Cluster development in rural areas

The interest in creating a base-line for development patterns of clusters and clusters' specific characteristics in rural areas is particularly imposed by certain problems, which manifest themselves in similar degrees and provide a generic pattern in different regions and countries, e.g. depopulation and land abandonment, unemployment level and insufficient access to basic services and infrastructure. Certain development patterns and priorities are identified in the regional development in the old EU-members, while the member states from the Eastern parts are still partially restricted by their economic situation and political instability. This puts forth the concept of the 'integration maturity', which refers to the preparedness of each country and its capability to fully exploit the benefits and the advantages of the integration form (Palánkai, 2003), and is still applicable in terms of the economic convergence level of the new-member states in comparison to the EU-15. This statement is especially relevant to the rural business and development that often remains distant and isolated from capital and sources of information and support. With the consequences of the economic crisis and the ongoing economic instability economists, business experts and social scientists have refined a broad range of techniques for making sense of regional economies and analyzing the public policy implications of their workings. Clusters are therefore often perceived not only as patterns for economic transactions and economic outcomes, but also as social systems and multidisciplinary environmental drivers for change.