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The purpose of this study is to examine gender and rural economic relations of the Nrobo of Southeastern Nigeria. Specifically, the study was designed to examine the subsistence strategies, gendered role patterns and gender gaps in economic relations of the Nrobo.

This study used ethnographic methods of participant observation – adopting chitchatting and semi-structured interviews. Also, focus group discussion (FGD) was used to cross-check the validity of data from the other instrument.

This study found among other things, that although there is still verbal expression of gendered roles division, it does not mirror what actually obtains in society, except bio-social roles. Ideological superiority of men reflects the patrilineal kinship arrangement of society. Theoretically, some of the hypotheses of gender inequality theory were disputed for lack of adequate explanation of gender and economic relations in an egalitarian-reflected society such as Nrobo.

This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first attempt to ethnographically examine gender and economic relations among this group. As such it adds to the corpus of ethnographies on the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria.

The present study is aimed at understanding the survival strategies of Subsistence-type Rural Independent retailers, henceforth called SRIs, in the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) markets of developing economies through a qualitative study. SRIs constitute a pivotal channel of distribution of goods to BoP consumers living in the rural areas of developing economies. A process of long interviews was chosen for data gathering to allow SRIs to go into details to allow them to expound upon their beliefs, life-situations, and societal norms. Narratives were collected verbatim from SRIs. The concept of socio-economic embeddedness is used as the central concept to interpret and connect the elements, discerned from the narratives, into a conceptual framework. The aforesaid theory combines the neo-classical economic concept of utility maximization with behavioral economics and economic sociology. The analysis of the narratives is interpretive against the identified elements of the concept of economic embeddedness. The survival strategies of SRIs seem to stem from sociological, psychological, and utility-maximizing behaviors. The elements of SRIs’ responses to its environment provide valuable insights into their purchase motivations.

Marshall (1950, p. 10) saw civil citizenship rights as concerning individual liberties, such as freedom of speech, property ownership rights, personal liberties and rights to justice. Women obtained many of these rights only after the acknowledgement of their political citizenship (Walby, 1997, p. 175) and much later than men did. Civil citizenship includes a whole range of issues which cannot be covered in this book. This book focuses on the gender aspects of ownership and land succession. Land succession is interrelated with a series of other civil citizenship rights issues such as access to training and education. While succession is also interrelated with issues of social (social security eligibility), economic (division of labour in the families) and political (political participation and representation) citizenship issues, these relations are to be discussed later.

This volume looks at the construction of gendered citizenship in different rural contexts: under different welfare and gender regimes, and different rural and agricultural conditions. Through applying the concepts of the welfare state and gender regimes within rural research, this book contributes to the further development of a comparative theoretical framework for rural gender studies. The importance of integrating rural gender studies into both the mainstreams of rural and feminist research has been emphasized in previous volumes, as has that of developing comparative analytical frameworks (Whatmore, Marsden, & Lowe, 1994, p. 2; Brandth, 2002; Shortall, 2006). The conceptual framework adopted in this volume sets out to meet this challenge by approaching rural gender relations as the meeting point of two core research areas: feminist research into gender regime studies and research on rural transformative processes. Research into gender regimes offers a promising analytical framework for comparing gender relations in diverse rural settings. By formulating gender relations in terms of citizenship rights, this approach elevates the concerns of rural gender relations to broader discourses located at the nation state level (Werbner & Yuval-Davis, 1999; Asztalos Morell, 1999a). The evolution of citizenship rights at the nation state level has created hegemonic frameworks that are able to influence and transform rural gender relations. At the same time, by addressing rural concerns, deriving from the specificity of rural transition processes and gender regimes, the approach also contributes to an elucidation of the complexity of citizenship. In accordance to current debates emphasizing the embedded nature of gender relations with other social forces of differentiation, such as age, class and ethnicity (Walby, 1997; Hobson & Lister, 2002) we aimed to elucidate how gendered citizenship is constituted in the rural context.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a new gender- and class-sensitive framework for research on rural women entrepreneurship by focusing on the women’s agricultural cooperatives in Turkey. Although these cooperatives have been promoted as ideal bottom-to-top organizations to integrate women into economy as entrepreneurs, there has been significant decline in their numbers. This paper tackles with this contradictory situation and intends to offer an alternative research framework on the viability of the women’s agricultural cooperatives in Turkey.

The paper is built on a critical assessment of the existing literature. It argues that a framework that brings together macro-, meso- and micro-factors will provide a springboard to unfold the gendered processes integral to rural female entrepreneurship in Turkey. Drawing on intersectional theory, the multilayered factors which operate to rural women’s (dis)advantages through the cooperatives are unfolded as policymaking, policy implementation and everyday experiences.

For policymakers and implementers, it points out the need for a holistic and integrated understanding of rural female entrepreneurship and for re-formulation of policies at the state level. For rural women, it draws attention to the measures required to be taken at the cooperative level to overcome inequalities.

This paper is original in making explicit social, political and economic embeddedness of female entrepreneurship in rural Turkey.

The conceptual foundations, principles, and mechanisms of territorial branding concerning the prospects of rural development in the Third World countries are the subject of the study. The systematization and study of the problems and experiences of territorial branding as a technology of development and overcoming of poverty in the agrarian society of Ukraine is the purpose of the paper. The socioeconomic condition of the modern agrarian society of Ukraine is analyzed with explaining the nature and extent of poverty in rural areas. The basis of the research was the thesis on the expediency of social stratification, including explanation of the causes of poverty by the criterion of economic behavior of individual groups of agents. The data obtained are available in adjusting further agrarian reforms, especially regarding its social orientation, where it should be involved: sociological stratification of groups of agents of each community to identify and stimulate an economically active society, analysis of the causes of the spread and nature of poverty in this rural area, determination of domestic sources of economic growth for local economy, and the implementation of these factors in the process of modernizing of economic relations.

The main method of research was the study of the unique experience of individual rural communities. The methodology of the study foresaw the study of the prospects of rural development of the post-industrial type through the determining role of the factor of territorial branding. Monitoring the potential of territorial branding for rural areas of Ukraine using SWOT analysis has shown the uniqueness of risks, limitations, and prospects. It has been established that the conditions of neutralization of weaknesses and risks are in the combination of economic (primarily investment) and cultural and political initiatives, where a significant role belongs to the effects of community self-organization. At the same time, the prospects are due to the presence of unique institutional assets, natural, climatic and economic conditions, and possible perception of the idea of the rural population as such, which does not contradict the basic cultural values. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the realization of rural development in Ukraine as a national policy should take into account that Ukrainian rural communities remain “difficult,” mostly depressed economies, where the level of economic activity is traditionally low and unemployment is high. At the same time, studying the experience of the effectiveness of territorial branding allowed to generalize and classify the factors of brand-forming content for the rural areas of Ukraine, which became (1) a unique institutional history; (2) landscape and recreational potential; (3) special economic behavior of local inhabitants; (4) investment attractiveness of the territory; (5) unique economic specialization of the territory; (6) tourism activity; and (7) the role of local government. Significant socioeconomic effect of these examples is fixed. The area of application of these results is, first of all, the activity of local authorities of rural communities, nongovernmental organizations, and universities, as well as regulatory policy in terms of decentralization.

Citizenship can be understood as a multi-dimensional status, involving civil, political and social rights and obligations (Yuval Davis, 1997; Lister, 2000). Barbara Hobson (2000) has argued that citizenship is more than the relationship of individuals to the state and includes social relations between individuals too. She points out that social relations lead to a gendered citizenship for women. Their weak economic position in the labour market, their related dependence within the family and lack of representation in the public sphere demonstrate the shortcomings of the liberal concepts of citizenship. Yuval Davis (1997) makes a similar point. Building on Marshall's concept of citizenship as membership of the community, she argues that an analysis of citizenship must include not only a focus on the relationship between the community and the state, but relationships between various collectivities (gender, race, urban/rural locations, etc.) and the community.

At present, the Chinese economy has entered the “new normal” phase with the transformation of development stages from the low-income to the middle-income ones. Accordingly, there appear a series of innovations in development theories. Innovations involve creative destructions. Therefore, innovative development theories at the present stage either deny the prevailing principles of development economics, or deny the theories that once effectively guided development at the low-income stage, or even sublate some of the development polices which were propelled and proved effective at the beginning of the reform and opening-up. The fundamental reason is that, as the development stages evolve, there occur new development tasks, new periodical characteristics and new laws of development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Any development theory from abroad will find it difficult to correctly guide and clarify development problems in a socialist country, such as the huge population and the extreme imbalance between the urban and the rural and among regional developments.

In conclusion, China, as a large world economy, has made innovations in its economic development theory, which indicates that it intends to perfect itself rather than seek hegemony. As the world’s second largest economy, China should adapt to the transformation and further free people’s minds instead of adhering to the old patterns of thinking. It should think over the path of development for a great world economy from the historical starting point of a large world economy and find development strategies to transform itself from a large economy to a great economy, so as to realize the dream of the Chinese nation to build a powerful country.

Only political economy studies both the relations of production and the productive forces, and only a theory combining both can correctly guide China’s economic development, which especially needs to be promoted by taking advantage of socialist economic system. Therefore, the first and foremost principle for a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to insist on liberating and developing productive forces.

Cross-boundary cooperation with shared goals and values involving the poor has been argued as an indispensable means for inclusive business (IB) success. Cooperation may become dynamic, especially when exploratory and creative attempts with effective cooperative learning among partners can be realized. Even so, not many companies have reported successful in building the cooperation. One case, providing clean, affordable drinking water to the poor in Tanzanian rural villages, suggests that a delegated and grassroots-based approach in cooperation with a highly trustworthy local partner can successfully promote cooperative learning and transfer know-how in both operations and management. This approach also stimulates local and self-initiated activities for expanding water facilities and generating local businesses in an area where employment is scarce. Deviation from mainstream-institution-based operations and management is one example of institutional interconnections that enable the rural poor to self-manage projects and stimulate self-initiated business activities, consequently contributing to rural development and sustainable development goals.