11th Edition - Building strategies for local development in LAC countries in time of the Covid-19 pandemic
The organisers maintain their strong commitment to the Summer School in 2020 based on the belief that, recovery from the crisis, reconstruction and relaunch will start with the development of local communities, which would need capabilities in place to make this happen.
The 2020 edition will be organised in two stages:
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the e.Summer, through an e-learning and on-line exchange platform from June to September 2020
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the final webinar on 9 October 2020
Background
The main scope of the Summer School is the promotion of local development, i.e. promoting the understanding and acknowledgment by both public and private actors of the analysed territories’ capital factors (“Territorial Capital” and its conceptual dimensions) that contribute to build local development strategies. Such strategies are further considered to be the basis for any transformation process aimed at guaranteeing better lives for the local communities residing in the selected geographical territories.
The role and the strategic capacity of local actors, together with the commitment to collaborate and coordinate actions towards the design of a "shared future”, represent key elements of development processes rooted in local contexts, in which differences should be exploited as opportunities rather than considered as barriers.
In this way it is possible to promote strong ties between regions and communities; and to design development strategies with a multi-dimensional nature, able to integrate the different dimensions – cognitive, social, infrastructural and ecosystemic - of the "territorial capital". Addressing territorial capital is an effective way to face global challenges and to increase communities’ ability to operate and adapt to economic, social and environmental transformations. Moreover, it is essential for local actors to have the required skills to develop the knowledge and specific skills to promote regional partnerships based on integrated public policies, and to be able to value their own human, environmental and institutional resources.
This ability to create relevant social networks, integrating different approaches and experiences, underlies the work methodology developed during the Summer School. The project represents the meeting point of innovative experiences in terms of community development practices performed in the context of the Trentino region in Italy, and in the most varied realities of the Latin American countries. In this way, constructive comparisons under different reading frameworks are strongly encouraged. In other words, the Summer School aims to develop a dialogue between European and Latin American actors who may guide a process of continual redefinition and adaptation of local development strategies.
Objectives
- Sharing concepts and ideas on sustainable local development based on comparison of local experiences form Italy and Latin America, looking for new strategic synthese.
- Providing common interpretation tools and understanding the particularities of selected local experiences, identifying and analysing the main highlights from applied projects and practices aimed at promoting local development according to existing territorial capital.
- Promoting online and offline constructive social networks among participants in order to efficiently exchange relevant knowledge, practical experiences and work methodologies, on local development.
Methodology
- Active involvement of the participants before the beginning of the Summer School in order to prepare the case study that each will take to the Summer School.
- A modular programme structure: one different topic is developed each day.
- Three basic inputs are stressed: participants’ Latin American case studies, local experiences in Trentino (Italy), and inputs from experts.
- Insertion of theoretical/methodological “essentials”.
- “Field visits” are conducted to concrete local initiatives in Trentino (Italy).
- Applied practical orientation is highly prioritized.
- An active participatory approach and efficient exchange of knowledge/experience among participants before, during and after, the Summer School’s programme are promoted.
The Summer School is based on active exchange of participants’ knowledge and experiences (multi-stakeholder open dialogue). Thus, the case study described in the on-line registration form is considered to be a fundamental condition for registration, and will be presented and discussed during the Summer School’s sessions. If selected, the proposed case study cannot be changed or disregarded.
Participation
Participants should be strongly committed to local development topics and activities. They should currently work (or at least they should have working experience) in public institutions (national, regional, provincial or local governments, development agencies, research centres, international organizations) or private organisations (foundations, co-operatives, NGOs, grassroots community organisations, non-profit entities, etc.) active in the field of local, community, economic and social development.
Participants (maximum of 35) should have nationality and residence in a Latin America country to the date of application. The Summer School is organised in co-operation with EAFIT University from Medellin (Colombia), for whom a quota of places are reserved.
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8 Jun-20 Sept & 9 Oct 2020 
Remote participation 
