What is Territorial Development

According to Simões Lopes (quotation on page 19 of his 1984 book Desenvolvimento Regional – Problemática, Teoria e Modelos ), “development requires justice, harmony, equilibrium, in a double perspective: spatial and temporal. A society is not developed if its ways of life are sustained by the exploitation of resources from other societies, and it cannot be developed if its life standards are created and maintained by consuming non-renewable resources at a faster rhythm than that required for their renovation. In both cases they exploit ‘others’: their neighbors, in the first case; future generations, in the second”. The Green Book for Territorial Cohesion, promoted by the European Commission in 2008, debates the problems of development and territorial cohesion in the following way: “Territorial cohesion is about ensuring the harmonious development of all the territories that make up the various EU countries, and that their citizens are able to make the most of the characteristics of each of them. In this respect, territorial cohesion is a factor of conversion of difference into advantage, thus contributing to sustainable development throughout the European Union”.

A place-based kind of development that is composed of different dimensions (social, economic, socially cohesive, sustainable, and technological).

Is the result of articulation between the actors that combine process of planning, implementation of the public policies and self-management initiatives from the civil society looking for dynamizing and strengthening the potential of the territory.

According to Simões Lopes (quotation on page 19 of his 1984 book Desenvolvimento Regional – Problemática, Teoria e Modelos ), “development requires justice, harmony, equilibrium, in a double perspective: spatial and temporal. A society is not developed if its ways of life are sustained by the exploitation of resources from other societies, and it cannot be developed if its life standards are created and maintained by consuming non-renewable resources at a faster rhythm than that required for their renovation. In both cases they exploit ‘others’: their neighbors, in the first case; future generations, in the second”. The Green Book for Territorial Cohesion, promoted by the European Commission in 2008, debates the problems of development and territorial cohesion in the following way: “Territorial cohesion is about ensuring the harmonious development of all the territories that make up the various EU countries, and that their citizens are able to make the most of the characteristics of each of them. In this respect, territorial cohesion is a factor of conversion of difference into advantage, thus contributing to sustainable development throughout the European Union”.