PART I A Bottom-up Perspective on Territorial Policy Initiatives Under the European Union Introduction

The chapters included in this section of the book present case studies of local experiences of urban and rural policies within different EU member states (Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, the UK). They allow one to highlight processes of change in the national and local arenas of territorial policy.1 Although these processes of change are very different in form and intensity, they can be traced back in several different ways to the interactions between national and local territorial dynamics and the European integration processes.