Rebuilding local economies after lockdown: Happy Hour webinar series. LDnet invites local development practitioners and researchers to a series of forward-looking webinars on Rebuilding local economies after lockdown, organised in association with RSA Europe, ELARD and AEIDL. The final session in this series is on Worsening inequalities / social inclusion (Thursday 9 July at 18:00 CEST). Click to REGISTER The 1st webinar on … Continue Reading
‘Stay at Home Vacations – Staycations’ – The recording from the webinar of 2 July 2020
The second session of the Webinar series on Rebuilding local economies after lockdown focused on the impact of Covid-19 on travel and holidays and the local economies. With more people having vacations within their own country there is both an opportunity and a threat for rural, coastal and mountain communities. The webinar explored local communities can stay safe while playing host to larger than normal numbers and how can sustainable tourism … Continue Reading
‘New solidarity services’ – The recording and ‘take away’ points from the webinar of 25 June 2020
The second session of the Webinar series on Rebuilding local economies after lockdown focused on new solidarity services which have emerged during the Covid-19 crisis. Special focus was placed on how these services came to fruition, the issues they are addressing, and what their legacy will be as lockdown eases. The full programme, link to the recording of the session and some “take away” points are available … Continue Reading
‘Reinventing local shopping and hospitality’ – The recording and ‘take away’ points from the webinar of 18 June 2020
The webinars on Rebuilding local economies after lockdown kicked off on Thursday 18 June 2020. The 1st session was on Reinventing local shopping and hospitality and was attended by some 40 participants. The full programme, link to the recording of the session and some "take away" points are available below. This series of four webinars is organised by LDnet in association with RSA Europe, ELARD and AEIDL. The 2nd session was on Thursday 25 … Continue Reading
Events & activities
‘Community solutions: When social Innovation meets local development’ – A new initiative of LDnet and RSA – Next steps
LDnet and RSA have been exploring the idea of a COST Action proposal, to be submitted in October 2020. We have shared a first outline of the concept note - see below - and invited researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of Social innovation and local development to contribute in the … Continue Reading
LDnet lab on social innovation and local development: linking urban and rural approaches
This lab took take place on Thursday 20.2.2020 at Scotland House, Rond-point Robert Schuman 6, 1040 Brussels, after the SIMRA conference. It aimed to explore how local initiatives or local action groups working in the context of CLLD can act as a motor and platform for social innovation at grass roots … Continue Reading
EURegionsWeek 2020 – Master Class and University Sessions
RSA Europe is again actively involved in the Master Cass and University Sessions in the 18th EURegionsWeek, 12-15 October 2020 in Brussels. The Master Cass and University Sessions are organised by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and the European … Continue Reading
Articles
An overview of local responses to the COVID-19 crisis: What’s happening, what can we learn?
Several organisations are collecting and publishing local initiatives in response to the Covid-19 crisis. We have updated our overview and are offering below the links to a number of these initiatives (section 1) and our own selection (section 2). We have also started a series of reflections on what these … Continue reading
LDnet: a community of experts building bridges between research and practice
Local development is multi-faceted with practitioners split between the urban and rural domains, while researchers come from different academic disciplines. A community of experts dealing with local development could help harvest lessons learnt and overcome silo mentality. LDnet and the European Commission … Continue reading
The LEADER Approach and Social Innovation in Rural Areas – a Liaison?
R. Lukesch, H. Gassler, B. Ecker, L. Fidlschuster, M. Fischer, S. Mair, S. Philipp, N. Said[1] Abstract –The research project SILEA aimed at exploring the significance, extent and possible effects of Social Innovation in the framework of the LEADER Measure of the Austrian Rural Development Program 2014-20. … Continue reading
4th European Rural Parliament – Let Europe´s rural voice be heard
The 4th European Rural Parliament took place in the rural, green north of Spain, in the coastal village of Candás (Asturias) from 6th to 9th November 2019. Alistair Adam Hernández participated and his report is presented below. I attended the ERP as LDnet representative and was kindly invited to join the … Continue reading
Social innovation in LEADER areas in Austria
We present below the summaries of three case studies from the SILEA research project on social innovation in LEADER areas (2014-2020) in Austria. The first and second case studies are similar concerning the thematic field – local coordination of informal voluntary work – but different in their outcomes. … Continue reading
Resilient Villages: “Vibrant rural communities are not afraid to take risks”
In his current research, LDnet board member, Alistair Adam-Hernández examines why some rural communities are able to adapt to change better than others. During the European Rural Sociology Conference 2019, “Rural Futures in a Complex World” in Trondheim (NO), an international group of social scientists … Continue reading
PUBLICATIONS
Delivering CLLD effectively: a new guide on how to design delivery systems that strengthen the bottom-up approach
FARNET has just published its latest guide, on “Delivering CLLD effectively”. Although labelled “A guide for EMFF Managing Authorities”, in fact, it can be useful for the managing authorities of CLLD under any of the ESI Funds and it is, of course, of considerable interest to local development experts. The … Continue reading
The European Parliament’s role in cohesion policy since the Lisbon Treaty
This new study was commissioned by the European Parliament's REGI Committee and was carried out between April and July 2019. On 4 December 2019, it was presented by its authors, Haris Martinos and Serafin Pazos-Vidal, and was discussed by the REGI Committee. The study highlights the crucial role of the … Continue reading
The agripolitan city, the cosmopolitan village
“La ciudad agropolitana. La aldea cosmopolita” (The agripolitan city, the cosmopolitan village) is a new book by Jaime Izquierdo Vallina who has written extensively on urban-rural issues, nature conservation, and new perspectives for approaching rural areas. In his prologue to the book, Yves Champetier has … Continue reading
Debating CLLD as experimental governance and task-specific space for policy action
The Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) instrument is one of the most interesting “territorial delivery mechanisms” of the current EU 2014-2020 programming period. Built on the former LEADER project, it attempts to overcome the sectorial (rural or maritime) approach of the previous instrument through a … Continue reading
Implementing cohesion policy funds through multi-Fund CLLD
Community-led Local Development (CLLD) was introduced in the 2014-20 programme period and is based on the well-established LEADER tool. While LEADER is distinctly rural, co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), CLLD allows Member States to make use of up to four different ESI … Continue reading