Towards sustainable regional development through social networking - 'Negotinska krajina' case

Like many other rural regions in post-socialist countries, Negotinska krajina wine region faces serious decline in wine production and severe depopulation. In order to reverse these negative trends, strengthening local capacities, through development of social networks, exchange and transfer of knowledge, expertise and know-how, is recognised in planning theory and practice as vital for more sustainable development of rural regions. This paper presents a process of developing a complex and dynamic model of collaboration between local institutions, companies and communities from Negotinska krajina region and Serbian and Italian academic and scientific institutions, experts and companies, in order to achieve: a) Increased transfer of knowledge, experiences and practices of local representatives and wine growers from Negotinska krajina region and partners; b) Increased knowhow transfer among academic partners and practical knowledge transfer among local public, private and civic stakeholders and academic institutions from Serbia and Italy; c) Institutionalized inter sectorial collaboration and ‘city to city’ cooperation. Some of the partners in this collaboration are: University of Belgrade-Faculty of Architecture;..... Fondazione De Vittorio (ex IRES – Istituto Ricerche Economiche e Sociali); Department......– Società cooperativa Agricola per azioni; Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade; University of Belgrade-Faculty of Philosophy, and Italian Embassy in Belgrade.