<< Objectives >>The project goal is to strengthen the capacity of citizens and local organisations to participate in the creation of sustainable development strategies, aimed at strengthening the economic and environmental resilience of rural territories. To this purpose, CoRoots aims to create a strategic partnership for co-learning and collaboration between cross-sectoral organisations such as research, social innovation platforms, local development organisations and university centres.<< Implementation >>Spaces for multidisciplinary co-learning through two lines of work. The first consists of three activities for the Exchange of Good Practices in Social Innovation and Citizen Participation in rural environments. The second line of work is to create spaces for discussion and collaboration, in order to generate alliances that will strengthen work in the field of rural development.The learning from the project will be integrated by in an experience of Participatory Local Development in Portugal.<< Results >>RESULTS: Training of 15 adult learners in Social Innovation and citizen participation. Creation of a strategic partnership, allowing to enrich the approaches and capacity for action of the participating organisations; facilitating the creation of synergies, through the identification of common challenges in the European context; and the Elaboration of 1 Didactic Guide with Good Practice Experiences.

Social capital is “capital” that increases the social, political and economic effectiveness of society. Its main elements are consisted of interpersonal trust, social networks, norms, institutions and participation. The components, types and use of social capital by individuals in rural areas are of great importance for rural development policies. Social capital plays an important role in the regional and rural development strategies of the European Union (EU). Similarly, in recent years in Turkey, social capital has also become a very important concept in rural development policies. Strengthening of social capital is essential for developing rural areas, increasing entrepreneurship and its sustainability, strengthening rural governance and local capacity and developing rural cooperation as Turkey has series problems in each of these areas. The number of (both economic and social) entrepreneurs is inadequate, especially in rural areas in Turkey. Social capital enables entrepreneurship and facilitate entrepreneurs overcome resource restrictions. In today's world, financial capital alone is not sufficient for entrepreneurial success. Social capital is an important resource in ensuring the effective use of social networks.There are a number of problems with agricultural organisation in Turkey due to the lack of good management of rural/agricultural organisations and human resources. The development of social capital in rural areas will contribute to the elimination of these problems related to rural organisation.This need is felt not only for traditional agriculture / rural production-related activities, but also in the governance of short supply chains and rural tourism marketing, which leads to significant changes in the dynamics of the rural areas (Giray, et al. 2019). The number of failed enterprises in this field is increasing. This is because people do not have the skills to work together within these newly created structures. For this reason, the strengthening of social capital in the rural communities is urgently needed.The project is designed to prepare a set of training modules on the subject of Social Capital in Rural Communities for Rural Development for trainers in Ministry of National Education (MoNE). The training set will include e-learning modules for trainers in Public Training Centers of MoNE, short video shows for rural residents (rural learners). Implementation Guide for the Country and Situaiton and Good Practice Examples of Social Capital across Europe. The target groups of the training modules will be adult trainers working in Public Training Centers and experts of MoAF. Rural residents especially local leaders in rural areas are also the the most important target group and beneficiaries of the project in terms of intellectual outputs.The main content of the training and intellectual outputs will be; 1.Definition of the concept of social capital 2.Components of social capital 3.Resources of Social capital4.Types of social capital5.Role of social capital in local and rural development6.Needs for social capital7.How to develop social capital8.Measuring social capitalWithin the scope of the Project, the experience of Public Training Centers of MoNE in adult education and experiences of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF) in agricutural extension for those living in rural areas will be brought together within the scope of SOCIALcapital.The main objective of this Project is to provide an extensive training program for the adult trainers from MoNE who will train the rural residents on the subject of “Social Capital in Rural Communities for Rural Development”. Within the Project, the trainers from MoAF will also be trained on the same subject in order to support the target groups/project beneficiaries when they use E-Learning Training Modules.These objectives will be reached by providing adult trainers from MoNE with e-learning training materials and a short training course at a partner that will strengthen their knowledge and competences on the subject of social capital. In addition 12 trainers and 4 experts from MoAF will attend short training courses in a partner country.The project consortium is consisted of six partners; three Universities, a Research Institute and two Ministries. All partners are listed below:•Agricultural Training Center Of Ministry Of Agriculture And Forestry, Turkey•General Directorate of Lifelong Learning of the Ministry Of National Education ,Turkey•Evora University, Portugal•Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Turkey•Technical University of Madrid, Spain•Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research, Austria

EU's agricultural and forestry land provides a wide range of public goods (PG) and ecosystem services (ESS) on which society depends, yet land use decisions and society often under-value these . PEGASUS will develop innovative, practical ways of making PG and ESS concepts accessible and operational: it will identify how, where and when cost-effective mechanisms and tools for policy, business and practice can most effectively be applied, increasing the sustainability of primary production in pursuit of the EU2020 vision of 'smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'. Recognising that the appreciation of PGs is context-dependent, PEGASUS uses social-ecological systems as an analytical framework to explore systemic inter-dependencies among natural, social and economic processes. It will adopt participatory action research with public and private actors and stakeholders to better understand the range of policy and practical challenges in different case study contexts (localities, sectors, management systems, etc.). An EU-level spatially explicit assessment of causalities between socio-political and institutional drivers, different land management systems and multiple delivery of PG will be complemented by fine-grained analysis within the case studies, and comparative meta-analysis will be applied to develop an operational framework for mapping, valorising and determining what PG and ecosystem service (ES) provision is needed and feasible within particular territories and sectors. New data-sets, transferable methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts will be generated. By improving recognition of the social and economic value of PG, PEGASUS will promote improved and innovative approaches to their provision by businesses and communities, and highlight specific policy improvements. It will provide specific advances in CAP, forestry and other relevant policies, underpinned by strong scientific evidence.

European rural areas, face societal, demographic, economic and environmental pressures due to global transformations and crises. They are in need of a renewal by social innovation that increases their resilience and reduces the adverse effects on their socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Unbalanced development impacts their populations’ lively-hoods and well-being in general, but it affects the most those people who are already in precarious and fragile positions. SERIGO produces evidence-based theoretical and practicable knowledge on how the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can support resilience, social inclusion, and ‘good life’ in European rural areas. Based on the research results produced, the aim is also to provide insights and recommendations on what framework conditions and policy arrangements are necessary to promote this, as well as to trigger constructive debates and collaborations around this issue involving diverse set of stakeholders in Europe. The project applies an intersectional perspective to vulnerability, as well as implements critical systems thinking in combination with community-based participatory research to investigate potentials of the social economy in promoting social inclusion and in enhancing the quality and accessibility of services in rural areas. Empirical data is gathered in a high number of qualitative case studies from 13 countries on social economy solutions implemented in local contexts. Using the multi-actor approach, SERIGO benefits from more nuanced and ’live’ insights into the drivers of social exclusion offered through the lenses of local stakeholders working together with researchers on co-created experimental pilots in five European regions. SERIGO ensures also with a system of deliberate feedback loops, dedicated multi-level policy workshops and a sustained thematic community of practice that the new knowledge generated is pertinent and applicable, and all its outputs have high exploitable potential.