Suchergebnisse

En la actualidad, la Unión Europea (UE) afronta un desafío crucial para la cohesión y el desarrollo de sus áreas rurales. Pese a los esfuerzos de las políticas públicas para alcanzar la cohesión social y económica y la sostenibilidad ambiental de los territorios europeos, la realidad rural presenta muchos e importantes desequilibrios territoriales a diversas escalas y de muy distinto tipo. En este contexto de desequilibrios territoriales, es evidente que los espacios rurales europeos no evolucionan de forma homogénea, constatándose la existencia de diferentes dinámicas territoriales. Uno de los principales factores exógenos que está determinando la existencia de estas diferentes dinámicas es la actual crisis económica. Para la comprensión de los efectos de la crisis, algunos autores han utilizado un enfoque analítico basado en el concepto de resiliencia territorial. De forma genérica, la resiliencia territorial se refiere a la capacidad que poseen algunos territorios para prepararse, resistir o adaptarse a las situaciones de shocks que inciden sobre los elementos del territorio, la población y las actividades que en éstos se desarrollan. El objetivo general de esta tesis es identificar los factores que podrían impulsar dinámicas territoriales resilientes en las áreas rurales andaluzas con el fin de proporcionar información de utilidad para los decisores políticos en el diseño de las políticas públicas que permitan una mejor respuesta de los territorios rurales frente a la crisis económica. El hecho de que la UE se encuentre en pleno proceso de redefinición de prioridades y de implementación de políticas en este nuevo período de programación 2014-2020, incrementa aún más el interés de esta investigación. Con este objetivo, se ha diseñado una metodología que, aplicada en dos períodos de tiempo —período de bonanza económica (2000-2008) y período de crisis económica (2008-2012)— permite abordar el análisis de la resiliencia de los territorios rurales andaluces. Para ello, en primer lugar, y mediante la construcción de tipologías de territorios rurales, se identifican las disparidades territoriales existentes entre las comarcas rurales andaluzas. A continuación, a partir de la construcción de un índice compuesto —elaborado con la ayuda del método DEA—se identifican tanto las dinámicas territoriales exitosas (derivadas de su análisis en el período pre-crisis) como las dinámicas territoriales resilientes (derivadas de su análisis en el período de crisis), y se determina la influencia que un amplio rango de factores territoriales ejerce sobre ellas. Finalmente, se selecciona un grupo de comarcas calificadas como resilientes y mediante la técnica ANP se profundiza en sus dinámicas y se analiza la capacidad de influencia de los factores de resiliencia. ; The European Union (EU) is currently facing a major challenge as regards the cohesion and development of its rural areas. Despite public policies targeted at achieving socioeconomic cohesion and environmental sustainability in European territories, the reality is that rural areas still suffer from a wide range of important territorial disparities at different levels and of very diverse types. In this context of territorial disparity, it is clear that European rural areas do not develop in a uniform manner, thus confirming the existence of a variety of territorial dynamics. One of the main external factors that determines the existence of these different territorial dynamics is the current economic crisis. To understand the effects of the crisis, some authors have used an analytical approach based on the concept of territorial resilience. Broadly speaking, territorial resilience refers to the capacity of a territory to prepare for, withstand or adapt to shocks that affect the territory's core values, its population and the activities undertaken there. The overall objective of this thesis is to identify factors that might foster resilient territorial dynamics in rural areas of Andalusia in order to provide policymakers with useful information for designing public policies that would permit these areas to respond more effectively to the economic crisis. The interest of this research is further supported by the fact that the EU is in the process of redefining priorities and implementing policies in the new 2014-2020 programming period. For this purpose, a methodology has been designed to analyse the resilience of rural areas of Andalusia. The methodology is applied to two time periods: the economic boom of 2000-2008 and the economic crisis of 2008-2012. In a first phase, a typology of rural territories is developed to determine the existing territorial disparities between rural counties of Andalusia. In a second phase, a composite index based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is developed to identify both successful territorial dynamics (as determined from the analysis of the pre-crisis period) and resilient territorial dynamics (as determined from the analysis of the crisis period) and thus determine the effect that a wide range of territorial factors exerts on these dynamics. Finally, a group of counties classified as "resilient" was selected and an in-depth study of their dynamics was performed using the analytical network process (ANP) technique to examine their capacity to influence factors of resilience. The results of the study reveal that certain factors, such as ICT training and accessibility, rural development funding, young farmers and agricultural dynamism, and agriculture and CAP aid, have fostered resilient territorial dynamics in rural Andalusia. A number of conclusions have been drawn from the results that could be considered when.

This paper analyses territorial resilience in rural Andalusia, Spain, after the impact of the recent economic crisis and identifies the factors associated with the highest recovery rates in different contexts and territories. To this end, we developed a methodology that incorporates the heterogeneity and diversity of rural territories and uses composite indices calculated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in order to measure levels of resilience and identify the factors that impact recovery in rural counties. The results reveal how different aspects of economic, social, human, and natural capital promote resilient territorial dynamics in rural Andalusia. These results provide useful information for political decision-makers in the design of public policies, especially at a time like the present when the EU is immersed in debate on the reform of rural development policies for the next programming period beyond 2020.

The objective of this article is to deepen the knowledge of collective action in irrigation organizations in Colombia, by identifying the limitations of the members for their organizational work and the variables of context that determine collective behavior. Human and environmental factors have not been sufficiently considered in public irrigation policies, since, in the case of Colombia, these have focused almost exclusively on the physical infrastructure. The methodology develops a qualitative approach based on an ethnographic and quantitative study of the socioeconomic characteristics of irrigation users. The results allow us to affirm that the collective awareness of water is a common good. The vision of the associates about the associative work, the conformation and structuring of the organizations, the nature of the established agreements, and the socio-economic, environmental, and political environment of the organizations studied, are determining factors of their collective action and, therefore, should be taken into account in public policies of associative irrigation.

The purpose of this report is to identify, map, and evaluate the most relevant European policies seen to influence permanent grassland (PG) management. To accomplish this, an interdisciplinary, crossnational team from the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, and Sweden reviewed over 50 in-depth policy frameworks. With direction from expert stakeholders and a review of the policy landscape, we identified the most relevant policy instruments influencing PGs across five different biogeographic regions in Europe (Alpine, Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, and Mediterranean). The mapping of each country's policy mix was guided inter-alia by a 'cascade framework' to illustrate the entry points, intermediary actors, mechanisms and pathways through which policies deliver their intended effects on PGs. This entailed an in-depth analysis of publicly available government sources documenting the aims, objectives, targets, monitoring systems, outputs and outcomes of each policy instrument. In total, 24 policies were mapped using 50 different criteria, with 15 of the policies unique to the case study countries. This resulted in an extensive excel database of over 3400 unique cells containing rich qualitative data. The excel data were coded in a consistent manner across the country teams so that they could be compared, synthesized, and used to identify patterns in the policy mix and logic of intervention. We show, for instance, that across Europe, the dominant policy logic uses regulations and incentives to influence farmer adoption of desired landscape compositions. This directly influences, but does not guarantee, the range of ecosystem services (ES) that are possible from the landscape. At the same time, we discovered a lack of policies targeting consumer demand for PG ecosystem services and only a few designed to drive sustainable PG management by directly promoting the value of PGs with beneficiaries. To complement the policy mapping, stakeholders' assessed the perceived effectiveness of the policy mix in each country. This evaluation included over 50 interviews with key stakeholders across Europe representing government, academia, farmers, and special interests, and covered perceptions of democracy, legitimacy, relevance, efficiency and impact in relation to the effectiveness of policies relevant to the management of PG. Our findings reveal generally positive perceptions of grassland policy effectiveness across Europe, with special interest groups being the least positive and governments the most. The in-depth country case studies reveal striking similarities, as well as differences between countries and stakeholder groups, which are illustrative of the problems, challenges, and barriers confronting policy effectiveness. We conclude this report by offering insights and policy implications. In particular, we suggest that the following four points are taken into consideration to improve the PG policy landscape: 1) Reduce complexity and administrative burden to make policies more understandable and accessible. 2) Require stakeholder involvement when developing strategic plans and assessing policy. 3) Encourage consideration of trade-offs between PG management and ES delivery, by designing policies to explicitly target the interaction between landscape structures and ES (or target them in parallel). 4) Encourage a balance of policy logic, by moving away from targeting farmers with regulation or subsidies to manage the landscape towards targeting consumer demand for ES (through information) and the value of ES (such as direct payments for regulating and cultural services).