Local Development Model as an Element of Regional Sustainable Strategy

Abstract

Regions constitute key elements of the territorial structure of any country. Internal differences in regions permit to distinguish subregional and local units in them, where economic and social activities are undertaken. Despite the internationalisation and globalisation processes, the importance of local development concept is growing. There are several factors influencing the growing role of local units in socio-economic development of regions. In many countries, local communities have a great autonomy in creating local development strategies and policies. Local endogenic strategies and policies create an important complementary activity to sustainable regional planning. The aim of the work is to present a theoretical background of the local economy and local development. Using the subject literature, the theoretical concepts, definitions and the results of local development were presented. Selected models and paradigms of local development as well as interrelations between dimensions of local sustainability and links with regional planning were presented and discussed as well.

1. Introduction

A factor of key importance for the efficient functioning of a country is the division of the country into regional systems, which are usually established on a statutory basis. Regions separated in consideration of many historical, geographical, natural, social, and economic criteria, forming the basic spatial and functional structure of the country, have a relatively permanent character and play a big role in the development plan and program formation procedure, in the efficient functioning of economy and society and the general management of the state. Regional territorial systems as a concrete way of expressing the role of the geographical space in the socio-economic development of the country is a concept that becomes particularly significant nowadays when we can observe the development of international economic integration processes and the intensification of globalisation. However, economic processes occur and manifest themselves in local systems, which are a part of higher-level territorial systems – sub-regions and regions. Paying attention to the role of local systems and local development involves the need to increase the role of citizens in the management of countries and regions. Tendencies to include local communities in strategy formation and development planning processes were taken into account in concepts of grassroots development, localism, and local development [1, 2]. The interest in local development issues made it possible to show and become more familiar with the size of and reasons for the differentiation of territorial development and the role of modern development factors and to elaborate new concepts, models, policies, strategies and plans of development. The subject matter of this paper is local economy and local development, with particular regard to its essence, concepts, models, and dimensions.

2. Local economy: concept and elements

Local economy encompasses the entirety of economic resources, managing entities, phenomena and forms of the emergence of business activity that occur in the given local system. Local economy can be defined as socio-economic activities aimed at supporting the development of the local unit, i.e., the local territorial system in which local factors are used and local development barriers are taken into consideration [3, 4]. In addition, local economy can be regarded as a complex process in which local authorities stimulate the economic development of the given territorial unit with the use of their own resources and the commitment of external partners [5, 6]. Local economy is the sum of business activity and economic phenomena in the city, village or commune such as production, service, trading, investment, housing, transport, innovation and any other activity. Economic phenomena manifest themselves in the local market of goods and services, the labour market, and markets of other resources and production factors. However, local economy produces goods not only for the local market but also for external markets, even with a global reach; apart from that, it also receives resources, products and services, information, and innovations from the outside. This connection with external markets determines its scale of closure and opening. Although possibilities of development and the method of functioning of local economy depend mainly on the endogenous sphere, this connection with the external environment constitutes a very significant development factor for it. Various elements of local economy are interrelated and form a sort of coupled system serving the local community; external connections help to make better use of own resources in actions for the environment, and external resources create opportunities for the development of an internal system.

From the perspective of value creation in a given local or regional system, economy can be divided into two groups of branches, one of which encompasses basic branches focusing on production for markets outside the border of the given system, whereas the other encompasses supplementary service branches engaged in production mainly for local markets inside the system, i.e., for the local or regional market. Basic production and service activity in the form of export from the system also maintains supplementary activity consumed inside the system. The division into basic (export) activity and locally consumed service activity becomes useful for the determination of plans and strategies for socio-economic development of the given system. The ability to generate supra-local added value is a sign of the development potential existing in the given system.

Local economy can also be defined as a group of entities managing and participating in management systems in a city or commune, which are interrelated and interdependent in various ways [1]. By making use of available resources, each managing entity and each organisation fulfils certain functions and strives to accomplish its own goals, at the same time accomplishing social goals.

In local systems, a local environment comes into being, in which local economy and the local community function. The environment as a general concept is a relatively permanent system and character of surroundings that encompasses people and things important for human life and behaviour on a limited spatial scale. The local environment consists of a set of natural, economic, social and cultural features determining the distinctness and character of the given place or limited territory. An important element of the local environment that affects local economy is the social environment. The social environment can be defined as a relatively permanent system of individuals, groups and other human collectives producing human activity and having an impact on human behaviour. The local system is characterised by the existence of the local community. The local community is understood as a group of people living in a limited and relatively isolated territory that possesses and appreciates common traditions, values and symbols and service and cultural institutions, aware of their unity and distinctness, is ready to act together and lives in a sense of belonging and internal safety [7]. In the context of the concept of local communities, the idea of a civil society characterised by a pro-active attitude, the self-regulation capacity and the ability to accomplish goals without impulses from the state and its institutions emerge nowadays.

3. Growth and development in local systems

Aiming to satisfy their constantly growing needs, people and communities undertake business activity that gives rise to new economic values embodied in the concept of economic growth. Economic growth is considered mainly in terms of quantity and measured by the total value of the newly created value in conversion into a unit of outlays used for its production. A synthetic measure of all effects of management is the concept of economic growth and development, which is measured most often by the amount of the gross domestic product per inhabitant. The economic development process is a combination of economic growth and qualitative changes occurring in the field of production factors and production process results, and also in the institutional and social sphere of management [8]. Economic growth is not a goal in itself but a method of achieving economic, social and environmental goals in various territorial systems: the national, regional and local system. Integrated growth and development processes are shown in the most versatile and mature way in theories recognising the role of the state as the subject of development policy. The deepening of economic polarisation and the development of international integration and globalisation led to an increased interest in regional development (the 1960s and 1970s) and local development (the 1980s).

Many authors do not introduce a distinction between development in various territorial systems and treat local development as regional development on a smaller scale [9, 10]. In fact, there are very strong dependencies between local development and regional development, as well as between regional development and development on a national scale. These connections are reflected by the actions of territorial governments and state public administration. In practice, it is assumed in Poland that regional development refers to the entire province, whereas development on the scale of a county, city and commune should be regarded as local development [11].

Local development is a specific and very complex category of socio-economic development [12]. Its progress is influenced by many entities and factors operating and existing both within and close to the given territory. The complexity of the phenomenon of local development results both from the internal systemic character of local economy and the location of the given local system, particularly in the system of regional and national economy. The progress of basic economic processes on a local scale is shaped by the general economic and social system, the socio-economic policy of the country, regional policy and local development policy pursued by local authorities [13]. The category of local development has a dual character, so it should be considered in two ways: using the local and supra-local methods [2]. The local method is based on understanding local development as a process of transformation of local system structures and mutual relationships between elements of these structures and their connections with the environment through the mobilisation of mainly endogenous factors. In the supra-local perspective, local development is perceived as a transformation of structures of the aforementioned supra-local systems and relations between these structures and their environment.

The increased interest in local development also results from the manifestation of ethnic and cultural regionalisms existing in countries of integrating Europe. The emergence of paradoxes of globalisation showed that the spread of socio-economic phenomena across state borders required the intensification of actions on local scale and making use of grassroots initiatives. To some extent, it is a reaction to failures of the idea of top-down development or development based on external factors. Local development is associated with grassroots (bottom-up) development based on the endogenous potential supported by available exogenous factors. Local development is a special form of regional development in which endogenous factors used by local and supra-local entities for evoking changes strengthening the local development potential and the effectiveness of its use play a crucial role. Drawing attention to local development issues in the first half of the 1980s had economic and social as well as environmental and political grounds. These grounds existed in the then-current crisis of the welfare state concept and were related to the seeking of development opportunities in the centralisation of state management [14]. In Poland, the interest in local development issues also resulted from the systemic transformation process, which also encompassed a change in the territorial division of the country and the restructuring of territorial government administration.

The interest in local development in the European Union in 1980–2000 manifested itself in the introduction of various innovative actions, pilot programs and community initiatives aimed at the utilisation of spontaneous grassroots activity as the driving force of general economic development. After 2000, the local development policy assumed a slightly different, more dispersed form in instrumental and program terms [14].

4. Essence and criteria of the definition of local development

The conception of local development was analysed by many Polish and foreign authors, who formulated their own definitions and specified its essence, conditions and factors. This conception can be divided into two trends. The first trend, represented by a large group of authors, highlights in its definitions a long-term process of directional changes where objects or items evolve from simpler and less perfect forms and states into forms and states that are more complex and perfect, desirable and favourable from the perspective of specific goals.

Another group of authors believe that development is a process of changes based on progressive or regressive differentiation. Definitions of the first trend, which treat development as a process leading to the quantitative and qualitative improvement of a state of a specific territorial system, are used more frequently. Referring development issues to a local system, we can distinguish three main groups of definitions of local development: aspectual, general and systemic definitions [10].

Aspectual definitions consider local development separately within the scope of separate levels, including particularly the economic level. General definitions determine local development in a general way without referring to individual spheres or levels. Systemic definitions refer to three main development levels: the economic, social and environmental levels. Thus, they are similar to the concept of sustainable and permanent development.

The development process is always connected with a specific territory and a concrete spatial system—a local, regional, national or even broader system. Local development is related to a specific place, a given local system constituting the unity of natural and anthropogenic resources and of the local community and local economy. Local development can be considered in various aspects; social and economic aspects are used more frequently. Socio-economic development in a specific territory of a local system is a complex phenomenon that can be defined in various ways, depending on the aim of the analysis and criteria of assessment. Bagdziński [15] understands local development as ‘jointly considered favourable changes in the territory of a local system that originate particularly from local natural and material resources and the characteristics of local communities that foster development, and the results of these changes contribute to the fuller satisfaction of inhabitants’ needs and improvement of their prosperity’.

A definition similar to the above one specifies local development as a group of positive socio-economic changes in a qualitative and quantitative sense that occur in territories of cities, communes and counties [16] and make it possible to create new functional advantages and improve the existing ones in a given territorial unit and to create specific conditions for the development of economy [17, 18].

Some authors treat ‘local development as a sign of local solidarity creating new social relations, which means expressing the will of inhabitants of the microregion regarding resources and factors of economic development’. Others perceive local development as a process through which the population gains broader autonomy in defining and satisfying their own needs, solving their problems and determining their own destiny. It is an outcome of the formation of collective dynamics in which economic, social, cultural and territorial aspects overlap and where local initiatives are connected with supra-local activities and resources [19].

Local development can also be defined as a process of economic, social, cultural and political changes leading to the improvement of the general level of inhabitants’ prosperity. In other words, development is a process of transition in evolving into states that are more advanced and complex or more perfect in a certain respect. Local development is based on the rational use of internal and external factors for development of a given territory. Local development is a multi-aspect process that can be expressed in economic growth indicators or measured by social criteria or qualitative parameters of inhabitants’ living standards [13, 20].

Local development is a social process based on stimulating the activity of local communities, highlighting local pro-development attitudes and including activities of social institutions in this development. This process must be preceded by the frequently long preparation of both resources for their economic use and people for joint participation in development [21].

We can distinguish a number of levels – e.g., the economic level, the social level and the ecological level – in local development. The economic level encompasses local economy: private and state-owned production and service enterprises, economic institutions and non-government organisations supporting entrepreneurship. The social level encompasses mainly households and the housing sector, as well as educational, health care, cultural, social care and public safety and order institutions providing services to people. The ecological level includes environmental degradation issues and problems, as well as issues concerning the rehabilitation of the natural environment. Local development occurs when programmed activities of local entities lead to the creation of new functional advantages and the improvement of the existing ones of a local territorial unit, the creation of optimal conditions for the functioning of economy and the local community along with the maintenance of the spatial order and ecological advantages.

Local economic development can also be defined as the quantitative and qualitative development of entities running business activity in a given local environment (commune, county) that can be associated with the improvement and introduction of new products and services, the expansion of market outlets, the modernisation of technology and investment, an increase of employment and the improvement of production effectiveness along with auxiliary financial, capital and innovative activities [13, 20].

Local development encompasses the social environment and is carried out from the perspective of local communities and local economic structures, institutions and bodies of territorial self-government. Local social development is based on the increasingly better fulfilment of the social needs of the population and business entities in a given territory. These needs include mainly the sphere of education and upbringing, health care, administrative support and the satisfaction of needs regarding culture and personal development, social care and public safety.

R. Brol [17] relates local development to changes occurring in a city, rural commune and urban–rural commune or a differently delimited sub-region, that is, a local territorial system characterised by specific spatial, economic and cultural qualities and the local preference of needs and value hierarchy, and defines it as the harmonised and systematic activity of the community, public authority and other entities functioning in a given territorial unit that is aimed at creating new functional advantages and improving the existing ones in a given territorial unit, the creation of favourable conditions for economy and the ensuring of the spatial and ecological order. L. Wojtasiewicz [3, 4] specifies local development as a complex of qualitative transformations concerning a given area with regard to the standard of living of its residents and the conditions of functioning of business entities located here. A. Myna [22] defines local development as processes initiated and created consciously by local authorities, entrepreneurs, ecological lobbyists, social and cultural associations and inhabitants that are aimed at the creative, effective and rational use of non-material and material resources.

Drawing upon definitions made by other authors, M. Ziółkowski and M. Goleń [23] describe local development as a process of quantitative and qualitative positive changes in the standard of living of a local community and in the conditions of functioning of business entities that takes into account the needs, priorities and preferences of inhabitants and entrepreneurs as well as the recognition of their systems of values. This definition highlights the importance of needs, preferences and the system of values as well as economic functions in local development processes in a given territory.

The crucial aim of economic development is to provide the community with high-quality jobs, to achieve local stability by responding to the needs of the local economy sector, to build a diversified economic base and employment base and to promote sustainability [24]. It is not possible to perceive the development of local units and regions in a homogeneous manner, because the nature and meaning of the concept of development differ and change in time and space, and specific concepts of development are socially determined by concrete interests and social groups in a specific geographical context and at a given time [25, 26].

Kuźnik [27] states that local development has an integral and multidimensional character. In his view, its basic dimensions include the socio-cultural dimension concerning the process of demographic, social and cultural changes, the environmental dimension (changes in the natural environment and in the environmental infrastructure), the infrastructural dimension (transport, communication, energy, water management, sewage disposal and heating sectors), the economic dimension (development of the economic base of cities and housing estates) and the spatial dimension (forms of spatial development, public order).

According to Klasik [28], the basic components of local development understood as the creation of new values and treated in an integral manner include economic growth and employment, an increase in prosperity, an improvement of the quality of life and investment attractiveness, technological development and innovations, the restructuring and diversification of business activity, the development of institutional infrastructure, an improvement of environmental quality, the enrichment of identity and integration processes (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Basic components of local economic development [28].

Parysek [29] defines local development as the conducting of activities aimed at the economic and social development of a given territorial entity with the use of its resources, in consideration of inhabitants’ needs and their participation in actions being taken. Local development is connected with the creation of new jobs on the one hand and with the comprehensive creation of the most favourable living conditions for inhabitants on the other hand, which is also expressed by the improvement of the organisation and structure and the functioning of local resources.

The phenomenon of development is also perceived as a process of creating institutions, developing alternative branches of industry and other economic functions, exerting influence on entrepreneurs for the purpose of making better products, helping in the identification of new markets, the transformation of knowledge, the diffusion of innovations and the support of entrepreneurship and others [24].

T. Markowski [30] defines local development as a process of directional changes in the course of which a quantitative increase and qualitative progress occur in the commune, county or region concerned. Local authorities can stimulate this development and make use of relevant development management instruments. According to I. Pietrzyk [31], local development as a process of diversification and enrichment of the business and social activity of a given territory, which has its source in the mobilisation and co-ordination of its resources and energy, is an activity undertaken by the will of local actors (local government officials, business entities, associations, etc.) on the basis of reflections concerning the valorisation of local resources and taking the specificity of the territory into account.

An important feature of local development is that it starts from the grassroots, which does not exclude the need to attract external investments. However, external elements should be included in the network of relations and integrated with the local environment. E. Wojciechowski [32] highlights the fact that local development essentially consists of the creation of new values, and its essence is economic development that encompasses favourable quantitative changes and qualitative and structural transformations, as well as an improvement of living conditions of the population. Referring to various definitions, A. Łuczyszyn [33] notes that the essence of local development is the process of economic and social transformation of the local community, which must be considered on three levels: the economic level, the social level and the ecological and spatial level. By synthesising approaches of various authors, A. Łuczyszyn [33] states: ‘to put it simply, local development is a harmonised and systematic activity conducted in the local community with the participation of stakeholders, the results of which serve to satisfy the needs of the local population and contribute to overall progress’.

An attempt to systematise local development issues was undertaken by J. Kot [34], who formulated the following six theories:

• Local development is an autonomous process because it occurs according to principles and rules concerning market mechanisms; moreover, it is also subject to autonomous decision-making by local government authorities being the subject of local policy and development processes;

• Local development is entity-oriented, which means it is a concrete process bringing benefits and advantages to entities participating in it;

• Local development is a result of a compromise of actors and stakeholders operating in the local territorial unit;

• Local development takes place in conditions determined by phenomena and processes occurring both in its internal structures and in its environment; the success and stability of development processes depend on the flexibility of actions of business entities and local authorities;

• Local development is a long-term process conditioned historically by production, political and cultural traditions of the population;

• Local development is ruled by its own logic that results from individual attitudes of the population, organisational behaviours and market mechanisms.

Local development is characterised by autonomy, empowerment, openness, extension in time, flexibility, interactions and subordination to social evaluation and social impact on the change process [6, 17, 35, 36, 37, 38].

According to M. Ziółkowski [39], local development should take into account both the needs, priorities, preferences and recognised systems of values of inhabitants and entrepreneurs and the requirements of the natural environment, cultural heritage and rational spatial planning.

Thus, local development is a multi-aspect, multi-thematic and multi-level concept in which values are expressed and which can be shaped through the determination of goals and selection of instruments and evaluated in terms of its outcomes and results. Local development can be perceived from the perspective of an individual local system and from the perspective of the place and role of a given local system in a broader environment—the supra-local environment [2].

As we can see, multi-aspect local development has a number of common elements, including dynamics as a process, the functioning of various entities, among which local government plays the leading role, endogenous local development factors, a broad range of impact (economy, society, environment, culture), the satisfaction of needs and aspirations of inhabitants and local entities, goals, factors and instruments of development that change over time, reducing the significance of ‘hard factors’ and strengthening of the role of ‘soft factors’ such as knowledge, intellectual capital and innovations.

Taking into account the analysis of model features of local development perceived from a local perspective, A. Sztando [2] formulates an elaborate definition of this development as a ‘long-term, ununified, multidimensional and self-sustaining process of transformations of local system structures and interrelations between them and their connections with the environment that co-forms desirable supra-local processes and is created in a planned, participatory and coordinated manner and in accordance with the idea of integrated order, mainly by the local community and in its interest, through the consensus-based mobilisation of mainly endogenous factors’.

In modern concepts of local development, we can see a distinction between concepts of ‘local development’ and ‘development in a local system’. The first concept stresses the engagement of local entities and development factors, that is, the engagement of the local community, and the stability and self-sustainability of development processes in time (endogenous development, integrated development and sustainable development). Development in local systems can also be a consequence of the impact of external and exogenous factors, considered from the theoretical side as a model for a process specifying the essence, content, requirements, characteristics, connections, internal factors and barriers and connections with the environment, as well as results and methods of their determination, and as a model for a change process [1].

5. The aims, components and outcomes (results) of local development

The object of local development is locally separated social-territorial units possessing a set of specific economic, social, spatial and cultural characteristics and expressing their own needs and hierarchies of values. In the Polish territorial development structure, these are mainly municipal and rural communes and counties established in the administrative division of the country. The commune is a territorial system relatively close to all of its inhabitants, both individuals and local communities and institutions in villages, housing estates and small towns comprising the territorial system of the commune. Therefore, local development concerns also internal (auxiliary) units such as villages, housing estates and other settlement units. This applies both to rural communes, municipal-rural communes and municipal communes. Local systems also include counties constituting a group of neighbouring communes that are relatively homogeneous, at least with regard to certain characteristics. Units separated according to non-administrative thematic criteria, such as a group of nearby communes located in the valley of one river or in a separate geographical area, can also be a form of local system.

Thus, we can distinguish the following elements in a territorial local system:

• sub-local systems (villages, towns/cities and districts),

• primary systems (communes),

• administratively (counties) and thematically integrated systems.

For such systems, development programmes or plans can be prepared. Communes are a primary system of administrative division, stocktaking of resources and the performance of tasks concerning the functioning of the state. The commune carries out many economic, social and political tasks. It is the unit in which basic social needs are fulfilled. The size of a commune is adequately small to enable the integration of inhabitants and local communities ensuring a sense of connection and enabling social activity for the pursuit of common goals and adequately big to achieve a minimum economically justified scale in the provision of primary welfare and social services and the cost-effectiveness of functioning of local markets. The optimum size of a commune in Poland is conditioned regionally and varies from a few to several thousand inhabitants in rural conditions and a few dozen thousand in cities [40, 41, 42].

The very complexity of the concept of local development implies the complexity of goals set in development strategies, programmes and policies of this territorial system. The formulation of goals should be perceived through the prism of entities that function in a given system and conduct activity. Each of the business entities (enterprises and households) and institutions functioning in a commune has its own goals specified to a certain extent, which it tries or is obliged to achieve. Their sum ordered according to accepted rules leads to many partial goals common for particular groups of entities. Inhabitants of a commune, as persons forming households and as consumers of goods and services, are interested mainly in the sphere shaping the possibilities and conditions of employment, conditions of material existence, conditions of education and personal, spiritual and cultural development, physical and economic safety, a sense of stabilisation, etc. As can be seen, this group of entities is interested mainly in the efficient labour market and the availability of goods and services, particularly public goods and services, as well as a healthy and friendly environment.

Industrial and commercial enterprises and farms strive to achieve economic goals ensuring their survival and development through the use of available factors in conditions of the local and regional market and the close and distant environment. Social service institutions and units and budgetary establishments seek to maximise their budget and its effective use for the implementation of economic and social tasks. All goals pursued by groups of entities functioning in a given system are the basis of functioning of general development goals of the given local system by the managing authority that exercises territorial government in local systems. In the territorial government of the commune, there is a symbiosis of state authority and inhabitants’ self-government.

Local government is responsible for the achievement of general development goals of a given unit and the elaboration of the strategy and policy of their achievement. The primary goal of local development is usually the better fulfilment of needs of local communities and the improvement of the quality of life of inhabitants. The determination of collective needs for various entities in a given unit is not easy and requires the acquisition of knowledge about needs on the one hand and the rational choice of the method of their implementation on the other hand. The fulfilment of the overall goal requires the use of knowledge about resources and their availability and about the possibilities and conditions of their acquisition and mobilisation for socio-economic development. Local development must be based on a solid and diversified economic base used for the fulfilment of social needs without harm to the natural environment.

The economic sphere should ensure the relevant infrastructure and resources for the generation of revenues for entrepreneurs and farmers and income for households and should be characterised by activeness and the entrepreneurial spirit. In the social sphere, inhabitants should have main access to social, educational, health, cultural, sports and other services. What matters, is the social climate, a sense of responsibility and the strengthening of bonds, participation and local identity. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that not all needs can be fulfilled at the same time, which makes it necessary to choose priorities and make compromises. Therefore, the practical determination of the overall goal requires an analysis of goals important for various groups of entities and fields of activity and prioritising within particular spheres and in a general manner in a given system. In the ecological sphere, the fulfilment of the overall goal should ensure the creation and maintenance of spatial order, respect for the values of the natural environment and the protection of the natural and cultural landscape. Consequently, it is necessary to reduce the emission of pollutants by creating relevant technologies and eliminating the sources of environmental degradation and by promoting pro-ecological behaviours of inhabitants and business entities.

The analysis of goals from the perspective of business entities and spheres of activity can be used for the specification and cataloguing of goals of local development. Such a catalogue was prepared, for example, by P. Starosta [43], who distinguished the following goals: 1) economic goals, including economic growth through self-organisation and external aid, 2) social goals, including the engagement and participation of inhabitants, 3) psychosocial goals, reached through the identification of inhabitants with the community and with action programmes, 4) cultural goals, based on the maintenance of norms and values, 5) technological goals, fulfilled through the provision of necessary forms of technical infrastructure, 6) political goals, expressed by the participation of inhabitants in the decision-making process and the creation of democratic power structures and 7) welfare goals facilitating the functioning of the local community.

We must realise that the choice and prioritisation of goals of local development must be adapted to specific local systems. Each commune has its own group and prioritisation of goals corresponding to existing possibilities and expectations. It will be presumably different in rural communes than in municipal-rural communes or municipal communes.

An empirical description of local development processes indicates their huge differentiation and characteristics that can be subject to the evaluation, classification or modelling of these processes. Distinguished forms or models of local development with the use of various criteria always have a very significant element referring to the role of individual entities and the entire local community in the programming, planning and implementation of adopted development programmes, plans and strategies.

The combination and harmonisation of economic, social and ecological development assume the form of sustainable local development. It takes into proper consideration economic, social, technical and environmental aspects of development in a given spatial system. Sustainable development is harmoniously connected with the general condition of economy and society and with regions and macroeconomic development strategies and policies [13, 20].

Local development can involve the following components:

• economic growth – an increase in employment and decrease in the level of unemployment;

• increase in the population’s welfare and quality of life – an improvement in the furnishing of households, the state of housing substances, the availability of technical equipment, etc.;

• increase in investment attractiveness, for example, through the provision of access to investment areas, the facilitation of real property trade and investment expansion and the support of local investors and entrepreneurs;

• technological development and implementation of innovations – through the provision of access to information, supporting the development of various innovative companies, consultancy and the creation of local business and enterprise support institutions;

• restructuring and diversification of business activity – through initiation and facilitation of the development of new fields of activity and new organisational and technological solutions in enterprises facing structural difficulties;

• development of public benefit services and resources facilitating the functioning of households and enterprises;

• increase in the professional and social mobility of the population – through training and retraining of employees, the development of the double work system among farmers, the creation of educational and advisory institutions, etc.;

• development of institutional infrastructure – through extension of the scope of services, bringing services closer to places of residence and work, establishment of institutions for the solution of difficult problems and social pathologies and supporting the development of non-governmental institutions;

• rehabilitation of the natural environment, including the conservation of the landscape, the preservation and enrichment of biodiversity, etc.;

• strengthening of local, regional or environmental identity through the support of phenomena integrating the local environment.

All actors of the local community, entities and the entire local community are engaged in the local development process. An important role in this development is played by the territorial government, employees of municipal enterprises and public institutions, activists of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the professional self-government, chambers of commerce, foundations, general development associations, as well as representatives of individual business entities, social and political organisations and individuals – leaders and persons of authority. Each of these groups or persons can play an important role in the stimulation and implementation of local development.

The local development process requires adequate planning and coordination, and the territorial self-government authority being a subject of local development plays a special part in this development. The main task of the local territorial authority is to determine the direction and strategy of local development in accordance with internal and external conditions and development strategies of higher-level territorial units. The second primary task of the territorial authority is to pursue a local development policy, and the third task is to administer and manage the development and functioning of the local unit on a running basis.

Taking into account views of many authors dealing with local development issues, we can mention a number of characteristics of local development. The most important of them include [10]:

1. Continuity resulting from the performance of successive and interrelated activities aiming at desirable changes,

2. Comprehensiveness and simultaneousness resulting from multiple levels of local development and dependencies between these levels,

3. Complexity resulting from the large number and diversity of needs, goals and conditions of their implementation,

4. Territoriality, which means the connection of various individual activities with a specific location and a specific territory constituting a development base,

5. Commonality and/or co-operation, meaning that actions undertaken for the benefit of local development are approved by the local community and its entities.

6. Endogeneity, meaning the prioritisation of internal factors and forces represented by local related entities in local networks of developing local communities,

7. Feedbacks where individual actions at least partly correspond to the development goal of the entire community, and the implementation of the common goal leads also to the achievement of individual goals.

8. Connection with the environment – local development is an element of development of a broader territory, and conditions and factors of the environment affect the course of the development process in a given local territorial system,

9. Long duration – current development processes are related to the historical course of economic processes concerning a given territorial unit,

10. Autonomy – it is the subject matter of sovereign decisions made not only by individual entities but also by local authorities having specific competencies and funds for development goals.

However, local development has external conditions and limitations resulting from the pursuit of the interregional policy of the state and the intraregional policy of local authorities of the region within which a given local system functions.

According to research conducted by the International Labour Organisation and other agencies of the United Nations, local development [10, 44]:

1. is strongly dependent on the competencies, will and capacities of local actors,

2. concentrates on the strengthening of the local potential,

3. is largely based on the effective functioning of small and medium-sized enterprises everywhere,

4. depends on the ability of business initiatives to cooperate and integrate,

5. requires that the local unit be ‘equipped’ with relevant instruments,

6. depends on the possibility of active cooperation between systems at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Particularly important is the cooperation with administration and regional government. The region serves as a direct environment for the local system, and the local system is an integral part of the region. Local systems and the regional system are directly integrated and interdependent. There is a belief that local development is not a form of separate development on a small spatial scale, but a sign of grassroots (bottom-up) development in the region that is based on the use of endogenous resources with the support of external stimuli and the skilful control and guiding of production and accumulation processes and on the ability to initiate and generate innovations [45, 46].

The basic issues being separate spheres of local development include:

• Economic development – diagnosis of the level and factors of economic development and entrepreneurship, numbers of employees and employment structures, the unemployment level, sizes of production of goods and services, local and supra-local markets and the flow of capital and investments.

• Social development – the state and growth potential of social welfare and the quality of life of local communities. Income level, working conditions, housing conditions, social services, public safety and functioning of the local government are the parts of this development.

• Spatial-environmental development – features of the local space and the natural environment. Spatial order, spatial and ecological conflicts, space planning, environmental pollution, ecological threats and the aesthetics of the natural and anthropogenic environment.

• Technological and innovative development – investment, housing and tourist attractiveness. Availability of areas, material and human resources, character of local policy and expansion of infrastructure. Institutions supporting the innovative environment.

• Cultural development – the enhancement of image and identity, the strengthening of integrative processes of local communities and integration with the environment.

The outcomes of development processes are subject to assessment and evaluation. A number of measures and indicators can be used for the assessment of each of the aforementioned kinds of development. Some of them can be obtained from the Local Data Bank, whereas others must be sought in local institutions and organisations or by gathering opinions among inhabitants and through other research.

The assessment of the course and consequences of local development must include a number of aspects considered on economic, social, environmental, cultural, political and other levels. The most important determinants of the success of local development include [31]:

• The existence of efficient and effective leadership in the local system that inspires decision-makers to mobilise members of local communities;

• Engagement and active participation of all local social and professional groups in the decision-making process;

• Determination of clear guiding rules and precise assessment of goals before their final acceptance;

• Trust, compromises, cooperation and public-private partnership;

• Inclusion of cultural identity and the social-political structure of the local and regional system;

successive assessment of the course of development and the current updating and adaptation of activities to structural changes occurring in the environment of the given system. Special attention should be paid to innovative phenomena and processes.

6. Models and paradigms of local development

Local development is created with the use of achievements of many sciences: economy, sociology, geography, spatial planning, organisation and management, strategic planning, public finance, regional policy, integration and other sciences providing a theoretical background and organisational, technical and functional aspects.

Research on local development draws upon paradigms elaborated mainly in economic sciences for regional development and spatial planning. Assuming the general way of perceiving reality within a certain scope as a paradigm, we must say that the perception of reality that we understand as local development has changed. Research within this scope led to the formation of many standards and models of this development, and various general concepts and theories generating various problems, concepts, rules of procedure and methods of solving problems have been formulated within the scope of individual models. Table 1 contains various concepts of local and regional development.

Conceptions and approaches of development	Specific features and selected advantages of development
Exogenous development and economic base	Implant development based on external factors and impulses Development depending on the position occupied within a larger system Favourable transfer of outside capital for a quick pace of development
Polarised development	Development occurring in selected privileged places (regions) – created growth poles Uneven development polarising space at all levels of its organisation Development accepted and supported financially by decision-making centres
Integrated development	Multi-aspect and multidimensional development Development of interdependent fields, requiring integration and coordination Strategic thinking fosters all development projects
Self-organisation	Global interdependence of changes in various systems – evolutionary paradigm Natural autonomy of every system; the skill of using resources of the environment Integrated local community for the implementation of the eco-development strategy
Endogenous development	Development based on internal development potentials of cities and regions Development rooted in the community; self-governance and grassroots initiatives Lack of motivation and conviction about the relevance of looking for external partners for the financing of development
Self-sustaining development	Sustainable development that automatically restores the balance on a global and local scale Clean development eliminating negative side-effects in successive phases of development Development based on a stable system of values
Sustainable development	Equal treatment of economic, social and environmental aspects Management without harm and limitations for future generations Possibility of including other aspects and stressing various forms of activity Concept of smart cities Concept of smart villages Form of sustainable development Development of smart specialisations Creation and implementation of innovations Building the innovation environment Development of the cooperation network Coordination of actions through local governments Implementation of a circular production system Recycling and value restoration Management without waste Cascading of manufacturing processes
Smart development	Concept of smart cities Concept of smart villages Form of sustainable development Development of smart specialisations
Innovative development	Creation and implementation of innovations Building the innovation environment Development of the cooperation network Coordination of actions through local governments
Circular economy	Implementation of a circular production system Recycling and value restoration Management without waste Cascading of manufacturing processes
Participating economy	New approach to the ownership category Use of factors and products by way of lending or share Joint consumption
Sustainable consumption	Minimisation of the use of resources and energy Waste reduction and recycling Adaptation of lifestyle to the natural environment
Green economy	Risk reduction in the natural environment Prevention of pollution and waste Maintenance and protection of biodiversity Reduction of greenhouse gases, climate protection and improvement of social health

Table 1.

Old and new concepts of local and regional development [47, 48, 49].

In literature, we can distinguish a number of concepts and typologies of local development models, the most important of which are: exogenous development, endogenous development, grassroots development, top-down (induced) development, sustainable development, self-sustaining development, integrated development, evolutionary development, innovative development, extensive development and intensive development. The size of this chapter is too small to discuss the aforementioned concept, so we will focus only on sustainable development models.

7. Sustainable development

Sustainable development has become a currently leading development model on a global scale in individual countries and in territorial systems within them. The concept that emerged in France and Germany with regard to forestry in the 18th century [50] was popularised and became a basic paradigm of development in the second half of the 20th century. Sustainable development also became the goal of developing strategies and policies that encompassed increasingly broader areas of functioning of the modern society. In the concept restored in the 1970s and 1980s, three dimensions were distinguished: the economic one, the social one and the environmental one. The number of these dimensions is often increased. The primary methods of treating individual dimensions and relationships between them are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Models of relationships of sustainable development dimensions [51, 52].

The first model presents the separate consideration of individual levels, the second model shows jointly connected and interrelated dimensions and the third model is a layout where individual levels are hierarchically dependent and subordinated.

The concept of sustainable development is based on two basic principles. The first principle, resulting from concern about the natural environment and the need for its protection, refers to the equal inclusion of the economic, social and ecological aspects. The second principle includes the aspect of continuity and sustainability responding to the needs of both current and future generations and the retention of the possibility of managing without harm and limitations to the activity of future generations. In aspects of sustainability, the economic, social and environmental levels are sometimes accompanied by other equivalent aspects, such as legal, political, technological, moral or business aspects. The highlighting of the ecological level is connected with the concept of eco-development. The highlighting of the aspect of intergenerational justice as a goal and condition of development is manifested by adopting the name of sustainable development or self-sustaining development. The concepts of sustainability and self-sustaining refer to the preservation of natural and material resources, physical, human and social capital resources and general possibilities of efficient and economic activity for future generations in a given system.

The concept of sustainable development in Poland, adopted as a basis for general development of the country, means an attempt to include both the criteria of effectiveness and social aspirations in laying emphasis on justice and equality in the sphere of spatial and territorial planning. The main core of this paradigm of sustaining general development and balancing the spatial planning of the country assumes the need for constant improvement of the quality of life of local communities through its support with sustainable factors, mainly of economic, but also social and ecological nature, without disturbing the developmental basis of any sphere of this development.

Today, attempts are made to seek various forms of its implementation in compliance with basic principles of sustainable development. This is especially true for specific selected aspects of development, for example, urban development, rural development or development of agriculture or consumption [49].

Sustainable development is sometimes associated with eco-development [53, 54]. The concept of eco-development, the essence of which is expressed by the third model shown in Figure 2, lays emphasis on the respect for the advantages of the natural environment and the shaping of spatial order. In this paradigm, attempts are made to find optimum relations between the human being and nature and to improve the quality of the natural environment. As can be seen, this concept highlights the aspect of guaranteeing the survival and development of current and future generations through the prevention, limitation and complete elimination of changes and damages resulting from human activity. Technical progress and innovations are not only used for generating the economic growth of a given territorial system but also for improving the condition of the environment. The authors who separately consider the paradigm of sustainable and ecological development stress that the first one has the character of balanced development on three distinguished levels (the economic, social and environmental levels), and the second one is a type of development that sustains itself in time.

The concept of sustainable development is regularly developed and supplemented. These primary levels are supplemented with new levels and specific aspects forming multidimensional layouts with variously arranged relationships are brought out. The hierarchical layouts of levels under construction are supplemented with human needs and rights, institutional solutions, etc. An example of expanded hierarchical layouts of sustainable development dimensions is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Six hierarchically subordinated dimensions of sustainable development [1, 55].

The economic dimension encompasses the processes of production and exchange of goods and services that are the basis of the population’s incomes. Both quantitative factors of production and qualitative factors, particularly those related to labour factors, as well as conditions are significant for production processes. The measurement of the effects of the economic level currently goes beyond the level of GDP per capita. The UN’s Human Development Index is an indicator with a broader range.

The social dimension encompasses a wide range of parameters showing social conditions and the standard of living. The assessment of this level is strongly influenced by connections and relations with the economic and environmental level and the ensuring of fundamental rights and the satisfaction of the population’s needs.

The environmental dimension concerns both the environmental impact of human activity and the use of natural resources, as well as conditions created by the environment for the achievement of goals of economic activity and social welfare.

The dimension concerning the possibility of satisfying the needs and guaranteeing legal order with regard to respect for property and individual and group safety is connected with the institutional level that concerns ensuring the adequate order of functioning of market economy and democratic society.

Since the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, the dimension of long duration has been an important criterion for avoiding the conflict of interests of the current generation and future generations in development policy and currently serves the need for rational planning in order to maintain the possibility of management by future generations. Thus, successive dimensions are increasingly general and difficult to quantify, but not less important for development processes. These dimensions are relatively concrete and easily measurable in local systems. However, the possibilities of adapting or correcting individual levels are very limited here. These possibilities, if they exist, are larger on the national and regional level, where development policy is shaped and where sources of potential funds for the support of development are located.

8. Conclusions

Over the last three decades, new concepts of development based mainly on the ground of sustainable development emerged. The concept of sustainable development, arising out of the need to prevent the degradation of the natural environment, covers not only social and economic aspects – enriched by contributions from various fields of science but it has also become the basic paradigm of all development programmes, policies and strategies formulated by international organisations, national governments and local and regional authorities [49]. Its essence still lies in ensuring the constant improvement of the life of modern and future generations by shaping rational proportions between various kinds of capital: economic, human, social and natural capital. By adopting the Agenda 2030 in 2015, member states of the UN undertook to pursue 17 Sustainable Development Goals divided into 169 detailed tasks in their domestic policy [56]. The adopted goals introduce new forms of sustainable management, such as closed circuit economy, participating economy, sustainable consumption, the green deal, etc.

By presenting selected old and new concepts of development that can be related to the local scale, we should note that these concepts and models are not separable and alternative towards one another and that the emergence of new concepts and models does not invalidate old ones. The emergence of new concepts, particularly the latest ones, is often an expansion or supplement to the existing ones. This is especially valid with regard to the paradigm of sustainable development, which often assumes a new form depending on the situation or context. This does not mean that a completely new model emerges – it is often a new variety of the basic concept. New names or definitions of development are often introduced, particularly by international global policy-making circles, and new names or slogans are used primarily for the promotion of a certain concept, dimension or factor. Many of these concepts are still too vague and limited to the promotion of behaviours or reactions regarded as desirable. Many of them do not refer only to the local dimension – they are of a general nature.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.