The socio-economic potential for peripheral rural regions of regional imagery and quality products

This paper originates from an EU-funded research project1 whose objective is to conceptualise and to analyse the links between the use of regional imagery and the production and marketing of quality products and services in twelve peripheral rural regions of the EU. After establishing a conceptual framework which draws from various disciplinary perspectives, especially geography, economics and marketing, the paper bases its analysis on extensive empirical work which includes interview surveys of three groups of relevant actors in each study region : the producers of quality products, actual and potential consumers of such products, and relevant developmental and regulatory institutions. Perceptions of quality and of regional imagery are compared both between, and within, these groups ; and the strategies available for strengthening these attributes, developing linkages between them, and exploiting them through the marketing of appropriate products are examined. While drawing on the experience of a variety of regional circumstances within Europe, the paper makes particular reference to the West Wales region where rapid institutional change and severe recession in the livestock industry highlight the importance for rural development purposes of moving from "commodity-based" to "value added" production against the background of a relatively weak regional image