What Future for LEADER as a Catalyst of Social Innovation?

The LEADER Approach was initially designed to promote innovation in European rural areas by sustaining a bottom-up approach to local development. Nowadays the LEADER Approach includes elements that are generally considered to support social innovation. Classical features of the LEADER Approach \u2013 for example, area-based development strategies and cooperation and networking \u2013 are considered catalysts of social innovation as well. By drawing on key elements which support social innovation, the chapter discusses the future role of the LEADER Approach and Local Action Groups, and debates the challenges and potentials of the new rural development policy within emerging social, environmental and economic needs

EU Rural Development Policies: Present and Future

This chapter considers the evolution of policy for rural areas within the European Union since the 1950s. It does so largely within the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) but gives some consideration to the wider EU regional (including cohesion) policies as these have helped shape rural development policy under the CAP. National policies for rural development are not taken into account. The chapter starts by describing the characteristics of rural areas. Next it gives an overview of policy-making for rural areas from the late 1950s to 2000. The third section describes rural development policy/programming since 1999/2000 to date. The chapter concludes with discussion and conclusions on current policy for rural development and the EC proposals for changes from 2021 onwards

AGRICULTURAL INCOME IN LESS FAVORED AREAS OF THE EC - A REGIONAL APPROACH

In this article the agricultural income situation in the less favoured areas (LFA) of EUR 12 in the years 1987-1988, 1988-1989 and 1984-1990 is examined by using an agricultural typology of EC regions. This typology is based on the relationship of regional gross domestic product per inhabitant and farm net value added per annual work unit. In this typology, three main geographical areas can be distinguished: Northwest, Central and South. Within each main geographical area farm income in LFA is below that in normal areas. Quite large differences in the income gap between normal areas and LFA exist: in Northwest and Central the income gap is larger than in South. Moreover, the level of farm income in Northwest and Central is considerably above that in South. Within each main geographical area, farmers in LFA receive a higher amount of direct income subsidies than farmers in normal areas; the difference in South is small and in Northwest rather large. A considerable number of LFA are located in the area of regional and agricultural backwardness

Social capital and rural development in Europe: a geographical perspective

By considering the use of the concept of social capital and its relation to local development and the neo-endogenous approach of rural development, the aim of this chapter is to place the three concepts in a spaceterritory perspective. This approach highlights the European diversity of regions and rural areas, which are subject to heterogeneous local and territorial development processes. It offers a “bird’s eye view” of a European geography of rural development in relation to social capital and local development processes, especially their “regional” or territorial roots. It further provides a means of exploring the contextual historical, cultural and political-institutional divides in Europe, which, according to some authors, explain existing social-spatial European differences in territory. Bearing in mind that the discipline of geography includes scholars other than geographers (Gibson, 2009), this approach converges with contributions from diverse fields of research. The first section combines social theory with spatial and regional science to investigate past framing of social change and behaviour in conjunction with the political, institutional and economic contexts of European policies. These policies shape both the types and capacities of organisations operating in a territory. The second section of this chapter presents geographers’ theoretical discussions on social capital, including territorial capital and governance, which is more specifically analysed in Chapter 5. The third section provides an overview of studies on social capital, mostly focused on social and political attitudes and behaviour. These studies are compared at the European regional level to contextualise the approach adopted in this book. The fourth section discusses different meanings of “rural” in treatments of rural development and social capital in Europe. Finally, the chapter provides critical insights derived from empirical research on social capital and rural development in European countries and regions, and concludes with reflections on the geography of inequality which emerges from these empirical sources. Thus, the analysis proposed in this chapter helps to understand and contextualise how multi-level and regional frameworks for public policy and governance systems structure social capital in local and rural development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio