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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. The study leaned onto a complex mix of […]
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 German delegation. The choice […]
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. Both have delivered successful and illustrative examples […]
Rural Areas for Young People: Policy Responses from Italy and Scotland
LDnet had devoted its workshop at EWRC2018 to the theme of “Local strategies for retaining and attracting talent“. Therefore, it is of considerable interest that this debate is advancing further. On Friday 25 October 2019, EPRC hosted a seminar looking at the challenges faced by rural areas in remaining attractive places for young people. The […]
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 highlighted that over the years, Jaime Izquierdo Vallina has deepened […]
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 discussed how this concept could enable rural communities to harness […]
Leadership in place-based development
“The role of leadership in place-based development and building institutional arrangements” is a paper by L. G. Horlings, D. Roep and W. Wellbrock published in Local Economy, the journal of the Local Economic Policy Unit. In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in enabling a place-based approach to local […]