Transnational Co‐operation Between Rural Areas: Elements of a Political Economy of EU Rural Development

The re‐territorialization of rural development across the eu is well under way, manifesting in a constantly evolving pan‐European mosaic of territorial initiatives. This paper considers the significance of the phenomenon in terms of the emergence of a rural development system. This pan‐European system has two functions: first, it represents a potential mode of capitalist production for territorial entities; and second, it functions as a system of distribution and co‐ordination. The record of transnational co‐operation projects created through the eu's leader ii Initiative is used to sketch a theory of the first mode based around the concept of interlocality connectivity. Taylor's ideas on global cities are borrowed in order to speculate on the potential for a hierarchy to emerge among the territorial entities of the rural development system. Attention then turns to the distributive function of the system in order to examine non‐economic flows, using Dolowitz and Marsh's ideas on the policy transfer/learning process.