engleski

NEO-ENDOGENOUS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THEORY: HOW TO MEET BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN APPROACHES IN (ISOLATED) RURAL AREAS?

The main purpose of this paper is to present the theory of neo-endogenous (rural) development (NED), its complementary relationship with the theory of sustainable development (SD), and to further explain the relationship between bottom-up and top-down approaches. Namely, NED is based on the principle that extra-local factors are key to rural development, but concrete, local rural areas need to retain their own potential to shape their future. Local resources – whether natural or human, community resources – i.e. local social, human, cultural, and natural capital within the concept of NED are oriented towards the SD, concretely to its economic dimension. At the same time, the benefits remain within the local space and the community and spill over into other dimensions of SD. Thus, NED implies control of resource use by local development actors and the community. Local development factors should be recognized and respected as a starting platform in creating a sustainable future. This is the starting point that marks the complementary action of the theoretical concepts of NED and SD. Namely, within NED, local initiatives represent a segment that can shape the ad hoc concept of a particular development project, based first on their own experience and then on the vision and aspirations they want to achieve. A finally designed and feasible development plan is created at the point where bottom-up and top-down approaches meet. Development as such cannot be generated exclusively from the local or imposed by the regional or national and even international (EU) level, so the synergy and meeting of bottomup and top-down approaches is important. It is about the dynamic interaction of local areas with each other and their interaction with the wider political, institutional network, economic opportunities, and especially important is the relationship with the natural environment. The paper will present mentioned interaction.

local development actors, neo-endogenous development, rural areas, rural communities, sustainable development

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