Last week we had a kick-off meeting of the DERREG research project in Brussels. DERREG is the acronym for  ‘Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization’.  The project will last for three years and involves 9 partners from 8 EU-countries and 10 case-study-areas.  Aim is to study how, especially disadvantaged regions respond to key-challenges arising from globalization. Focus is on rural business, migration, sustainable development and capacity building.

The Rural Sociology Group, in my person, will coordinate a workpackage called ‘Capacity building, governance and knowlegde systems’. We will study how public policies and knowledge-infrastructure are connected to bottum up initiaves and thus facilitate regional learning. And, in the end, recommend stakeholders how this regional learning can be further improved.

Coming months we will start up research activities and soon a website will be launched with detailed information. And we will keep you posted at our blog.