Regional Development and Innovation

Rural territorial development examines how communities in non-urban regions navigate economic change, build local industries, and adapt agricultural systems under the pressures of globalization. Researchers in this area work to understand why some rural regions develop competitive economic clusters or sustain productive agriculture while others stagnate, paying close attention to the roles of local knowledge, social networks, and community agency in shaping those outcomes. A central tension in current work concerns how places can pursue growth and integration into global markets without eroding the ecological and social foundations that make rural life viable. Open questions persist around how knowledge and innovation diffuse across sparsely connected territories, and how participation from local communities can be meaningfully built into development planning rather than treated as a formality.

Works

120,719

Total citations

122,397

Keywords

Rural DevelopmentTerritorial InnovationLocal Economic GrowthGlobalization ImpactSustainable AgricultureCommunity Participation