Applying Neo‐Endogenous Development Theory to Delivering Sustainable Local Nature Conservation

Abstract

The environmental planning agenda is shaped by a range of top‐down policies and directives, both nationally and internationally. Simultaneously, several local, often community‐led, initiatives seek to enhance their local environments. This article seeks to understand both synergies and dissonance between top‐down and bottom‐up actions within the environmental conservation and management domain of sustainable development. Four case studies of local voluntary initiatives in Lincolnshire (UK) are used as the basis to examine how the activities and stated goals of the groups align with wider policy goals and engage with formal planning systems. The analysis draws from the neo‐endogenous development theory to offer recommendations about how to recognise and empower local initiatives within a multi‐level governance approach to delivering sustainable development. Conclusions also suggest that the principles of neo‐endogenous development can be applied more widely to capture greater value from community‐led activities.

Community‐Based Social Enterprises as Actors for Neo‐Endogenous Rural Development: A Multi‐Stakeholder Approach☆

“…In this regard, from a neoendogenous perspective the critical point is how to enhance the capacity of local areas to steer these wider processes, resources and actions to their bene-fit… [being] the focus on the dynamic interactions between local areas and their wider political, institutional, trading and natural environments, and how these interactions are mediated. (Ward et al 2005:5) To mediate these interactions between top-down (exogenous) and bottom-up (endogenous) dynamics (Ferreiro et al in press;Marango et al 2021), the neo-endogenous perspective stresses the relevance of (multi-stakeholder) 'governance' (Chatzichristos and Hennebry in press;Shucksmith 2010), meaning a governing style in which a range of government and non-government actors, including those from the third (non-profit) sector, participate in the development of rural areas (Cheshire 2016). Within this rural governance framework, the role of the state and its policies is emphasized, but more as enabler of a context which facilitates the emergence and development of local (community-based) initiatives which address their specific problems rather than as an actor that directly organizes and implements projects.…”

“…To mediate these interactions between top‐down (exogenous) and bottom‐up (endogenous) dynamics (Ferreiro et al in press; Marango et al 2021), the neo‐endogenous perspective stresses the relevance of (multi‐stakeholder) ‘governance’ (Chatzichristos and Hennebry in press; Shucksmith 2010), meaning a governing style in which a range of government and non‐government actors, including those from the third (non‐profit) sector, participate in the development of rural areas (Cheshire 2016). Within this rural governance framework, the role of the state and its policies is emphasized, but more as enabler of a context which facilitates the emergence and development of local (community‐based) initiatives which address their specific problems rather than as an actor that directly organizes and implements projects.…”

“…Despite the acknowledgement of some benefits and contributions, these approaches have been criticized as largely ineffective for the sustainable development of rural areas, the former due to their incapacity to address the specific needs of rural areas and their populations and the latter for their unrealistic treatment of rural areas as entities disconnected from external global trends (Woods 2011). In this regard, a neo‐endogenous approach to rural development has gained increasing attention within European rural development scholars and policymakers (Gkartzios and Lowe 2019; Marango, Bosworth, and Curry 2021). This approach is characterized by focusing on place‐based and integrated development, harnessing local resources while, at the same time, competing for extra‐local resources and emphasizing the importance of multi‐stakeholders rural governance frameworks, in which the state but also other actors, such as rural entrepreneurs and third sector organizations, are increasingly acknowledged as relevant partners for rural development (Bock 2019; Bosworth and Atterton 2012).…”

The Leadership in the Institutional System of Rural Development Policy: The Results of the Empirical Study in Krasnodar Region

“…The neo-endogenous approach to rural development policies is becoming increasingly popular [Marango, Bosworth, Curry 2021], implying integrated, locally focused development based on local resources and, at the same time, the ability to attract external resources and compete for them, as well as to introduce, through external resources oriented at local conditions, solutions that promote community development.…”

Support structures for a plural economy in rural areas? Analysing the role of community‐based social enterprises

“…Within this context, European and national rural development policies and programmes enhance the development of community‐led innovative solutions that can contribute to service provision, economic development and, more generally, to the revitalisation of rural areas (Bock, 2019; Marango et al., 2021). Social innovative solutions, such as community‐based social enterprises, have been brought to the fore as potential solutions to some of the challenges these regions face (Kumpulainen & Soini, 2019; Olmedo et al., 2023; Vercher et al., 2021).…”