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Cultural heritage1 is increasingly prone to the impact of natural hazards such as floods, landslides, and storms. The risk of floods is considered the most common and most destructive risk for cultural heritage (Li et al., 2017). It is... more
Cultural heritage1 is increasingly prone to the impact of natural hazards such as floods, landslides, and storms. The risk of floods is considered the most common and most destructive risk for cultural heritage (Li et al., 2017). It is expected that as a result of climate change, there will be an increase in frequency and severity of natural hazards, including floods, in the near future (IPCC, 2012).
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 is an international agreement, striving to reduce disaster risk, as well as “(…) economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries (…)” (UNISDR, 2015). Also in the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) an explicit reference is made to cultural heritage (European Commission, 2007).2
Reducing the adverse impacts that floods can have on cultural heritage is highly important, especially within the context of climate change (Arnbjerg-Nielsen et al., 2013; Pelling, 2011). The aim of disaster risk management (DRM) is to reduce disaster risks by trying to avoid, limit, or enhance the preparedness for response capacity. Flood risk management thereby encompasses the three components of prevention, mitigation, and preparedness (UNISDR, 2009).
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This paper explores how the conceptual elements of inclusive innovation theory can enhance similar approaches developed in the European context. In post-productivist, sustainable agriculture, bottom-up networks provide alternative sites... more
This paper explores how the conceptual elements of inclusive innovation theory can enhance similar approaches developed in the European context. In post-productivist, sustainable agriculture, bottom-up networks provide alternative sites of innovation to the official systems of knowledge creation, driving a focus on inclusive innovation. However, the origination and spread of inclusive innovation in sustainable agriculture depends on many social and economic factors. This article offers a framework to analyse these factors and their effect on the innovation capacity of networks in sustainable agriculture. We consider both internal and external dimensions of innovation, and also their interplay in a dynamic system. We describe the internal factors that shape the functioning of innovation networks in terms of organizational dynamism, while external factors are examined in terms of relational dynamism. We argue that reflexive adaptation to changing circumstances holds the key to successful innovation pathways. To illustrate our ideas, two Hungarian case studies are used, based on the EU-funded SOLINSA research project.
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In response to a growing awareness of the consumers across Europe, efforts towards improvements of food marketing have been intensifying during the last decades. Targeted actions to tackle these challenges have been undertaken by rural... more
In response to a growing awareness of the consumers across Europe, efforts towards improvements of food marketing have been intensifying during the last decades. Targeted actions to tackle these challenges have been undertaken by rural communities, public and private sector, including large multinational companies. This paper looks at the various approaches fostered within the EU Rural Development Programmes. We review different types of marketing schemes relevant for EU rural areas, affected by both market and public sector mechanisms. Social components have been frequently added to these, based on voluntary, bottom-up processes and quality control, and embedded in local community and economic development. We claim that social marketing can be effectively combined with the public support available under the EU rural development policy and help food producers to gain better access to markets. The value that social networking and bottom-up rural development represent in the marketing of local products is essential for food-driven innovation in rural areas. Our paper presents an analysis of projects from the database of the European Network for Rural Development, clustered around different social marketing components.
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There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a... more
There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a diverse range of sustainability issues,  here we identify a specific need to recognise and respond appropriately to the nexus between human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services (the ‘WUE nexus’). This nexus is a priority area for research, policy and practice. In particular, it provides a useful pathway to meet the challenges of successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this brief, we present the following policy recommendations:
1. By emphasising urban-rural linkages, foster an integrated approach to ensure food security, food safety, and health promotion;
2. Secure resilient livelihoods for all, in particular for vulnerable groups; and
3. Integrate co-production of knowledge in science for decision-making, including the co-design of implementation frameworks, and the adoption of a nexus approach.
There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a... more
There is an urgent need to address interlinked sustainability issues in a world challenged by inequality, finite resources and
unprecedented changes across Earth’s systems. As Future Earth Fellows, based on our collective expertise in a diverse range of
sustainability issues, here we identify a specific need to recognise and respond appropriately to the nexus between human health and wellbeing, urbanisation, and ecosystem services (the ‘WUE nexus’).
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This paper discusses the key features of collective efforts to enhance biodiversity in the European agricultural systems.
In 2014 the Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management (Forster Centre), the state agency responsible for the management of a certain number of state-owned cultural heritage (CH) sites in Hungary, started a project... more
In 2014 the Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management (Forster Centre), the state agency responsible for the management of a certain number of state-owned cultural heritage (CH) sites in Hungary, started a project dedicated to exploring socio-economic impacts of investments into built CH. The key objectives of the project are: 1) To develop a complex methodology for the measurement of socio-economic impacts of CH; 2) To provide a reasonable justification for spending on restoration of historically valuable buildings; and  3) To equip local communities with knowledge and skills necessary to valuate such works in the future. The project (currently work in progress), is developing a multidisciplinary methodology for socio-economic impact assessment, integrating various types of knowledge and research methods. Here, besides the methodological approach we present some results of the first pilot study in Sirok.
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In this paper we propose a comparative perspective on Europeanization of rural policies in the post-socialist realm. We focus here specifically on two countries – Hungary and Poland, as well as situate them in a wider relational framework... more
In this paper we propose a comparative perspective on Europeanization of rural policies in the post-socialist realm. We focus here specifically on two countries – Hungary and Poland, as well as situate them in a wider relational framework – alongside the ‘old’ EU Member States. This exercise, a research in progress, revealed that Europeanization has been a one-way process, oriented mainly on copying and pasting ‘Western’ policy models into newly accepted EU countries. We argue that effectiveness of this effort has been hindered by the lack of detailed survey and recognition of dissimilarities between various EU countries.
In this paper we elaborate on the concept of engaged scholarship, focusing on relationships between researchers and Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSAs). We examine the current EU rural policy rhetoric,... more
In this paper we elaborate on the concept of engaged scholarship, focusing on relationships between researchers and Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSAs). We examine the current EU rural policy rhetoric, promoting closer linkages between scholars and practitioners to foster innovation, and the actual state of art. The study has been based on the experiences gained with the recent EU FP7-funded project SOLINSA and four workshops at major rural events. Here we suggest that alongside formal arrangements for research-practice partnerships, action research can offer promising methodological solutions to facilitate them. There is still, however, a lack of wider recognition of this methodology in the tenure process as well as capacities of researchers in working this way. Thus more effort should be undertaken to promote it, in order to foster capacity building of researchers and managing change in the academia. We conclude the following paper with some recommendations in this respect and ideas for further investigations.
This paper intends to raise discussion on the concept of community-engaged scholarship with special regard to networking between rural researchers and community development actors. We present some results of an Open Discussion workshop... more
This paper intends to raise discussion on the concept of community-engaged scholarship with special regard to networking between rural researchers and community development actors. We present some results of an Open Discussion workshop held at the 2013 ENRD LEADER Event in Brussels, organised for representatives of Local Action Groups (LAGs) and other stakeholders to provide quality input for the current programming of the new EU rural development policy. Our particular workshop was dedicated to identification of how researchers can support the work of LEADER LAGs and how they could do this more efficiently in the future under the new era of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD).
This paper provides an overview of EU rural development policy delivery in Poland, including such topics as multifunctional agriculture and governance arrangements. The analysis has been strongly rooted in evidence from programming... more
This paper provides an overview of EU rural development policy delivery in Poland, including such topics as multifunctional agriculture and governance arrangements. The analysis has been strongly rooted in evidence from programming documents and interviews with stakeholders.
The Western Balkan region is exposed to various natural hazards such as floods, landslides, storms, droughts, forest fires and earthquakes. With the changing climate, the occurrence and intensity of these hazards is increasing... more
The Western Balkan region is exposed to various natural hazards such as floods, landslides, storms, droughts, forest fires and earthquakes. With the changing climate, the occurrence and intensity of these hazards is increasing significantly. In this chapter, we focus on the socio-economic and environmental driving factors that challenge and constrain disaster risk reduction in the Western Balkan Countries. This study is based on the thorough literature survey and interviews with relevant stakeholders dealing with disaster risk reduction in the region. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the current national disaster risk reduction systems within the context of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015–2030 as well as within the Western Balkan countries’ EU accession efforts. Our study reveals that despite the availability of numerous tools to support effective DRR for agriculture, such as e.g. the existence of advanced geospatial data and platforms, the capacities on the ground remain insufficient to tackle the challenges in line with the expectations of various stakeholders. We conclude with action points that can help to advance the current state of play.
This chapter explores transition and system innovation theory in a non-European context though the case of an agro-ecological innovation, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in India. SRI presents smallholder farmers with a radical... more
This chapter explores transition and system innovation theory in a non-European context though the case of an agro-ecological innovation, the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in India. SRI presents smallholder farmers with a radical alternative to productivity enhancement
beyond the Green Revolution strategy of high external inputs and/or super-varieties. The chapter traces the dynamic evolution of SRI in India and compares SRI in three different states to highlight the diversity of technical and institutional arrangements in system innovation. The
case highlights the importance of diversity and the role of networks in complex and multi-actor innovation systems. Technological lock-ins and institutional rigidities in existing policy regimes, we argue, provide little scope for user innovation and systematic learning of actors.
A better understanding of the politics of knowledge and contestations amongst actors is essential for managing sustainability transitions in developing countries where knowledge hierarchies are strong. Formal and informal networks play important roles in enabling the
expression of the plurality of ideas. These networks, often in conjunction with institutional experiments such as learning alliances, act as ‘sustainability brokers’ and ensure greater horizontal linkages between experiments at micro-levels and between regimes at the mesolevel.
On the basis of this study we conclude that non-research actors comprehend complexity and show greater capacity for learning and experimentation than hitherto acknowledged. Therefore, we recommend that future policies need to focus more on the adaptive capacities and social learning of actors through processes of collective experimentation.
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As in the social innovation literature, the role of initiators / agentic engines is highlighted, the purpose of the paper is to deepen the understanding of initiators in the social innovation process and to further develop its evaluation.... more
As in the social innovation literature, the role of initiators / agentic engines is highlighted, the purpose of the paper is to deepen the understanding of initiators in the social innovation process and to further develop its evaluation. Accepting that the role of individuals is one of the most important aspects of the social innovation process, the main question posed in this study is how to develop the evaluation of this aspect further, and how to make it more objective. To get a deeper understanding of agentic engines, beyond literature review a group profile of selected social innovators is analysed. The results are based on their Profile XT personal competence assessments (provided by Profiles International Hunga-ry) as well as in-depth interviews with them. The research reveals four elements for rating initiators: having a vision (purpose driven), being interested in serving people (Relationship System Intelligence), being proactive (positive attitude) and having a diverse network (outsider and insider).
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Around the year 2010, the research field of “transition studies” was gaining increasing attention and was developing into a true research community with the advent of the “Sustainability Transitions Research Network” (STRN), the... more
Around the year 2010, the research field of “transition studies” was gaining increasing attention and was developing into a true research community with the advent of the “Sustainability Transitions Research Network” (STRN), the organisation of annual international sustainability transition (IST) conferences, and the launch of a scientific journal, named “Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions”. Concerning the topics addressed within this emerging field, the domain of agriculture was studied by only a small number scholars. This constituted an important omission given the major role this domain plays in global challenges like food provision, depletion of minerals, curbing CO2 emissions, etc.

Seeking to fill this gap, researchers from ‘Wageningen University & Research’ in the Netherlands (WUR) and the ‘Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique’ in France (INRA) took the initiative to organize a first international workshop on the topic of “System Innovation towards Sustainable Agriculture” (SISA). This first SISA workshop was held in June 2010 in Lelystad, the Netherlands, and its proceedings were published online in 2012. The INRA Science in Society unit organized the second SISA workshop in Paris from 22-23 May 2014 that was hosted by AgroParisTech. Financial support was received from INRA, IFRIS and WUR. This proceedings is a result from the second SISA workshop.
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"Title in English: Evaluation of LEADER: Between centralisation and participation. The following chapter discusses issues related with evaluation of LEADER as a mechanism of delivering EU rural policy. While analysing EU regulatory... more
"Title in English: Evaluation of LEADER: Between centralisation and participation.
The following chapter discusses issues related with evaluation of LEADER as a mechanism of delivering EU rural policy. While analysing EU regulatory framework and centralised policy delivery systems in Poland, I take a look at practical needs of Local Action Groups. In particular, the need has been recognised to enhance participation of rural society in creating policy via evaluation mechanisms and that could complement the existing rigid framework."