IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jouinf/v5y2013i2p137-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soft or Hard

Author

Listed:
  • Somnath Ghosal

    (Fellow, India Development Foundation, Gurgaon, India ghosalindia@gmail.com)

Abstract

In the Global South, inadequate infrastructure at the village level is considered as the major constraint for the economic empowerment of socio-economically deprived communities, living marginal life at the remotest part of the state. Whenever we talk about infrastructure development, normally road transport systems, health care services, education facilities and business opportunities come in our mind. In this article, these are considered as the hard infrastructure that someone can perceive. The article, however, also examines about soft infrastructure or the knowledge development, institutional structures including socio-political configurations and other societal issues related to livelihood generations that can play an imperative role for the financial enhancement of a society, particularly which is belonging at the bottom level. Defining infrastructure in a new direction, the article presents how both soft infrastructure in terms of knowledge development and hard infrastructure in terms of post-harvest advanced storage system for minor forest products can boost-up livelihood generation for economically deprived communities, living at the forest fringe areas in the Global South with an example from the south-western part of West Bengal, India.

Suggested Citation

  • Somnath Ghosal, 2013. "Soft or Hard," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 5(2), pages 137-149, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jouinf:v:5:y:2013:i:2:p:137-149
    DOI: 10.1177/0974930614521318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0974930614521318
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0974930614521318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caroline Ashley & Simon Maxwell, 2001. "Rethinking Rural Development," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 19(4), pages 395-425, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abdulazeez, Muhammad-Lawal & Omotesho, Kemi Funmi & Adekola, Olabisi Fatimat & Adekunle, Dayo, 2014. "Assessment of Land Management Practices in Food Crops Production among Small Scale Farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria," International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD), Iranian Association of Agricultural Economics, vol. 4(2), April.
    2. Bianca AVRAM POP & Simona SABOU, 2018. "The Role Of Agriculture In Romanian Development," Business Excellence and Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 8(1), pages 5-18, March.
    3. Imen Turki Abdelhedi & Sonia Zouari Zouari, 2020. "Agriculture and Food Security in North Africa: a Theoretical and Empirical Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(1), pages 193-210, March.
    4. Valentinov, Vladislav, 2012. "Understanding the rural third sector: insights from Veblen and Bogdanov," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 41(1/2), pages 177-188.
    5. Mårtensson, K., 2012. "Urban dimensions within rural territories: gender dynamics in the labor market in O’Higgins, Chile," Working papers 106, Rimisp Latin American Center for Rural Development.
    6. Zolin, M. Bruna & Ferretti, Paola & Némedi, Kata, 2017. "Multi-criteria decision approach and sustainable territorial subsystems: An Italian rural and mountain area case study," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 598-607.
    7. Fan, Shenggen & Johnson, Michael E. & Saurkar, Anuja & Makombe, Tsitsi, 2007. "Investing in African agriculture to halve poverty by 2015," ReSAKSS issue notes 4, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Scott, Lucy, 2014. "Transfers for extreme poverty reduction: Implications for patron-client relationships in the context of Bangladesh's agricultural reformation," WIDER Working Paper Series 029, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Tony Gore & Ryan Powell & Peter Wells, 2006. "The contribution of rural community businesses to integrated rural development: “Local services for local people”," Post-Print hal-01201127, HAL.
    10. YIlmaz, Bülent & Dasdemir, Ismet & Atmis, Erdogan & Lise, Wietze, 2010. "Factors affecting rural development in turkey: BartIn case study," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 239-249, April.
    11. Sakketa, Tekalign Gutu, 2022. "Urbanisation and rural development in developing countries: A review of pathways and impacts," IDOS Discussion Papers 5/2022, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    12. Gore, Tony & Powell, Ryan & Wells, Peter, 2006. "The contribution of rural community businesses to integrated rural development: “Local services for local people”," Cahiers d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales (CESR), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 80.
    13. Gareth A. Jones & Stuart Corbridge, 2010. "The continuing debate about urban bias," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Đorđević Dejan Ž. & Šušić Vukašin & Janjić Ivana, 2019. "Perspectives of Development of Rural Tourism of the Republic of Serbia," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 57(2), pages 219-232, June.
    15. Jean de Dieu Mushimiyimana, 2021. "School Management And Effective Use Of Smart Classroom In Teaching And Learning Process," Working papers 2021-37-02, Voice of Research.
    16. Rios, Ana R. & Masters, William A. & Shively, Gerald E., 2008. "Linkages between Market Participation and Productivity: Results from a Multi-Country Farm Household Sample," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6145, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Randall W. Jackson & Amir Borges Ferreira Neto & Elham Erfanian & Péter Járosi, 2019. "Woody Biomass Processing and Rural Regional Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(3), pages 234-247, August.
    18. Hossain, Mokter & Park, Sukyung & Shahid, Subhan, 2023. "Frugal innovation for sustainable rural development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    19. Jose Manuel Diaz-Sarachaga, 2020. "Combining Participatory Processes and Sustainable Development Goals to Revitalize a Rural Area in Cantabria (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-28, October.
    20. Hirmer, Stephanie & Cruickshank, Heather, 2014. "The user-value of rural electrification: An analysis and adoption of existing models and theories," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 145-154.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Infrastructure development; minor forest products; knowledge development; storage; tribal; economy; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jouinf:v:5:y:2013:i:2:p:137-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.idfresearch.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.