Lynn-Livia Finn (p), Kim Pollermann

Eiji Ohno

Community-led local development (CLLD), initiated as LEADER in 1991, is a bottom-up-oriented, participatory approach driven by cooperation between local actors in rural areas. It forms part of regional development programmes (RDPs), which are the basis of funding in rural areas in the EU. Through LEADER/CLLD, budgets are allocated to LEADER regions on the local level to support the implementation of projects in line with their local development strategies (LDS), which state the distinct objectives for local development in each region.
One feature local cooperation in LEADER focusses on is a multisectoral approach: Local Action Groups (LAGs) composed of stakeholders from local government, civil society and the economic sector are a platform for collaboration and decision-making (e.g. on project selection) within each LEADER region. This contribution, however, will focus on another feature, namely „LEADER cooperation“, which explicitly supports cooperation between rural communities from two or more different regions through joint projects. The two main types of cooperation are
1. inter-territorial cooperation between two or more LAGs or comparable groups within a Member State and
2. transnational cooperation between two or more LAGs or comparable groups from different Member States.
In our contribution, we shall present and discuss organisational and administrative aspects and outcomes of cooperation projects based on data from the evaluation of LEADER in four German federal states .
Main material was collected from 115 LEADER regions by means of two surveys, using written questionnaires (mainly executed as online surveys):
• LAG management survey: one manager per LAG was surveyed in 2018 (N=115, n=114, response rate 99 percent) with a mixture of general questions about the situation in the region and open questions to grasp more detailed assessments about specific problems. Usually, a six-point Likert scale was used to classify personal estimations of the LAG members.
• Survey of beneficiaries of LEADER cooperation projects (RDP submeasure 19.3) in 2020/2021: questions regarding the projects (N=148, n=132, response rate: 89 percent), the respondents were asked for estimations about project development, funding procedures and the results of their project, again using Likert scales and open questions.
In a first analysis of results, the larger time investment required in supraregional cooperation and different project selection criteria are identified as common challenges faced during the planning and management of LEADER cooperation projects while knowledge gain is widely seen as an added benefit.

Dagmara Kociuba (p)

Lynn-Livia Fynn

Functional urban areas (FUAs) are identified as a driving force for socio-economic development and building competitive advantage of regions and countries. Supporting the sustainable development of FUAs is one of the priorities of the EU Cohesion Policy, and a tool dedicated to this goal is the Integrated Territorial Investments (ITIs). Implementation of ITIs intends to strengthen the mechanisms of territorial coordination of intervention through the realization of integrated projects comprehensively responding to the needs, problems and development challenges of FUAs, as well as to promote a culture of partnership and cooperation between local government units in the management of EU funds. Therefore, the implementation of ITIs was of particular importance in Poland, where the mechanisms of supra-local coordination of intervention and inter-municipal partnership were poorly developed. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of ITIs implementation on strengthening municipal cooperation and development of urban functional areas in Poland. The analysis was conducted for 17 FUAs of voivodship centers and focused on three dimensions: formal-legal, cooperation and implementation. The first part presents the ex-ante conditions for the implementation of ITIs in Poland and discusses the delimitation of FUAs. The second part demonstrates the process of formalization of FUAs management structures, i.e. ITI unions, in the aspect of building coalitions of local government units and the role of the core city in this process. The third part presents the thematic and substantive scope of integrated projects, support areas and a catalogue of dominant investments and their beneficiaries. In addition, the process of implementing the ITIs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic was traced. The research has shown that coalitions of municipalities managing CP funds contribute to strengthening the economic potential of FUAs in terms of the development of technical infrastructure and energy efficiency improvements. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had not a significant impact on the implementation process of ITIs and the current works of preparing for the 2021-2027 programming period. This may indicate the advancement of inter-municipal integration processes and the emergence of permanent territorial governance structures. This represents a large contribution of ITIs to improving cooperation and development of Polish FUAs.

Eiji Ohno (p), Ryuta Mori, Shin Sugiura, Masafumi Morisugi

Dagmara Kociuba

For the purpose of beautifying area, mowing of grass in river embankments and district parks and collection of fallen leaves in streets and parks are being carried out in various places in Japan. Mowed grass and fallen leaves are collected each time and incinerated at the incinerator, but transportation costs to the incinerator and incineration costs are required. On the other hand, if the mowed grass and the fallen leaves are left as they are, fermentation by microorganisms progresses with the passage of time, and methane is generated. Therefore, if local residents mow grass and carry out biogas power generation projects, they will be able to save on outsourcing costs to specialists, reduce greenhouse gases, obtain electrical energy, and reduce administrative spending and increase income for administrative services. Here, in order for such a community-based project to be established, collaboration between the government and local residents is indispensable. In this study, we propose a benefit evaluation method for the participation and co-operation of local residents, and clarify the requirements for establishing the project by conducting a cost-benefit analysis for the community-based renewable energy project.
Resident-participation-type projects rely on the voluntary activity of local residents, and outsourcing costs are saved. In addition, from the viewpoint of welfare of residents, public support is often received, and the project cost is further reduced. On the other hand, for community-based projects, local residents require value commensurate with voluntary activity, and the government does value commensurate with public support. Therefore, one of requirements for establishing a community-based project are considered to be the cost-benefit standard in ordinary public works evaluation. In this study, the cost-benefit analysis of the resident-participation-type renewable energy project will be carried out, by using the WTW (willingness to work) function and the SV (social value) function estimated in our previous study. And other requirements are various personal conditions for participating in volunteer activities, which will be clarified from interview surveys.
The project envisioned in this study is a renewable energy project that incorporates not only energy supply but also energy utilization. Specifically, focusing on the activities of local residents to mow grass and collect fallen leaves, the biogas power generation business using the grass cut and collected by the activities as the raw material, and the elderly welfare taxi business using the electricity supplied by the business as the energy source.

Mariane Françoso (p), Vanessa de Lima Avanci, Alysson Manzoni

Eiji Ohno

The emergence of new economic structures has been discussed in the literature as a path-dependent process, in which sectors, technologies, and products related to the already existing local structures are more likely to be developed (Boschma et al., 2015; Hidalgo et al., 2007; Hidalgo et al., 2018; Neffke et al., 2011). Most studies on this subject have focused on the regional endowment of knowledge and capabilities as a driver of the branching process, not addressing how interregional flows and general network structures may impact this process. Hidalgo and Hausmann (2009) argued that the diversification process should target complex activities to enhance local economies' complexity. Complex activities are deemed sophisticated, requiring a combination of diverse capabilities and knowledge, which are not widely available. The less available these capabilities and knowledge are, the more exclusive the products an economy will be able to produce. In this vein, we aim to discuss how local and regional collaboration network structures impact technological diversification regarding the number of new technological specializations acquired by a region and the average complexity of the new specializations. To do so, we use patent data from Brazil for the 2000 – 2019 period and conduct an econometric analysis on the microregional level, adopting five main variables of interest: two related to the local structure (technological coherence and technological flexibility) and three related to the regional network structure (closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector). Our results indicate that coherence, flexibility, betweenness, and closeness positively impact the number of new specializations acquired. It means that having a portfolio of related technologies that are also highly related to technologies outside the region is positively correlated with acquiring new technological specializations. At the same time, highly connected and bridging regions are more likely to acquire new specializations. Being connected to other highly connected regions (eigenvector centrality) did not present statistical significance. In terms of the average complexity of new specializations, coherence, flexibility, and closeness showed a positive and statistically significant effect. However, in both cases, the coefficients of local structures were higher than network structures, and we could not find a compensation effect between the two of them. It means that highly connected regions must develop a coherent and flexible technological structure to benefit from central network positions.