The EU’s lagging regions face significant challenges to transform their economic under-performance. Current ongoing transitions, such as digitalisation and towards a sustainable society, and the COVID-19 pandemic are accentuating these challenges. This is both creating new and exacerbating existing internal divergence within the EU. This study Marta Pilati and Alison Hunter … [Read more...]
EU Cohesion Policy in non-urban areas
A new study by Stefan Kah, Neli Georgieva and Liliana Fonseca of EPRC, carried out for the REGI Committee of the European Parliament, looks at the role of EU Cohesion Policy in rural areas. The study analyses the challenges of these areas and discusses the extent and thematic orientation of rural Cohesion Policy funding. The study then presents the relationship between … [Read more...]
Social Innovation, Societal Change, and the Role of Policies
In this new paper in the journal SUSTAINABILITY the authors explore the links between social innovation and policy and the "triadic relationships" between the state, intermediary organizations, and local actors. Authors: Robert Lukesch, Alice Ludvig, Richard Slee, Gerhard Weiss, Ivana Zivojinovic Abstract: Political frameworks and policies have a strong influence … [Read more...]
“Which future do you want in rural areas?”
From May to August 2020, 3 436 people from 26 different countries answered the survey which was carried out by ELARD, the European association of LEADER groups, in cooperation with REDR, the Spanish rural development network. The aim of the survey was to find out what rural citizens and actors think of life in rural areas. What is important and does the LEADER/CLLD approach … [Read more...]
A new series of webinars: ‘Recovery through community led approaches’
Between 18 June and 9 July 2020, LDnet organised - in association with RSA Europe, AEIDL and ELARD - a series of four webinars on "Rebuilding local economies after lockdown", on the following topics: Reinventing local shopping and hospitality New solidarity services Stay at home vacations - staycations Worsening inequalities / social inclusion The … [Read more...]
‘Worsening inequalities / social inclusion’ – The recording from the webinar of 9 July 2020
LDnet organised, in association with RSA Europe, AEIDL and ELARD, a series of four forward-looking webinars on Rebuilding local economies after lockdown, from 18 June to 9 July 2020. The final session was on Worsening inequalities / social inclusion (Thursday 9 July 2020) - click here for the recording of this session - access password: 9y$y+5x. The programme of this … [Read more...]
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 (see sections 1 and 2). We have also conducted a number of discussions in June/July 2020 through the webinar series ‘Rebuilding local economies after lockdown’. You can see … [Read more...]
Impact of Covid-19 on young people in rural and urban areas – Webinar 15 September 2020
On 15 September 2020, RURALIZATION is organising a webinar on the impact of COVID-19, to discuss the positive and negative effects of the pandemic and differences between urban and rural areas. The special focus of the webinar will be on young people and the event will count also on resilience stories from young people from both types of area. For further information on … [Read more...]
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 level. There are many connections between local development methods and … [Read more...]
LDnet’s ‘discuss and debate’ session at the RSA conference in Ljubljana
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic this event has been cancelled. The next RSA Annual Conference will be in Florence, 25-28 May 2021. Then, the 2022 Annual Conference will be in Ljubljana. 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 … [Read more...]
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 implementation of local initiatives to the integration into public policies” was … [Read more...]
LDnet 2020: State of Play in Local Development and much more …
Following on from our general assembly, we are going ahead with a number of new initiatives. We are planning a workshop on Social innovation and local development: linking urban and rural approaches. It will take place in 20 February 2020 in Brussels, on the conclusion of the SIMRA conference. Peter Ramsden will lead from the urban and Robert Lukesch from the rural … [Read more...]