Rural Futures

I was raised in a small town in Liège right next to the border with Maastricht. I had one bus every 2-3 hours, the last bus was at 6p.m., bad bike roads, over the weekends it was nearly impossible to use public transport and going to school was always problematic. Moreover, learning to drive the car was just not an option for me. The worst part about it all was having a dad living in the Netherlands and me depending on public transport to go see him. This is what drew me to this topic and which motivated me to look for ways to improve mobility.  During this excursion I learned that I’m not the only one struggling with this issue. I saw two young women sitting at this bus stop and they told me a similar story to mine. I learned about all the bike routes made for tourism or just being of a bad quality making them practically useless to go to school or work. I’ve learned that I’m not the only one who has to make the best of a bad situation.  Learning to drive is not an option for...

The excursion stop at the company Made In Inox was a real added value to this excursion. First, the proudness of the company owners about their smisse is great to see and totally justified. Above you see a photo of their smisse. I do appreciate that it was there since it is an amazing piece of history. Also the photos, old objects and sources from their ancestors and the smisse are an amazing tool in giving us a look into the history of their family and life’s work. I especially appreciate it since the brother of my grandad had an old farm full of old tools and a workshop. It makes you truly relieved that life is easier now.   Another thing they are justly proud of is their social engagement -which they call “Duaal Leren”- of inviting children to learn about spatial insight and small technical skills and letting older youth work in their workshop and acquaintance the work floor. It reminds me of Henk’s talk on “local social energy”. Socially engaged people make initiatives like “D...

 De Panne is a municipality in the Western corner of Belgium, close to the Belgian border. Although not the biggest of coastal cities it is worth mentioning that it has it's own place in history. At the coast we can find the statue of Leopold 1, the first king of Belgium. This is not a coincidence as De Panne was the first place where Leopold 1 set foot on Belgian soil. Since then the small fisher village has evolved into a tourist hub, where it takes advantage of its position at the border. The village evolved in the latter stages of the 19th century into the tourist hub we know today. As it lays on the largest tramtrack in the world it is well connected with all the other Belgian holiday destinations at the coast. The economy especially booms in the summer where we see an increase in population from 11 000 to 60 000, with the mayor describing this as his own Werchter, as the tourists treat their stay in De Panne as a festival.  The city his proximity to the border can be see...

Industrialisation has led to the spectacular growth of cities in the 19th century, to the extent that industrialisation and urbanisation are often considered inseparable, the one automatically leading to the other. The conceptual merging of industrialisation and urbanisation ignores the longstanding connection between agriculture and industry, and keeps us from imagining industrialisation as a rural phenomenon. In the Westhoek however, rural industrialisation is beyond dispute. Whether large companies like Picanol or Clarebout, or SMEs like Made in Inox, almost all industrial production has its roots in or is still intensely connected to agriculture-related activities.  Whereas in Northwestern Europe cities have gone through a long period of de-industrialisation, rural industries have had the chance to maintain themselves, some even growing into international players. In this region of the world, a division of labour seems to pit the countryside as the place of essential, productiv...

  Cows, pastures, cows, crop fields, a farm, more cows… Cycling around in the Westhoek, it is clear that agriculture is a very important sector in the region. Ironically, this does not imply easy access to locally produced food for the locals. Globalization has had a significant impact, changing the way farms are operating by transforming small farms into big agribusinesses. This evolution implies a change of lifestyle; from self-sustaining communities based on local farmers offering a variety of products in small quantities, to communities dependent on international production and big agribusinesses focussing on one or a few crops destined for the international market. Combined with the processes of rural depopulation and facility decline, local residents living in small rural villages often have to travel long distances to do their necessary groceries, presenting a problem for the less mobile. Partly returning to short food supply chains could offer a solution for many, accordi...

It's not everyday you come across individuals talking so excitedly about their neighbours. Let’s face it, in today's society we don't talk to people; let alone our neighbours who are so close yet so distantly far in our social realm. Perhaps that's what attracts the residents of Westhoek to stay here despite the lack of food related facilities and long distances to the nearest grocery store. A friendly atmosphere is created by the community as a whole; thus allowing an informal network working interconnectedly to help one another. We talked to three residents today, who said that people in their villages rely on each other; they are dependent on their neighbours in case of emergencies, to do the groceries, or other essentials that are otherwise difficult to do on their own. It's sometimes really a big step for people to accept help. While they want to do it on their own and rely on themselves, it’s not easy to do so especially when there are physical and other healt...

This weekend, the Southern Westhoek was dominated by the Monteberg Rally. Hearing the roaring motors of the rally-cars gave me a flashback to my childhood years. Growing up in a rural village myself, the yearly local motocross was my personal heighday. I was curiously attracted by the colourful advertisements, the narcotic smell of gasoline, the ear-wrecking noise and the thrill of imminent danger... my mom always warned me to stay away from the circuit as there is always the risk of a rider loosing control...Motorized vehicles are not just the main mode of transport in rural areas, they are also key in local sports. Not all people I spoke with shared my excitement. Most said 'it is still a strong tradition in the region' but were not particularly aficionados themselves. But they do recognize that a lot of people are attracted by the rallies and 'go crazy'. Along the roads, people are posted with their camera's to capture shots of the decorated cars. Police is all a...

  Futuring is imagining possible evolutions, and planning our responses to it. Futurism is a discipline at the cross-roads between science, politics and art. Futurists watch trends to predict what is coming. They see the present world as a window on possible futures.  Futuring is about predicting, anticipating but also dreaming.  'The goal of futuring is not to predict the future, but to improve it', said Edward Cornish, one of the founding fathers of futurism and editor of the Futurist Magazine (Cornish, 2004, p. 65). That is exactly what Futuring the Rural is about. In this blog, we try to imagine possible futures for the rural in North-Western Europe, a rural that is specific for this part of the world, and experiences specific evolutions. It is becoming an ever more diverse, multilayered and complex reality.  Incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives and dimensions in our analyses and dreams , we  aim to envision a better, more integrated, more resilient,...

The Westhoek is the westernmost part of Belgium. It is often considered the ultimate example of rurality in Flanders. But what does it mean to be rural in the 21st century? To be sure, rural areas in North-Western Europe have gone through considerable upheaval in the 20th century.    The structural dimensions of rural change have been widely documented over the past decades.  But too often, analyses remained rather narrowly focused on changes in the agricultural sector.   20th century rural change in North-Western Europe is commonly described as a transition from a productivist order focused on the maximisation of agricultural output towards a post-productivist order where agriculture integrates alternative values such as leisure and nature conservation. Others have focused on urban expansion and described how suburban sprawl is annihilating the rural open landscape. Such analyses often simplify and reduce rural life to one or a few of its dimensions. In reality...