Local Development Associations Research Articles

Social Innovation Impacts and Their Assessment: An Exploratory Study of a Social Innovation Initiative from a Portuguese Rural Region

Over recent decades, various approaches to social innovation (SI) have been developed. At the same time, the question on how SI can contribute to and can impact the development of rural regions still remains only partially answered. One of the research gaps that remains addressed only to a certain extent is associated with the ways in which impacts produced by SI can be assessed. Such research, focusing on SI impacts in rural contexts is even more scarce. In the current paper, an attempt is made to investigate the impacts of an SI initiative operating in the field of integrated rural development. The study takes on a case study design focusing on ADC Moura, a local development association from Baixo Alentejo, Portugal. The results show that the impacts of said SI initiative have a multi-sectoral and multi-durational nature and transcend sectors and address multiple domains (social, economic, institutional, and environmental), with the SI initiative having the most impacts on the local level of the municipality. In addition to this, the paper provides some ideas for further research.

Challenges of impact assessment in Social Innovation: A qualitative study from two European rural regions

Over recent years, various approaches to assessing the impacts of social innovation (SI) have developed without a uniform method having arisen. There are some issues around how impacts can be assessed, connected with the questions on the nature of impacts, the levels of analysis and effects of a purely positivist approach to impact assessment. While attempting to assess such impacts, various SI initiatives face the diversity of challenges. To this end, the aim of the article is to investigate the experience of said initiatives promoting social innovation related to impact assessment of social innovation. The paper is based on an empirical study conducted with the local development associations and local action groups involved in social innovation projects in two rural regions of Austria and Portugal. The results indicate that, despite recognising the importance of impact assessment regarding social innovation activities and the opportunities it provides, local organisations in question face many challenges in assessing the impacts of social innovation, including conceptual and practical difficulties.

The re-coding of rural development rationality: tracing EU Governmentality and Europeanisation at the local level

ABSTRACT The evolution of EU rural development policies and imaginaries have entailed that rural areas in Europe and their residents have been assigned specific roles concerning local responsibility and identities when it comes to attaining positive territorial development. The paper approaches the rationality of rural development as community-led through a lens of Governmentality and Europeanisation to explore how the local alignment of actions and government rationalities are linked. The presented research outlines rural development discourse first in EU rural policy and then at the local level through an analysis of text data published by a local development association. The paper traces the linkage between the two institutional levels and establishes how the success of rural development is not only to constitute issues and themes in a particular form but also to have these embedded locally.

Adaptation and Hybridisation of Commons in Aït Oucheg Territory, High Atlas, Morocco

Since the years 2000, Morocco has seen a strong associative dynamic, in both urban and rural areas. In marginalised rural territories (mountains, oases, steppe, etc.), this infatuation for the associative phenomenon is in phase with two major factors : the partial disengagement of the State and a tendency towards the breakdown of collective action. It is in this context a priori unfavourable for the emergence of practices related to commoning that we present an example of the mutation of a traditional commons, and an innovative form of collective action at the scale of a mountain village situated near Marrakesh. In both cases, we analyse the modes of reproduction of the practice of commoning. Irrespective of the nature of the commons studied, innovations at both the operational and institutional levels are essential in order to encourage the maintenance of the territorial commons. These innovations often result in hybrid forms of commons marked by institutional pluralism and changes of the actors involved, in a shifting socio-economic climatic context. The functioning of the local development association at Tizi n’Oucheg is a perfect illustration of this necessity to innovate for the rehabilitation of commons, which here involves the shifting of the arenas for collective choice from a customary institution towards an associative body.

Mentoring entrepreneurship in a rural territory – A qualitative exploration of an entrepreneurship program for rural areas

This study aims to understand the importance of an entrepreneurship program for a rural territory. For the empirical development of this study, primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documents/reports developed by the program. The interviews were conducted with the skilled worker of the institutions that were involved in the development of the EMER-n program and were handled with the support of the NVIVO software. The results show that the EMER-n program, by involving local actors (higher education institutions, business associations and local development associations), allowed the creation of a network that led to an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a rural territory. This entrepreneurial ecosystem has provided entrepreneurs with support both in setting up and validating the business, as well as in supporting established firms to become more competitive and to explore other markets. This study provides empirical evidence on the importance of entrepreneurship programs in rural territories. In addition, this study demonstrates how the interaction of local actors can help foster business creation and contribute to an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Local Development Initiatives as Promoters of Social Innovation: Evidence from Two European Rural Regions

Abstract Social innovation entered the academic discourse several decades ago and has since been seen as a way of tackling existing problems in various contexts. Although an extensive body of research has been conducted into the role of social innovation in urban context, there is still a gap when it comes to studying the role of social innovation in the development of rural areas. In this paper, an attempt is made to look at the role of Local Action Groups (LAGs) and Local Development Associations (LDAs) as promoters of social innovation in rural areas in Austria and Portugal, aiming to understand the role of such organisations and the challenges faced by the latter in promoting social innovation.

Elites, Culture, and Power: The Moral Politics of “Development” in Cameroon

This article discusses the connections between elites, development, and issues of moral agency in contemporary Cameroon. It argues that, in Cameroon, development is not only a means by which elites are socially created but, more importantly, that it is increasingly the means by which elites are held accountable by their local village or ethnic and regional communities. Integrating detailed observations of an elite figure and popular debates on elites in Cameroon, the article discusses the centrality of development as an idiom through which social inequality between elites and non-elites is internalized, negotiated, and legitimated. The article underlines how the expectations that elites should “do development” are critical to the mutual engagements between elites and their local communities, mainly through local development associations in which elites and would-be elites are expected to assume leading roles. By suggesting that development is central to the cultural practice of elite power in Cameroon, the article points to interesting connections between development and age-old idioms of patrimonial politics such as kinship, ethnicity, and patronage as forms of redistribution in which elites are highly implicated.

O terceiro setor na educação de adultos: tensões e ambivalências

O terceiro setor tem ocupado um lugar importante na promoção da educação de adultos e na mudança social em comunidades locais que se encontram cada vez mais excluídas de processos hegemónicos de desenvolvimento económico. Todavia, muitas organizações têm adotado estratégias de mediação entre o Estado e as comunidades locais, no âmbito de parcerias, e passaram a partilhar com as empresas algumas características que põem em causa a sua autonomia e a sua capacidade de desenvolver projetos educativos de carácter crítico e emancipatório. Este artigo procura debruçarse sobre as transformações ocorridas no terceiro setor com intervenção na educação de adultos, a partir de dados recolhidos no quadro de um projeto de investigação que privilegiou o estudo de caso da política pública de educação e formação de adultos adotada após 1999 e implementada por uma associação de desenvolvimento local. Palavras-chaveEducação de adultos; Terceiro setor; Política pública

Between external prescription and local practice The uses of official knowledge by adult education professionals in Portugal

This article presents the results of research where the main objective was to achieve a better understanding of the uses made by professionals in the adult education sphere of the official knowledge that provides the framework and guidelines for their work. The study was undertaken using Bernsteins theoretical model of the structure of official pedagogical discourse, and employed an essentially ethnographic fieldwork methodology to analyse the work of a team of adult education specialists working in a local development association in the north of Portugal. The results of the study show that the team was able to make both reproductive and recontextualising use of official knowledge, thereby demonstrating that, even in workplaces where external prescription is extremely influential, it is possible to put official knowledge to alternative i.e. more effective, locally-adapted use.

To learn and to construct knowledge in the context of work with adult education: a Portuguese case study

Work contexts are frequently referred to as spaces of learning and production of individual and/or collective knowledge. In such contexts specific dynamics are developed which cause the processes of learning and of knowledge production to have particularities. This paper aims at accounting for some dynamics that are associated with those processes, based on the main results of an ethnographic study on the adult educator team of a Portuguese local development association. The research identified ways of working/action rules based on the learning and knowledge production processes in the association. Mutual help, the reformulation and collectivization of practice, reflection in and about the action, and the negotiation of meaning about the practice are some of the mechanisms identified. The study also highlights how those dynamics of knowledge and learning and ways of doing may contribute to a practice which is closer to the needs of the adults to whom this team offers its education and training services.

Local development associations: A study of their nature, missions and organizational challenges

In the past, in Portugal, as in other European countries, Rural Extension work was promoted by the Ministries of Agriculture, and focused on the farming community. Today, this work is performed by a constellation of organizations, mostly private or nonprofit ones. Besides, in the early 90�s, the EU promoted LEADER Initiative. Presently there are 53 LEADER regions established in Portugal each one being managed by a Local Development Association (LDA) and animated by a Local Action Group (LAG). These Associations are local networks or partnerships, involving different actors and sectors. Their activities aim at �animating� rural territories, diversifying the economy and promoting revitalization initiatives. They represent one of the new faces of Rural Extension work in Europe, more decentralized, with a wider focus, base on multidisciplinary teams. In this paper we present the results of a study of 17 Portuguese LDAs. We gathered information produced under the Q3 Project on each LDA: Reports of Organizational Assessment; qualitative interviews; and final evaluation surveys completed by consultants, technicians and directors. This information was further complemented through document analysis. The study presents elements about the profile, missions, objective and activities developed by these organizations, and identifies the major organizational problems they face, particularly in respect to its management and sustainability. In general, the diagnosis of the LDAs revealed some major weaknesses, especially: lack or failure in setting a strategy; poor leadership; lack of financial sustainability; gaps in human resources; organizational weaknesses, poor communication and others.

Les initiatives de développement local au portugal

Sans avoir un statut juridique qui leur donne une spécification légale, les structures appelées ici « associations pour le développement local » (ADL) ou « initiatives de développement local » (IDL) sont aujourd’hui, au Portugal, reconnues non seulement par les populations, mais aussi par des institutions et par l’État comme des éléments importants dans l’intervention pour le développement local. Comment peut-on définir ces initiatives dont le nombre s’accroît particulièrement au début des années 90 ? Quels sont leurs domaines d’activité et les orientations qui régissent leur action ? De quels moyens disposent-elles ? Toutes questions auxquelles ce texte propose de répondre, en s’appuyant sur l’analyse de 196 cas d’organisations qui développent un travail important dans ce domaine. Entre orientation instrumentale et orientation militante, l’auteur présente une typologie des IDL selon quatre profils marqués par des degrés d'autonomie variable par rapport à l’État et au marché.

The Arbutus Berry: Studies on its Color and Chemical Characteristics at Two Mature Stages

This study aims at the determination of some physical and chemical characteristics of strawberry-tree fruit (Arbutus unedo L.), a typical Mediterranean climate species, namely of the Portuguese region of Algarve. It intends to be a contribution to its valorization and other applications following research by other scientists and local development associations as far as a better quality of alcoholic distillate of arbutus berry is concerned. Arbutus berry appears to be a good source of vitamins, namely niacin, ascorbic acid and β -carotene (content of 9.1, 346.3 and 70.9 mg/100 g, respectively), organic acids (nearly 9%), total sugars (c. 42%) and tannins (1.75 mg g−1).

Development from below: Local Development Associations in the Yemen Arab Republic

The Local Development Associations (LDAs) of the Yemen Arab Republic illustrate how indigenous organizations led by local élites can promote participatory, widely beneficial rural development. LDAs reflect a tradition of community based self-help efforts. Today Yemen's six million people, from urban dwellers to those living in remote mountain areas, are served by nearly 200 LDAs. These associations are active in undertaking tasks the central government is not organized to perform. Supported primarily by their immediate constituencies and led by local notables, they build roads, schools, village water systems, and clinics. Over the past decade they have achieved dramatic development results and become important, nationally recognized institutions. This article documents the LDA movement. This example of succesfull local organization is particularly important because development experts often dismiss the potential of such movements on the ground that they are likely to be élite-dominated, probably to the detriment of the poorer members of the community. In describing the LDA movement, this article also consolidates for the first time the few published, frequently unavailable papers on Yemen's complex little-studied rural sector.