EUGEO 2013. Europe: what's next? Changing geographies and geographies of change

Rural areas are an essential reality in the EU: their specific ecosystems, landscapes and cultures are a highly valuable treasure, which could be lost if the trends of social, economic and demographic marginalization characterizing many of them are not properly faced. The rural development policy for the period 2007-13 (Reg. 1698/2005) gave particular relevance to the "Leader approach" developed in the previous period 2000-2006, or to the "development and implementation of highly individual projects designed and executed by local partnerships to address specific local problems”. For the next programming period (2014-2020) decision makers should be provided with a framework of the actual situation resulting from such interventions, in order to overcome the problems that emerged in the previous phases and to propose innovative strategies and solutions. The main aim of this session is to compare experiences of local rural development in the European Union, in order to evaluate the UE policy effects, or rather their effectiveness in promoting the enhancement of local identities. The attention will be focused particularly on problematic areas, on the assumption that the strengthening of territorial peculiarities and people’s awareness can be an effective tool for local and regional development. Expected contributions: critical reflections on the experiences of local identity enhancement induced by European policies (eg: LEADER), also with reference to some negative outcomes (territorial identity mystification, branding identities, invented communities, etc.); identification of new pathways for the development of local identities relying on concrete experiences, also pursued outside the EU programming