Territorially unequal rural development: the cases of the LEADER Initiative and the PRODER Programme in Andalusia (Spain)

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the territorial effects of the LEADER approach in Southern Europe, by analysing the region of Andalusia (Spain). Our research has revealed that, in many cases, projects were concentrated in the most dynamic, most populated areas, with a well-established business network with the financial and organizational capacity required to access European funding. In these areas, the economic leadership of the most dynamic municipalities has been reinforced at the expense of more depressed areas with little social capital and few businesses. These programmes have not, therefore, helped to mitigate territorial imbalances. In a minority of rural areas, however, this trend was not observed, which shows that although territorial inequality is a widespread problem in the practice of neo-endogenous rural development, it does not affect all areas to the same degree.

KEYWORDS:

• European rural development policy
• local action groups
• neo-endogenous rural development
• LEADER approach
• Andalusia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was carried out as part of the research project entitled ‘Development programmes and rural change in the European Union: governance, results and lessons to share 2007–13’ funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness within its Excellence Programme [CSO2014-56223-P].