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This study aimed to assess the rural libraries and information services for rural development in Delta State, Nigeria.

The study adopted both descriptive and exploratory research designs. Questionnaire, observation and structured interview guide were the major instruments for data collection. Total enumeration was used to gather data from respondents in 16 functional rural libraries in Delta State.

The study revealed the challenges that surround the rural people in accessing information in rural libraries. It showed that only 16 rural libraries were established and functional in 16 communities within the 25 local government areas. Findings also showed that the rural libraries were not able to fulfil their roles. It was evident that the information needs of the rural people which made them to access the library were not adequately met because of some hindrances such as inadequate up-to-date information materials, lack of awareness, illiteracy, language barrier, inadequate skilled personnel and inadequate infrastructure and facilities.

The important finding in this study is that rural libraries are the most relevant institution to disseminate information about government policies, inculcating reading habits and developing skill and knowledge of people. Therefore, underdevelopment of rural libraries and inadequate information sources and facilities will hinder access to information and development of the people who need them.

This research is the first of its kind to assess rural libraries and information services for the development of rural people in the 16 rural libraries in Delta State of Nigeria.

This paper aims to describe the library services available to rural dwellers and a summary of focus groups discussions (FGD) conducted in northern districts of Bangladesh.

This paper is divided into two sections. The first section describes rural library services in Bangladesh. The second section discusses the results of FGDs carried out separately in ten rural communities in northern areas of Bangladesh.

The results of FGDs highlight the general information needs of rural communities, their reading, listening and viewing habits and awareness of rural library activities. The findings suggest that the rural libraries largely meet the informational needs of the local community and play a crucial role in the educational advancement of local people.

This is the first time an effort has been made to assess the impact of rural library activities using FGDs in Bangladesh. This paper shows that FGDs could be an effective way to assess the impact of rural library activities.

The purpose of this study is to examine households’ behavior towards dirty cooking energy utilisation in an environment where relatively higher accessibility to clean energy is noted. Although the low utilisation rate of clean energy can partly be attributed to utility gains anticipated in dirty energy mixes (DEMs) arising out of accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers, it is still unclear on the extend at which each of these contributes towards DEMs manifestation among the seemingly well-to-do households with higher levels of clean energy mixes (CEM) access. This study, therefore, hinges on scrutinising on this lower utilisation patterns despite a seemingly higher accessibility of CEMs, specifically liquified petroleum gases (LPG).

The study is based on a household’s survey that was carried out in 2018, reaching a sample of 393 households using questionnaires in four wards of the Kigamboni district in Tanzania. Subsequent analyses were descriptive as well as inferential based on binary logistic regression analysis where utilisation of DEMs was predicted for both the high and low social economic status (SES) households by incorporating accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers.

The results show, first, if one assumes energy stacking is not an issue, as households become more constrained towards CEMs utilisation, they shift towards DEMs suggesting that the overall effect is a substitution, and second, the complementarity effect ultimately outweighs the substitution effect as households do not shift from DEMs to CEMs rather stack multiple energy. DEMs flourish in this case study area because those with high income are among those in the lowest SES, and some of those with the highest SES are from among the lowest income category, and all of them end up with more DEMs because shifting towards CEMs require income to complement SES.

Policy-wise, removing hurdles in accessing CEMs such as LPG subsidy programme, gas stove provision to the poor, and enhanced LPG awareness will most likely benefits only those who do not stack energy in cooking while strategies targeting those at the lowest SES such as higher education attainment, empower women as a family decision maker, encourage co-occupancy to enlarge the household size and contain urban growth within certain perimeter will have a significant impact only if they raise both incomes and SES.

Despite of the dominance of DEMs for cooking such as charcoal and firewood in Tanzania, CEMs such as LPG, have emerged as complements or alternatives in the household energy basket. The utilisation of such CEMs is, however, still very low despite the accessibility, cost, environmental and health advantages they offer. Accessibility is not the only factor fuelling CEMs; a complementarity must exist between SES and income for the positive transition towards CEMs to be realised.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of income shocks on household real consumption expenditure, taking into account the various informal coping strategies adopted by the households. Using Nigerian Household Panel Survey data for the year 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 respectively, and probit model estimation approach, the results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have effect on household consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, which depends on whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller.

This paper explores the fixed effects and probit model estimation approach to examine the relationship between the effect of covariate and self-reported idiosyncratic shocks on household welfare. The study examines the effectiveness of the various informal coping measures adopted by households against shocks.

The results suggest that idiosyncratic shocks have been found to have little effect on real consumption expenditure and the informal insurance strategies play only limited roles in providing the much needed insurance to households in the face of shocks. Also, the effect of shocks vary according to households characteristics, whether the household is headed by male or female and urban or rural dweller is important.

The novelty of this essay is to investigate the relationship between variation in self-reported shocks to income across households and real consumption expenditure in Nigeria – a poor, risk-prone country – considering also, the ease with which households adopt the various risk-coping strategies, which help them in smoothing consumption over time.

The discussion in this article will attempt to establish the general pattern of demographic structural change in Peninsular Malaysia and its constituent regions, and to examine the extent to which government policy (restructuring population and decreasing poverty) has influenced the pattern of regional inequalities in Peninsular Malaysia. Although rural-to-urban migration has contributed to decreasing poverty and income distribution, it has also had side effects for the urban and rural population. In the urban areas, these include urban poverty, housing problems and a high influx of foreign workers; in the rural areas, they include an increased dependency ratio, greater gender inequality, increased poverty and abandoned housing.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the assessment of poverty/deprivation using different conceptions of this phenomenon including the traditional money‐metric measure and different forms of multidimensional constructs.

The data were drawn from a household survey conducted in Nsukka, Nigeria. Interviewer‐administered questionnaires were used in data collection from about 410 households across urban and rural localities. The counting and FGT methodologies were used to assess impoverishment, while regression analyses were used to assess the determinants of deprivation across different constructs.

Between 70 per cent and 78 per cent of the study population were identified as poor/deprived. However, more than 11 per cent of those living on less than USD1.25/day were classified as non‐poor using different measures of multidimensional poverty. Similarly, more than 62 per cent of individuals who live on more than 1.25USD/day (i.e. non‐poor) are classified as poor using different measures of multidimensional deprivation. There is some level of correlation between measures, some inevitably stronger than others. The major determinants of deprivation across the various constructs of deprivation include large family size, low level of education, poor employment, rural location, and poor health.

This paper uses novel datasets that incorporate variables relating to the capability approach in understanding deprivation. Specifically, it analyses the so‐called missing dimensions of poverty. It also applies a new methodology for the assessment of impoverishment and deprivation. It highlights the importance of the capability approach in explaining poverty.

Comparing rural development with agricultural modernisation, there are fundamental differences. Industrial development of agriculture more and more segregates agriculture from other functions and is based on an ‘individualised transaction model’ in which the world consists of loose particles that are linked by markets (atomistic world view). Conversely rural development can be perceived as a form of re-socialisation of agriculture and is based on a ‘relational cooperation model’ in which new relations characterise business development.

This chapter is a second level type of analysis of many research findings of these common traits or features and gives a picture of the distinctiveness of rural development practices. Nine different features that characterize rural development practices are described and discussed: (1) novelty production, (2) relative autonomy, (3) synergy, (4) clashes and competing claims, (5) coalitions and new relations; the construction of rural webs, (6) common pool resources, (7) new division of labour, (8) the distinctive different impact and (9) resilience. The more these features are present and intertwined, the better the specific practice can face and withstand adverse conditions. These features and the associated practices have to be understood as part of a wider transitional process that might co-evolve with or run counter to competing transitional processes.

This chapter investigates diverse policy experiences of smart village strategy in Korea. The Korean approach has been highly influenced by the European Union (EU) experience emphasizing the importance of a bottom-up territorial development. The Korean government acknowledges agriculture is not the only driver of rural jobs and wealth creation. Rather it understands that diversified non-farm activities in rural areas are essential to revitalize the rural economy. The major policies relevant to the development of rural smart village are first, establishing regional innovation system fitted for depressed regions, second, inducing agriculture to become value-added industries, third, diversifying rural economic activities and integrating industrial support, fourth, improving the welfare of rural residents by improving settlement conditions, and finally, encouraging rural–urban interaction. Since the campaign of smart rural village as a rural development strategy is closely related with the discussion of rural tourism in Korea, this study investigates past and recent streams of rural tourism strategies pursued by the central government in Korea. Along with introducing the historical development strategy in Korea, this study presents the current and possible future characteristics of rural development strategies in Korea. This study investigates the perceived role of tourism as well as recent streams of rural development policies such as 6th industrialization and smart farming in the rural development strategies. Presenting success and failure stories, this study also considers why development of rural tourism has been slow in rural areas in Korea, reviewing restraints, reservations, and problems identified during the last few decades in Korea.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss multipurpose community information and knowledge centres (MCTs) and then describes and assesses the telecommunication facilities (and hence information access and provision) of such telecentres in Bangladesh including radio, television, telephone and internet facilities. The paper then highlights problems and prospects, in rural areas of Bangladesh, of information access through the telecentres.

The paper is based on a review of literature collected through the internet, personal visits and other secondary sources such as research reports and articles.

The paper highlights the existing MCT initiatives in rural Bangladesh and discusses their problems and prospects.

The paper is one of the very few studies which focuses on the prospects of MCTs for rural Bangladesh, particularly as regards information and knowledge access and provision, and proposes future directions for the development of MCTs in Bangladesh.

Focusing on the sociological clarification based on structural pluralism, this study explores the degree to which social media users who comment on the news posts of local newspapers use uncivil remarks and words that reflect their moral foundations.

This computer-assisted data collection produces three types of datasets that include numerous social media comments. To explore the association between moral foundations and incivility, both quadratic association procedure (QAP) and multiple regression QAP (MRQAP) are implemented.

The findings suggest that social media users who comment on the news posts of urban-located newspapers tend to use more uncivil words compared to social media users who comment on the news posts of suburban and rural-based newspapers. Individuals who comment on the news posts of urban-based newspapers tend to show a wider range of moral foundation spectrums than those who comment on the posts of rural and suburban newspapers. Lastly, there are significant associations between moral-vice components and incivility in response to urban- and suburban-located newspapers' social media posts.

The employed bag-of-words may not completely capture incivility given that social media users can use nuanced and metaphoric terms instead of explicitly uncivil terms. Even though this study systematically selected local newspapers' social media accounts, the contextual factors of other newspapers in politically slanted communities could be different.

The findings of this study provide meaningful and practical implications for journalists and news reporters. The inherent rudeness and aggressiveness of social media users can drive them to use uncivil and moral-harm words against a particular person or group.

Under the circumstance that fake news and politically slanted news content are widely distributed in the United States, social media users may easily express negative emotions toward news stories or the journalists who post the stories.

Structural pluralism particularly specializes in explaining why and how the contextual factors of news stories differ depending on community complexity. Building on the reasoning of structural pluralism in the social media context, this study investigates the degree to which social media users who comment on the news posts of local newspapers employ uncivil remarks and moral foundation words.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2020-0522.