Area-based approaches are losing the essence of local targeting: LEADER/CLLD in the Czech Republic

Konečný, Ondřej; Šilhan, Zdeněk; Chaloupková, Markéta; Svobodová, Hana

doi:10.1080/09654313.2020.1764913

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…2020; Konečný et al . 2020). Furthermore, the ways in which LEADER contributes towards European goals of territorial cohesion have never been clearly articulated, if that was ever their objective (van Well and Copus 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEADER and Spatial Justice

2021

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Recent papers have argued that spatial justice should be pursued through a place-based approach, which enables local people to assert their own capacity to act and to pursue their own positive visions: an approach fundamental to LEADER. This paper considers the extent to which LEADER constitutes local action addressing spatial justice through a case study in England. Analysis of this case leads to questions about the extent to which apparent localism is constrained by 'government at a distance' and how this can affect the ability of LAGs to pursue spatial justice. It is suggested that LEADER displays a tension between network and hierarchy modes of governance, increasingly under control of hierarchy in this instance despite its origins as networked CLLD. The paper concludes that LEADER has potential to contribute to spatial justice -both distributive and procedural -but that this may be frustrated by the imposition of different priorities and controls at local or from higher levels. Further case studies will be required to investigate how widely this potential is realised or frustrated across Europe's varying national and local political contexts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEADER and Spatial Justice

2021

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“…Although not directly aimed at solving the problems of sparsely populated areas, this approach could represent an important milestone for future policies. Konecny et al [45] emphasize the necessity of such measures in order to truly fulfill the needs of the territory, arguing that without them, the essence of CLLD ceases to exist. Thus, LAGs should remain truthful and embrace the core principles of the participative bottom-up approach promoted by LEADER in order to respond to the more specific local threats [46].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Counterbalancing the Development Territorial Disparities in the Implementation of the Community-Led Local Development EU Approach in Romania

Olar

Jitea

2021

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LEADER is a rural development method based on a participative approach, which was tailored in 1991 as a complement to the traditional common agricultural policy (CAP) measures. One of its most important objectives is to reduce the differences between rural and urban areas by building on local knowledge and potential. The aim of the present paper is to identify what are the most important characteristics of the LAGs that can counterbalance the existing economic disparities in the rural regions. The research was conducted in the northwest development region of Romania (2014–2020 programming period), using the principal component analysis and the hierarchical cluster analysis. Two types of data were collected: indicators of performance, such as the number of projects contracted and jobs created, were used to assess the success of the method, while the territorial and LAG characteristics were used to explain these results. The findings confirm the presence of an unequal distribution of LEADER support in favor of the most urbanized and developed areas. However, the results also show that the experience and economic and administrative capacity of LAGs could help counterbalance the influence of the territorial features previously mentioned, and therefore to reduce the gap between them and the more developed groups.

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“…Since 2014, LAGs have been preparing plans for the development of their area labeled as the Strategy of Community-Led Local Development (European Commission, n.d.a). Regarding finance, Konečný et al (2021) show that, in the 2014-2020 period, important subsidies were allocated to education, transport, entrepreneurship both in the agriculture and nonagricultural spheres, agricultural products, and social inclusion. In comparison, strongly environmentally oriented topics (like flood prevention or the protection of trees) were marginal.…”

Section: Our Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The embeddedness of LAGs in local conditions theoretically provides an opportunity for the successful transfer of global policies into regions. Yet this can be problematic if top-down agendas do not meet local needs and perspectives, especially if the settings of financial and legal frameworks for the policy implementation are questionable (Konečný et al, 2021). Despite the fact that rural areas are often seen as important mainly in the local and regional context, their ability to provide ecosystem services and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation makes them important actors with large sustainability potential even at the global level (Bezák et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Action Groups and Sustainable Development Agenda: Case Study of Regional Perspectives From Czechia

et al. 2022

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The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is generally accepted as an overarching framework to cope with various global challenges. Many of them are manifested locally and need to be solved at the regional or local level. National strategies of regional development and top-down funding are important drivers of the activities of various regional actors. However, the integration of the regional development strategies and the sustainable development agenda is not straightforward and may fail to acknowledge the local context and potential for bottom-up activities. In the European Union's (EU) context, the local action groups (LAGs) are an important driving force of regional development, but little is known about their perception of the sustainable development agenda. The article presents a research case study of Czech LAGs realized in 2021. LAGs were approached with questionnaires focusing on their understanding of the sustainable development agenda and their own role in the process of its implementation. In this paper, we show that the LAGs' representatives are aware of the sustainable development concept and work with relevant governmental strategies, but they feel that they cannot contribute to the fulfillment of many particular sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially those related to the environment. This contrasts with their reflection of the goals with an economic and social focus in which they feel relatively more empowered, especially in education. Our findings reveal that there is a high risk of mismatch between the bottom-up potential of LAGs for regional sustainable development and top-down conditions of national strategies. The results of the research contribute to the contemporary discussions about the SDGs and regional development and thus could be used by both academics and practitioners. Notably, national policymakers and regional authorities could benefit from our insights into LAGs' perspective of SDGs' implementation.

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Area-based approaches are losing the essence of local targeting: LEADER/CLLD in the Czech Republic

Cited by 16 publications

References 35 publications

LEADER and Spatial Justice

LEADER and Spatial Justice

Counterbalancing the Development Territorial Disparities in the Implementation of the Community-Led Local Development EU Approach in Romania

Local Action Groups and Sustainable Development Agenda: Case Study of Regional Perspectives From Czechia

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