Territorial Governance and Rural Development: Challenge or Reality?

Abstract

Governance has emerged as a very solid conceptual framework within which public policies are designed and implemented, but with different added values. It constitutes a truly new institutional culture. Aspects such as the coordination of actors and institutions (and in this context, individual and collective leadership); the integration and articulation of public policies and sectors; the mobilisation, participation and cooperation of stakeholders (networking); or the development of a certain capacity to adapt to changes in the environment, among others, play a fundamental role. Territorial governance provides the added value of the territorial approach, as conceived in the framework of development policies in rural areas. In particular, the LEADER programme (and its most recent version of Community-Led Local Development) is an excellent theoretical example of territorial governance. This work, therefore, raises the central question of the extent to which territorial governance in rural areas is a current phenomenon or remains a challenge within the framework of the territorial approach to rural development. It is clear that each rural territory has its own process and is at a different stage (having made more or less progress in implementing the different characteristics of governance). However, some evidence highlights serious difficulties in reaching the stage that could be defined as effective territorial governance.