A significant number of European
rural societies suffer from sharp ageing and out-migration, entailing a
decrease in the relative amount of well-educated workers and their productivity.
An increasingly depopulated milieu hampers the provision of quality public
services to citizens and enterprises, encumbering economic dynamism and jobs
creation. Thereby, population is pushed out again from rural territories,
creating the vicious circle of rural
decline. According to the Fifth Cohesion Report, the degree of regional disparities has not significantly decreased over
the last few decades (European Commission 2010). This persistence evidences
that European societies have not been capable of addressing rural decline,
neither through the state, the market nor the civil society settings and (inter)actions.
Sos del Rey Católico, Aragón, Spanish Pre-Pyrenees |
From a state
perspective, the EU, together with its member states and regions, undertook
some actions aiming at fostering rural development since the late 80s through the Common Agricultural Policy,
characterised by a sectoral approach on agriculture, subsidies to farmers,
top-down policy-making and economic redistribution logics (OECD, 2006). The
emerging new governance in Europe pushed this out of fashion
approach towards deep changes in the role of government, from direct developer
of strategies to new forms of building partnerships with civil society and enterprises,
enabling and leading joint decision-making processes. During the 90s, EU rural
development policy adopted a more integrated multi-sector approach together
with a more comprehensive, participatory and territorially rooted development
strategy. Some examples reflecting this new approach are the LEADER initiative
and, to a lesser extent the INTERREG programme. However, despite the calls for
stronger coordination across sectors, emerging levels of government, and
between public and private actors (OECD, 2006), the progress in rural
development policy reform has been rather slow and path dependent on regional
and national policy traditions (Dax, 2011).
In turn, hegemonic neo-liberal capitalist market trends point at urban areas –especially
in the forthcoming recovery scenario- as the dynamic and creative scenarios
necessary for innovation and economic growth (Normann, 2012), where economies
of scale and clustering are possible, and highly skilled, competitive workers
are settled. This institutional setting easily drives to serious territorial
unbalances to the detriment of rural areas, but if smartly redirected, current
market trends and tools can play a crucial role in fostering rural development.
On the other hand, post-modern societies have seen the
rise of a strengthening civil society
assuming some of the traditional functions of political parties and calling for
a deeper involvement in public affairs. At the same time, civil organisations
have capitalised on local knowledge, becoming important actors to consider in
transitional territories towards smart economies. Although presenting extensive
opportunities for deepening democratic anchorage and driving economic
development to rural areas, the role of this myriad of emerging organisations
has not been strongly institutionalised yet.
Gesäuse, Austrian Alps |
Beyond the
taken-for-granted coordination among policy domains, the vastness of the
problem makes the involvement of these
three spheres of European post-modern capitalist societies necessary in
order to build an effective and democratic attempt of solution. Local market
information can produce spillover benefits in a more effective public
management. Moreover, in light of the post-modern rise of civil society, the
public space needs a wider arena to solve conflicts between actors, which can
be used in turn for cooperation, coordination and collaboration for a more
democratic public management, increasing the responsiveness and accountability
of the decision-making actors (Murray et
al., 2009). What is more, the
traditional legitimacy of representative institutions to embody democracy and to
interpret the public interest is hollowing out. Everything being considered,
efficient and legitimate solutions can be developed beyond representative
democracy, through a new polity based on democratic governance networks.
This polity is based on the horizontal presence of a plurality of private
business, civil society and state actors in negotiated processes for decision-making
and public interest interpretation, being steered and monitored by elected
politicians along the process. The network accepts democratic rules,
transparency and accountability among all its members (Sørensen et al. 2009).
Cosmetics plant; Frixia, Greece |
The main feature of
European rural regions and localities is their economic, political, social,
geographic and cultural diversity, expressed in a wide range of institutional
settings (state, market and civil society) among regions. Due to this fact, governance
networks should be tailor-made from the diverse local contexts. An evidence of
this diversity is the many network steering styles developed. All of them have
strengths and weaknesses that should be evaluated case by case, balancing their
democratic anchorage and their efficient performance. Nowadays, true to
post-modern patterns and the democratically ratified neo-liberal discourse,
some studies show a broad trend towards more stakeholders’ democracy, to the
detriment of representative decision-making, and a more enhanced market
steering style (Normann et al.,
2012). In this specific governance network scheme, the role of the region or municipality
shifts to that of facilitator for a rural development oriented towards firm growth,
entrepreneurship and commercial ends. Wide inclusion of diverse social groups
within these governance networks is often set aside to favour key stakeholders’
efficiency in boosting innovation, entrepreneurship, business interests and
increased risk taking (Normann et al.,
2012). However, this spreading model of
governance network is not necessarily the most suitable for every
territory, either because it does not meet the local public interest, or
because it does not efficiently valorise the existing local assets.
Recreation area; Sauwald, Austria |
Regardless of the
governance network model, some good
practices fostered by this polity have reported successful solutions to
unleash rural development. State, market and civil society actors networking
and interdependence enhance the cohesion of public policies, while bringing
together resources to design a territorial strategy capable of delivering
results. Connecting local financial, built, natural, social, cultural,
political and human capitals (Dax, 2011) has produced a clearer and
better-informed understanding of the complex policy problems and policy
opportunities” (Sørensen et al. 2009), allowing governance networks to design effective,
innovative and territorially differentiated policy solutions by mobilising
investment towards endogenous factors. Furthermore, the new ITC has allowed the
connection between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge, unleashing
local innovation (Gülümser, et al.
2010). Attracting scientific knowledge has usually been a key challenge, generally
based on quality of life issues, but which has shown difficult to achieve
without the provision of the physical, technical and social settings needed for
a multi-functional development and enterprise-formation milieu. Beyond this,
governance networks often found creative and extremely context-dependent ways
of boosting endogenous business development, by the strengthening of training
and education, and by promoting young entrepreneurship. Those rural areas that
have been capable of embedding new job opportunities, and thus retaining or
even gaining population, have managed to break the vicious circle of rural
decline (eg. EU
LEADER best practices).
Hamneskär lighthouse, Sweden |
Nonetheless, governance networks can find important obstacles to become an effective and
democratic tool. The policy-making process can be still strongly anchored in
old top-down forms, draining the meaning of stakeholders’ connection. Moreover,
generating common frameworks of understanding, as well as correctly managing
tensions and deadlocks is not always an easy task. Often the existing power distribution
among local stakeholders, combined with a weak empowerment of other actors,
allow some elites to overtake the legitimacy to interpret public interest.
Democratic anchorage can be also threatened by the overrepresentation of
network stakeholders to the detriment of partially legitimate representative
institutions. Some of the wider challenges facing governance networks are the
weakness of local governments, difficult coordination across tiers of
government, a limited empowerment and connectivity of civil society actors and
the privilege of urban spaces over rural areas by current market doctrines and
European policy.
REFERENCES:
Alexander ER. (2002) “The Public
Interest in Planning: from Legitimation to Substantive Plan Evaluation”.
Planning Theory 1(3) 226-249.
Dax, T.; Kahila, P.;
Hörnström, L. (2011) “The evolution of EU Rural Policy: linkages of Cohestion Policy
and Rural Development policy”. Regional
Studies Association. Annual International Conference. Newcastle upon
Tyne (UK ).
Gülümser, AA., Baycan-Levent,
T., Nijkamp, P. (2010) Measuring Regional Creative Capacity:
A Literature Review for Rural-Specific Approaches. European Planning Studies Vol. 18, No. 4
pp. 545-563.
Murray, M. Greer, J., Houston,
D., Mckay, S., Murtagh, B. (2009)
“Bridging Top Down and Bottom Up: Modelling Community Preferences for a
Dispersed Rural Settlement Pattern”. European
Planning Studies Vol. 17, No. 3 pp.442-462.
Norman, RH. & Vasström, M.
(2012)
“Municipalities as Governance Network Actors in Rural Communities” European
Planning Studies 20:6, 941-960.
OECD (2006) “The New
Rural Paradigm. Policies and Governance”. OECD Rural Policy Reviews. OECD
Publishing.
Sørensen, E. & Torfing, J.
(2009)
Making governance networks effective and democratic through metagovernance.
Public Administration Vol.87 No.2 pp 234-255.
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