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Abstract
As a theoretical concept rural development basically deals with a wide range of
social and economical problems faced by rural population. The analysis of
geographical differences between regions and counties in Croatia indicates big
disparities in rural and urban areas. Numerous negative factors characterizing rural
areas include, above all, inadequate structure of rural population, steady downward
trends of population size, emigration, inadequate structure of rural labour market,
low educational level of rural population, high dependence of rural population on
social support, poverty, high unemployment rate, connection to infrastructure, etc.
Compared with the situation in urban areas, the overall economic situation and
welfare of rural population is considerably unfavourable. Large parts of rural areas
are faced with economic and social decline. Particularly negative living standard in
rural areas has been found in many „high concentrated rural regions“ i.e. regions
with 90% or more rural population. Implementation of regionalization as a
consequence of differently developed regions represents a strategic point in
creating a strategy which has two goals: the balance of social-economic diversity
and initiative of integral regional development. In last few years clusters have
become one of the key terms in numerous developmental initiatives, strategies and
policies. As a process of mobilization of regional clusters clusterization can reduce
regional disparities of social-economic inequality. Cluster management results in
critical mass of information, knowledge and technologies which might enable
network of new business activities.