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Rural tourism has commonly been identified as one of the main areas of application of the principles of sustainable tourism, but the literature has typically focused solely on the ecological dimension, particularly when referring to agritourism. This study presents a new approach to assessing the &ldquo, eco-effectiveness&rdquo, of the evolutionary dynamics of agritourism, as applied in a study of NUTS-2 regions in two European countries (Spain and Italy) that have implemented similar rural development strategies. To this end, a synthetic sustainability index was developed using the Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) technique. The last period of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) 2007&ndash, 2013 was chosen for the study in order to analyze the outcomes of a programming cycle focusing on the diversification of agriculture through tourism. The results show that the sustainability of agritourism growth is not homogeneous and has specific features in different regions of the same country. In some cases, there were more similarities with regions from other countries. This tool could help evaluate the impact of agritourism and facilitate comparisons between different regions, in this way supporting the process of transition from a linear to a circular economy.

Neo-endogenous approaches to local development in rural areas are today a question of important debate. In the implementation of rural development, it is very unlikely to find genuinely and exclusively endogenous policies. It is therefore advisable to set aside the overly simplistic distinction between exogenous and endogenous, and explore the outcomes of a hybrid version of these approaches, such as neo-endogenous development. This approach involves the active participation of local stakeholders, a process which, according to the literature, can be achieved via “social innovation”. Using in-depth interviews with stakeholders, the dynamics, actors and processes involved in social innovation are explored in two significant cases in Italy (Castel del Giudice) and Spain (Huescar). These are remote, marginal municipalities with serious economic and social problems that have embarked on interesting paths towards development by harnessing both local territorial capital and external support.

In the Leader approach, innovation plays a key role in European territories, especially in marginal and peripheral ones, being essentially assumed, from a programmatic point of view, as social innovation. This paper aims to understand the interpretation and the declination of innovation in the practice of Leader initiative at local scale and analyze contextual factors related to its implementation in two southern provinces of Spain and Italy (Granada and Lecce). The study aims to analyze the projects reported as innovative by the leaders of the Local Action Groups, starting from the literature and using a key Community document entitled “Extended report on preserving the innovative character of LEADER”. Lastly, the study reveals common significant problems linked to local awareness of the role of social innovation, as well as the absence or limitations of key institutions.

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Since the 1990s, innovation has been recognised as having a key role in the development and competitiveness of European rural territories. In particular, in the LEADER approach, innovation is seen in social and cultural terms rather than as a technological issue, but it has been interpreted by national and, above all, local policies almost exclusively in the latter sense. Especially at local level, often a ‘productivist’ approach emerges that in many cases reveals deeply-rooted conservativeness in the planning and implementation of programmes. Puglia, a NUTS 2 region in southern Italy, acknowledges the key role of innovation in rural development and invested a bigger share of funding in Axes III and IV of Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy in the 2007-2013 programming cycle than did the other Italian regions. This study examines the regional case in two interconnected stages to identify fi rstly the interpretation of innovation from the programmatic and operative points of view, and secondly, the needs and critical issues in terms of innovation in governance on the local scale through interviews with stakeholders from a representative LAG named ‘Terra dei Messapi’. It reveals not only a marked disparity in the way innovation was interpreted, but also the limitations and critical issues in planning and in regional and local governance, which prove unable to embrace innovation affecting social and institutional processes and, more generally, processes related to the context.