Alba Iulia (Romania)
The concept of territorial intelligence represents the totality of pluri-disciplinary knowledge that, on one side, contributes to the understanding of territorial structure and dynamic and, on the other side, is conceived as a tool for the agents of sustainable territorial development. (Jean-Jacques Girardot, 2003).
The conference aims promoting innovative research based on the participatory knowledge of territories and communities, contributing in this way to the dissemination of the principles of territorial intelligence.
Conceived as such, territorial intelligence is closely connected with community development which “refers to voluntary changes in, through and for the community” (Dumitru Sandu, 2005).
Community development is a cluster of ideas, tools and good practices based on participation and social trust, which can trigger a “bottom-up” spiral dynamic for the development of local communities. Through accumulation and generalization processes, the effects of community development can be considerably multiplied; therefore the implementation of the principles of community development can lead to social progress and to the formulation and efficient enforcement of public policies on a territorial scale. Through the papers presented at the Conference we aim at striking a balance between theoretical contributions to community development at a conceptual, methodological and social intervention level and the practical implementation and substantiation of territorial intelligence practices.