Sustainability & Regional Development

There are many ways within regions by which wellbeing, innovation and socially-sustainable spatial transformation can be facilitated to enhance progress to sustainable development goals that are locally meaningful. Some key concepts of this topic area are culture, local food, slow food, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, eco museums, and the notion of Endogenous Regional Development (ERD), i.e. development that is initiated and controlled by the local community. ERD is a paradigm, worldview and philosophy about appropriate development, rural renewal and the multifunctional, post-productivist countryside. It accommodates niche-marketing of value-added product and flexible specialisation, while valorising local qualities of place. ERD refers to the celebration and utilisation of local and place-based dimensions of a region as the basis of economic activity and local livelihoods. A key aspect is understanding the natural, human and cultural characteristics of a place that can make it special and/or distinctive, and how these may be the focus of sustainable economic activity.

People

• Frank Vanclay (coorinator)
• Aleid Brouwer
• Arie Stoffelen
• Chris Zuidema
• Christian Lamker
• Christina Prell
• Daniella Vos
• Dimitris Ballas
• Elen Trell
• Frans Sijtsma
• Ina Horlings
• Koen Salemink
• Martin Boisen
• Peter Groote
• Ron Holzhacker
• Tialda Haartsen
• Ward Rauws