Capitale sociale e approccio LEADER: dalla teoria all’applicazione

Abstract

Intangible resources like social capital (SC), if supported by proper governance mechanisms, can positively influence rural development processes. Within the EU LEADER Approach, through the stakeholders’ cooperation and the creation of networks, Local Action Groups (LAGs) should generate SC. This paper, on the basis of empirical evidences collected through questionnaires to 9 LAGs (case-studies) in 4 Italian regions, provides a set of 96 innovative indicators for understanding how the structural and cognitive SC contribute to increasing LEADER performance. Results consist of analytical descriptions of indicators’ values for different LAGs and comparisons among indicators, which allow stressing causes of excellence in each explored dimension of SC.