Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Applied Research in Management, Economics and Accounting
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Backcasting as a leadership method of planning local and regional development
Professor Grzymala Zbigniew, PhD, Wójcik-Czerniawska Agnieszka, PhD, MBA
ABSTRACT:
The development of economies depends on various factors. The most popular factors determining the possibility of development include: the geographical location of a given area, including access to existing communication routes (transport infrastructure); other technical infrastructure; the natural environment, including the climate, which may determine the tourist potential; the size of the area’s natural resources; universities and research institutions and other social infrastructure; the size and quality of human resources, including entrepreneurial creativity, the level of which may also depend on the legal and political conditions of a given country, region or local governments; the level of decentralization of the economy and others. In the literature on development, its description and conditions are explained by many theories. In general, these theories describe the level of this development ex post on the basis of given factors and economic policy. On this basis, analysts and development strategists propose a specific development path, and then observe the effects. The method of back casting , including participatory backcasting, is to reverse development planning. It starts with the assumption of the final result, i.e. what we want to achieve, for example: it may be an indicator of economic growth, and then we look for ways to achieve this level, taking into account known development factors, necessary financial outlays and time. The aim of the article is to propose assumptions for the use of the participatory backcasting method for planning economic development at the local and regional level on the example of the zero waste concept. It is therefore assumed that a zero waste solution has been adopted in a given municipality or region due to climate protection. Then, going backwards, we define the desired actions to achieve the expected result. Planning is an essential element of social life, including economic development. Moreover, planning is the first element in the traditional understanding of management. Economic development can be assessed from different levels: global, regional and local. Global development refers territorially to all world economies and their interconnectedness. Regional development, in turn, to individual ones, for example, to macro-regions, usually covering several countries. It is also individual regions in a given country, separated administratively or due to environmental or geographical characteristics.
Local and regional development is influenced, among others, by:
- a) graphic location of the analyzed area, including the existence of communication routes (transport infrastructure),
- b) The level of innovation, including universities and research institutions, the size and quality of human resources – recently considered the most important.
- c) the amount of natural resources in the area,
- d) the current level of economic development and its structure (service and production),
- e) the structure of space,
- f) administrative functions of the settlement unit or units located in a given area,
g) development strategy for the area.
keywords: participatory back casting , economic development, regional and local development, development factors, development strategies and plans, zero waste