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 level. There are many connections between local development methods and social innovation, especially the pulling together of a stakeholder … Continue Reading
Multi-disciplinary resource and evidence on the impact of COVID19 in regions and cities
In light of the current COVID19 pandemic, the RSA is collating multi-disciplinary resources and evidence on how regions, cities and industry are dealing with the impact of the COVID19. The aim is to populate the page at www.regionalstudies.org/about/pandemics-cities-regions-industry/ with evidence from around the world. The RSA is particularly looking for: Ongoing research on pandemics, including COVID-19 in the context of regions, cities … Continue Reading
Events & activities
LDnet special session at the Third Joint EU Cohesion Policy Conference 2020 on 11-13 May 2020 in Zagreb
The Third Joint EU Cohesion Policy Conference 2020, "Maximising the Opportunities for Cohesion Policy in Challenging Times", will take place on 11-13 May 2020 in Zagreb. LDnet has proposed a Special Session on "Social Innovation and Local Development for an inclusive green local economy" Over the past … Continue Reading
Elena Pisani and Stefan Kah to speak at LDnet’s ‘discuss and debate’ session at the RSA conference in Ljubljana, 19 June 2020
Elena Pisani and Stefan Kah LDnet are joining Urszula Budzich-Tabor and Robert Lukesch as speakers at the 'discuss and debate' session that LDnet is organising on 19 June 2020 at the 2020 RSA Annual Conference in Ljubljana, on the theme of 'Researchers and practitioners working together to evaluate … 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
Report of SIMRA final conference
SIMRA, the Horizon 2020 project “Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas” has been at the forefront in promoting the contribution of social innovation to social, economic and environmental development in disadvantaged rural areas since 2016. The final two-day event of the project “From the … Continue Reading
Join for free the local development network that brings experts and practitioners together from urban and rural areas
Recipients of "Posts from LDnet" will have noticed that over the last 12 months LDnet has been very active: organising debates - e.g. annual workshop at EWRC, special sessions at RSA conferences participating in international events and posting feedback - e.g. European Rural Parliament, URBACT CityLab … Continue Reading
Towards a Promising Season for Local Development – Notes from Porto’s URBACT CityLab and CITIES Forum
The upcoming new season of Cohesion Policy looks to be a promising one for local development; at least for what emerged during Porto’s URBACT CityLab and CITIES Forum (29-31 January 2020). The CityLab and the Forum touched upon key topics for the future of local development, including: the objectives and … Continue Reading
Highlights from the LEADER/CLLD 2019 Conference
ELARD and the Portuguese LEADER network Minha Terra have organised the last gathering under the Portuguese Presidency of Maria João Botelho in the beautiful town of Amarante in Northern Portugal, hosted by the LAG Dolmen. The workshop on 25.11.2020 served as an exchange platform to discuss the state of play … Continue Reading
Articles
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
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
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
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
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
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
Urban CLLD – The case of FatorC in Cascais, Portugal
CLLD Community Led Local Development (CLLD) is a territorial bottom-up approach, through which Local Development Strategies (LDS) are implemented. Local communities are encouraged to participate in the decisions about the implementation of community funds, by identifying the needs and challenges faced with … Continue reading