IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i12p5073-d1415082.html

Rural Area Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic as Exemplified by Urban–Rural Communes in Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Magdalena Anna Zwolińska-Ligaj

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences, John Paul II University in Biała Podlaska, 21-500 Biala Podlaska, Poland)

  • Danuta Jolanta Guzal-Dec

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences, John Paul II University in Biała Podlaska, 21-500 Biala Podlaska, Poland)

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to characterize the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic for farms and resilience activities performed by farmers in response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of building rural area resilience. Research was carried out in all 87 urban–rural communes in Poland and focused on special determinants of rural resilience such as connections between small cities and rural areas, as well as the location of the territorial unit (peripheral versus non-peripheral). The purpose of the survey was to poll local government representatives on the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic for farms and identify resilience activities performed by farmers in response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical research was performed from September to October 2021. The results emphasize the significance of the diversification of farms and networks for strategies for coping with the COVID-19 crisis. The research revealed processes wherein farms adapted, even if to a small extent, to crisis conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges, at the same time stimulating innovative responses in communities and businesses in rural areas. This study also confirms the role of ITC solutions in the process of adaptation to the crisis and implies a need to strengthen local links between the rural area and the city, especially those relevant to peripheral areas. Local government authorities play a crucial role in this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Magdalena Anna Zwolińska-Ligaj & Danuta Jolanta Guzal-Dec, 2024. "Rural Area Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic as Exemplified by Urban–Rural Communes in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:12:p:5073-:d:1415082
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/12/5073/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/12/5073/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Silvia Rocchetta & Andrea Mina, 2019. "Technological coherence and the adaptive resilience of regional economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 1421-1434, October.
    2. Durant, Jennie L. & Asprooth, Lauren & Galt, Ryan E. & Schmulevich, Sasha Pesci & Manser, Gwyneth M. & Pinzón, Natalia, 2023. "Farm resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of California direct market farmers," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    3. Mastronardi, Luigi & Cavallo, Aurora & Romagnoli, Luca, 2022. "How did Italian diversified farms tackle Covid-19 pandemic first wave challenges?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    4. Anamika Menon & Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, 2022. "Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Farmers and Their Responses: A Study of Three Farming Systems in Kerala, South India," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-30, January.
    5. Guedegbe, Tharcisse & Adelaja, Adesoji & George, Justin, 2023. "Resilience, endogenous policy responses to COVID-19, and their impacts on farm performance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    7. Alan Matthews, 2020. "EU Food System Strengths and Vulnerabilities during Covid‐19," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 19(3), pages 4-12, December.
    8. Perrin, Augustine & Martin, Guillaume, 2021. "Resilience of French organic dairy cattle farms and supply chains to the Covid-19 pandemic," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    9. Bjorn Markeson & Steven Deller, 2012. "Growth Of Rural Us Non-Farm Proprietors With A Focus On Amenities," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 83-105, November.
    10. Lioutas, Evagelos D. & Charatsari, Chrysanthi, 2021. "Enhancing the ability of agriculture to cope with major crises or disasters: What the experience of COVID-19 teaches us," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    11. Donato Iacobucci & Francesco Perugini, 2021. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems and economic resilience at local level," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(9-10), pages 689-716, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Magdalena Anna Zwolinska-Ligaj & Danuta Jolanta Guzal-Dec, 2025. "ICT and Local Peripheral Territorial Systems’ Resiliencein Crisis Conditions: A Study of Urban-Rural Communes in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 138-161.

    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. Li Pengfei & Turkina Ekaterina & Van Assche Ari, 2022. "The Tortoise and the Hare: Industry Clockspeed and Resilience of Production and Knowledge Networks in Montréal’s Aerospace Industry," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(2), pages 81-95, July.
    2. Baldwin, Katherine & Mensah, Kristina & Tiehen, Laura & Rudloff, Bettina, 2025. "Mitigating food security impacts from crisis in high-income countries: lessons from different contexts," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Zhao, Lijuan & Shi, Junhong & Tao, Ya, 2025. "The impact and mechanism of digital finance on urban economic resilience," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Weilong Wang & Jianlong Wang & Shaersaikai Wulaer & Bing Chen & Xiaodong Yang, 2021. "The Effect of Innovative Entrepreneurial Vitality on Economic Resilience Based on a Spatial Perspective: Economic Policy Uncertainty as a Moderating Variable," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Riccardo Cappelli & Fabio Montobbio & Andrea Morrison, 2021. "Unemployment resistance across EU regions: the role of technological and human capital," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 147-178, January.
    6. Straulino, Daniel & Diodato, Dario & O’Clery, Neave, 2024. "Economic crisis, urban structural change and inter-sectoral labour mobility," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 135-144.
    7. Jing Chen & Xiaojing Li & Yuanyuan Zhu, 2024. "Shock absorber and shock diffuser: the multiple roles of industrial diversity in shaping regional economic resilience after the Great Recession," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1015-1045, March.
    8. Gergő Tóth & Zoltán Elekes & Adam Whittle & Changjun Lee & Dieter F. Kogler, 2022. "Technology Network Structure Conditions the Economic Resilience of Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(4), pages 355-378, August.
    9. Ziyan Zheng & Yingming Zhu & Yu Pei & Litao Wang, 2023. "Spatial–temporal heterogeneity and influencing factors of the coupling between industrial agglomeration and regional economic resilience in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 12735-12759, November.
    10. Bednarik, Zuzana & Marshall, Maria I., 2023. "Rural small business loan access and their adaptive capacity in times of crisis," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335449, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Artiom Volkov & Mangirdas Morkūnas & Agnė Žičkienė & Elzė Rudienė, 2025. "Will European agriculture be resilient? Assessment of the share and economic resilience levels of the future European farmer profiles: Evidence from Lithuania," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 13(1), pages 1-31, December.
    12. Cottafava, Dario & Gastaldo, Michele & Quatraro, Francesco & Santhiá, Cristina, 2022. "Modeling economic losses and greenhouse gas emissions reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic: Past, present, and future scenarios for Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    13. Andrea Coveri & Antonello Zanfei, 2023. "The virtues and limits of specialization in global value chains: analysis and policy implications," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(1), pages 73-90, March.
    14. Tao Zhao & Jinwei Huo & Degang Yang & Xinhuan Zhang & Danni Lu & Mingjie Cui & Rongqian Lu & Yaning Chen, 2022. "Study on the Spatial Differentiation Characteristics and Influencing Factors of China’s Economic Resilience under Different Shocks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    15. Yuanxi Li, 2024. "Industrial variety, interregional industrial linkages, and regional resilience: evidence from China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(3), pages 1321-1338, October.
    16. Olena Khlystova & Yelena Kalyuzhnova, 2023. "The impact of the creative industries and digitalization on regional resilience and productive entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 1654-1695, October.
    17. Mingke Xie & Zhangxian Feng & Chenggu Li, 2022. "How Does Population Shrinkage Affect Economic Resilience? A Case Study of Resource-Based Cities in Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, March.
    18. Ardekani, Zahra Fozouni & Sobhani, Seyed Mohammad Javad & Barbosa, Marcelo Werneck & de Sousa, Paulo Renato, 2023. "Transition to a sustainable food supply chain during disruptions: A study on the Brazilian food companies in the Covid-19 era," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    19. Marianne Sensier & Elvira Uyarra, 2020. "Investigating the Governance Mechanisms that Sustain Regional Economic Resilience and Inclusive Growth," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2005, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    20. Kitsos, Anastasios & Grabner, Simone Maria & Incera, Andre Carrascal, 2022. "The role of embeddedness in regional economic resistance," SocArXiv b759j, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:12:p:5073-:d:1415082. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.