Why to kick-off a community building process, networking instead of working alone?
Resources are key to achieve results. But, resources are usually plenty, and we have to develop our look to be able to perceive the richness of resources available to us in our environment. To help you develop these lenses, we are proposing you to fill the resource wheel we are going to show you, so you can better visualize the resources from your context.
Your "personal" resource wheel will serve you later, when you will be able to compare your wheel with the resource wheel from the practices suggested to you.
Empowerment and ability to influence change. Could translate into changes to policy and regulations or pressure to enforce exiting governance instruments. Ability to influence may be determined by the nature of governance e.g. bottom-up initiatives, multi-level governance.
All renewable and non-renewable resources e.g. land, water, soil, forests, farm livestock, marine life, flora and fauna. Other capitals can degrade or enhance it.
Attitudes and norms that influence outlooks and values and then influencing actions. Values and norms can also feed into the shape of regulations. Also includes more tangible and intangible culture such as traditions and language. Can be shared by people and across places, but also can differ among people and across places.
Human potential e.g. talent, skills, knowledge, self-esteem, abilities, health and well-being. Can be developed informally or through formal education. Also wider services and feed into it such as health services.
Capital embedded within organisations, wider social networks and wider informal connections. Relationships that enable working together towards shared goals. Trust is also an important part of social capital, which can take the form of closer (bonding social capital) or loose ties (bridging social capital).
Economic capital or financial resources possessed or accessible to for example enterprise, community organisations or wider rural population e.g. income, access to credit, tax incentives, grants. A mobile capital that is more straightforward to exchange and measure than other capital forms.
Range of human-made fixed assets such as infrastructure and buildings. Also ownership can come in different forms (e.g. public, private or community).
Social value | Political value | Financial value | Built value | Natural value | Cultural value | Human value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Exploring positive benefits that individual actions can have on the surrounding rural area.
0
Stimulating self-learning and learning from peers.
Welcome to our interactive Good Practice Guide generator!
Click on the "Introduction" button for more information about this guide generator, or on "Continue" to start creating your own personalised guide. Throughout the website, always click on the "thought bubbles" for insights and explanations.
Please, beware: all these elements are not a survey, we will not document any of this information and none of the information is mathematical or statistically correct or incorrect. Please use your good judgement to decide which option to take. The information will only be used to select the most appropriate practices we suggest you to look at, as well as to illustrate your personalized guide with meaningful case studies from context similar to yours.
Now, let’s talk less and act more! Go ahead and follow the steps that many other pioneers have walked and get inspired to co-create your new rural environment!
From now on, we are going to call you "Change Maker", since you are interested in joining others on the path of RURALIZATION and contributing to creating a new rural environment in Europe.
Following the steps on this site you will have to provide some information about you and your context: what is your current situation and interest, where you are located or planning to start a new life project and also what type of resources are available to you in this context.
Things like education, work experience and social skills are summarised by the term "human capital". In RURALIZATION we apply this in a very broad sense to better understand case studies and processes of rural development. Capital is all the "treasures" that local people can draw on to develop their rural areas. These include:
Capital levels for the wheel (5 levels):
These seven types of capital broaden the view of the preconditions and the possibilities of self-determined rural development in a region. Research has shown that a successful development process usually involves several types of capital. The development of one quality of capital often leads to the development of another quality of capital in a mutually reinforcing process.
Types influence each other and interact
Can be held by people, places and/or groups
One capital resource can enable access to or the creation of others
Includes tangible and intangible resources, or also a mixture of both
Capital supporting rural generation?
Are there some capitals that are more important to rural regeneration?
Has building one type impacted a decline in others?
Are there particular capitals that kickstart and act as catalysts for rural regeneration?
Embedded in rural areas is the potential for transformative change. Rural areas are full of resources that can support change. Rural society contains people and organisations with different types of skills, for example from their professional expertise to local knowledge. The rural economy contains businesses and entrepreneurs often of many types. More tangible assets such a built heritage, landscape, digital infrastructure and less tangible culture and creativity can also provide sources of rural renewal. Rural areas of course often have critical resource gaps but individual projects and initiatives can also fill in the cracks. Problems are often connected to others and dealing with one rural issue can be the start of addressing another. Transformative change may take time and experience bumps in the road. Tackling the key issues at the heart of rural decline is never simple or easy. However rural communities know the problems they face and need to address. Rural communities can underestimate the potential they hold for innovation and how they have been innovative in the past. Rural innovation can simply be a new, promising approach to tackling a local problem and does not have to be a technical or scientific solution, but a more everyday innovation. Local actions may not seem radical but in hindsight become known as the catalysts of change where synergies emerged to drive an upward spiral.
In contemporary times, knowledge has become something we can think about as gained in the classroom or from books. This is of course an important source of learning. But there is also a wealth of knowledge and skills to learn from doing. We can learn a lot from our experiences and by doing, hands-on, in practice. People that have spent their livelihoods focused on one profession often possess knowledge that cannot be learned more formally. The farmer that has worked the same land for years will understand the capacity of its soil and how this differs between their fields. The artisan that has honed their craft can demonstrate their methods but to truly learn their skilled ways will need closer and longer attention. We can learn from others in the sense of the old idea of master and apprentice. But important learning can also be gained from our closer peers, from understanding their approach and looking at it alongside ours. Spaces, places and time for this kind of learning to happen are also crucial, such as mentoring or peer to peer group exchanges. This can result in bringing together more formally, classroom learned knowledge with life-learned and practiced knowledge. Learning becomes produced and changed by collaboration that is shaped by a mix of different kinds of knowledge.
Local leaders are key to transformative change, but no man, community or project, is an island. Connecting with others is also important to support transformative change. This can unlock resources such as new ideas, funding and even a shoulder to lean on when developing new projects and initiatives. Working as part of networks can also connect with groups unlike ourselves that have particular important perspectives to take into account, such as young people and migrants. There are a range of other players to consider. Government authorities, politicians, stakeholder groups, development organisations and educational institutions are some examples. These players may be local, but also perhaps regional, national and even international, depending on the issues and objectives the community is working to address. There could also be groups in other places already on the road your community is working to get on. They could have valuable experience to shape change in your community. They might even be potential collaborators to work with on cooperative projects and to upscale initiatives.
Select for each type of capital the level of resources you consider that are available in your context. Hover your mouse over each type of capital to read what is meant by each one.
The levels are defined subjectively on purpose, since every project has different scopes, and what means “plenty” to one person can be very few to another.
There are six capital levels for the wheel:
ruralization@consulta-europa.com
privacy@consulta-europa.com
Copyright © All Rights Reserved
Ruralization@consulta-europa.com
Privacy@consulta-eruopa.com
Copyright © All Rights Reserved