Following positive feedback from participants in LDnet’s 2020 series of webinars, we are launching a new series of four webinars in April 2021 on “The Contribution of Community-based Initiatives to the Covid Recovery”‘ with a focus on community-based initiatives for sustainable development. All webinars will be streamed via Zoom. Registration will open in early March. […]
ELARD general assembly: Cohesion Policy in Rural Areas and the role of CLLD
The ELARD General Assembly was held online on 3 February 2021 and included an introductory presentation by Iwona Lizstwan, EC DG AGRI. Stefan Kah was an invited speaker. His presentation “Cohesion Policy in Rural Areas and the role of CLLD” illustrated the main messages of a 2020 study on Cohesion Policy in “non-urban”, i.e. rural […]
Global e-Festival: Regions in Recovery – Building Sustainable Futures – Call for abstracts
This multi-partner event will run globally, online from 2 to 18 June 2021. It will bring together a number of global communities representing planners, finance and economic geographers, economists, infrastructure specialists, regional policy experts and researchers. The Festival will address themes related to the re-emergence of regions and cities from the pandemic. It will address […]
EU lagging regions: State of play and future challenges
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 (EPC) for the REGI […]
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 […]
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 on the institutional ecosystem and […]
“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 […]
LDnet webinars 2020: Rebuilding Local Economies after Lockdown
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 Covid-19 pandemic has […]
‘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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]