Application of rural web in analyzing the economic performance of rural areas in Johor

Abstract

Planning for sustainable rural development in Malaysia has entered a phase where rural areas are no longer tied merely to food production as an economic activity. The increasing demand for rural amenities, ecosystem services and preservation of cultural landscapes generates the idea of a much diverse option for an alleviation of the local economy. Due to the variation of local actors, resources, and activities, sustainable rural planning requires the understanding of the complex development processes occurring in its territories. The rural web is an analytical framework that can be used to understand the dynamic relationships between different domains of rural development. In this paper, the rural web is used as a tool to comprehensively analyze the economic performance of the village's development and economic activity of rural areas in Johor. This paper discusses the study areas of six villages from six different rural areas surrounding the state of Johor. The finding shows that KampungParitPuteriMenangis has the highest economic performance while KampungPayaBesar was identified as the lowest economic performance compared to other villages. Market governance was identified as the major domain of the rural web in the twenty economic projects identified in six selected villages for this study.