the 7 FP project »Developing Europe's Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization (DERREG)« is focused on rural Europe, where the delicate balance of opportunities and threats presented by globalization is particularly significant. Globalization is bringing significant economic, social, cultural and also political changes, and consequently also changes to rural localities, but the effects of these changes are not everywhere the same (Woods 2007b). The DERREG project focused on four empirical research topics: • Global engagement and the local embeddedness of rural businesses, where the extent to which globalization processes have impacted the structure of the local business networks and affected the rural economy was investigated; • International mobility and migration of rural populations; the role of rural regions in international flows of mobility were studied (internationalized mobility, transnational mobility of migrant labour, return migration, foreign home ownership); • Environmental capital and sustainable rural development; the opportunities for regional development based on an »eco-economy« were explored; • Capacity building, governance and knowledge systems; the aim of which is to analyze the embeddedness of rural regions in knowledge systems and the processes of learning - the concept of »learning region«. Nine project partners from eight countries focused their work on 10 selected rural regions: Oevre Norrland in Sweden, West Region in Ireland, Jihomoravsky kraj in the Czech Republic, Alytus in Lithuania, Westerkwartier in the Netherlands, Comarca de Verin in Spain, Regierungsbezirk Dresden and Saarland in Germany, and the Pomurje and Goriška regions in Slovenia. In Slovenia the study was conducted in two very different regions with regard to their geographical features. For a more detailed study of the potential of environmental capital for the purposes of developing a peripheral rural area and of the factors and impacts of recent migration flows in Europe purposes, we turned to the Pomurje region. The study of the development of entrepreneurship in rural areas was carried out in the Goriška region, which traditionally is already closely linked with the international space. The heterogeneity of Slovenian rural areas, which according to OECD methodology encompass the whole of the country territory, can be seen by some basic comparisons at the national and regional levels. The Pomurje region is geographically composed of the fertile area of the Mura plain with abundant groundwater resources and agricultural land where consequently mostly conventional agriculture is practiced, with a higher population density, sufficient infrastructure etc. and of the hilly area of Goričko, Lendavske Gorice and a part of Slovenske Gorice, with a high biodiversity and preserved cultural landscape in which settlements are few and dispersed. Compared to other Slovenian regions, Pomurje, bordering Croatia, Hungary and Austria, is historically recognized as an underdeveloped region characterized by outmigration. Although the economic relevance of agriculture in general is decreasing, the Pomurje region is still characterized as an agricultural region with the weakest economic power in Slovenia. The Goriška region extends over the western part of Slovenia and is situated at the geographical crossroads of several regions: the Alpine, pre-Alpine, Karst-Dinaric and sub-Mediterranean. In general, Figure 1: Selected regions and urban/rural typology of Slovenia according to OECD methodology. P Barbara Lampič, Irena Mrak, Irma Potočnik Slavic The impacts of globalization in rural areas ... Table 1: Some general characteristics of Slove nia, the Pomurje region and the Goriška region (1SORS 2011; 2MESP 2011). indicator Slovenia Pomurje region Goriška region total area (km2)1 20,273 1,337.5 2,324.7 population (2010)1 2,050,189 119,145 119,146 population density1 (inhabitants/km2) 101 89 51 ageing index (2010)1 117.4 132.2 131.2 % of Natura 2000 areas (2010)2 36.0 45.9 47.0 % of protected areas (2010)2 9.4 35.7 39.5 unemployment rate (2010)1 11.8 19.4 9.8 gross domestic product per capita in EUR (2008)1 18,450 11,986 17,696 total increase of population (in 2009)1 14,614 -661 21 % of foreigners from EU countries (2011)1 6.5 28.0 7.9 the Goriška region is characterized by low population density and dispersed settlement, with Nova Gorica and its immediate vicinity as the only agglomeration area. The transborder character of the area is reflecting in the distribution of economic activities and population, migration flows, configuration of the development axis, etc. The »Goriška« section of the country's border was one of the most open border area in the broader European context even before Slovenia integrated into the EU. This strong interregional character of the area has been a significant characteristic of regional development also since joining the EU in 2004. The main benefit of the DERREG project is to advance existing scientific knowledge and produce practical recommendations for the rising ability of regional development strategies to cope with these new challenges. Research at the interdisciplinary scientific level has been enriched by the cooperation of national and local stakeholders in order to include their knowledge on regional development processes. 2 Methodology The contribution of the research is twofold: • Theoretical-methodological; a complex approach to the study of the latest processes and effects of globalization has required introducing a range of new approaches, the results of which contribute towards the establishment of new theoretical principles for interdisciplinary research. • Programmatic-planning; through an analysis of the operation of various regional stakeholders and their networking, we have prepared a »good practice database«. Of essential importance are the final recommendations to policy-makers at the regional, national, and European levels, which are directed towards encouraging greater resilience of society and the economy to the coming changes in rural areas. For the research approach (Table 2) in environmental capital investigation, the five main steps were already defined in the project initial phase and were followed throughout the entire project. The review of literature and statistical data, focusing on various components of environmental capital (i.e. water, land and soil, air, energy sources and use, biodiversity, protected areas, waste management etc.) was supported by the »media analysis«, in which articles on environmental issues in the newspaper Vestnik were reviewed. The main objective was to compare the contents in the year 2000 and 2008, assessing the presence of the various topics as well as the approach in presentation. The results provided a basis for the selection of regional stakeholders to be included in the third research step. The aim of the qual- Table 2: Research phases in the selected regions. 1st phase 2nd phase 3rd phase environmental data base set national media analysis qualitative identification capital up, literature and regional (Vestnik 2000 interviews and analysis review documentation and 2008) with regional of good analysis stakeholders practices amenity data base set up, qualitative identification migration literature review interviews and analysis with foreign of good home owners practices rural data base set up, e-survey qualitative identification business literature review interviews and analysis of with firm good practices managers and network brokers regional data base comparison, comparison regional workshops, contextual reports £ » s § et ca run oe be £