LDnet is organising a special session on 6 June 2019 at this year's annual conference of the RSA in Santiago de Compostela on the topic of "Strengthening the impact of research on EU local development policies". We have now produced a background paper entitled "Local development: an opportunity to bridge the gap between research and practice", which is available by clicking at the end of this post. One of the objectives of the next … Continue Reading
CAP Strategic Plans: Where is LEADER?
We are moving towards the adoption of the provisions regarding LEADER in the 2021-2027 period, but it is still difficult to place LEADER in the new architecture of CAP. The proposals of the European Commission regarding Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and LEADER were published in May/June 2018. The legislative process is in progress and a number of concerns have been voiced by the co-legislators European Parliament and Council (as well … Continue Reading
Events & activities
RELOCAL project: early findings
Early findings from the RELOCAL EU Horizon 2020 research project ‘Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development’: R E L O C A L in brief: Departs from the premise that “place” can precondition the chances of local action in promoting fairness and well-being; Aims at identifying … Continue Reading
Workshop on “New Challenges of Decentralisation”: Call for papers
Decentralisation has been a main trend in good governance for many decades, spreading also to the developing and transition countries worldwide. Many territorial reforms have been implemented under the umbrella of principle of subsidiarity and decentralisation, but recently centralisation attempts have … Continue Reading
Internships with LDnet
There are opportunities for internships with LDnet for people with studies or interests related to local development. We have offered such internships, jointly with other Brussels-based organisations, in the last two years with students from French and German universities. We expect to be able to offer one or … Continue Reading
LEADER in the witness box: Hearing in the European Parliament
On 22 November 2018, the AGRI Committee, together with the CONT (Budgetary Control) Committee of the European Parliament held a Public Hearing on LEADER experiences - lessons learned and effectiveness of EU funds for rural development. The aim was to evaluate how the LEADER programme had worked over the … Continue Reading
Local strategies for retaining and attracting talent
The workshop on "Local development strategies: retaining and attracting talents in the regions" took place on Thursday 11 October 2018 in the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities. Organised by LDnet as lead-partner, in cooperation with ELARD, CIM Alto Minho and AEIDL, it offered a forum for … Continue Reading
Articles
Overcoming EU Discontent in ‘Places That Don’t Matter’ through Community-Led Local Development
The past year has certainly been a particularly difficult one for the strength and cohesion of the European Union. The outcomes of local and national elections in many countries unveiled not only the emergence of new populist and nationalist movements and governments all across the Union, but also a growing … Continue reading
A powerful new contribution on the future of local development in the EU
A major new contribution by Yves Champetier has been published by AEIDL entitled Europe: a major player in the development of territories. In this Yves offers a personal account and an overview of the progress that has been made over the last 40 years and the challenges facing us today. In his article he … Continue reading
CLLD post-2020: Main proposals and changes
The proposals of the European Commission regarding Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and Leader were published before the Summer. In the following note Urszula Budzich-Tabor distils the main proposals and offers a comparison with the 2014-2020 period. However, not everything is 100% settled and, as … Continue reading
PUBLICATIONS
Social Innovation Community Yearbook
The Social Innovation Community (SIC) project was funded under the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme over a three year period, from 2016 to 2019. During these three years, SIC ran a series of on and offline activities - including practical place-based experimentation, learning, policy and … Continue reading
Re-thinking local development policies in times of polarisation
This book, Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation, edited by Thilo Lang and Franziska Görmar, contains contributions from 32 academics on “re-thinking spatial policies in Europe”. It is part of the New Geographies of Europe series published by Palgrave. The book takes its starting point by … Continue reading
New OECD publications
The Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities of the OECD has published a new newsletter showcasing a series of new publications. These include: OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2018 This report looks at how regions and cities across the OECD are progressing towards stronger economies, … Continue reading
Local knowledge-based development
In this paper Professor Ilona Pálné Kovács outlines the theoretical frameworks of knowledge-based governance and development, examines the role of local governments as important actors in local development, and examines the scope for place-based development in a centralised governance context. To … Continue reading
CLLD/Leader: Past, present and future
In this wide-ranging paper Robert Lukesch goes back to the precursors of Leader and looks at each stage of its evolution, highlighting the complex principles behind this approach (“more than the seven features and usual clichés”) and discussing success factors. He takes us to the current CLLD/Leader period … Continue reading
Knowledge, Policymaking and Learning for European Cities and Regions: From Research to Practice
The interaction between research, policy and practice in local development is of major interest and LDnet organised a special session on this theme at the annual conference of the RSA in June 2018 in Lugano. One of the panellists in this debate Dr Nicola Francesco Dotti is the editor of a new book making a … Continue reading