Policy Brief 1

The Role of the Local in Improving Cohesion and Spatial Justice: integrating place-based with top-down approaches to local development

There is growing concern about the increasing lack of positive identification with the European project by citizens. Persistent regional disparities and increasing social injustices with marked spatial effects in localities are part of this trajectory and need to be addressed by the European policy community.

One specific approach to tackling this challenge is to focus on the ‘local’. RELOCAL’s contribution to this is to shed light on how place-based approaches can support the enhancement of spatial justice and territorial cohesion, that is, a fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and the opportunities to use them. The RELOCAL researchers have carefully selected 33 locality-based/targeted ‘Actions’ (case studies) from all over Europe that represent different welfare regimes, rural and urban areas, disadvantaged and better-off localities and various cultural and historical contexts.