Fostering collective action effectiveness for local rural development : Conceptualizing purposive interaction of social and human capital between decision-makers and project-owners/managers in northern Swedish NUTS-SE33 LEADER-territories

Abstract: Aiming to contribute to its collective action in informing about the problem of an organisation-internal weak and amorphous interaction-gap and its recommended solution, this thesis utilises the discussion and conceptualisations of territorial, human and social capital to derive an analytical insight into roles, relations and interactions within a Local Action Group (LAG) and LEADER. The European rural and local development methodology is studied with abductive and deductive research strategies, making use of a NUTS-SE33 case-study, extensive questionnaire and document analytical methods. Findings show the gap in-between the roles of the decision-maker and project-owner/manager, that if closed with a deliberate, purposive interaction could foster, so act conducive, supportive and reinforcing, the result-oriented effectiveness and revert negative implications. These get eminent in not fully exploitable or losses in foundational LEADER principles of participative mobilisation, networking and capacity building, leading to a weakening of development potential through the loss of mutual local knowledge, information and collective sense. Limitations arise by the representativity issues of the response rate and the territorial research-focus.