Mapping economic fragility: an assessment of the objective 5b boundaries in Scotland
1992
Copus, A. | Crabtree, B.
This paper begins with a brief description of European Community rural development policy under Objective 5b of the Reformed Structural Policy and its implementation within Scotland. This is followed by a discussion of the various methods used, both by the U.K. Government, and by the European Commission, to delimit areas for policy purposes. In order to assess the targeting of European rural development assistance within Scotland, nine fragility indicator variables are selected on the basis of the criteria laid down for Objective 5b status. Synthetic fragility indices are then generated for the rural Districts and parishes of Scotland using both a simple procedure based on Z scores and Factor Analysis. The results suggest that the use of fairly large, and in many cases heterogeneous, administrative units as building blocks for the Scottish 5b areas has resulted in a poor fit between the boundaries and the distribution of fragility. It is shown that between 5000 and 6000 square kilometres of upland Scotland, at present without 5b status, are above the fragility threshold implied by the present boundary.
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