ePrints

Social Innovation in Rural Development Policy: Strengthening Participation, Representation and Accountability

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Gary Bosworth, Professor Ruth McAreaveyORCiD

Downloads

• Published version [.pdf]

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).

Abstract

© 2025 Sciendo. All rights reserved. European rural development policy has increasingly promoted place-based, community-led approaches, epitomised by the LEADER programme. Embedded within these approaches is a belief that bottom-up development is best placed to deliver policies building on local strengths and addressing local needs. However, community-led approaches have also faced criticisms for being too technical and constrained by national and international priorities. To overcome such barriers to advancing place-based rural innovation, this paper explores two distinctive approaches to strengthening participation, representation and accountability with these processes: Northern Ireland’s Community-led Local Development and the Social Value Engine. The first approach seeks to promote local engagement and participation through a bottom-up process while the second is a tool that encourages community consultation. Through the research, we examine how each approach fosters community inclusion, accountability and representation.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Bosworth G, McAreavey R, Kennedy M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: European Countryside

Year: 2025

Volume: 17

Issue: 3

Pages: 412-430

Online publication date: 07/10/2025

Acceptance date: 31/05/2025

Date deposited: 27/10/2025

ISSN (electronic): 1803-8417

Publisher: Sciendo

URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2025-0021

DOI: 10.2478/euco-2025-0021

Altmetrics

Share