Conclusions

Building on the argument that human development processes are fun­damentally rooted in territorial social, institutional and development dynamics, this chapter has presented an interpretative framework of SHD at the local level, inspired largely by Amartya Sen's Capability Approach, the local development literature and the evolutionary perspective.

The central innovation of the STEHD framework and the main message of this chapter is to consider the "working performances” expressed by LDS as territorial achieved functionings, and thus as resources (i.e. goods and services) and conversion factors impacting agents' opportunities to achieve their objectives and to flourish (irrespective of whether the agent is an indi­vidual, social group, firm or an association). The guiding principle is to expand the capability to achieve what is considered valuable. Furthermore, SHD relies on the agent's freedom to make decisions, participate in pub­lic deliberation and behave as actors of change and social innovators in broad terms, both individually and collectively. As the very processes that shapes choices and actions are even more important than the actual choices (and actions) themselves, cultivating capable local agents is necessary not only to provide learning opportunities but also to increase their voice in the formulation of choice guiding rules.

A chief advantage of our framework is that it devotes central attention to the historical and geographical dimensions of development and to the con­nections among individual, collective and territorial dynamics, as procedural feedback loops through the exercise of agency and empowerment shape the evolution of local societies and thus the process of capability expansion (or reduction). For instance, the improvement of systemic learning processes represent a fundamental but challenging bridge from people's capacity to make the choices they value to territorial evolution along SHD trajectories.

Finally, the STEHD framework is adaptable to different institutional and spatial (meso-level) contexts, which are connected in the analysis to micro and macro processes, allowing both diagnostic and evaluative applications based on the analytical investigation and valorization of the distinctive features of each LDS.