Beyond the civic participation: accentuating existential needs in rural development

• The existential aspect of participation is a salient feature at the village level. • Residents prioritise existential needs and emphasise 'development of community'. • Conventional community‑development processes often overlook these concerns. • Axiology-driven discourse incorporates the existential realm into local development dialogue. This article investigates how rural wellbeing is shaped through civic and existential forms of participation. Although participation features prominently in rural development policy, many municipalities experience fragmentation, misunderstandings and dissatisfaction with participatory processes. Drawing on five-year participatory action research (2019–2024) in five rural municipalities of the structurally weak Ústí nad Labem Region in Czechia, the study explores how residents and local representatives articulate community needs, aspirations and responsibilities, and how these relate to place-based wellbeing. We develop a conceptual framework grounded in relational and existential understandings of wellbeing, distinguishing between development in the community (infrastructural and managerial) and development of the community (care, relationships, meaning and future horizons). Interviews, community platform meetings and longitudinal observation reveal marked discrepancies between formal strategic planning—focused on technical and infrastructural goals—and residents’ concerns centred on relational wellbeing, existential security, community viability, intergenerational relations and the future character of the village. Our findings show that participatory practices focused mainly on material needs overlook deeper existential and relational dimensions of wellbeing, including belonging, recognition, care and responsibility for place. Integrating dialogical, relational and existential elements into local governance can enhance communities’ ability to address shared dilemmas and co-create resilient futures. The study contributes to wellbeing scholarship by highlighting existential participation as a crucial yet overlooked aspect of rural wellbeing and by proposing a communication framework that bridges civic and existential dimensions of community life.