Sustainable Rural Development Practices and Results: Learnings and Results from Policies and Initiatives

Dear Colleagues,

The practice of rural development at macro and micro levels shows interesting learnings and reflections that must be framed, analyzed, and systematized to conform to relevant theories to improve the knowledge and, at the same time, the implementation of practices, policies and initiatives.

Some elements of rural areas play a crucial role in local development: rural and agricultural landscapes, local heritage, territorial quality marks and food, human and social capital, and traditional and rural assets. The implementation of rural development practices offers the possibility of interesting interpretations when assessing territorial impacts and local governance dynamics.

The analysis of emblematic rural development practices, considering the recent theories of neo-endogenous rural development, highlights some elements of interest: networking, the territorial perspective, integrated and multisectoral actions, local decision making, economic diversification, bottom-up approaches, social innovation, and public–private partnerships.

Common and specific topics emerging from recent international debates have pointed to the necessity of fostering a participatory and endogenous local development (Ploeg et al., 2000); the role of community empowerment and the renewal of social capital (Farrel and Thirion, 2005); the support from public–private partnerships for resilient areas; the relevance of social innovation as new forms of civic involvement, participation, democratization, and social life change (Moulaert et al., 2005; Vercher, 2022); the added value of the implementation of neo-endogenous rural development practices in terms of  democratization and bottom-up decision making (Thuessen and Nielsen, 2014); the strategic combinations of external and internal knowledge and actors (Esparcia, 2014); food quality and territorial marks for generating added value  (Enthoven and Van den Broeck, 2021); the role of social innovations and the adoption of a visionary, strategic approach in the initiatives of rural development (Labianca, 2021); the improvement of the human and social capital of rural youth for innovation and local development (García-Arias et al., 2021); and finally, the almost null attention paid to depopulation problems by the practice of rural development, which are areas left aside, with no solution in place (Navarro-Valverde et al., 2021).

Different research methods, using qualitative and quantitative analysis and study cases in these thematics will help understand the effects, impacts, and future scenarios of policies and initiatives aiming to promote rural development.

Multidisciplinary and global perspectives will contribute to the understanding of the themes proposed. Therefore, we encourage researchers to submit contributions in the following priority areas to this Special Issue of Sustainability:

• Strategies to tackle depopulation of rural areas;
•  Social innovation and rural change;
• Networks of actors and governance in rural development;
• The added value of projects and initiatives;
•  Youth and gender perspectives in rural development;
• Neo-endogenous rural development as a tool for enhancing agricultural landscapes, quality productions, and agri-foods chains;
• Agricultural landscapes and quality productions in rural areas;
• Tools, digital innovations, and virtual and augmented reality for the study, interpretation, and enhancement of local resources, agricultural landscapes, and future scenarios;
• Learnings from successful and failed initiatives in the practice of rural development;
• Natural and cultural heritage as tools for rural development;
• The impact of the out-migration of young people in rural areas—irregular vs. circular experiences;
• Rural extension and smallfarmers' ability to innovate and adapt to market and climate change;
• Ageing, loneliness, and rural contexts;
• Linkages between rural development, food security, and migration intentions in the Central American context.

References:

1. Van Der Ploeg, J.D., Renting, H., Brunori, G., Knickel, K., Mannion, J., Marsden, T., De Roest, K., Sevilla-Guzmán, E. and Ventura, F. (2000), Rural Development: From Practices and Policies towards Theory. Sociologia Ruralis, 40: 391-408. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9523.00156
2. Farrel, G., & Thirion, S. (2005). Social capital and rural development: from win-lose to win-win with the LEADER initiative. En D. Schmied, (Ed.), Winning and Losing: The Changing Geography of Europe's Rural Area. Ashgate Publishing Ltd: Aldershot, UK, pp. 45-61.
3. Moulaert, F., Martinelli,F. and Swyngedouw, E. (2005) Social innovation and governance in local communities. Final SINGOCOM report to the EC (FP6). Lille: IFRESI.
4. Vercher, N. (2022) The Role of Actors in Social Innovation in Rural Areas. Land, 11, 710. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050710
5. Thuessen, Annette Aagaard and Nielsen, Niels Christian. A Territorial Perspective On Eu´S Leader Approach In Denmark: The Added Value Of Community-Led Local Development Of Rural And Coastal Areas In A Multi-Level Governance Settings, vol.6, no.4, 2014, Pages 307-326. https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2014-0017
6. Esparcia, J. (2014) Innovation and networks in rural areas. An analysis from European innovative projects. J. Rural Stud., 34 (2014), Pages 1-14, 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.12.004
7. Enthoven, L. & Van den Broeck, G. (2021) Local food systems: Reviewing two decades of research. Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C). DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103226
8. Labianca, M. (2021) Towards a visionary approach for rural areas. From the key features to planning tue future of LEADER. Perspectives on rural development - Vol. 5 Università del Salento. DOI:10.1285/i26113775n5
9. García-Arias, M.A., Tolón-Becerra, A., Lastra-Bravo, X., Torres-Parejo, U. (2021) The out-migration of young people from a region of the “Empty Spain”: Between a constant slump cycle and a pending innovation spiral, Journal of Rural Studies, Volume 87, Pages 314-326, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.09.008.
10. Navarro-Valverde, F., Cejudo-García, E. and Cañete-Pérez, J.A. The Lack of Attention Given by Neoendogenous Rural Development Practice to Areas Highly Affected by Depopulation. The Case of Andalusia (Spain) in 2015–2020 Period. European Countryside, vol.13, no.2, 2021, Pages 352-367. https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2021-0022

Prof. Dr. Francisco Navarro Valverde
Prof. Dr. Eugenio Cejudo García
Dr. Marilena Labianca
Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier Abarca-Alvarez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• rural depopulation
• social innovation in rural areas
• territorial quality marks of food
• learnings from the implementation of the LEADER approach
• multifunctionality of rural landscapes
• successful and failed initiatives
• rural governance
• networks of actors in rural development
• youth and gender perspectives
• impacts and added value of rural development initiatives