Assessing social relationships within Local Action Groups: a worthwhile tool for measuring LAGs’ effectiveness - Experiences from two Sicilian LEADER LAGs

The LEADER programme supports the endogenous development of rural regions through a bottom-up- and an integrated approach implemented by the Local Action Groups (LAGs). The evaluation of LAGs’ effectiveness in achieving the programme’s objectives hasalready been discussed by the scientific community. One reason for discussion is that the effectiveness of LAGs also depends on intangiblecapacities such as social relations whose evaluation still appears to be difficult. This paper helps to define a framework for assessing LAGs’ internal social relationships and drawing possible implications for the LAGs’ effectiveness.Assuming that social relationships could play a strategic role in LAGs’ effectiveness, the degree and nature of relationship betweenthe members of two LAGs from Sicily are assessed. Social Network Analysis is used as methodological approach for investigating relationships within the LAGs. Results showthat LAGs can be characterized by features ofthe social networks they are embedded into. As an important relational indicator turned out the density of actor relations potentially determining LAGs’ effectiveness in terms ofoptimal level of cross-sectoral collaboration between the LAG members.