Mitigation socio-economic inequalities in Serbian rural areas - one step closer to welfare economy

Abstract

This paper is the result of research about the ricing rural urban migration in the Republic of Serbia and significant socio-economic inequlities in it despite institutional efforts to mitigate this issue. Authors found the initiative for this research in European rural development strategy for period 2014-2020, which highlighted the efforts to meet the wide range of economic, environmental, and social challenges of the 21st century. Therefore, authors investigate how it is possible to improve wellbeing in Serbian rural area. In the period of creation of paper policy makers faced with growing pressure to "do something because many experts and reports confirmed that results of previously adopted policies are far from expected. Authors addressed the special need of improvement current policies and make them more efficient. The methodology used during the paper preparation process is in accordance with those used for similar social scientific research: descriptive, comparative, and content analysis. Financing rural development in the (post) recession period has completely different dimension from those in urban areas. Of course, authors are aware that this issue is very controversial in aspect of economic and social discourse, and therefore used a set of dimensions and indicators describing the condition and extent of rural inequality. Numerous experts highlighted pro poor growth and community based risk reduction policy as the most important issue in the approaching of welfare economy in rural area. The paper suggests a number of entry points for further research that could be uses to better align socio-economic inequalities. The paper shows how rural policy can be refined and targeted to tackle these multi-faceted problems in the most appropriate way for the benefit of rural community.