Minor Deprived Urban Communities and Territorial Governance: Case Study Analysis and Best Practices Handbook

In the last years many efforts took place at European leve1 to support the development of disadvantageous areas (e.g. the Council regulation No 1698/2005 supports the rural development through the institution of the European Agricultura1 Fund for Rural Development). During the last four years, the COST Action C27 "Sustainable Development Policies For Minor Deprived Urban Comunities" carried fonvard its main objective, that is to explore, assess and inaprove the different policy options open to srnall, deprived, urban cornmunities, geared to sustainable development. The present paper is rneant to investigate deprived contexts and propose sustainable solutions for their development, on the basis of the work that has already been developed by the COST Action C27. The sahcle will also provide some basic ideas for the constmction of a Handbook of Best Practices, starting from the review of the case studies that emerged during the COST Action itself.