Notes

Introduction

1. For Wallerstein (2000, p. 134),

‘the three presumed arenas of collective human action - the economic, the political, and the social or sociocultural - are not autonomous arenas of social action.

2. The notion of development has rich historical roots (see Clark, 2002). For Sen's notion of development and capability approach see Sen (1980;1985a;1985b; 1987;1992;1999;2000a) and Nussbaum (2000). For the notion of human development see Griffin and Knight (1990), Haq (1995), Mehrotra and Jolly (1997), among others. A challenging contribution to development philosophy is provided by Max-Neef (1991).

3. ‘People are the real wealth of a nation [... ] The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy large, healthy and creative lives' (UNDP, 1990, p. 9).

4. It is important to acknowledge the exchange on these issues among Evans (2002), Stewart and Deneulin (2002) and Sen (2002) in Studies in Comparative International Development.

5. Human development is conceived in psychological terms here.

6. In this regard, relevant exceptions can be found in several publications in Spanish by HEGOA - Instituto de Estudios sobre Desarrollo y Cooperacion Internacional (e.g. Villalba et al., 2001;Dubois Migoya et al., 2011;Larranaga and Yubeto, 2011;Dubois Migoya, 2013);and FLACSO - the Latin American School of Social Sciences (e.g. Sanchez Oviedo, 2011).

7. ‘In economic theory, as in other spheres, novel designs are never innovative in all respects; they borrow heavily from what has gone before' (Nelson and Winter, 1982, p.

8. Shin (2005) and Bellanca and Biggeri (2008) argue that new heterodox economic perspectives emerge from integrating complementary streams of literature in order to provide increased coherence to the general world picture (Hull, 1978).

9. The arguments advanced in this book are related to, and partly inspired by, the action-research activities of both authors and the ARCO Lab (Action Research for CO-development). ARCO is an action-research lab of PIN S.c.r.l., the main spin-off of the University of Florence. ARCO has actively supported public author­ities and private organizations in their endeavours to promote sustainable local development and community empowerment since its creation in 2008 (http:// www.arcolab.org/).

10. The Second World Forum on Local Development (held in Foz do Iga^u, Brazil, in October-November 2013) is just one example of several international meetings that have animated the global political dialogue on the role of local economic development policies with regard to poverty, inequality and climate change.

11. The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness and Platforma (the European voice of Local and Regional authorities for development) have advocated moving beyond Aid Effectiveness and widening the debate on Development Effectiveness.

12. This initiative has been implemented by UNDP with the support of IOM, ILO, UNHCR, UNFPA and UN Women, and funding from the EU and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

1 Sustainable Human Development (SHD) at the Local Level

^1. According to Stewart (2013, p. 2), ‘there has been a tendency in human develop­ment analysis to neglect the study of social institutions and competencies.'

^2. Cluster-based strategies are promoted, among others, by UNIDO, IDB, WB, GTZ.

^3. Here, inter-sectoriality refers not only to technical links but especially to socio­cultural nexuses (Becattini et al., 2001).

^4. We follow Kanbur's (2002) distinction between "multidisciplinarity" (adding contributions from different disciplines) and "inter-disciplinarity" (the deeper integration of different disciplines). See also Clark (2006b) and Hulme and Toye (2007) on these distinctions and the merits of cross-disciplinary forms of research for studying well-being and development.

^5. As Aydalot and Keeble (1988, p. 9) point out, ‘it is often the local environment which is, in effect, the entrepreneur and innovator, rather than the firm.'

^6. Economic growth alone is inadequate for addressing employment and poverty problems because the "trickle-down" process may or may not occur to greater or lesser extents (Cornia et al., 1987;Cornia, 2004 and 2006;World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, 2004).

^7. A similar call in the field of Regional Science to focus attention on people was advanced by Hägerstrand (1970) in the early 1970s, and later reiterated by Bianchi (2009) and Sforzi (2010): ‘Regional Science is about people and not just about locations' (Hägerstrand, 1970, p. 7).

^8. A functioning is an achievement whereas a capability is the ability to achieve. Functionings are, in a sense, more directly related to living conditions since they are different aspects of living conditions. Capabilities, in contrast, are notions of freedom in the positive sense: what real opportunities you have regarding the life you may lead.

(Sen, 1987, p. 36)

This approach is broader than Roemer's (1998) focus on "equality of opportunities".

9.

The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible.

(UNDP, 1990, p. 11)

This notion of development is very close to the theology of "liberation", as clearly discussed by Iguiniz Echeverria (2002) comparing the thinking of Amartya Sen and Gustavo Gutierrez.

10. Attention is increasing due to the contribution of scholars in other research areas, such as Binder (2009), and Gebert and Bajmocy (2013), among others.

11. The Commission was created in 2008 on the French government's initiative to revisit the limits of GDP as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, including measurement issues together with an assessment of alternative measurement tools.

12. See, for instance, Cummins (1996), Easterlin (2001), Kahneman and Krueger (2006), Bruni et al. (2008), Angner (2010). For an overview of subjective well­being vis-a-vis human development and other notions of well-being, see Clark (2014).

13. It is important to distinguish this notion of "territory" from localities defined simply on the basis of administrative boundaries.

14. Keating (2001), for instance, critically assesses the cultural and institutional differences between Catalonia and Galicia in Spain.

15. For Sen, (2000a, p. 21) ‘It is important that people evaluate explicitly and critically what they want.'

16. Sen (2009) challenges the tendency of separating the population into mutually exclusive groups, arguing that individuals have multiple and evolving identities and memberships.

17. While Robeyns (2005, p. 108) argues that the ethical individualism of the Capability Approach ‘is not incompatible with an ontology that recognizes the connections between people, their social relations, and their social embedment', Deneulin (2008, p. 115) stresses that ‘ethical individualism leads to an excessive focus on existing individual lives, and directs attention away from the examina­tion of the structures of living together and the historical explications of these structures.'

18. For example, tacit knowledge based on face-to-face exchange, embedded rou­tines, habits and norms, local conventions of communication and interactions and so on.

19. As underlined by UNDP (1996), there are different types of unsustainable growth: (i) jobless growth - that does not expand the opportunities for employ- ment;(ii) ruthless growth - the fruits of growth mostly benefit the rich; (iii) voiceless growth - growth not accompanied by the expansion of democracy, empowerment; (iv) rootless growth - that causes people's cultural identity to wither;and (v) futureless growth - where present generations squander resources needed by future generations, as well as those types of "peace-less growth" that feed conflicts (Fukuda-Parr, 2007;Biggeri and Mauro, 2010).

20. As explained by Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992), the field or social context struc­tures and conditions the "habitus" (i.e. individual attitudes), while the habitus affects the field through cognitive construction.

21. According to North (1990), institutions are the formal and informal rules that guide how people within societies live, work and interact with each other. Insti­tutions are highly path dependent and institutional change is an evolving and continuous process.

22. For example, social stratification and access (Bourdieu, 1980), human capital and relational investment (Coleman, 1990), and trust and civicness (Putnam, 1993), among others.

23. This distinction has links with Granovetter's (1985) emphasis on weak and strong ties.

24. For instance, do territorial identities and community ties support collaborative propensities (between entrepreneurs, workers and entrepreneurs, collective actors and policymakers, etc.)?

25. Procedural factors refer to adapting to the environment, whereas recursive factors involve anticipating and reshaping changes in the environment.

26. Intended as ‘Comparing regional performance, processes, and policies in a systematic fashion' (Crescenzi and Rodriuez-Pose, 2011, p. 775).

27. This research was first conducted by ARCO Lab (Action Research for CO-development) within the EuropeAid project Umanam-ENTE - ‘Increasing the capacities of local administrators and officials in defining policies consistent with the Sustainable Human Development approach'.

2 The Sustainable Territorial Evolution for Human

Development (STEHD) Framework

1. As Ballet et al. (2011) emphasizes, Sen's approach embraces the importance of self­determination, especially when it distinguishes between well-being freedom and agency freedom (e.g. Sen, 1985a;1992;2009). The latter, in particular, implies the persons' capacity to exercise their own free will (Sen, 1999). However, it should be remembered that the agency aspect is missing in Nussbaum's (2000) approach.

2. For example, the UNDP's HDRs at the country and sub-national levels, UNIDO's reports, DFID's reports, DeLog (2011) and UNDP ART (2012).

3. As we have seen, this is defined in terms of cognitive, organizational, institu­tional, social and geographical proximity.

4. Collective capabilities constitute a result for the collectivity and at the same time expand the individual capability set (Stewart, 2005). External capabilities are those individual capabilities obtained thanks to the capabilities of another per­son. For example, consider the capabilities conferred by the caregiver of a person with a disability. See Foster and Handy (2008), and Biggeri and Bellanca (2010).

5. In this regard, Witt (2013, p. 2) discusses whether Theodosius Dobzhansky's (1973) motto "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolu­tion” would be supported by a sense-making theory in economics claiming that "Nothing in economics makes sense except in the light of evolution.”

6. According to Nelson and Winter (1982, p. 5), there are ‘major aspects of economic reality that are repressed in general equilibrium theory', as no simple explanations exist as they are varied and context specific (Hodgson and Knudsen, 2010).

7. See also Hart (2010).

8. Ibrahim (2011) introduces the same notion with the word "aspirations” corresponding to unfulfilled but valued capabilities. See also Hart (2010).

9. This operates through the dynamic adjustment of the demand for and supply of educational services for girls and women as well as its feedback on active citizenship.

10. Hodgett and Clark (2012) make the same point with respect to the needs and wants of a diverse range of first-generation immigrants in Canada. The crux of the problem is that a blanket approach is inefficient (in addressing varying needs) and wasteful (expensive).

11. The identification of precise stakeholders is not necessary here, but it becomes central when the STEHD framework is applied (see chapters 4 and 5).

12. For instance, the local development vision can be challenged by international influences (e.g. the global diffusion of practices of labour exploitation and environmental pollution).

13. Examples of the functionings of a local system are given by its capacity and effec­tiveness in ensuring an environment free from pollution or in giving equal access to health and education to all social groups.

14. 'Institutions and structures need to be also procedurally just, apart from the outcomes they generate' (Robeyns, 2005, p. 110).

15. This vision is in line with Wallerstein's (2000, p. xvii) claim that 'all analysis, if it were to grapple seriously with the description and explanation of the real world, had to be simultaneously historic and systemic.'

16. Standard models of local development have similar limitations.

17. Since the measure of output efficiency does not coincide with input efficiency under the assumption of variable returns to scale in the BCC model, the choice of the orientation (the output expansion or contraction of inputs) assumes a deci­sive importance for the interpretation of results (see Laureti, 2006;Cooper et al., 2007).

18. A latent variable is a variable that is not directly observable or measured and is assumed to affect the response variables (manifested variables).

3 The Role of Multilevel Governance for SHD at the Local Level

1. According to Wallerstein (2000, p. 125), 'it is futile to analyse the processes of the societal development of our multiple national societies as if they were autonomous, internally evolving structures, when they are and have been in fact primarily structures created by, and taking form in response to world-scale processes.'

2. 'Governance is the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development' (World Bank, 1992, p. 1).

3. This is characterized by the nation-state's command-and-control and hierarchical order.

4. Cooke and Morgan (1998, p. 80) define "policy network” as 'an informal or semi­informal organisational mechanisms consisting of public and private individuals, groups, organisations, and associations whose key discriminating factors is that they interact around specific policies and programmes.'

5. For instance, the EU Committee of the Regions recommends establishing 'European territorial pacts capable of bringing together, on a voluntary basis, the different competent tiers of government in order to adapt the implementation of the major political priorities and objectives of the European Union on a partnership basis with the local and regional authorities' (EU, 2009, pp. 32-34).

6. According to Noferini (2010, p. 175), 'Government agencies (national, regional and local), although maintaining a degree of leadership in proposing public poli­cies, now have the obligation to open the "black box” of decision making to the main actors in civil society.'

7. 'The Committee of the Regions considers multilevel governance to mean coordi­nated action by the European Union, the Member States and local and regional authorities, based on partnership and aimed at drawing up and implementing EU policies' (EU, 2009, p. 6).

8. 'In theory top-down (macro and micro) and bottom-up development policies coexist, interact with, and impact upon the same agents (individuals and firms) and territories, but so far have shown surprisingly limited synergies and osmosis' (Crescenzi and Rodriguez-Pose, 2011, p. 774).

9. The European Territorial Co-operation objective within the Cohesion policy encourages regions and cities from different EU member states to work together and learn from each other through joint programs, projects and networks (e.g. cross-border cooperation along internal EU borders;trans-national cooperation programs covering larger areas of cooperation;the interregional cooperation program).

10. Relevant differences in this lobbying capacity can be anecdotally illustrated by comparing the ˆ30 million building of the German Federal State of Bavaria in Brussels with the two-room office representing the French region of Midi­Pyrenees (Bodenstein and Kemmerling, 2008).

11. This includes, for example, the promotion and protection of human rights.

12. According to Raworth (2004, p. 42), ‘too often it is a euphemism for weaken­ing labour laws (including facilitation of "flexible" contracts, limiting collective bargaining, increase overtime hours, cut overtime pay, reduce gender-sensitive benefits).'

13. In fact, it is more likely that the reverse is true: ‘good governance is precisely that model which incorporates the participation of a wide number of agents at all levels [...]. In a word: multilevel governance' (Noferini, 2010, p. 171).

14. According to MacKinnon et al. (2009), there is a tendency for institutional economic geography to neglect this "missing link".

15. The discussion on the linkages between the Buen Vivir paradigm, the CA and local development literature warrants further discussion in international academic debates (Biggeri and Ferrannini, 2013).

16. The Preamble of the Constitution states: ‘We decided to construct a new form of citizen coexistence, in diversity and harmony with nature, to reach "el buen vivir, el Sumak Kawsay".' Building on the concept of Sumak Kawsay of the indige­nous population in the Andes, Buen Vivir constitutes an alternative paradigm to the ‘zombie category of development' (Gudynas, 2011, p. 441), by denoting, organizing and constructing ‘a system of knowledge and living based on the com­munion of humans and nature and on the spatial-temporal-harmonious totality of existence' (Walsh, 2010, p. 18). As a political platform, the vision of Buen Vivir is related to the expansion of rights, freedoms, opportunities and potentialities of human beings, communities and eco-systems.

17. The original name is Sistema Nacional Descentralizado de Planificacion Participativa.

18. The original name in Spanish is Secretaria Nacional de Planificacion y Desarrollo de Ecuador.

19. These tiers include the national, the provincial, municipal and rural neighbour­hood levels.

20. The original name in Spanish is Consejos de Coordinacion Sectorial en Desarrollo Productivo.

21. That is, national, departmental and municipal.

22. This typically involves the grouping together of anywhere between 15 and 85 municipalities.

23. For instance, the White Paper on MLG of the EU Committee of the Regions recommends ‘establishing appropriate tools to support participatory democracy, particularly in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy, social agenda, Gothenburg Strategy and development of "Local Agenda 21" type mechanisms, which are participatory and integrated mechanisms developing long-term strategic plans' (EU, 2009, p. 17).

24. It is implicitly assumed that the LDS is the decision maker for the overall strategy and there is no free riding by local actors.

25. Markusen and Nesse (2007) strongly argue the global (and often detrimental) pro­liferation of incentive-driven competition among territories and nations to attract FDI is not only related to economic and geographic causes and devolutionary trends, but it is also due to the rise of site consultants who broker deals between firms and governments. Indeed, most sub-national governments in emerging countries are exposed to information asymmetries when they bargaining with multinational corporations or with their site consultants. These consultant strive to maintain information asymmetries as their ‘loyalties almost always lie with the interests of the job-selling corporation, especially, as is common, when they earn their fees on a commission basis' (Markusen and Nesse, 2007, p. 12).

26. This argument can be generalized. It also applies to the role of MNCs, for example.

27. These assumptions reflect the willingness of LDSs and trade unions in the North to maintain their priviledges and the desire of LDSs in the South to catch up with more developed systems in the medium term.

28. As argued by Basu (2013, p. 325), ‘this may require some sacrifice of short-run efficiency but it is necessary for our long-run well-being.'

4 International Development Cooperation at the Local Level: The UNDP ART Global Initiative

1. As stated in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (OECD, 2005). The Accra Agenda for Action (OECD, 2008) moves in the direction of the Paris principles by requesting more predictability, timing established by the beneficiary country's systems, and conditionality based on the developing country's own development objectives, as well untying aid.

2. This argument has been stressed at several international meetings and empha­sized in their respective final declarations (e.g. HLF-4 in Busan, Agenda 21; RIO+20).

3. ART Framework Programs have been implemented in Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Gabon, Indonesia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Syria and Uruguay. In addition, the ART MyDEL Program has been implemented across four Central American Countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

4. Mario Biggeri participated in ART's global monitoring study conducted by the ARCO Lab (Action Research for CO-development) through participatory tech­niques in a sample of countries (Morocco, Ecuador and Colombia). Andrea Ferrannini conducted research studies relating to programs in the Dominican Republic and Albania.

5. In 2011, 19 UNDP ART Country Framework Programs were active and the ini­tiative had received support from more than 1,600 decentralized cooperation partners (600 from the North and 1,000 from the South) and 40 regional networks and associations (UNDP ART, 2012).

6. Consider, for example, the case of Ecuador (SENPLADES, 2011).

7. For instance, evidence shows that the principles, learning and practices of ART have been mainstreamed within UNDP Indonesia's strategy for LED.

8. For instance, ART played an important role in the Consultative Process for Busan's HLF-4 on Aid Effectiveness in 2011. Furthermore, ART's methodology and approach were included in most Country Offices' planning tools, namely the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, UNDP's Country Program Action Plan and the Country Program Document (UNDP ART, 2012).

9. Today, poor performance in terms of Aid Effectiveness is often connected to increasing fragmentation, volatility and unpredictability of development cooperation.

10. Some studies continue to report limited local ownership of PRSPs (e.g. Reality of Aid, 2008).

11. As Easterly (2006, p. 6) points out, these Big Plans have strong conceptual limits:

In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don't motivate any­one to carry them out;Searchers find things that work and get some reward. Planners raise expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them; Searchers accept responsibility for their actions. Planners determine what to supply; Searchers find out what is in demand. Planners apply global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local conditions. Planners at the top lack knowledge of the bottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the bottom. Planners never hear whether the planned got what it needed; Searchers find out whether the customer is satisfied.

(Easterly, 2006, p. 6)

12. The largest donor - the European Union - states that in its Development Pol­icy Agenda for Change ‘The EU should take a more comprehensive approach to human development' (EC, 2011a).

13. For instance, see OECD (2005 and 2008), DeLoG (2011), and EC (2011a).

14. Specific mechanisms supported by the ART Initiative, such as Territorial Working Groups, act as enabling factors, influencing the transformation of opportunities into achieved functionings at the level of local systems.

15. The NCC is the coordination space charged with ensuring the correct imple­mentation of the programs' methodology and instruments, as well as promoting articulation between local processes and national policies. The NCC assembles representatives from the UNDP, the ministerial program's counterpart, UN agen­cies and programs, associations of local authorities and different international cooperation actors (bilateral and decentralized) active in the program.

16. For example, Regional Working Groups (RWGs), Local Working Groups (LWGs), Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs), inter alia.

17. For example, in Ecuador, 170 sub-national governments, 65 civil society orga­nizations, 12 academic institutions and 25 international cooperation actors are articulated at the territorial level through the program's mechanisms (UNDP ART, 2012).

18. The first output in the Results and Resources Framework of the 2010 PRODOC of the ART Initiative refers to ‘strengthened national and local capacities for the achievement of the MDGs, through the harmonisation between actors working at the local level.'

19. In general, territorial strategies are articulated at a given scale by aggregating and integrating lower levels' identified priorities. Sub-national administrative levels obviously vary according to different contexts, and can include communities (parishes, neighbourhoods), municipalities and communes, provinces and so on.

20. This is a delicate phase, since it requires precision and is not open to ambiguous specification of actors or functionings/capabilities.

21. Typically, the number of participants range from 6 to 16.

22. Careful attention is usually required during this phase in order to avoid selection bias.

23. The composition of the focus group is influenced by local-level power dynamics (e.g. the existence of conflicts or unbalanced empowerment). It may be useful to carry on ad hoc focus group discussions composed by relevant "voiceless" groups of the community (e.g. women, migrants, persons with disability).

24. The scoring method usually relies on a scale between zero (lowest) and ten (highest). The overall score can be negative (even if the change is positive), if participants identify some actors/factos hampering the achievement of this change.

25. Personal opinions, especially if there are divergent views, are recorded and pre­served in FGD. If deemed necessary, it is possible to ask to each participant to provide a score in order to derive a simple average (this aggregate technique is often used in parti-numbers).

26. At the end of the activity, a brief questionnaire is administered individually to each participant in order to collect personal information, individual data on achieved functionings and specific details regarding involvement in the program.

27. Narino is quite a problematic and complex reality, as there are a variety of development actors in the region, involved in active processes of conflicts resolution and social mobilization.

28. For example, the councillor for economic development and the director of the Local Economic Development Agency.

29. For example, the representative of a local cooperative of milk producers.

5 Enabling Factors for Local Economic Development: Local and Regional Development Agencies

1. LEDAs represent the main instrument promoted and supported by the UNDP ART Global Initiative to boost local economic development in the territories of intervention.

2. That is, institutions at the level of sector or region (Helmsing, 2001).

3. Similar agencies have existed in different European countries since the 1950s (Bellini et al., 2012), as well as later on in emerging countries such as Mexico, Indonesia, China, Brazil and India - often supported in their start-up phases by international organizations such as UNIDO, ILO, IDB and UNDP.

4. Compared to academia, there has been a much larger production of studies and reports on LEDAs by practitioners and public research centres at the local level (often published in the local language) and by international organizations at the global level (such as ILO, OECD, UNDP, ILS LEDA).

5. According to Felsenstein (1999, p. 1415), ‘many of the RDAs evade categorisation and cannot de neatly pigeon-holed.' In addition, Halkier and Danson's (1997) comparative analysis of RDAs in Western Europe shows that a more decentralized political system entails a greater degree of intra-national diversity.

6. ILS LEDA is the International Links and Services for Local Economic Development Agencies.

7. The same definition is embraced by the OECD (Clark et al., 2010). Another useful definition has been provided by Halkier and Danson (1997, p. 245): ‘regionally based, publicly financed institution outside the mainstream of central and local government administration, designed to promote indigenous eco­nomic development through an integrated use of predominantly "soft" policy instruments.'

8. According to Lovering (2011, p. 591), the presence of a local development agency is almost always ‘noisily demonstrated to the public in light shows, firework displays, sponsorship of all sorts, festivals and goodwill events and lots of new signage.'

9. The RDAs established by central government in 1999 largely devote capacity and resources to develop effective regional partnerships and strategies, in order to address previous fragmentation among a number of development agencies oper­ating at overlapping spatial scales (Jones and Macleod, 2011). The scrapping of RDAs in 2010 and their replacement with "Local Enterprise Partnerships - LEPs” (Ward and Hardy, 2013) has reinforced the debate on their effectiveness. On the one hand, lammarino et al. (2012) argues for the successful experience of many RDAs, especially in peripheral regions, in regenerating or upgrading urban and rural areas and in promoting collaborative networks between private and public actors. On the other hand, many critiques have been advanced regarding: the undermined capacity of RDAs to pursue strategic aims due to the lack of dis­cretionary power and resources (Fuller et al., 2002);the central government's excessive leading role and the questionable appointment of key executives and board members;the vague identification of responsibilities and legitimacy among all the public agencies involved leading to the creation of ‘cosy circles' of public and private insiders (Pike, 2002); the worsening of the landscape of governance through the emergence of ‘numerous tangled hierarchies and perplexing policy networks' (Jones and Macleod, 2011, p. 264) in the South West region. In the United Kingdom, a similar debate concerns now the functions of LEPs, especially in a time of low growth and weak labour market performance (Ward and Hardy, 2013).

10. In this regard, Felsenstein (1999, p. 1415) stresses the issue of whether RDAs ‘make for greater transparency or simply increase the smoke-screen.'

11. Bianchi and Labory (2004) discuss the growing importance of intangible assets in contemporary economies, while Di Tommaso et al. (2004) explore the geograph­ical and clustering implications.

12. For instance, Red ADELCO is supporting the introduction of an ICO (Organiza­tional Capacity Index) as an instrument for self-assessment in relation to LEDAs' performances.

13. In Colombia, LEDAs are connected to the UNDP ART REDES Program.

14. The findings reported here are derived from a multi-method qualitative research methodology adopted by Ferrannini and Canzanelli (2013) to explore in depth context-sensitive and interactive processes (Yin, 1984). In particular, 21 semi­structured interviews with local stakeholders and entrepreneurs and one focus group discussion with LEDA's staff were conducted in 2012.

15. Firms' capabilities lie at the core of their ability to respond rapidly to changing environments (Nelson and Winter, 1982;Teece et al., 1997), build on avail­able inputs, endowments and pre-set attributes, and utilize complex learning procedures and the accumulation and absorption of external knowledge, eventu­ally embodied in new products, processes and organizational arrangements (von Tunzelmann and Wang, 2003).

16. It does not constitute an administrative region, as the regional government tier is absent in Serbia.

17. Historically, the region has gained the title of the crossroads of Serbia. Today it is crossed by both the international A10 and the railway network, along routes connecting Central and Eastern Europe to South-East Europe and Turkey that allow product distribution to national and international markets.

18. This includes training of managers for local economic development, the training of firms' managers and training for the unemployed in accounting and office management.

6 A "Policy-Enabling Space" for SHD at the Local Level

1. The notion of "crisis" is central in explaining accelerated searches for policy solutions (Hay, 1999).

2. In this respect, Nelson and Winter (1982, p. 413) argue that

to recommend reasonable policy for a particular case, it is necessary to assess the existing institutional framework in detail, to make tentative judgments about an uncertain future, to draw on the fund of experience with related problems, and-above all-to recognize that new information will be coming in as the future unfolds.

3. See, for instance, Caldera Ortega and Coronado Ramirez (2012) and several con­tributions from HEGOA (among others Dubois Migoya et al., 2011;Villalba et al., 2011). In addition, this topic has also become the subject of debate at recent annual conferences of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA).

4. According to van den Bergh and Kallis (2009, pp. 14-15), ‘Policy ideas (shared understandings of explanations of problems or specific solutions) and discourses (concepts and categorizations that give meaning to physical and social realities) are important vehicles for simplifying complex information and constructing mental maps that bring together individual actors into communities.'

5. In Sen's view (2002, p. 81), ‘we have to celebrate political activism related to class­based resistance, or anti-racist struggle, or feminist challenges, as an integral part of the process of social justice.'

6. According to MacKinnon et al. (2009, p. 137), ‘Existing patterns of social inequal­ity shape the socialization of individual agents and influence the extent to which individuals and groups participate in socioeconomic activity.'

7. This underlines the conflict between profit holders and the living conditions of the working population, permitted by subsistence and net wages (Sraffa, 1960; Picchio, 2011).

8. This often leads to paternalistic and even clienteral attitudes of decision-makers in different government tiers and organizations for international cooperation.

9. MacKinnon et al. (2009, p. 140) stress ‘the need to view local and regional adap­tation in the context of national political economies, overcoming the tendency of institutional economic geography to neglect this missing link.'

10. Participation is ‘re-articulated within broader processes of social and political struggle in order to facilitate the recovery of social transformation in the world of twenty-first century capitalism' (Leal, 2007, p. 539).

11. According to Chopra and Duraiappah (2008, p. 368), ‘the degree of freedom available to individuals at any moment is dependent on the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions.'

12. Stewart (2013, p. 17) provides the following example: ‘in relation to regulations and norms, policies need to support health-promoting behaviour and dis­courage or even outlaw health-destroying behaviour; similarly, with respect to discriminatory behaviour, whether by gender or by ethnic or other groups.'

13. According to Helmsing (2001, p. 13), ‘the most pervasive form of learning is that of social learning in policy and planning in relation to LED initiatives', as expe­rienced in the new generation of Latin American local and regional development practices.

14. Sen (1999 and 2009) points out that the expansion of freedoms is linked to the development of agency freedom. Therefore, democratic societies should aim to create capabilities (Nussbaum, 2011) and "produce" capable agents (Bonvin and Galster, 2010) and communities. Fostering these conditions entails strong cultural change (Mance, 2003), which has to start with (i) the educational systems based on pedagogical instruments towards complex thinking (critical, creative and caring) and other relational faculties (Biggeri and Santi, 2012);and (ii) the introduction of new forms of children's and youths' participation in civil society and decision-making processes (Scuola di Barbiana, 1967;Freire, 1994;Biggeri et al., 2011a - chapter 16). In her view of "education for free­dom" (i.e. for democratic citizenship), Martha Nussbaum (2006b) emphasizes that a national public education of good quality is crucial to the health of democracy.

15. As Acemoglu and Robinson (2006) emphasize, institutions depend on the distri­bution of power, de facto and de jure, between different groups in a society which are engaged in conflict over the distribution of resources.

16. The Arab Spring is a clear-cut example of similar long-term processes.

17. These arguments attempt to acommodate Nelson and Winter's (1982) view that ‘an evolutionary perspective can provide insight into what the economic system "ought" to be doing' and ‘the concept of a social optimum disappears' (Nelson and Winter (1982, p. 402) to the perspective of SHD at the local level.

18. For instance, Frediani et al. (2015, forthcoming) highlight that it cannot be taken for granted that high-quality deliberation in itself will overcome the structural conditions that affect the unprivileged groups.

19. Similarly to what Nelson and Winter (1982) argue regarding their evolutionary theory, in comparison to orthodox analysis our perspective entails normative analyses ‘more sensible and be more accessible to other participants in the policy discussion' (Nelson and Winter, 1982, p. 404).

20. Such as PDHL programs, the UNDP ART Global Initiative (see Chapter 4), and various DFID projects (Stern et al., 2012).

21. For example, decentralization policies (DeLog, 2011) and cluster initiatives (Schmiedeberg, 2010).

22. For example, community-based rehabilitation programs (Biggeri et al., 2012).

23. Traditional linear evaluations usually give attention only to available inputs and to individual final outcomes, excluding procedural information that could be of great importance to understand how and why development programs succeed or fail. Moreover, this limited focus does not provide policymakers with information that looks beyond the impact on beneficiaries, which is necessary for analysing the performance of the project.

24. The subjective, cognitive and reflective position of people needs to be understood in view of the actual constraints and opportunities within their social, cultural, economic and political environments (Biggeri and Libanora, 2011).

25. ‘A study qualifies as adopting a mixed methods approach if qualitative data collection and analysis are explicitly included in the study design' (White, 2008, p. 4).