Leader approach effects in the reconfiguration of socio-economic structures of rural environments

Abstract

This article is the result of a research carried out in the period established by the European and national regulations for evaluating the implementation degree of the Local Development Strategies within the communities organized in Local Action Groups. Given that each evaluation targeted a Local Action Group, we resorted to centralize the data to identify the positive and negative evaluations regarding the LEADER approach and the Local Development Strategies. The results of the data centralization of the three Local Action Groups included in this research reveal opinions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the Local Development Strategies, and highlight the general factors that favor and inhibit the local development. Also, the analysis of the centralized data allows the distinction between the opinions due to the local specific and the general ones that are correlated with the European regulations and the national strategies. This distinction makes it possible to clarify the logic of local interventions so that local initiatives are not affected by measures that ignore local and regional resources.