ABSTRACT
LEADER started as a real-life laboratory for the new rural paradigm in 1991 and has since developed into a mainstream policy for European rural development. Over almost 30 years of operation, it has certainly left a very significant mark on European rurality, facilitating LEADER Local Action Groups (LAGS) and local development practitioners to: absorb central resources and unlock local ones, empower local communities and create a framework for integrated rural development. Proposed major changes to CAP, under which LEADER is funded as well as the United Kingdom’s secession from the EU, make this a fitting juncture to explore the spatial justice contribution of the LEADER programme. In particular, this chapter seeks to discover whether LEADER has been able to fulfil the promise of autonomy that has inspired and motivated its participants, and how this relates to its spatial justice impacts. The enablers and barriers to autonomy for local development actions and strategies have been a particular focus of the RELOCAL project. This chapter starts out with a theoretical presentation of the concept of autonomy, focusing on Clark’s important distinction between powers of initiation and powers of immunity, and unpacking the seven autonomy dimensions generated through RELOCAL. It then goes on to introduce the evolution of the LEADER programme since its inception in 1991, and to map the dimensions of autonomy against the core LEADER principles that have continued to inform the programme. The three case study rural LAGs – Balaton Uplands in Hungary, Mara-Natur in Romania and Northumberland Uplands in England – are introduced in relation to their national and local contexts, with the account centred on recent iterations. Each case study LAG is reviewed in relation to the seven dimensions of autonomy and their associated LEADER principles, enabling cross-national comparisons and, to some extent, reflections on the programme’s evolution over time. In the chapter’s conclusion, LEADER’s (mainly diminishing) autonomy is related to cohesion and spatial justice impacts, drawing out implications for the programme’s future.
