Kourtelis - From Neglect to Selective Engagement (final).pdf (571.36 kB)
From neglect to selective engagement: The EU approach to rural development in the Arab Mediterranean after the Arab uprisings
journal contribution
posted on 2018-04-10, 10:08 authored by Christos KourtelisAfter the Arab uprisings, the EU designed a new regional programme for the development of the agricultural sector of the European Neighbourhood Policy partners. The European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) is based on an integrated logic for rural development. This new conceptual framework advocates multi-sectoral planning and the active participation of local actors in the decision-making process in order to promote inclusive growth and to support small and medium enterprises. This approach aims to contribute to the security and stability of the rural areas of the Arab Mediterranean partners. This paper analyses ENPARD and it argues that the inclusion of new actors in the design of the programme has partially challenged established views of policy-makers within the EU. However, EU engagement in this area is still determined by a hierarchical mode that puts local actors at the bottom of the decision-making process and it is driven by a technocratic ratchet mechanism that fits new information into existing cognitive frames. Despite some positive changes in national policies, the paper claims that this type of technocratic engineering does not change social relations in rural areas and it undermines the success of the programme.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Published in
Mediterranean PoliticsVolume
23Issue
1Pages
23 - 42Citation
KOURTELIS, C., 2017. From neglect to selective engagement: The EU approach to rural development in the Arab Mediterranean after the Arab uprisings. Mediterranean Politics, 23 (1), pp.23-42.Publisher
© Taylor & FrancisVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2017-07-31Notes
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mediterranean Politics on 31 July 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13629395.2017.1358897.ISSN
1362-9395eISSN
1743-9418Publisher version
Language
- en