Local Action Groups as learning organizations and communities

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyse Local Action Groups as organizations capable of creating space for environmental education. The first part describes the different approaches to adult education and forms of learning. In this context, Local Action Groups are analysed as learning communities and organizations. The specificity of the operation of Local Action Groups is based on a combination of formal and three-sector partnerships and partnerships with residents. On the one hand, these partnerships are used to manage public funds for rural development, but the sense of establishing them is deeper. LAG members and management themselves come from the local community and should broadly represent its interests, but also to activate, engage and create space for the development of ideas, ideas and projects. The work methodology is based on research carried out as part of the expertise commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, especially on information obtained from individual in-depth interviews (IDI), on the basis of which detailed case studies of selected LAGs were described. The existing data were also analysed - RDP documentation, reports, and quantitative data obtained from the CAWI survey. The conclusions of the analysis show that Local Action Groups have the potential to create learning environments and transfer the assumptions of the Leader approach, especially bottom-up approaches and to promote participation in decisions on local development directions, but they do not fully use it.