rural development research methodology

Rural development and digital technologies: a collaborative framework for policy-making

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy

ISSN : 1750-6166

Article publication date: 18 August 2023

Issue publication date: 30 October 2023

The paper aims to define a model for rural development, able to stimulate collaborations between actors involved in the agrifood chain and based on digital technologies as enabling factors for such collaborations.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory research, based on a qualitative approach, is conducted, using both constructivist grounded theory and Gioia methodology. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and roundtables administered to Italian key players.

The authors identify five actions (definition of territorial identity, involvement of internal and external supply chain actors, definition of quality standards, cooperation intra and infra supply chains, communication through technology) for collaboration in the development of rural areas that policymakers should encourage and actors in the supply chains must implement. The paper also entails both theoretical and practical implications. From the theoretical point of view, this study contributes to the literature on the relationship between agrifood, local development and the role of technologies. From the managerial point of view, this paper provides insights for policymakers to define strategies and actions aimed at developing collaborations between actors involved in the agrifood chain and leveraging digital technologies to support rural development.

Originality/value

The paper proposes a framework for the collaboration of the actors of the agrifood sector and related food tourism that could be the basis for the development of a digital platform able to connect all the subjects involved in rural development.

• Rural development
• Digital technologies

Monda, A. , Feola, R. , Parente, R. , Vesci, M. and Botti, A. (2023), "Rural development and digital technologies: a collaborative framework for policy-making", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy , Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-12-2022-0162

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Antonella Monda, Rosangela Feola, Roberto Parente, Massimiliano Vesci and Antonio Botti.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Rural development initiatives are often based on strengthening and diversifying the agrifood sector as a mean to stimulate economic growth, generate employment opportunities and improve livelihoods in rural areas. In fact, the agrifood chain, encompassing agricultural production, processing, distribution and marketing, is an integral part of economy of a territory and plays a vital role in rural economies ( Everett and Aitchison, 2008 ). In addition, rural development initiatives often leverage the potential of tourism as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification by attracting visitors to rural areas, creating employment opportunities and stimulating local economies. In sum, synergies among agrifood sector and tourism are well known in literature ( Cafiero et al. , 2020 ): by showcasing unique agrifood products, culinary traditions and rural landscapes, tourism can generate demand for local products, services and experiences, thus contributing to the overall development of the rural communities. The potential contribution of localized agrifood systems to rural development has been emphasized and has also increased its political relevance ( Calenda Conference, 2016 ). In this context, the role of digital technologies in transforming the agrifood system has been emphasized ( Parente, 2020 ; Passarelli et al. , 2023 ). Some recent studies have analyzed the relationship between agrifood, tourism and digitalization ( Parente, 2020 ; Kumar and Shekhar, 2020 ) for the development of rural territories. More specifically, the role of digital technologies as new tools to promote local agrifood sector in the perspective of developing local tourism and rural territory, has been analyzed ( Kumar and Shekhar, 2020 ). In this research area, digital technologies are considered as an ideal tool for putting into practice collaboration strategies and represent an enabler for the development of collaborations between all actors involved in rural development ( Beckmann et al. , 2021 ).

Some studies have focused on the role of digital technologies in promoting collaboration between actors involved in both agrifood and food tourism businesses ( Horng and Tsai, 2010 ; Ashish and Shelley, 2015 ). However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, a collaboration model that puts at its center digital technologies has never been proposed and discussed.

Starting from this premise and with the goal to fill this gap, the paper aims to define a model for the development of rural territory, characterized by collaborative aspects between all actors involved in agrifood chain and related food tourism and based on digital technologies as enabling factor for such collaboration.

The paper is organized as follows. In the paragraph 2, the main literature on the connection between rural development, agrifood and tourism is analyzed. In the paragraph 3, the role of digital technologies for the rural development is discussed. The paragraph 4 discusses the main literature about the role of collaborative approaches. The paragraphs 5 and 6 present the empirical research and its results. Then, in paragraphs 7 and 8, we discuss the main results of our study and its theoretical and practical implications.

2. Rural development, agrifood and tourism

Rural development refers to the process of improving the economic, social and environmental conditions in rural areas ( Elands and Wiersum, 2001 ). It encompasses various strategies and initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of life for rural communities, promoting economic growth and reducing disparities between rural and urban areas.

Rural development requires collaboration between governments, local authorities, civil society organizations and the private sector ( Neumeier, 2012 ). Integrated approaches that consider the unique characteristics and needs of each rural area are key to achieving sustainable and inclusive development outcomes.

In this sense, key approaches to rural development are linked to rural entrepreneurship and employment. It refers to encouraging entrepreneurship and creating employment opportunities in rural areas, vital for sustainable development. This can be achieved through supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises, promoting local industries and fostering entrepreneurship skills and training. In addition, rural development initiatives can focus on sectors beyond agriculture, such as tourism, to create a diverse range of employment opportunities. Along this vein synergies between agrifood and tourism are related to the availability of restaurants, bars, hotels, B&B and so on that leverage local food and promote the new field of food tourism ( Cafiero et al. , 2020 ; Meneguel et al. , 2022 ; Sidali et al. , 2011 ).

In recent years, researchers and policymakers have devoted great attention to agrifood sector as a key driver of rural development ( Medina et al. , 2018 ; Rachão et al. , 2019 ). More specifically, many studies emphasize the relationship between the agrifood sector and tourism in developing a competitive advantage for rural destinations ( Tsai and Wang, 2017 ; Andersson et al. , 2017 ; Vesci and Botti, 2019 ; Botti et al. , 2018 ).

When rural areas lack flagship attractions such as natural or artistic heritage, they have to focus on other assets to build a destination brand identity and attract travelers. Local food can represent an expression of place identity ( Hernández-Mogollon et al. , 2015 ) becoming a cultural identity marker that provides tourists with an opportunity to get in touch with a part of the intangible heritage of the places they visit ( Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2014 ).

The potential contribution of agrifood sector to rural development has been emphasized in the context of new rurality approach ( Pita-Morales et al. , 2015 ). New rurality approach is expression of a recent transition in the field of rural development theory from an agricultural sector approach to one which adopts broader territorial vision ( Pisani and Franceschetti, 2018 ; Ramírez-Miranda, 2014 ; Rytkönen, 2014 ), and it has also increased its political relevance ( Calenda Conference, 2016 ). The basic idea of new rurality is the interaction and integration among society, economy, institutions and environment in rural areas as key factors of rural development ( Pisani and Franceschetti, 2018 ).

In this approach, the territory is seen as a socially constructed area where interactions and collaborations between different actors and stakeholders (such as firms, educational institutions, public authorities and consumers) are key elements for rural development ( Pisani and Franceschetti, 2018 ). Thus, another fundamental aspect to consider in rural development is capacity building and participation ( Koopmans et al. , 2018 ) that go also through the awareness of local value ( Rocchi and Romano, 2006 ). Empowering rural communities through capacity building and participatory approaches is crucial for successful rural development. Engaging local communities in decision-making processes and project implementation fosters a sense of ownership and ensures that development initiatives address their specific needs and priorities. To do this, the adoption and integration of information and communication technology in rural areas that can bridge the digital divide and promote inclusive development is needed. Access to internet connectivity, digital literacy programs and e-governance initiatives can facilitate knowledge sharing, access to markets and the delivery of essential services in remote rural regions.

3. Digital technologies and rural development

In the past years, digital technologies have been playing a very important role in transforming territories ( Visvizi and Lytras, 2018 ; Troisi et al. , 2022 ; Visvizi and Pérez-delHoyo, 2021 ; Visvizi et al. , 2019 ; Troisi et al. , 2019a , 2019b ) and producing relevant impact in the rural domain ( Rolandi et al. , 2021 ). Some studies ( Zaballos et al. , 2019 ) suggested that the digitalization process can impact both agriculture (e.g. contributing to efficient use of resources) and rural sectors at all (e.g. defining new and enriched services).

The impact of the digital revolution concerns the production side of the agrifood sector, where new technologies allow customers to have complete traceability and visibility of the production process, producing significant changes in the business models of companies and the behavior of consumers of agricultural products ( Parente, 2020 ; Passarelli et al. , 2023 ).

Digital technologies offer novel instruments to foster real time adaptation of strategies and actions ( D′Aniello et al. , 2016 ) of local agrifood industries and rural territories ( Kumar and Shekhar, 2020 ).

Moreover, they allow the development of collaboration between different actors involved in agrifood tourism and rural development ( Beckmann et al. , 2021 ), acting as enabling factors for the creation of relationship in places where the social fabric is not conducive to the spontaneous creation of networks ( Cafiero et al. , 2020 ). The role of digital technologies can be supportive of rural areas, where often there are numerous small-sized producers with limited coordination or rare cooperation among each other resulting in ineffective development of the rural tourism industry ( Berjan et al. , 2020 ).

In this perspective, the challenge of rural development building on both the agrifood and food-tourism field is represented by the need to connect the actors that populate the value chain focusing on the skills and traditions that each of them use to create the identity dimension of the territory. Digital technologies could provide tools capable of responding to the growing need for interaction between all the stakeholders involved in rural development.

4. The role of collaboration for rural development

The European Union, starting from the 2020 Strategy and the 2014–2020 Cohesion Policy, invites local communities to think from a network perspective to generate territorial development processes. In line with EU dispositions, territorial development processes involve the generation, mobilization and enhancement of endogenous resources, as well as an intense activity aimed at establishing relationships and alliances with different subjects ( Brunori, 2007 ). These processes are increasingly studied through network theory which has now established itself as one of the great models of reference for the social sciences ( Castells and Blackwell, 1998 ).

awareness of territorial value by actors, referring to the recognition among local stakeholders of the inherent value of distinct qualitative attributes of the products and the potential benefits that can be gained through collaborative actions;

collaboration development among actors, referring to the gradual engagement of additional actors who align with the shared understanding of quality and the overarching objectives of the collective initiative;

consolidation of the network, referring to the reinforcement of the network's unity and cohesion around the shared notion of quality, leading to individual actors aligning their behaviors with the collective goals; and

the effective external communication of the unique quality attributes achieved through the collaborative efforts, whereby the network functions as a unified entity to convey the message.

A specific declination of network theory [represented by service theories, that is, service dominant logic ( Vargo and Lusch, 2006 ) and service science ( Maglio and Spohrer, 2008 )] deepens the role of knowledge and technology as essential factors in accomplishing value co-creation among stakeholders belonging to the same system. Service theories argue that the most suitable organizational model to support the emergence of value is the service ecosystem. It is composed by elements whose combination facilitates value co-creation between the actors of the same ecosystem. These elements are ( Polese et al. , 2018 ; Botti and Monda, 2020 ) actors, resource integration, technology and institutions. In particular, actors are all the stakeholders involved in the service exchange; resource integration occurs during actor interactions allowing for the co-learning of the actors which can turn into value co-creation; technology accelerates the passage of shared resources and the creation of new institutions ( Koskela-Huotari et al. , 2016 ); institutions are social rules, norms, shared practices regulating exchanges and acting as prerequisites for resource integration.

Combining the phases of the process of construction and enhancement of a local network according to the actor-network approach ( Rocchi and Romano, 2006 ) and the service ecosystem elements ( Polese et al. , 2018 ; Botti and Monda, 2020 ), we can identify some theoretical macro-areas of investigation that represent the key elements of a local enhancement initiative. In particular, this study assumes five basic investigation areas: (1) awareness of local value, (2) collaboration development among actors, (3) the consolidation of the network, (4) the resource integration and (5) the technology tool.

5. Methodology

5.1 research design.

To develop a proposal for a collaborative model, an exploratory research, based on a qualitative approach, is conducted, using both constructivist grounded theory ( Mills et al. , 2006 ; Glaser, 2007 ) and Gioia methodology ( Gioia et al. , 2013 ; Gioia, 2021 ). The grounded theory involves constant data comparison to develop new classifications and conceptualizations, while the Gioia methodology involves a continuous cycle of interpreting data and connecting it to existing theories and knowledge ( Magnani and Gioia, 2023 ). To achieve this, several stages of data analysis, interpretation and re-elaboration are required, which can lead to the establishment of new valid relationships between concepts and constructs. In particular, the goal is to understand how each theoretical macro-area – awareness of local value; collaboration development among actors; consolidation of the network, resource integration; technology tool – identified in Section 4, worked in the territorial context under investigation achieving the conceptualization of the collaborative model through different investigation steps (see Section 5.2 for the description of each step).

The territorial context chosen as the survey area is Irpinia, a historical-geographical district of southern Italy in the Campania Region. We chose Irpinia as it is a territory with an agricultural vocation, which lacks a cultural identity, with development lag for the tourist identity and industrial areas only in the most important urban centers.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and roundtables conducted over 12 months, from November 2021 to November 2022, with local entrepreneurs in the agrifood and hospitality sectors, local actors, policymakers, institutional actors and citizens in the Irpinia region. In line with the adopted methodology, the subjects of the sample are selected based on their direct experience and knowledge of the studied phenomenon. Therefore, we chose purposive sampling, preferred over random sampling ( Yin, 2018 ). Each actor was considered a peculiar individual, influenced by the context in which he lives; for this reason, we tried to preserve the previous experiences, knowledge and attitudes of the interviewees in the transcription of the interviews ( Turner, 2010 ; Addeo and Montesperelli, 2007 ).

5.2 Data collection and analysis

Following the methodological principles of semi-structured interviews ( Corbetta, 2003 ), an interview outline was developed using a thematic approach instead of relying solely on structured questions. The use of thematic categories allowed for flexibility and a deeper exploration of relevant topics during the interview process and roundtables. The interview outline and topics covered in the roundtables are based on the five theoretical macro-areas of investigation identified through the literature (awareness of territorial value; collaboration development among actors; consolidation of the network, resource integration; technology tool). Both interviews and roundtables allow the extraction of raw data, recorded and transcribed.

First, we collected six direct interviews with local entrepreneurs and key players in Irpinia. Interviews were conducted both in person and by phone and lasted between 30 and 40 min. Afterward, three roundtables involving 15 key players were organized. Each of the three roundtables lasted about 2 h. Each researcher read the transcriptions autonomously and then shared the results with the others, to reach a common interpretation. To preserve the identity of the interviewees, their names are not revealed in the paper, but the subjects investigated are renamed to their roles in the agrifood chain.

We looked at information we gathered and tried to understand it using the technique of qualitative content analysis, in line with the precepts of the method proposed by Gioia (2021) . The interpretative process required to fulfill this kind of content analysis is neither structured nor codified through specific parameters. Hence, the need to integrate this technique with the criteria laid down in the Gioia methodology. The collected data (raw data) have been analyzed in three steps. The first step of data analysis involved coding the raw data obtained from the interviews to systematize the recurring elements underlying the data corpus. Researchers coded independently to derive first-order concepts and connected them inductively to the dimensions and triggers of data-driven orientation and innovation. The theoretical dimensions were revised and enriched to include novel empirical data.

The second stage of categorization involved classifying the results of the coding into second-order themes, which are more specific topics obtained from the semantic aggregation of first-order concepts. Second-order themes were identified based on the weaknesses of agrifood chains that emerged from the interviews and were connected to the key dimensions of the macro-areas of the research.

The final stage of conceptualization involved aggregating the second-order themes into practical actions aimed at solving the weaknesses identified in the interviews. The final conceptual categories were derived through the re-aggregation of the second-order themes and the results of the roundtables. The three roundtables with the main stakeholders of the sector aim to collect information and suggestions about the role of technologies in the development of collaboration. The roundtables have involved altogether 15 key players: policymakers, entrepreneurs, other institutional actors and citizens. The labels of final conceptual categories were identified through deduction processes that detected the underlying conceptual cores and reconnected them to macro-categories.

Starting from the five theoretical macro-areas of investigation emerging from the literature (awareness of territorial value; collaboration development among actors; consolidation of the network, resource integration; technology tool), raw data were collected and analyzed in three steps: coding, categorization and conceptualization. The following results arise from data collection and analysis process (see Figure 1 ).

6.1 Awareness of the value

Concerning the first investigation area, the most important aspect that emerges from the research is the lack of a territorial brand: many companies operate under their brand, and this represents an element of weakness especially from an international perspective because it does not allow to fully exploit the potential deriving from the quality of local productions offered by the territory.

The lack of a unitary brand is accompanied by limited awareness of the identity of the territory in the local community itself. This is well expressed by the following sentences:

We must activate the local community to increase their knowledge and awareness about their territory. (Local expert in planning, management and reporting of a project financed by European funds)

We need markets and external subjects to be aware of our territory, but this awareness must belong first to the local community. (Olive oil producer)

6.2 Collaboration development among actors

Regarding the second investigation area, the most important theme that emerges from the research is the presence of many small agricultural entrepreneurs and a large fragmentation of production. A fragmentation that does not only concern the production chain in the strict sense but also the broader one including all the other subjects involved internally and externally in the chain.

This aspect has been highlighted by most of the stakeholders interviewed and participating during the roundtables and can be well summarized by the following sentences:

The Irpinia agri-food chain is characterized by many small agricultural entrepreneurs who have highly parceled out their properties so the income is not very high. The goal must be to aggregate several producers to have a unified vision and move compactly on national markets. (Dean of Agricultural Educational Institute)

We must know how to dig into our identity. From the great complexity that emerges from it, we must know how to draw boundaries [..] to do this, we need to get help from external agents. (Anthropologist)

6.3 Network consolidation

The most important aspect that emerges with specific reference to network consolidation, relates to the role of policymaker and the necessity to define a long-term strategy and a vision for the development of the local territory. The role of policymakers also emerges in the need to define a set of common rules that could represent a guide for all actors of the territory. This element is well expressed by the following sentences:

There is a great need for a plan with precise indications of actions and activities to be carried out (this can also guide individuals) which serves to give a vision to the territory. The first task falls to the institution which must have a clear plan. (Local tourism councilor)

We need a forward-looking administration capable of investing and equipping itself in time and be ready when opportunities arise. (Architect)

6.4 Resource integration

Related to resource integration, emerges the low propensity to collaborate between the actors of the value chain.

This aspect has been emphasized by the actors directly involved in the chain and by most of the stakeholders indirectly participating the same.

The collaborations currently developed between the supply chains are collaborations that are the result of a need for individuals but are not systemic and systematic. A model should be built to make connections stable and systematic that in other realities have been going on for years. (Representative of local slow food association)

The level of interaction among firms is very limited and many companies do not collaborate due to cultural and mentality issues. (Dean of Agricultural Educational Institute)

Relations between operators in the supply chain are practically absent and limited to the presence of the Consortium, a body recognized by the Ministry with activities coordination functions. There is no real network between the companies and there is an absence of a cooperation policy between the wineries. (Wine producer)

There is strong individualism that is part of an alas atavistic cultural heritage. There is no consortium spirit also because there is a lack of economic impulses, there is a little predisposition to network. (Founder of a farmhouse)

If the weakness of the Irpinia agri-food chains is the “disconnection” between them, a possible solution is to integrate the elements and resources from several actors: tourist offer, intangible heritage and cultural offer, agri-food and food and wine offer. (Coordinator of first roundtable)

6.5 Technology

What emerges with specific reference to the technology investigation area, is the limited use of digital technology both as a tool to support production and commercial processes and as a tool to accelerate the knowledge exchange.

support in making customers better aware of the original values and quality of products offered;

create synergies between one’s activity, the events and cultural assets present in one's territory which are directly or indirectly connected with the products offered; and

act as a bridge with the development of collateral activities to the agricultural and primary processing ones, which are particularly important in the perspective of tourism development.

These three aspects are well summed up by the following testimonies.

Digital technologies could play a very important role as a place of aggregation and comparison between the players in the supply chain. (Wine producer)

The new digital technologies could represent an enabling factor for the development of the sector through the Application of agriculture 4.0 whose effectiveness moves along two main directions: improve productivity and respect the environment. (Dean of educational institute)

Often, in Irpinia, we have small companies that make products of absolute excellence. They cannot increase production, but they need, precisely because of this quality, that the product on the shelf can cost more to be perceived as added value. A major positioning that applies to wine, oil, beer, cheese, all those agricultural products that can be transformed. Digital technology could provide a tool to communicate products and territory contributing to increase their visibility and their value. (Coordinator of the third roundtable)

The Figure 1 synthesizes the findings discussed above by highlighting the transition from first-order concepts to second-order themes and aggregate dimensions that represent actions that need to be implemented to activate collaborations between actors involved in rural development and that will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

7. Discussion: a proposal for a collaborative framework for policymaking

Starting from the analysis of the literature and from the results of the empirical research, we elaborated a proposal for a collaborative model able to stimulate collaboration and connect all actors that populate the agrifood sectors, through the proposition of a set of actions that policymakers should encourage and actors in the supply chains should implement.

The model, shown in Figure 2 , considers the five elements emerging from the investigation of the agrifood supply chain of Irpinia.

Each of the five elements identified emerges from the literature and from the themes derived from the empirical research. The identified elements represent five practical actions to solve the weaknesses of a local supply chain. The five actions are (1) definition of territorial identity, (2) involvement of internal and external actors, (3) definition of quality standards, (4) cooperation intra and infra supply chains and (5) communication through technology.

In addition, the five elements of the proposed collaborative framework describe the trajectories to run in implementing a digital platform that can represent a collective communication space to give voice to all the actors of the territory in a perspective of enhancement of the agrifood sectors and related tourism.

7.1 Definition of territorial identity

To define a unitary identity of the territory, the genius loci that refer to the specificities and values of the territory must be considered ( Becattini, 2004 ; Vecco, 2020 ).

The concept of identity must refer first of all to the territory as a whole and secondly to typical products. In fact, it is necessary that all actors become aware of the value of the territory ( Rocchi and Romano, 2006 ), of the typical productions and of the specific qualitative attributes of the products. It is essential to have a clear understanding of the richness of the territory, to know which are the food and wine levers, which are the actors involved and the local resources.

7.2 Involvement of internal and external actors

The development of a sense of identity and a common representation of local specificities is the fundamental premise for the development of collaborations and for the implementation of initiatives to enhance local products and services. The awareness of local value is also fundamental for the development of a participatory and collaborative process that starts from the bottom and that involves all the actors of the territory and the local community itself ( Rocchi and Romano, 2006 ). Voice must be given to all the internal and external actors of the single supply chain (producers, consumers, associations, public administrations, school system, civil society and public subjects). The solution to the problem of excessive business fragmentation is the involvement of internal and external actors in supply chains. The collaboration development among actors needs to include actors close to the supply chains which, by experiencing the territory and knowing its history and values, can help create a unified image of the territory. The territory should not be understood as a geographical space but as a “choral subject”, that is, human groups that have their own “productive bump”, matured over time, which shapes, at the same time, the territory and the mindset of the population ( Becattini, 2004 ).

7.3 Definition of quality standards

The definition and maintenance of high-quality levels is essential to promote the development of the tourism and agrifood related sectors. To guarantee high-quality levels, the network should establish rules to define common quality standards ( van der Vorst et al. , 2011 ). Attention to the quality of the offer is however a broad concept that involves three different levels ( Pencarelli and Forlani, 2002 ): the quality of the products, the quality of the hospitality structures and the quality of the context and territory.

Product quality means guaranteeing the quality and typicality of the productions. Cooperation with the agricultural sector is essential to achieve and maintain product quality standards.

Quality of hospitality means attention to the service component by the accommodation facilities, but it also means professionalism of the food tourism operators, which often involves operators who are not touristic and therefore must acquire the appropriate skills in the matter.

Quality assurance of the territorial context means definition of quality standards of the territories and of the structures it offers.

7.4 Cooperation intra and infra supply chains

Cooperation between the actors of the same supply chain (intra-supply chain) and between actors of different supply chains (infra-supply chains) ( Allaoui et al. , 2019 ) belonging to the same territory is the solution to limited propensity for cooperation and lack of synergies among individual producers.

Intra-supply chain and infra-supply chain collaboration lead to resource integration among actors of a network, that is the prerequisite for value co-creation ( Vargo and Lusch, 2016 ). Resource integration represents a joint value creation that benefits all actors of ecosystem.

7.5 Communication through technology

Communication is the necessary tool to promote externally the value of the territory. Digital technology is a leverage for knowledge exchange to reach all stakeholders and to systematically promote innovation ( Polese et al. , 2022 ). Knowledge exchange through technology concerns both the production side of the agrifood sector, where new technologies allow customers to have complete traceability and visibility of the production process, both the identity side, where technologies allow customers to have complete knowledge about territory identity. Therefore, it can represent the plot that brings together the contents of the territory, and it can act as enabling factor for the collaboration development among actors in places where the social fabric is not conducive to the spontaneous creation of networks ( Cafiero et al. , 2020 ).

8. Conclusions and implications

The paper proposes an innovative framework for the collaboration of the actors of the agrifood chain to stimulate rural development. The proposed collaborative model could represent the starting point for the construction of a digital platform that aims to represent a collective communication space to give voice to all the actors of the territory being a tool of support and enablement of enhancing and strengthening the local supply chain. The construction of a digital platform should be driven by the basic idea of the collaborative model according to which the entire agrifood sector will increase its visibility and transparency through increased interconnection and cooperation of resources and the actors who work there.

In other words, the digital platform does not aim to define from above, according to a top-down approach, the actions and activities to be carried out to promote collaboration relationships functional to the development of the supply chains and the territory on which they exist. Rather, it aims to support and empower a communication scheme between a plurality of actors that can stimulate the creation from below, according to a bottom-up approach, of intra-supply chain and between supply chain collaboration strategies.

Furthermore, the digital platform should be based on the assumption that the value creation process does not occur only thanks to the companies directly involved in the production processes but involves entire systems of value creation in a process of value co-creation ( Polese et al. , 2018 ). This happens because the various actors, with their specific and respective roles, contribute to co-create value and not simply add activities along their own chain.

promotion of local places and products;

increase in the visibility of agricultural and agrifood companies in the territory; and

value co-creation processes between broad sets of stakeholders that drive positive social change.

The research entails theoretical and practical implications.

First, the study contributes to the literature on the actor-network approach ( Rocchi and Romano, 2006 ) and the service ecosystem elements ( Polese et al. , 2018 ; Botti and Monda, 2020 ; Troisi et al. , 2019a , 2019b ), demonstrating their integration and identifying basic and supporting components for the development process of the rural area.

Second, it contributes to the rural development literature, expanding the body of knowledge and giving new evidence to the idea that agrifood chain and tourism are clear components of place identity ( Hernández-Mogollon et al. , 2015 ; Vesci and Botti, 2019 ) offering the opportunity to experience the intangible heritage of the visited place ( Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2014 ).

Third, it gives traction to the conceptualization of “new rurality” ( Pita-Morales et al. , 2015 ; Pisani and Franceschetti, 2018 ; Ramírez-Miranda, 2014 ; Rytkönen, 2014 ) demonstrating how this approach works in real society describing the interactions and the collaborations that can transform a rural area in a socially constructed area.

Fourth, the study proposes an advancement in the local development literature ( Andersson et al. , 2017 ; Botti et al. , 2018 ), proposing a theoretical framework able to support local development. The identification of some actions for fostering effective rural development can improve present understanding of rural development itself and could offer some useful insights on the different kind of real activities and collaborations performed by actors’ network.

Fifth, from a practical point of view, the analysis provides relevant insights for policymakers to define adequate policies able to support rural development. In fact, having identified strategic elements (theoretical macro-areas: awareness of local value, collaboration development among actors, consolidation of the network, resource integration and using digital technology) for rural development and practical actions (definition of territorial identity, involvement of internal and external actors, definition of quality standards, cooperation intra- and infra-supply chains and communication through technology) necessary to solve the weaknesses of a local supply chain, the paper suggests the need for a differentiated use of policy instruments more targeted in relation to the specific objectives to be achieved.

Furthermore, our research suggests the necessity for policymakers to adopt a new approach aimed to create the conditions to develop collaborations between actors involved in rural development. In other terms, the role of institutions and policymakers should also include the capability to enable and to empower local actors and communities to make collaborative choices and actions. This kind of approach is important for two reasons: to create an enabling policy environment for initiatives promoted by local actors; and to allow new institutions and groups to emerge in less active places.

In more general terms, the role of policymakers in the development of a collaborative approach requires a sort of bottom-up approach in which local actors are active subjects and policymakers have to provide the supportive environment for community initiatives.

Finally, by pinpointing the main role of technology, the study highlights the constantly evolving of technology, and how it has a growing importance in rural development. This phenomenon concerns not only the actors involved in the agrifood chain process but also the territories where the agrifood companies operate.

Methodology steps

Conceptual framework for collaboration development of rural areas

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• Published: 15 March 2024

Metagenomic insights into the wastewater resistome before and after purification at large‑scale wastewater treatment plants in the Moscow city

• Shahjahon Begmatov 1 ,
• Alexey V. Beletsky 1 ,
• Alexander G. Dorofeev 2 ,
• Nikolai V. Pimenov 2 ,
• Andrey V. Mardanov 1 &
• Nikolai V. Ravin 1  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  6349 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Antimicrobials
• Microbial communities
• Industrial microbiology

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered to be hotspots for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). We performed a metagenomic analysis of the raw wastewater, activated sludge and treated wastewater from two large WWTPs responsible for the treatment of urban wastewater in Moscow, Russia. In untreated wastewater, several hundred ARGs that could confer resistance to most commonly used classes of antibiotics were found. WWTPs employed a nitrification/denitrification or an anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process and enabled efficient removal of organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as fecal microbiota. The resistome constituted about 0.05% of the whole metagenome, and after water treatment its share decreased by 3–4 times. The resistomes were dominated by ARGs encoding resistance to beta-lactams, macrolides, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, quaternary ammonium compounds, and sulfonamides. ARGs for macrolides and tetracyclines were removed more efficiently than beta-lactamases, especially ampC , the most abundant ARG in the treated effluent. The removal efficiency of particular ARGs was impacted by the treatment technology. Metagenome-assembled genomes of multidrug-resistant strains were assembled both for the influent and the treated effluent. Ccomparison of resistomes from WWTPs in Moscow and around the world suggested that the abundance and content of ARGs depend on social, economic, medical, and environmental factors.

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Introduction.

The spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environmental microbiome has become one of the frequently noted problems in recent years, along with global climate change, food security and other technological challenges. Numerous studies show that from year to year, in addition to increasing the cost of hospitalization and treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant bacteria, the number of deaths of such patients is growing 1 , 2 . Understanding the mechanisms underlying the emergence, selection and dissemination of AMR, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), is required for the development of sustainable strategies to control and minimize this threat. The dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and ARGs occurs differently and this process is more active in urban territories rather than in rural ones. The rate of spread of ARGs and ARB in urban areas is obviously determined by the high population density and, as a rule, wastewater which flows from these areas contains both ARG and ARB. Most antibiotics used in medicine, agriculture and the food industry, as well as resistant bacteria, end up in wastewater. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) therefore could provide a comprehensive overview of ARG abundance, diversity and genomic backgrounds in particular region 3 . Moreover, wastewater and WWTPs are places where ARGs and ARB are particularly abundant and are often considered “hotspots” for the formation of strains with multiple resistance and one of the main sources of the spread of AMR in the environment 4 .

Despite numerous studies on the role of WWTPs in resistome diversity and dissemination, each new study is, in terms of time and geography, unique, as many urban areas and countries have not yet been studied. In addition, some studies are dedicated to explore only one component of the wastewater treatment system, such as wastewater, activated sludge or treated effluent, and there is a lack of research that would give a comprehensive view of the diversity and change in the composition of the resistome at different stages of water cleaning, from wastewater to treated effluent, released into the environment.

Usually, wastewater treatment in large facilities takes place in three stages. The first stage includes physical methods of water cleaning, the second stage is microbiological treatment in bioreactors with activated sludge (AS), and the third stage is the final treatment of water and its disinfection. At the second stage, than could be performed using several technologies, microorganisms of AS are used to remove organic matter, ammonium, and (in more complex processes) phosphorus 5 . At this stage, the removal of microorganisms present in the wastewater, including ARB, occurs due to their adsorption on AS particles, which are removed along with excess AS. The efficiency of this process differs for various bacteria and depends on the purification technology used. Therefore, purification technologies directly affect the removal of particular ARGs and ARB, however, this issue was poorly studied 6 .

ARGs representing all known resistance mechanisms have been found in WWTP environments 7 . ARGs for beta-lactams, macrolides, quinolones, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, and multidrug efflux pump genes have been found in the incoming wastewater, AS, and treated effluent in various countries 7 , 8 . Recently, Munk and coauthors (2022) using metagenomics methods characterized resistomes of 757 urban wastewater samples from 243 cities in 101 countries covering 7 major geographical regions. They reported regional patterns in wastewater resistomes that differed between subsets corresponding to drug classes and were partly driven by taxonomic variation 3 . Although this study did not analyzes the composition of the wastewater resistome after treatment, there are numerous evidences that the prevalence of ARB and ARG in rivers may increase downstream from the point of discharge of treated wastewater into them 9 , 10 . In a study of WWTPs in Germany, 123 types of clinically significant antibiotic resistance genes were found in treated wastewater discharged into water bodies 11 . An analysis of the presence of 30 ARGs at different stages of wastewater treatment at WWTPs in Northern China showed that the content of most ARGs in the treated effluent was lower compared to the influent entering the treatment, although an increase in the abundance of some ARGs and their release into the environment was also observed 12 . A metagenomic analysis of WWTP in Hong Kong revealed seasonal changes in the content of several types of ARG and its decrease in the treated effluent 13 , 14 . Most ARGs were reduced by more than 98% in the treated effluent compared to the wastewater entering the treatment 14 . Some other studies have also reported a decrease in ARGs after wastewater treatment 15 , 16 , 17 . However, in other studies, no changes in the ARG content or even an increase were observed 17 , 18 , 19 . Although there are numerous studies of resistomes in WWTP-related environments the distribution of samples was geographically biased and covered mostly North America, Western Europe, Eastern Asia (mostly China), Australasia, and few places in South America/Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa 3 .

In order to expand the geographical coverage and our knowledge about global resistome abundance and diversity, we analyzed resistomes of wastewater before and after treatment at large-scale WWTPs in the city of Moscow (Russia). Although Moscow WWTPs are among the largest in the world and may play an important role in the spread of antibiotic resistance, the resistomes of municipal wastewaters in Moscow have not previously been studied by modern molecular genetic methods. Previously we performed 16S rRNA gene profiling of AS microbial communities at large-scale WWTPs responsible for the treatment of municipal wastewater ion Moscow 5 . Comparison of microbial communities of AS samples from WWTPs in Moscow and worldwide revealed that Moscow samples clustered together indicating the importance of influent characteristics, related to local social and environmental factors, for wastewater microbiomes 5 . For example, due to the relatively low cost of water for household consumption, wastewater in Moscow has a relatively low content of organic matter. Apparently the presence of ARB and ARGs in communal wastewater depends on the frequency of antibiotic use and the range of drugs used. These factors differ in different countries and cities. Therefore, the characterization of the resistome and the role of Moscow WWTPs in the dispersion of ARGs is an important goal. Of particular interest is also the assessment of the impact of wastewater treatment technology on the composition of the resistome and the degree of ARG removal.

Here we present the first metagenomic overview of the composition of resistome of influent wastewater, AS and treated effluent released into the environment at two Moscow WWTPs employing different treatment technologies.

Characteristics of WWTPs and water chemistry

The Lyuberetskiy WWTP complex of JSC “Mosvodokanal” carry out the treatment of wastewater in the city of Moscow with a capacity of about 2 million m 3 per day. This complex consists of several wastewater treatment units (hereafter referred to as WWTPs). They purify the same inflow wastewater but otherwise are independent installations between which there is no transfer and mixing of AS. Two WWTPs implementing different technologies for wastewater treatment were chosen as the objects of study. The first one (LOS) is operated using anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process, also known as the University of Cape Town (UCT) technology. There the sludge mixture first enters the anaerobic zone, where phosphate-accumulating microorganisms (PAO) consume easily degradable organics, then to the anoxic zone, where denitrification and accumulation of phosphates by denitrifying PAO occur, and finally to the aerobic zone, where organic matter and ammonium are oxidized while PAO accumulate large quantities of polyphosphate. The second WWTP (NLOS2) uses a simpler nitrification–denitrification technology (N-DN). In the aerobic zones organics and ammonium are oxidized, while in the anoxic zone nitrate is reduced to gaseous nitrogen. This treatment technology removes organic matter and nitrogen, but was not specially aimed to remove phosphates. The production capacity of LOS is approximately 2 times more than that of NLOS2; there are no other important differences between these WWTPs besides treatment technology.

Sampling and chemical analysis

Wastewater and AS samples were collected in September 2022 and kindly provided by “Mosvodokanal” JSC. The temperature of water samples was about 24 °C. Samples of AS from bioreactors of two WWTPs were taken in 50 ml Falcon tubes (BD Biosciences). Wastewater samples (influent and effluents from two WWTPs) were taken in 5 L plastic bottles. The cells were collected by centrifugation at 3000 g for 20 min at 4 °C.

Wastewater quality values, namely, biochemical oxygen demand (five days incubation) (BOD 5 ), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), sludge volume index (SVI), ammonium nitrogen (N-NH 4 ), nitrate nitrogen (N-NO 3 ), nitrite nitrogen (N-NO 2 ) and phosphorus (P-PO 4 ) in the influent and effluents of two WWTPs were measured by the specialized laboratory “MSULab” according to the Federal inspection of environmental management’s protocols for chemical analyses of water.

DNA isolation, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis

Total genomic DNA was isolated using a Power Soil DNA isolation kit (Qiagen, Germany). DNA for each sample was isolated in four parallel replicates, which were then pooled. PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene fragments comprising the V3–V4 variable regions was performed using the universal primers 341F (5′-CCTAYG GGDBGCWSCAG) and 806R (5′-GGA CTA CNVGGG THTCTAAT) 20 . The obtained PCR fragments were bar-coded and sequenced on Illumina MiSeq (2 × 300 nt reads). Pairwise overlapping reads were merged using FLASH v.1.2.11 21 . All sequences were clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at 97% identity using the USEARCH v.11 program 22 . Low quality reads were removed prior to clustering, chimeric sequences and singletons were removed during clustering by the USEARCH algorithms. To calculate OTU abundances, all reads obtained for a given sample were mapped to OTU sequences at a 97% global identity threshold by USEARCH. The taxonomic assignment of OTUs was performed by searching against the SILVA v.138 rRNA sequence database using the VSEARCH v. 2.14.1 algorithm 23 .

The diversity indices at a 97% OTU cut-off level were calculated using USEARCH v.11 22 . To avoid sequencing depth bias, the numbers of reads for each sample were randomly sub-sampled to the size of the smallest set.

Sequencing of metagenomic DNA, contigs assembly and binning of MAGs

Metagenomic DNA was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq2500 platform according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). The sequencing of a paired-end (2 × 150 bp) NEBNext Ultra II DNA Library prep kit (NEB) generated from 145 to 257 million read pairs per sample. Adapter removal and trimming of low-quality sequences (Q < 30) were performed using Cutadapt v.3.4 24 and Sickle v.1.33 ( https://github.com/najoshi/sickle ), respectively. The resulting Illumina reads were de novo assembled into contigs using SPAdes v.3.15.4 in metagenomic mode 25 .

The obtained contigs were binned into metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) using 3 different programs: MetaBAT v.2.2.15 26 , MaxBin v.2.2.7 27 and CONCOCT v.1.1.0 28 . The results of the three binning programs were merged into an optimized set of MAGs using DAS Tool v.1.1.4 29 . The completeness of the MAGs and their possible contamination (redundancy) were estimated using CheckM v.1.1.3 30 with lineage-specific marker genes. The assembled MAGs were taxonomically classified using the Genome Taxonomy Database Toolkit (GTDB-Tk) v.2.0.0 31 and Genome Taxonomy database (GTDB) 32 .

ARG identification

Open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted in assembled contigs using Prodigal v.2.6.3 33 . ARGs were predicted using the NCBI AMRFinderPlus v.3.11.4 ( https://github.com/ncbi/amr/wiki ) command line tool and its associated database 34 . The predicted protein sequences of all ORFs were analyzed in this tool with parameter “-p”.

Efficiency of wastewater treatment

Two wastewater treatment technologies were used in the investigated WWTPs,—nitrification/denitrification at NLOS2 and more advanced anaerobic/anoxic/oxic UCT process at LOS. LOS removed more than 99.5% of organic matter (according to the BOD5 data) and more than 99.9% of ammonium while the performance of NLOS2 was poorer (Table 1 ). Particularly noticeable differences were observed in nitrate and nitrite concentrations in the effluents suggesting the lower efficiency of denitrification in the NLOS2. Interestingly, although the NLOS2 unit was not designed to remove phosphorus, the concentration of phosphates in the treated effluent at this WWTP is only slightly higher than at LOS. The treated influent at LOS contains fewer solids consistently with lower SVI. Overall, the technology used at LOS plant is more efficient.

Microbiomes of the influent wastewater, activated sludge and treated effluent

The 16S rRNA gene profiling of microbial communities revealed 1013 species-level OTUs (97% identity) in the influent and 1.2–1.7 times more OTUs in the AS and treated effluent samples (Supplemental Table S1 ). The Shannon diversity indices correlated with the number of detected OTUs and increased in the series “influent” – “activated sludge” – “effluent” at each WWTP (Supplemental Table S2 ).

Analysis of the microbiome of wastewater supplied for biological treatment showed that that the most numerous phyla in the microbial community were Firmicutes (28.4% of all 16S rRNA gene sequences), Campylobacterota (28.0%), Proteobacteria (20.9%), and Bacteroidota (10.5%) (Fig.  1 ). These were mainly representatives of the fecal microbiota, which are often found in wastewater. The phylum Firmicutes was dominated by Streptococcaceae (9.7%, mostly S treptococcus sp.), Lachnospiraceae (5.9%), Ruminococcaceae (3.0%), Carnobacteriaceae (1.7%), Peptostreptococcaceae (1.6%) and Veillonellaceae (1.4%). Most of Campylobacterota belonged to the family Arcobacteraceae (26.8%) of the genera Arcobacter (19.9%), Pseudarcobacter (2.5%) and uncultured lineage (4.3%), as well as by sulfur-oxidizing Sulfurospirillum (1.0%). Among the Proteobacteria the most abundant genera were Acinetobacter (7.8%) , Aeromonas (1.8%) and Pseudomonas (1.1%). Most of the identified Bacteroidota were typical fecal contaminants such as members of the genera Bacteroides (2.6%), Macellibacteroides (1.5%), Prevotella (1.4%), and Cloacibacterium (1.2%).

Microbial community composition in the influent, AS and treated effluent samples according to 16S rRNA gene profiling. The composition is displayed at the phylum level. INFL, influent wastewater; AS-LOS, AS at LOS plant; CW-LOS, treated effluent at LOS plant; AS-NLOS2, AS at NLOS2 plant; CW-NLOS2, treated effluent at NLOS2 plant.

Activated sludge of WWTP bioreactors is a complex microbial community consisting of physiologically and phylogenetically heterogeneous groups of microorganisms involved in the removal of major contaminants from wastewater. The composition of AS microbiomes was very different from the microbiome of incoming wastewater (Fig.  1 ). The phyla Campylobacterota (less than 0.5%) and Firmicutes (2–4%) were much less abundant in AS microbiomes. Proteobacteria was the dominant group in the microbiomes of AS (23–40%), but its composition differed from the microbiome of influent wastewater: instead of the fecal microflora (Enterobacterales and others) the AS community harbored lineages involved in the purification processes ( Competibacteraceae , Rhodocyclaceae , Nitrosomonadaceae , etc.). Likewise, Bacteroidota were among the most numerous phyla in AS microbiomes at both LOS (6.5%) and NLOS2 (14.1%), but instead of Bacteroidales mostly comprised Chitinophagales and Sphingobacteriales typical for AS communities. The numerous groups of AS community also included Chloroflexi (22% and 10% in LOS and NLOS2, respectively), Patescibacteria (1.8% and 9.9%), Nanoarchaeota (4.3% and 9.1%), Nitrospirota (3.9% and 7.3%), Verrucomicrobiota and Myxococcota (about 4% in both WWTPs). Bacteria that play an important role in the removal of nitrogen ( Nitrospira and Nitrosomonas ) and phosphorus ( Dechloromonas ), as well as glycogen-accumulating Ca . Competibacter, have been found in large numbers. The abundance of these functional groups is consistent with the high efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

The main source of microorganisms in treated effluent is the AS, from which they are washed out; bacteria from the influent water may also be present in minor amounts. Therefore, as expected, the microbiome composition of treated wastewater was similar to that of activated sludge. Consistently, compositions of microbiomes of treated effluent were similar to that of AS samples. However, some differences were observed, in particular, the microbiomes of the treated effluent contained many Cyanobacteria (7.74% and 3.49% for LOS and NLOS2, respectively) which were found in minor amounts both in the influent water and in the ASs (< 0.5%). Probably, these light-dependent bacteria proliferate in the final clarifier and then can be easily washed out with the effluent.

Diversity of resistomes

The results of metagenomic analysis of incoming wastewater revealed 544 ARGs in the assembled contigs, classified into 33 AMR gene families (Table 2 and Supplemental Table S3 ). Among the most numerous were classes A, C, D and metallo- beta-lactamases, rifampin ADP-ribosyltransferase, Erm 23S ribosomal RNA methyltransferase, aminoglycoside nucleotidyl-, acetyl- and phospho-transferases, the ABC-F type ribosomal protection proteins, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, trimethoprim-resistant dihydrofolate reductase, quaternary ammonium compound efflux SMR transporters, lincosamide nucleotidyltransferases, tetracycline efflux MFS transporters and tetracycline resistance ribosomal protection proteins (Table 2 ). These genes may enable antibiotic inactivation (373 genes), target protection (85 genes), efflux (44 genes) and target replacement (25 genes).

The abovementioned genes confer resistance to most of commonly used drugs: beta-lactams (198 genes), macrolides (74 genes), rifamycin (60 genes), aminoglycosides (51 genes), tetracycline (27 genes), phenicols (27 genes), diaminopyrimidines (19 genes), quaternary ammonium compounds (16 genes), glycopeptides (15 genes), lincosamide (13 genes), fosfomycine (12 genes) and drugs of 11 others classes (Fig.  2 ).

ARGs identified in wastewater and AS samples categorized by drug classes.

About twice less ARGs were identified in AS samples from both WWTPs. Like in the influent, beta-lactamases of classes A, D, and metallo-beta-lactamases were the most numerous, while only a few genes for class C enzymes were found (Table 2 ). Other families of ARGs, numerous in the influent, were also numerous in AS microbiomes. A notable difference between the resistomes of the AS samples is the greater number of rifampin-ADP-ribosyltransferase genes ( arr ) in NLOS2 compared to LOS (63 vs 33). The largest number of arr genes was assigned to Bacteroidota, and the lower relative abundance of this phylum in AS at LOS likely explains these differences. Like in the wastewater, resistance to beta-lactams, macrolides, rifamycin, aminoglycosides, and tetracyclines was the most common (Fig.  2 ). On the contrary, genes for some drug classes were underrepresented in AS resistomes, especially for diaminopyrimidines (3 and 2 genes for LOS and NLOS2, respectively) and glycopeptide antibiotics (2 and 0 genes).

The results of metagenomic analysis of treated effluent showed that the diversity of these resistomes was only slightly higher than that of the corresponding AS samples. This result was expected since the main source of microorganisms in the effluent is activated sludge, from which they are partially washed. However, resistomes of treated effluent at both WWTPs contains about twice more class A beta-lactamase genes than AS samples suggesting less efficient absorption of their host bacteria at AS particles (Table 2 ).

Quantitative analysis of antibiotic resistance genes of WWTP

The results described above provide information on the diversity of resistance genes, but not on their abundance in the metagenomes, which depends on the abundance of corresponding bacterial hosts. To quantify the shares of individual ARGs in the metagenome and resistome, the amounts of metagenomic reads mapped to the corresponding ARGs in contigs were determined. In total, the resistome accounted for about 0.05% of the metagenome of wastewater supplied for treatment, while the shares of resistomes in the metagenomes of AS and treated effluent samples were 0.02% and 0.014% at the LOS and NLOS2 WWTPs, respectively.

Quantitative analysis of the content of individual ARGs in metagenomes showed that the structure of the influent resistome was very different from that of AS and treated effluent. The relative content of ARGs accounting for more than 1% in at least one analyzed resistome is shown in Fig.  3 . The LOS and NLOS2 WWTPs differed significantly from each other, and the differences between the AS and effluent resistomes at each WWTP were much less pronounced.

The relative abundancies of particular ARGs in the resistomes. Only ARGs with shares greater than 1% in at least one sample are shown, all other ARGs are shown as “others”.

The resistome of the influent was not only the most diverse, but also the most even in composition. The shares of none of the ARGs exceeded 5% of the resistome, and the 23 most common ARGs accounted for a half of the resistome. The most abundant ten ARGs were qacE, sul1, ampC, blaOXA, msr(E), erm(B), mph(E), tet(C), aph(3'')-Ib and aph(6)-Id, conferring resistance to antiseptics, sulfonamides, beta-lactams, macrolides, aminoglycosides (streptomycin), and tetracyclines.

AS and treated effluent at LOS plant was strongly dominated by a single AGR type, class C beta-lactamase ampC , accounting for about 45% of their resistomes. This gene was also the most abundant one in the resistomes of AS and effluent at NLOS2 (14.8% and 18.2%, respectively). Apparently it originates from the influent wastewater supplied for treatment where its share in the resistome was 3.2%. AmpC β-lactamases are considered clinically important cephalosporinases encoded on the chromosomes and plasmids of various bacteria (especially Enterobacteriaceae ), where they mediate resistance to cephalothin, cefazolin, cefoxitin and most penicillins 35 . Close homologues of this gene, with a nucleotide sequence identity of 99.8–100%, have been found in plasmids and chromosomes of various Proteobacteria ( Thauera, Sphingobium, Aeromonas etc.). Since in all samples ampC was found in short contigs with very high coverage, it is likely widespread in the genomes of various bacteria in different genetic contexts.

The second most abundant ARG in the resistomes of AS samples was sulfonamide-resistant dihydropteroate synthase ( sul1 ). It accounted for 4–5% of AS and treated effluent resistomes in LOS and for about 11% in NLOS2, while its share in the influent water resistome was about 5%. The sul1 gene is usually found in class 1 integrons being linked to other resistance genes, including qacE 36 . Consistently, sul1 and qacE were found in one contig assembled for the influent water samples and assigned to Gammaproteobacteria. Another sulfonamide-resistance gene, sul2 , was also numerous, accounting for about 2% of the resistomes in the influent and LOS samples, and for about 4% in the AS and water treated at NLOS2.

Since ARGs entering the activated sludge and then into the treated effluent originate mostly from wastewater supplied for treatment, the absolute majority of ARGs present in the influent in significant amounts (more than 0.2% resistome) in were also found in AS and effluent samples. The only exception macrolide 2′-phosphotransferase gene mph(B) accounting for 0.51% in the influent resistome. Likewise, all ARGs accounting for more than 0.2% of resistomes in the treated effluent were present also in the influent.

Potential multidrug resistant strains

One of the most important public health problems is the spread of multidrug resistant pathogens (MDR), which refers to resistance to at least one agent in three or more chemical classes of antibiotic (e.g. a beta-lactam, an aminoglycoside, a macrolide) 37 . Such strains can arrive with wastewater entering the treatment, and also form in AS communities. AS are dense and highly competitive microbial communities, which, along with the presence of sublethal concentrations of antibiotics and other toxicants in wastewater, creates ideal conditions not only for the selection of resistant strains, but also for the formation of multiple resistance through horizontal gene transfer 4 . To identify MDR bacteria, we binned metagenomic contigs into metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) and looked for MAGs comprising several ARGs. Only MAGs with more than 70% completeness and less than 15% contamination were selected for analysis: 117, 56, 72, 94 and 121 for influent, AS of LOS, effluent of LOS, AS of NLOS2 and effluent of NLOS2, respectively. Five MAGs of MDR bacteria were identified in the metagenome of the influent, one—in AS of LOS, two—in the LOS effluent and one in the NLOS2 effluent (Table 3 ). These MAGs were assigned to unclassified genus-level lineages of Ruminococcaceae and Cyclobacteriaceae, Phocaeicola vulgatus, Streptococcus parasuis, Ancrocorticia sp., Enterococcus sp., Bacillus cereus and Undibacterium sp.

Disscussion

We characterized the composition of microbial communities and the resistomes of influent wastewater, activated sludge and treated effluent from two WWTPs in city of Moscow, where various biological water treatment technologies are used. Among the predominant bacteria in the influent wastewater we found mainly fecal contaminants of the genera Collinsella , Bacteroides , Prevotella , Arcobacter , Arcobacteraceae , Blautia , Faecalibacterium, Streptococcus , Acinetobacter , Aeromonas and Veillonella 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 . Previously, we performed 16S rRNA gene profiling of wastewater before and after treatment at one WWTP (LOS) and revealed that all abovementioned potential pathogens were efficiently removed and their relative abundance in the water microbiome decreased by 50‒100 times 44 . Similar pattern of removal of potential pathogenic bacteria was observed here for NLOS2 where another water treatment technology is used.

An important indicator of the dissemination of ARG is the proportion of the resistome in the entire metagenome before and after wastewater treatment. In the influent, the resistome accounted for about 0.05% of the metagenome, which corresponds to approximately two ARGs per bacterial genome. Approximately the same values are typical for most countries 3 . After treatment, the fraction of the resistome in the wastewater metagenomes decreases, but, surprisingly, only by 2–4 times. However, since the total concentration of microorganisms in treated effluent is approximately two orders of magnitude lower than in raw wastewater, it is likely that the total abundance of ARGs in the treated effluent is significantly reduced.

Apparently, fecal contaminants effectively removed during treatment are not the only carriers of ARG in wastewater, which are also found in bacteria characteristic of activated sludge and thus appearing in the effluents. Unfortunately, due to the high diversity of microbiomes and the tendency of ARG to be present in multiple copies in different genomic environments, most of the contigs containing ARG turned out to be short, which did not allow to define their taxonomic affiliation.

The resistome of influent water includes 26 ARGs, the share of which is more than 1%. Among of them the prevalence of ampC, aadA, qacE, bla, qacF and qacL is specific for Moscow WWTPs, since these genes were not among the 50 most common ARGs according to the results of a worldwide analysis of wastewater resistomes in large cities 3 . Different ARGs were most “evenly” represented in the influent wastewater while in the AS and treated effluent, a clear selection of particular types of ARGs was observed, which obviously reflects a change in the composition of microbiomes. A vivid example is the increase in the proportion of ampC in the resistomes, especially at LOS.

The discovered ARGs can confer resistance to most classes of antibiotics and among the resistomes of the studied WWTPs in the city of Moscow, genes conferring resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics were the most common, they accounted for about 26% of the resistome in the water supplied for treatment (Fig.  4 ). Similar values have been observed for wastewater in some other countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and Brazil, where 20 to 25% of reads were assigned to ARGs conferring resistance to beta-lactams 3 . According to data for 2021, beta lactams accounted for about 40% of the total antibiotic consumption in Russia in the medical sector 45 .

The relative abundancies of ARGs in the resistomes categorized by drug classes.

Like in most wastewater resistomes in different countries, ARGs conferring resistance to macrolides, aminoglycosides and tetracycline were also among the most abundant in wastewater from Moscow (Fig.  4 ). Resistance to macrolides, rather than beta-lactams, was most common in wastewater from most countries in Europe and North America, while in Moscow ARGs to macrolide were the second most common. Macrolides and tetracyclines are also widely used in medicine in Russia (20% and 5% of total antibiotic consumption in 2021, respectively). On the contrary, medical consumption of aminoglycosides in Russia is rather low (< 1% of the total), therefore, the high abundance of relevant ARGs was unexpected. The opposite pattern was observed for quinolones, which make up about 22% of the antibiotics used in medicine, but their ARGs accounted for only about 1% of the resistome. However the main mechanisms of resistance to quinolones, mutations in the target enzymes, DNA gyrase and DNA topoisomerase IV, and increased drug efflux 46 , were not addressed in our study.

A peculiar feature of Moscow wastewater resistome was the high content of resistance genes to sulfonamides (about 9%), which were not among the major genes in wastewater resistomes worldwide 3 . Sulfonamides are synthetic antimicrobial agents that currently have limited use in the human medicine, alone or mainly in combination with trimethoprim (a dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor), in the treatment of uncomplicated respiratory, urinary tract and chlamydia infections 7 , 47 . Different sulfonamide ARGs ( sul1, sul2 and sul3 ) were detected in the wastewater in the some countries, including Denmark, Canada, Spain and China, applying culture dependent, independent and qPCR methods 7 . The opposite picture was observed for streptogramin resistance genes, which were among the ARGs in the majority of resistomes worldwide, but in Moscow wastewater they accounted for less than 1%. This is probably due to the limited use of this drug in Russia.

Another distinguishing feature of the resistome of wastewater in Moscow is the high content of ARGs conferring resistance to quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC), about 9%. It can be explained by the frequent use of these antiseptics in medicine. QACs are active ingredients in more than 200 disinfectants currently recommended for inactivation the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus 48 . A recent study showed that the number of QACs used to inactivate the virus in public facilities, hospitals and households increased during the COVID-19 pandemic 49 . Indeed, the results of a study dedicated to the study of wastewater resistome worldwide 3 did not reveal the presence of QAC ARGs in the wastewater, since the samples for this study were collected before the pandemic.

An important issue is the extent to which different water treatment technologies remove ARGs. The effective removal of ARG was primary due to a decrease in the concentration of microorganisms in treated effluent, since the share of resistome in the metagenome after treatment decreased by only 2.6 –3.7 times and the NLOS2 plant appeared to be more effective in this respect. However, compared to LOS, treated effluent at NLOS2 contains approximately twice as much suspended solids, probably due to poorer settling characteristics of the sludge indicated by the higher SVI. Therefore, the overall efficiency of removing ARGs from wastewater at two WWTPs may be similar.

Considering the relative abundances of ARGs in the resistomes, genes conferring resistance to macrolides and tetracyclines were removed more efficiently than beta lactamases, especially ampC , and rifampin ADP-ribosyltransferase genes. The low efficiency of removal of the ampC gene and the increase in its abundance in the resistome after wastewater treatment were previously reported for WWTPs in Germany 50 . Efficient removal of ARGs to macrolides ( ermB, ermF, mph(A), mef(A) ) and tetracyclines ( tet(A), tet(C), tet(Q), tet(W) ) has been reported in a number of studies worldwide 51 . ARGs enabling resistance to sulfonamides, tetracyclines and chloramphenicol were more efficiently removed at LOS than at NLOS2, while the opposite was observed for beta lactamases (Fig.  4 ). The later became the most abundant class of ARGs in the treated effluent.

Metagenomic analysis not only identified resistance genes, but also revealed probable MDR strains based on the analysis of assembled MAGs. We identified 9 such strains in both influent, AS and treated effluent. The real number of MDR strains is probably higher, since only a small fraction of all metagenomic contigs was included in the assembled high quality MAGs.

Phocaeicola vulgatus , (formerly Bacteroides vulgatus ), is a mutualistic anaerobic bacteria commonly found in the human gut microbiome and frequently involved in human infections. The results of whole genome analysis showed presence of blaTEM-1 and blaCMY-2 ARGs, which confers resistant to beta-lactams 52 , 53 . P. vulgatus was also identified as potential host for the transmission of tetracycline ARGs 54 . Streptococcus parasuis is an important zoonotic pathogen that causes primarily meningitis, sepsis, endocarditis, arthritis, and pneumonia in both pigs and humans 55 . A variety of MDR strains of this bacterium have been described. For instance, S. parasuis strain H35 was isolated from a lung sample of a pig in China; several ARGs, including optrA , catQ , erm(B), lsa(E), msr(D), mef(A), mdt(A), tet(M), lnu(B), aadE and two copies of aacA-aphD , were found in the chromosome and cfr(D) was detected on plasmid pH35-cfrD 56 . MDR strain of Bacillus cereus was identified in the effluent water microbiome. This bacterium is known as human pathogen and a common cause of food poisoning with toxin-producing property 57 . Bacillus cereus was isolated from drinking water treatment plant in China and antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that it was resistant to cefoxitin, penicillin tetracycline 58 , macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLSB), aminoglycoside and tetracycline antibiotics 59 . Assembled MAG B.cereus from effluent water contained ARGs conferring to macrolides, beta-lactams, fosfomycin and streptogramin and may be considered as MDR strain. Genomes of members of the genera Streptococcus (AS of LOS) and Enterococcus (influent), not identified at the species level, were found to contain multiple ARGs. Most of species of these genera are opportunistic and true pathogens known for their drug resistance 60 , 61 . One MAG from the influent water metagenome was assigned to uncultured lineage of the family Ruminococcaceae. Members of this family are typical non-pathogenic gut inhabitants, although genomes of some strains could harbor ARGs 62 .

Three MAGs retrieved from influent wastewater microbiome ( Ancrocorticia ) and treated effluent water ( Cyclobacteriaceae and Undibacterium ) were found to contain several ARGs. However, we found no evidences about pathogenic and MDR strains in these taxa. It is possible that these environmental bacteria acquired ARGs via horizontal gene from outside their lineages. WWTPs are an ideal environment for horizontal gene transfer (HGT), since when bacteria are exposed to strong selective pressures, such as the presence of antimicrobials, the horizontal acquisition of ARGs enables genetic diversification and create the potential for rapid gains in fitness 63 .

Conclusions

Metagenome sequencing of the raw wastewater, activated sludge and treated wastewater at two large WWTPs of the Moscow city revealed several hundreds of ARGs that could confer resistance to most commonly used classes of antibiotics.

Resistome accounted for about 0.05% of the wastewater metagenome and after wastewater treatment its share decreased by 3–4 times.

The resistomes were dominated by ARGs encoding resistance to beta-lactams, macrolides, aminoglycosides, tetracycline, QAC, and sulfonamides. A peculiar feature of Moscow wastewater resistome was the high content of ARGs to sulfonamides and limited occurrence of resistance to streptogramins.

ARGs for macrolides and tetracyclines were removed more efficiently than ARGs for beta-lactamases.

A comparison of wastewater resistomes from Moscow and around the world suggested that the abundance and content of ARG in wastewater depend on social, medical, and environmental factors.

Data availability

The raw data generated from 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenome sequencing have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) and are available via the BioProject PRJNA945245.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project 22-74-00022 to S.B.).

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S.B. and N.V.R. designed and supervised the research project; A.G.D. collected the samples and analysed chemical composition of wastewater; A.V.M. performed 16S rRNA gene profiling and metagenome sequencing; S.B., A.V.B., N.V.P., and N.V.R. analysed the sequencing data; S.B. and N.V.R. wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Begmatov, S., Beletsky, A.V., Dorofeev, A.G. et al. Metagenomic insights into the wastewater resistome before and after purification at large‑scale wastewater treatment plants in the Moscow city. Sci Rep 14 , 6349 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56870-0

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Sudan Rural Household Survey 2023: Sampling and implementation procedures for the first round

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Kirui, Oliver K.; Ahmed, Mosab; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Abushama, Hala and Siddig, Khalid. 2024. Sudan Rural Household Survey 2023: Sampling and implementation procedures for the first round. Sudan SSP Working Paper 18. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

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This paper describes the data collection methodology for the 2023 Sudan Rural Household Survey (SRHS), the first nationwide survey of rural households in Sudan following the eruption of violent conflict in April 2023. The SRHS, which was conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and the World Food Program, represents a significant effort to understand the dynamics of rural households in Sudan during a period of profound national conflict. The survey focuses on several critical themes central to household welfare, including food security, coping strategies, employment and income, livelihoods, assets, market access, and exposure to shocks. Analysis of the survey data can provide comprehensive insights into the resilience of and challenges faced by rural communities in Sudan. Computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) methods were used to navigate the challenges of data collection in a conflict setting. The use of CATI demonstrated the adaptability and potential of innovative research methodologies in conflict-affected regions. The survey, the first round in a planned panel survey program, aims to establish a baseline of rural life, economic activities, and food security in Sudan. Panel survey data offers invaluable information to counter several analytical biases inherent to the conclusions drawn from other data structures. Subsequent rounds of the SRHS are planned for the second and fourth quarters of 2024.

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Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow

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The twenty-first century is the era when populations of cities will exceed rural communities for the first time in human history. The population growth of cities in many countries, including those in transition from planned to market economies, is putting considerable strain on ecological and natural resources. This paper examines four central issues: (a) the challenges and opportunities presented through working in jurisdictions where there are no official or established methods in place to guide regional, ecological and landscape planning and design; (b) the experience of the author’s practice—Gillespies LLP—in addressing these challenges using techniques and methods inspired by McHarg in Design with Nature in the Russian Federation in the first decade of the twenty-first century; (c) the augmentation of methods derived from Design with Nature in reference to innovations in technology since its publication and the contribution that the art of landscape painters can make to landscape analysis and interpretation; and (d) the application of this experience to the international competition and colloquium for the expansion of Moscow. The text concludes with a comment on how the application of this learning and methodological development to landscape and ecological planning and design was judged to be a central tenant of the winning design. Finally, a concluding section reflects on lessons learned and conclusions drawn.

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Principles for public space design, planning to do better

A transformative shift in urban ecology toward a more active and relevant future for the field and for cities

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The landscape team from Gillespies Glasgow Studio (Steve Nelson, Graeme Pert, Joanne Walker, Rory Wilson and Chris Swan) led by the author and all our collaborators in the Capital Cities Planning Group.

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Evans, B.M. Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow. Socio Ecol Pract Res 1 , 233–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

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UGC NET Sociology Syllabus 2024: Check Important Topics, Latest Exam Pattern, Books, and Preparation Strategy Here

Ugc net sociology syllabus 2024: the updated syllabus includes topics from research methodology, basic concepts and institutions, rural and urban transformations, state and politics, economy and society, environment, family and kinship, science and technology, and culture. the exam pattern includes two papers, paper 1 being general and paper 2 focusing on sociology..

UGC NET Sociology Syllabus 2024: The updated curriculum has been uploaded by the exam conducting officials on the official website. Aspirants who are going to appear in the upcoming UGC NET Sociology exam should check the detailed syllabus and exam pattern before starting their preparation. The UGC NET Sociology syllabus is divided into two papers, i.e. Paper A and Paper B. Paper A comprises a general aptitude paper that is common for all the subjects. Paper B is subject-specific and comprises questions related to Sociology topics. 

UGC-NET exams are conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to determine candidates' eligibility for ‘Assistant Professors and ‘Junior Research Fellowship Assistant Professors in Indian Universities and Colleges. Hence, one should analyse the syllabus to understand the chapters from which questions can be asked in the exam. Going by past trends and analysis, the overall difficulty level of the UGC NET Sociology question has been reported to be moderate. 

UGC NET Sociology Syllabus 2024 PDF

Ugc net sociology syllabus 2024: important topics.

The Sociology Syllabus of the UGC NET exam is divided into two papers. The UGC NET Sociology exam is a computer-based test. In Paper 1, 50 multiple-choice questions will be asked for 100 marks, whereas Paper 2 comprises 100 objective-type questions for 200 marks. As per the UGC NET marking scheme, 2 marks will be awarded for every correct answer, and there shall be no negative marking for incorrect answers in the UGC NET exam. The time allotted to the exam is 3 hours, and there will be no breaks between the papers in the exam. Check the important NTA UGC NET Sociology syllabus 2024 topics below.

Unit -1: Sociological Theory

Unit - 2: Research Methodology and Methods

Unit -3: Basic Concepts and Institutions

Unit – 4: Rural and Urban Transformations

Unit – 5: State, Politics and Development

Unit – 6: Economy and Society

Unit - 7: Environment and Society

Unit - 8: Family, Marriage and Kinship

Unit - 9: Science, Technology and Society

UGC NET Sociology Syllabus 2024: Unit Wise

Unit 1: sociological theory.

• Classical Sociological Traditions
• Emile Durkheim
• Structure- Functionalism and Structuralism
• Bronislaw Malinowski
• A.R. Radcliffe- Brown
• Talcott Parsons
• Robert K. Merton
• Claude Levi Strauss
• Hermeneutic and Interpretative Traditions
• Karl Manheim
• Alfred Schutz
• Harold Garfinkel
• Erving Goffman
• Clifford Geertz
• Post Modernism, Post Structuralism and Post Colonialism
• Edward Said
• Pierre Bourdieu
• Michel Foucault
• Jurgen Habermas
• Anthony Giddens
• Manuel Castells
• 5. Indian Thinkers
• M.K. Gandhi
• B.R. Ambedkar
• Radha Kamal Mukherjee
• G. S. Ghurye
• M.N. Srinivas
• Irawati Karve

Unit 2: Research Methodology and Methods

• Conceptualizing Social Reality
• Philosophy of Science
• Scientific Method and Epistemology in Social Science
• Hermeneutic Traditions
• Objectivity and Reflexivity in Social Science
• Ethics and Politics
• Formulating Research Design
• Reading Social Science Research, Data and Documents
• Induction and Deduction
• Fact, Concept and Theory
• Hypotheses, Research Questions, Objectives
• Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
• Ethnography
• Survey Method
• Historical Method
• Comparative Method
• Questionnaire and Schedule
• Statistical Analysis
• Observation, Interview and Case study
• Interpretation, Data Analysis and Report Writing

Unit 3: Basic Concepts and Institutions

• Sociological Concepts
• Social Structure
• Status and Role
• Values, Norms and Rules
• Personhood, Habitus and Agency
• Bureaucracy, Power and Authority
• Social Institutions
• Marriage, Family and Kinship
• Law and Customs
• Social Stratification
• Social Difference, Hierarchy, Inequality and Marginalisation
• Caste and Class
• Gender, Sexuality and Disability
• Race, Tribe and Ethnicity
• Social Change and Processes
• Evolution and Diffusion
• Modernization and Development
• Social Transformations and Globalisation
• Social Mobility

Unit 4: Rural and Urban Transformations

• Rural and Peasant Society
• Caste-Tribe Settlements
• Agrarian Social Structure and Emergent Class Relations
• Land Ownership and Agrarian Relations
• Decline of Agrarian Economy, De-Peasantization and Migration
• Agrarian Unrest and Peasant Movements
• Changing Inter-Community Relations and Violence
• Urban Society
• Urbanism, Urbanity and Urbanisation
• Towns, Cities and Mega-Cities
• Industry, Service and Business
• Neighbourhoods, Slums and Ethnic Enclaves
• Middle Class and Gated Communities
• Urban Movements and Violence

Unit 5: State, Politics and Development

• Political Processes in India
• Tribe, Nation State and Border
• Bureaucracy
• Governance and Development
• Public Policy: Health, Education and Livelihoods
• Political Culture
• Grass-root Democracy
• Law and Society
• Gender and Development
• Role of International Development Organisations
• Social Movements and Protests
• Political Factors, Pressure Groups
• Movements based on Caste, Ethnicity, Ideology, Gender, Disability, Religion and Region
• Civil Society and Citizenship
• NGOs, Activism and Leadership
• Reservations and Politics

Unit 6: Economy and Society

• Exchange, Gift , Capital, Labour and Market
• Mode of Production Debates
• Property and Property Relations
• State and Market: Welfarism and Neoliberalism
• Models of Economic Development
• Poverty and Exclusion
• Factory and Industry Systems
• Changing Nature of Labour Relations
• Gender and Labour Process
• Business and Family
• Digital Economy, E-Commerce
• Global Business and Corporates
• Consumption

Unit 7: Environment and Society

• Social and Cultural Ecology: Diverse Forms
• Technological Change, Agriculture and Biodiversity
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Ethno-Medicine
• Gender and Environment
• Forest Policies, Adivasis and Exclusion
• Ecological Degradation and Migration
• Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation
• Water and Social Exclusion
• Disasters and Community Responses
• Environmental Pollution, Public Health and Disability
• Climate Change and International Policies
• Environmental Movements

Unit 8: Family, Marriage and Kinship

• Theoretical Approaches: Structure-Functionalist, Alliance and Cultural
• Gender Relations and Power Dynamics
• Inheritance, Succession and Authority
• Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction
• Children, Youth and Elderly
• Emotions and Family
• Emergent Forms of Family
• Changing Marriage Practices
• Changing Care and Support Systems
• Family Laws
• Domestic Violence and Crime against Women
• Honour Killing

Unit 9: Science, Technology and Society

• History of Technological Development
• Changing notions of Time and Space
• Flows and Boundaries
• Virtual Community
• Media: Print and Electronic, Visual and Social Media
• E-Governance and Surveillance Society
• Technology and Emerging Political Processes
• State Policy, Digital Divide and Inclusion
• Technology and Changing Family Relations
• Technology and Changing Health Systems
• Food and Technology
• Cyber Crime

Unit 10: Culture and Symbolic Transformations

• Signs and Symbols
• Rituals, Beliefs and Practices
• Changing Material Culture
• Moral Economy
• Education: Formal and Informal
• Religious Organisations, Piety and Spirituality
• Commodification of Rituals
• Communalism and Secularism
• Cultural Identity and Mobilisation
• Culture and Politics
• Gender, Body and Culture
• Art and Aesthetics
• Ethics and Morality
• Sports and Culture
• Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism
• Religion and Economy
• Culture and Environment
• New Religious Movements

UGC NET Sociology Syllabus 2024 In Hindi

यूजीसी नेट परीक्षा के समाजशास्त्र पाठ्यक्रम को दो पेपरों में विभाजित किया गया है। यूजीसी नेट समाजशास्त्र परीक्षा कंप्यूटर आधारित परीक्षा है। पेपर 1 में 100 अंकों के 50 बहुविकल्पीय प्रश्न पूछे जाएंगे, जबकि पेपर 2 में 200 अंकों के 100 वस्तुनिष्ठ प्रकार के प्रश्न होंगे। UGC NET अंकन योजना के अनुसार, प्रत्येक सही उत्तर के लिए 2 अंक दिए जाएंगे, और UGC NET परीक्षा में गलत उत्तरों के लिए कोई नकारात्मक अंकन नहीं होगा। परीक्षा के लिए आवंटित समय 3 घंटे है, और परीक्षा में प्रश्नपत्रों के बीच कोई विराम नहीं होगा। नीचे महत्वपूर्ण NTA UGC NET समाजशास्त्र पाठ्यक्रम 2024 विषयों की जाँच करें।

यूनिट -1: समाजशास्त्रीय सिद्धांत

यूनिट - 2: अनुसंधान पद्धति और तरीके

यूनिट -3: बुनियादी अवधारणाएं और संस्थाएं

यूनिट - 4: ग्रामीण और शहरी परिवर्तन

इकाई - 5: राज्य, राजनीति और विकास

इकाई – 6: अर्थव्यवस्था और समाज

यूनिट - 7: पर्यावरण और समाज

इकाई - 8: परिवार, विवाह और रिश्तेदारी

यूनिट - 9: विज्ञान, प्रौद्योगिकी और समाज

UGC NET Sociology Exam Pattern

How do i prepare for ugc net sociology.

• Analyse the UGC NET Sociology syllabus and exam pattern thoroughly to understand topics thoroughly.
• Create a list of important topics based on their marks weightage and frequency of being asked previously in the exam. Allocate study hours to every topic so you have sufficient time for revision at the end of the day.
• Choose the books and study materials recommended by the subject matter experts and top performers. One must pick books that are based on recent editions and trends.
• Solve previous year's question papers, UGC NET sample papers, and mock tests to identify the areas that require improvement, as this approach can maximise their qualifying chances.
• Create short notes when studying sociology topics and revise the notes often to remember concepts.

Best Books for UGC NET Sociology Syllabus

• Sociology: Themes and Perspectives by Haralambos
• Sociological Theory by George Ritzer
• Sociological Theory by Bert N. Adams
• Sociology: Basic Concepts by H.K. Rawat
• UGC NET: Sociology Exam Guide by RPH Editorial Board
• Essential Sociology by Seema and Nitin Sangwan
• Trueman's UGC Net Sociology by S. Hussain

Get here latest School , CBSE and Govt Jobs notification in English and Hindi for Sarkari Naukari and Sarkari Result . Download the Jagran Josh Sarkari Naukri App . Check  Board Result 2024  for Class 10 and Class 12 like  CBSE Board Result ,  UP Board Result ,  Bihar Board Result ,  MP Board Result ,  Rajasthan Board Result  and Other States Boards.

• Which books are best to cover the UGC NET Sociology syllabus? + Some of the best books to excel in the UGC NET Sociology syllabus are Sociology: Themes and Perspectives by Haralambos, Sociological Theory by George Ritzer, and Sociological Theory by Bert N. Adams.
• How difficult is the UGC NET exam in Sociology? + As per the past rend and analysis, the overall difficulty level of sociology subjects has been reported to be moderate. Hence one can expect questions to be moderately difficult in the upcoming exam.
• How to start preparation for UGC NET exam in Sociology? + To prepare for UGC NET Sociology, candidates should prepare a list of important topics, build conceptual clarity, and attempt unlimited mock tests to learn time management.
• What is the UGC NET Sociology Syllabus? + The UGC NET Sociology Syllabus is divided into ten units, i.e. Sociological Theory, Research Methodology and Methods, Basic Concepts and Institutions, Rural and Urban Transformations, State, Politics and Development, Economy and Society, Environment and Society, Family, Marriage and Kinship, Science, Technology and Society, and Culture and Symbolic Transformations.
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