BRANDING REGIONAL IDENTITY AS A DRIVER FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Within the globalizing world, regions and their identities are subjected to great pressure. At present, places are engaged in a process of “territorial competition” in an integrated world economy. The identity of the region can be used as a starting point to brand a region and differentiate it from others. In the regional branding process, the region as a whole becomes a product or brand and offers a “basket” of regional products and services. This paper discusses the possibility of regional identity as a mobilizing force for rural development, by studying best practice examples of regional branding. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted interviews in three case regions: West Cork (Ireland), Groene Woud (the Netherlands) and Pajottenland (Belgium). The study of these cases led to the formulation of critical success factors on the organization of regional branding.Identity, Region formation, Regional branding, Rural development, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development,

Citizen participation in neo- endogenous rural development: the case of LEADER programme into Community-led local development

The next European programming period 2014-2020 is aiming to reach the goals of Europe2020's strategy of sustainable, smart and inclusive growth. Together with these objectives and according to the spirit of European integration, the European Union wants therefore to point to a greater territorial cohesion, as an answer to the fragmentation due to the globalization and also because of a concrete overrun of the economic and social crisis broken out in 2008 at global level. Furthermore, the European Union wants to stimulate a more intense and purposeful participation of citizens in decision-making process and also in the perspective to overtake the detachment of people from democratic life. In this way, the growing requirement of more participation and territorial cohesion, that could be understood as a place-based development, are translated into the dimension of community that, according to the European program 2014-2020, is being realized by the Community-led Local Development whereby the reading key is LEADER method. LEADER is a local development approach which allows local actors to develop an area by using its endogenous development potential. One specific attempt to tackle the above mentioned challenges are the Local Action Groups (LAGs) that will compose the CLLD. Based on the lessons learnt of LAGs during the current period 2007-2013, we want to assess whether the new approach of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) will improve the challenges of place-based approaches and participative democracy in the coming period with a strong and positive impact to the local community. For this reason the main goal of my research is to focus on the community-based approach as a system of governance able to face the challenges of the globalized post-modern democracy. In this sense I would like to define the role of the citizen participation to the rebuilding up of the re-embedded community in order to contribute to the local development as a positive answer to the challenges of the globalization. And so, given the main goals of the next European programming period 2014-2020, regarding the introduction of the CLLD as applied in the rural development program, the research is getting as a specific tool-case the LEADER method. For this reason it is trying to verify how LEADER might be understood as a tool of participative democracy in the system of neo-endogenous rural development. The research is focusing on two case-studies, Tuscany for Italy and Flanders for Belgium and the comparative tool is the measure 321 “Basic services for economy and rural population” of the Axis 4 LEADER of the Rural Development Program 2007-2013. The case studies will be those ones in order to have a comparison between Southern and Northern Europe and different systems of government and governance in a regional system anyway. The analysis of the activities concerning the measure 321 will give a right perspective of the role and the impact of the citizen participation regarding services and policies for the local community and its development which is facing the challenges of the globalization

Citizen participation in neo-endogenous rural development: the case of LEADER programme

The next European programming period 2014-2020 is aiming to reach the goals of Europe2020 strategy of sustainable, smart and inclusive growth, looking also at a concrete overrun of the economic and social crisis broken out in 2008 at global level. Together with these objectives and according to the spirit of European integration, the European Union wants to stimulate a more intense and purposeful participation of citizens in decision-making processes that is one of the main European challenges towards 2020. Through the European program 2014-2020, the citizen involvement in the decision-making processes is being realized by the Community-led Local Development (CLLD) whereby the reading key is the LEADER method. The main goal of this research is to verify how citizen participation influences local development strategies and how local needs are best incorporated into the decision- making process. Therefore, this paper is focusing on how citizen participation is involved in the achievement of the neo-endogenous local development. We aim to develop a suited theoretical and analytical framework for and a better understanding of citizen participation in neo-endogenous local development, by analyzing the LEADER program, considering its philosophy and its application. Empirically, the first case-study of the research is the Local Action Group (LAG) FAR Maremma, in Tuscany, whereby LEADER is carried out, and that was the only one in that Region to apply a participative method for the elaboration of the local development strategy during the European programming period 2007-2013

Verhalen uit de open ruimte

De verhalen uit de open ruimte zijn een synthese van een aantal kansen en problemen bij gebiedsgerichte processen in de open ruimte. Deze kwamen naar boven tijdens de interviews, focusgroepen en overleg­momenten met experten, die werden uitgevoerd tijdens het IMAGO-­project (www.imagotoolbox.be). Via story­telling willen we verschillende discussies over de open ruimte op een creatieve manier toegankelijk maken, met kadering, nuancering, quotes en anekdotes uit de Mechelse regio en het landschaps­park Bulskampveld. De verhalen zijn een eerlijke weergave van hoe mensen op het terrein gebieds­gerichte processen in de open ruimte ervaren in de Mechelse regio en het landschaps­park Bulskampveld. Hoewel de vorm van de verhalen niet wetenschappelijk is, kan de inhoud van de verhalen volledig wetenschappelijk gestaafd worden met de analyse en het achtergrondmateriaal. Afhankelijk van de eigen voorkennis over het thema zullen bepaalde verhalen meer of minder herkenbaar zijn voor de lezer. De verhalen kunnen de lezer inspireren en helpen om de keuzes of standpunten van anderen te begrijpen. Via de verhalen willen we prikkelen, vragen oproepen, en het debat over de open ruimte openen

Van droom naar daad. De kracht van een concept in de governance van partnerschappen

Het traditionele partnerschap in gebiedsgerichte ontwikkelingsprocessen lijkt vaak daar te stoppen waar het burgerinitiatief begint. Toch hoeven beide niet geïsoleerd te zijn van elkaar. Om dit aan te tonen, focussen we op de governance van partnerschappen die ontstaan rond de concepten ‘streek’ en ‘tuincomplex’. Hoewel deze concepten weinig gemeenschappelijk lijken te hebben, zijn ze beide in staat om de blik van een groot aantal verschillende actoren te verruimen en hen te inspireren tot actie. Daarnaast kunnen beide concepten ingezet worden voor het bereiken van collectieve maatschappelijke doelstellingen. Uit de vergelijking blijkt dat de lokale schaalniveaus (XS tot L) de motor voor verandering zijn, waarbij hogere schaalniveaus (XL tot XXXL) een flexibel beleidskader en gemeenschappelijke richtlijnen zouden moeten ontwikkelen om lokale en zelfs private acties en initiatieven te begeleiden. Uit de analyse van het institutionaliseringsproces van de gebiedsgerichte werking rond het concept ‘streek’ vinden we drie dimensies terug die gezorgd hebben voor de overgang van droom naar daad: verbeelden, verkennen en verwezenlijken. Dezelfde dimensies komen ook naar voor bij de processen rond het concept ‘tuincomplex’. Het vergelijken van de governance van deze twee concepten brengt dus niet alleen een waaier aan actoren en partnerschappen in beeld, maar toont ook het belang aan van een inspirerend concept dat blikken verruimt en uitnodigt tot verkenning van partnerschappen en initiatieven. Dit laat toe om met behulp van de drie dimensies verbeelden, verkennen en verwezenlijken droom in daad om te zetten.no ISBN/ISSNstatus: publishe