RuBusT: Rural Business Transfers for Stronger Societies

ongoing

In order to continue its existence, a society needs people. But how can a society bounce back after it has passed that invisible threshold enabling its own self-reproduction? The RuBusT project tackles this question from an innovative angle, investigating the potential of business transfers (BTs) as catalysts for rural revitalisation. Decades of outmigration and severe ageing have disrupted the spontaneous intergenerational transmission of the rural heritage. As entrepreneurial acts that can jointly preserve social and economic vitality — safer and more productive than startups — BTs appear as a promising avenue to reconnect rural generations and ensure the passage of knowledge from ageing entrepreneurs to younger innovators. Yet, not only are BTs overlooked in rural development strategies, the still developing field of BTs has mostly ignored rural realities, affected by methodologies unable to account for contextual sensitivities, that promote one-size-fits-all policies and that underestimate the level of socialisation of private risks, such as business closures, in vulnerable societies. The project leverages the power of place-based development studies and participatory research to question on the ground each of these assumptions and influence the way we think about and practice BTs in remote rural areas (RRAs). Focusing on rapidly ageing and depopulating communities in Alta Marmilla in Sardinia, Italy, and using challenge-based interactive workshops, the project explores the nature and health of rural BT ecosystems and actively engages with BT stakeholders and citizens to co-design a BT Strategy. In this way, the project aims at strengthening BTs service provision and introducing new business models in BT transactions that prioritise local needs. Its learning outcomes can thus inspire similarly struggling European RRAs with new, practical ways to mitigate the worst effects of unfolding demographic changes and build robust rural societies.