ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of the situation of rural areas and an analysis of main factors of rural/regional development policy in Austria. Austria is characterised by a high degree of rurality and thus the 'rural' always has played an important role in the perception of society and policy. Problem regions in Austria have low population densities and therefore appear more or less rural in character. With the exception of some older industrial regions, the majority of the problem areas are fairly under-industrialised. The majority of areas have a multifaceted, although weakly structured sub-layer of SMEs, whilst tourism plays an important role in most parts of the Alps. Nevertheless, in terms of development policy, for a long time rural areas were hardly supported in an integrated sense or by territorial schemes, but primarily by sectoral measures. Only the concept of endogenous development introduced in specific remote parts of more mountainous areas provided a clear exception to the sectoral approach.