Governance of Market in the Case of Local Food Systems As Crucial Dimension of the ‘Rural Web’ – Case Study of an Austrian and a Hungarian National Park Region

Abstract

Rural development processes can be interpreted as the result of an increasingly complex interplay of different driving forces. The ‘rural web’ concept, developed recently as a theoretical framework, emerges as the intersection of six inter-related dimensions (endogenity, novelty production, governance of market, institutional arrangements, social capital, sustainability), each of which highlights particular features of rural development. Keeping in mind that these dimensions cannot be separated from each other, the paper examines the domain of governance of market in two National Parks, the Hortobágy National Park region in Hungary and the Hohe Tauern National Park region in Austria. In both cases the existence of a dynamic innovation approach is visible, which means that these large protected areas are referred to beyond their boundaries as tools of sustainable regional development. While the two regions are exemplary for different development paths (one characterizing more a case study of the “accumulation” group and the other one of the „depletion” group), the interrelations of actors turn out to be crucial for development activities. With regard to the specific situation of national parks the question arises, if producers of the two examined regions distinguish themselves from the conventional agri-food market through initiatives that aim to create alternative food networks. The hypothesis behind the work is that governance of market can be one of the reasons for the differences in development of the two regions. The paper compares the food networks in the two regions, and also examines the local contexts in which they take shape. Finally it tries to assess how the other sectors (especially tourism) are linked to agriculture, within the specific context of environmentally sensitive regions of National parks.