Experiences and Shared Lessons

Abstract

All rural areas in the European Union have put in practice neo-endogenous rural development philosophy through LEADER programmes and approach, improving human and social capital, encouraging the participation of local stakeholders and inhabitants in decision-making, and enhancing territorial governance. The combination of territorial capital and social innovation has implied development processes and enrichment of local identities. Thus, successful rural development has required of a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, involving both internal and external actors. In this way, cooperation between rural areas has been promoted, supporting to the creation of smart villages. But several problems have appeared, difficulting its implementation: over-bureaucratic framework, low decision-making capacity of Local Action Groups, among others; having a negative impact on the weaker territories and collectives, and the control of funds by local institutional and entrepreneurial actors; in addition, certain territories become winners while others lose out; and finally, the achievements of interterritorial cooperation have been modest. Therefore, one of the actions to improve the implementation of this kind of practices could be the study of its repercussions, as we are trying to do with this publication.