Provided by Research Papers in Economics
Andra Aldea-Partanen, Jouni Ponnikas,
Lonnrot Institute, Kajaani University Consortium, University of Oulu, Kajaani, Finland
From Aurora Borealis to Carpathians. Searching the Road to Regional and Rural
Development
Abstract
This paper aims at analysing the current regional and rural development tools available for Romania
and Finland, as well as common encountered problems and differences in the local realities. The
theoretical framework covers contemporary concepts typical for regional development and for rural
development, such as learning regions, knowledge creation, social networks, innovation, bottom-up
versus top-down approaches, and social, cultural and economical sustainable development.
References to the specific problems encountered in remote areas or related to the communities with
limited access to various resources are made and the existing policy trends are compared.
Rural reality embraces very particular characteristics both in Romania and Finland. However, the
history trends have been different and the actual situation of countries’ economy indicates a
potential of learning in case of Romania and available solutions to similar problems in case of
Finland. Still, transferring models and solutions is not an easy task and the particular challenges
encountered in Nordic knowledge transfer projects are mentioned as a starting point helping to
formulate assumptions related to the impediment to be expected in such a transfer case.
Project Cycle Management in its newest version is brought in the discussion in an attempt to asses
in what extent its recommendation could be useful and applied in the case of rural development
programmes. The potential quality increase and the high technicality of the used terms are some of
the analysed features of project Cycle Management.
The concrete examples used in the paper are based on the interviews carried on by the authors in
different and common research and evaluation projects in Finland and Romania. The paper brings
into discussion the lacks existent in rural and regional development policy in an EU country and an
accession one, as they appear using the initially proposed theoretical framework. Recommendations
to be followed in the coming years are suggested in this paper evaluating comparatively some of the
existent problems affecting local development.