Public Policies for Rural Development: Circular Deals, Digital Revolution, and Inclusive Engagement
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Sustainable Energy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 27008
Submit your paper and select the Journal "Energies" and the Special Issue "Public Policies for Rural Development: Circular Deals, Digital Revolution, and Inclusive Engagement" via: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=energies. Please contact the guest editor or the journal editor ([email protected]) for any queries.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food systems, institutions, policy analysis; political economy; rural development; governance; community development
Interests: food waste and loss; rural development and landscape; food innovation and health; food systems management and safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Rural areas provide food and resources that contribute to jobs, growth, and prosperity and help to maintain cultural heritage. They are also home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, wildlife, and natural environments. Above all, they are places where local communities live and work and are sources of innovation and social and economic activity. Modern rural policies must meet important challenges and stimulate a new revolution in order to foster changes in quality of life; boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy; restore biodiversity; cut pollution; and accelerate our transition to a sustainable food system.
The Special Issue aims to be part of the debate on the future of rural areas and the role they have to play in our society in local economies and in the creation of a sustainable food systems and bioeconomy.
The bioeconomy covers all sectors and systems that rely on biological resources (animals, plants, micro-organisms, and derived biomass, including organic waste) and encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products, and bioenergy (European Commission, 2018)
The goal of the (bio)circular economy is to change philosophies and lifestyles fostering a cooperative-community user (using and re-using product value and function), which is in contrast to a consumer culture (only using physical products) (Korhonen et al., 2018).
In the framework of the EU Green Deal, the EC (2019) made public the "Farm to Fork strategy”, which intends to address the challenges related to the sustainability of food systems, recognizing the connections that bind the health of individuals, societies, and the environment. This strategy is based on six macro-objectives, which deal with the sustainability of food production, food safety, sustainability of processing and supply chains, promotion of sustainable food consumption, reduction of food losses and waste, and the fight against fraud in food supply chains.
In order to reach these new challenges, the youth population plays a crucial role in transforming food systems and rural areas in a dynamic way. Therefore, investing in young people can deliver significant results in terms of poverty reduction, improvement of rural areas, employment generation, inclusive engagement, and food and nutrition security.
The LEADER approach is also proving its value as a versatile tool for rural policy, offering the chance to involve local communities and authorities in positive transformation. Regional policies offer an opportunity to prepare well-tailored solutions, taking into account bottom-up initiatives.
We invite articles that creatively analyze the potential of rural areas, document the transformation of human and technical resources, and contribute to the debate on public policy instruments that reflect the directions of change in Europe, especially in light of the ambitious objectives to be climate neutral by 2050. We also welcome articles on rural development pathways and modern policies in different regions of the world.
Prof. Dr. Paweł Chmieliński
Prof. Dr. Mariantonietta Fiore
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- rural policy analysis
- food systems
- sustainable and circular business models
- bioeconomy development and policy
- clusters, networks, communities
- digital revolution in rural areas
- new (bio) rural generation
- smart and e-agriculture
- rural smart communities and lands
- governance and policy coherence
- stakeholder involvement
- regional and local development
- economic and social impact analysis
- demand and consumption patterns
- value chain analysis
- European Green Deal
- EU Farm to Fork Strategy
- long-term vision for rural areas
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.