Social Innovation in Rural Areas of the European Union Learnings from Neo-Endogenous Development Projects in Italy and Spain
Metadatos
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MDPI
Materia
Social innovation LEADER approach Rural development projects Transnational Cooperation Projects Rural planning Actors in rural development
Fecha
2022-05-25Referencia bibliográfica
Navarro-Valverde, F... [et al.]. Social Innovation in Rural Areas of the European Union Learnings from Neo-Endogenous Development Projects in Italy and Spain. Sustainability 2022, 14, 6439. [https://doi.org/10.3390/su14116439]
Patrocinador
Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Research Project "Successes and failures in the practice of neo-endogenous rural development in the European Union (1991-2013), RURALWIN" CSO2017-89657-PResumen
Within the framework of the LEADER approach to rural development applied in rural areas
of the European Union, a high degree of social innovation (SI) has been achieved with the support
of public–private partnerships. This research analyzes the different forms of SI achieved in specific
projects in marginal rural areas facing depopulation. These initiatives make important, sometimes
intangible, contributions to rural society, which are not sufficiently valued in rural development
practice. Using an exploratory qualitative methodology, we made a selection of projects carried out in
rural areas of Spain and Italy by searching for specific keywords (“innovation”, “entrepreneurship”,
and “LEADER”) in the European Network of Rural Development database. According to the typology
of promoters, we considered Transnational Cooperation Projects promoted by various Local Action
Groups (LAGs), by public sector initiative and by private promoters. In-depth interviews were also
conducted. The main findings include: the crucial role played by local leaders, social enterprises
and LAGs in overcoming resistance and reluctance amongst the local community to participate in
and support rural development projects; the importance of creating collective learning processes; the
complexity of the network affects the number of contributions; the need for long-term continuity of
processes and projects, and the importance of combining exogenous and endogenous development
and knowledge.