Ethnography of Territorial Development Policies: the case of LEADER and SNAI in two Alpine areas

Séance en anglais. 

The research starts from the evolution of the participatory component in local development policies, offering a comparative qualitative analysis of two key approaches: the National Strategy of Inner Areas (SNAI), an Italian place-based policy, and the European LEADER approach, a tool of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). While these strategies share the common goal of revitalising rural and marginal areas, they differ in how they engage local communities and stakeholders: SNAI emphasises co-design with local authorities, stakeholders, and communities to tackle socio-economic challenges, whereas the LEADER approach adopts a bottom-up model, engaging local actors through the LAGs’ grassroots animation activities. The research is based on two case studies: the Grand Paradis SNAI Inner Area in Aosta Valley and LAG EVV (GAL Escartons e Valli Valdesi) in Piedmont. Building on qualitative methods and ethnographic fieldwork, the research now focuses on comparing the two participatory approaches through the lens of the COPP framework (Comparison of Participatory Processes). The findings aim at highlighting the importance of well-structured participatory processes in local development policies and how these strategies can be adapted to meet local needs, contributing both to a deeper understanding of a participatory process as a lived practice and to better resonate with territorial specificities and community dynamics.