Search

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.

The mainstreaming of LEADER in the 2007–2013 programming period opened up the possibility of integrating participative, bottom-up approaches into the range of rural development programmes applied in EU member states. This study of Spain and Italy reveals that in the end this did not happen and in some cases was deliberately avoided. The measures to be applied within regional programming were homogenized through European guidelines and National Strategic Plans, based on the paradigm of modernization and of linear growth rather than on more innovative approaches based on multi-functionality and the circular economy. Significant similarities were detected between the two countries in terms of the widespread use of structural measures while those relating to technical support and training were neglected. We also observed greater diversity between the Italian regions in terms of the measures implemented than in Spain where a more uniform approach was adopted.

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.



Significati e misure di "capitale territoriale"

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.

Los argumentos en favor del turismo rural (rentabilidad, empleo, medio ambiente, etc.) hacen que el mismo se considere, sobre todo en las regiones más marginadas, uno de los principales asset estratégicos para el desarrollo local. No cabe duda alguna de que el turismo rural, especialmente el farm tourism, puede ayudar a perpetuar externalidades que flanquean la actividad agrícola (paisaje, biodiversidad, tradición, etc.), sobre todo cuando se trata de una forma de diversificación o reposicionamento del marco agrícola, en consonancia con el modelo multifuncional y postproductivista propuesto en las últimas políticas de la UE.Se registran, sin embargo, posiciones más conservadoras basadas en la evidencia, igual de fiable, que detecta elementos críticos relacionados con la sostenibilidad de la evolución alcista del número de turistas. Con este fin, el artículo muestra una comparación de la dinámica de las presencias registradas por el farm tourism en siete regiones del sur de Italia (entre 2001 y 2013) para evaluar, a través de la aplicación del Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA), algunas implicaciones de las reflexiones críticas relacionadas con la sostenibilidad del incremento del turismo rural.

Local development, inter-municipal cooperation, proximity. The case of Apulia.- The phenomena of organized proximity observed in Puglia show two important aspects: the objectives and strategies do not involve significant discontinuities; the partnerships tend to be relatively stable over time, but they present important (and potentially conflicting) overlappings in space. The forms of organized proximity detected have probably led to a depletion of development projects, but they also increased the availability of local actors to cooperate.

The performance of single universities, beyond internal determinants, is influenced by the conditions of their own territorial context, that is by a number of factors related to their local geographical area, meant as a space of territorial interactions, measurable by its previous relational dynamics. This set of factors can, directly or indirectly, affect both the organizational structure and strategic orientations of the single university, as well as the results achieved by it in the field of education and research.Through a multi-dimensional statistical model, the evaluation criteria for university performance will be compared to some territorial variables which, in scientific literature, are considered to be indexes of territorial competitiveness. The statistical model aims at measuring the impact local context has on the competitive performance of universities, explaining the nature and intensity of this relationship. With reference to the objectives of the research, data we will use refer to two different sets of indicators: on the one hand, data used to evaluate university performance, on the other hand, the ones used to measure territorial competitiveness. In more detail, university performance is based on some of the indicators used by the CENSIS in the "University Ranking 2010" referring to the following databases: MIUR-Statistical Office; CINECA; CNVSU; National LLP Agency Italy; CRUI; CORDIS. Territorial data, instead, are extracted from the "Atlas of the Provinces and Regions competitiveness” elaborated by UNIONCAMERE. For both sets of indicators, the analysis will refer to the year 2008.If the indicators of university performance are correlated to territorial conditions, they don’t really measure university productivity/competitiveness, but rather the competitiveness of its territorial context. This can lead to some distortions in the financial resources allocation and, more generally, in national supporting policies to public universities.In their conclusions, authors also tend to reverse the perspective through which the role of government intervention has been traditionally interpreted. If universities are qualifying elements of territorial competitiveness – as it is shown by the fact that they are frequently used within the set of indicators to measure it – the strengthening of university system should be one of the priority objectives of regional development policies. Consequently, national government should invest in university education and research, even where university performance, due to some specific local conditions, is not satisfactory or even below fixed national or international standards.

Effetti sui progetti di sviluppo territoriale delle sovrapposizioni tra coalizioni intercomunali.