Teresa Piecuch

Business Clusters and Social Cooperatives — A Chance to Promote Female Entrepreneurship in Rural Poland?

Making up 91% of its territory and being inhabited by over 56% of its citizens, rural areas constitute an essential part of the EU’s geographical characteristics and identity (ec.europa.eu). Many of these areas struggle with serious socio-economic and infrastructure problems, thus, it is very important to constantly seek new ways of improving rural dwellers’ quality of life, developing entrepreneurship, and enhancing the competitiveness of farms and agricultural enterprises. The significance of positive attitudes towards change, a constant motivation to acquire knowledge and a need for self-fulfilment among the local population are rarely considered in the frame of regional development policies. Nevertheless, the success of those policies depend heavily on the strategic thinking and way of making decisions of regional actors, and on the entrepreneurial attitudes and actions of the local population. Against this backdrop women’s entrepreneurship has attracted growing attention in the light of the importance of new business creation for economic growth and development. While ‘the policy rationale for the development of women’s entrepreneurship was traditionally focused on issues like poverty alleviation, women’s equality and empowerment, and social inclusion’ (Lotti 2006: 2; for the case of developing countries see, for example, Jamali 2009) positive effects of female commitment are increasingly appreciated in the context of rural development strategies.