Scientific publications

Despite long-standing EU support for regional development and rural revitalisation, many rural community initiatives struggle to sustain their activities once project-based funding ends. While instruments such as the LEADER programme have been effective in mobilising local actors, building capacity, and initiating community-led projects, they have been less successful in ensuring long-term continuity and coordination of supported initiatives. This paper examines networking as a means to overcome fragmentation and ensure the continuity of rural community activities that contribute to local economic development.

Energy poverty remains a major constraint on both effective global climate governance and economic development. Enhancing trade liberalization to strengthen regional network association and reduce barriers to the cross-border flow of energy-related factors has become a key strategy for addressing this issue. Drawing on panel data from 145 countries over the period 2007–2022, this study develops a composite indicator of energy poverty, covering aspects such as access to energy services, consumption cleanliness, and cost burden.

The profound changes occurring worldwide at the onset of the twenty-first century have presented democracy with unforeseen problems, necessitating the development of novel models of governance. The process of digitalization, along with the rapid dissemination of knowledge, has significantly transformed political, economic, and social interactions. This transformation is occurring simultaneously with the changing roles of governments, society, and science.

European planning systems increasingly endorse accessibility, inclusion, and Universal Design (UD) as principles of equitable spatial development, yet implementation often remains uneven where responsibilities are decentralized without matching capacity, guidance, or monitoring infrastructure. This article examines how accessibility commitments are translated into local planning practice through the implementation of UD in Lithuania.

Household consumption constitutes a major source of carbon emission, making it essential to explore the potential for carbon emission reductions from the demand side. Based on the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) household microdata from 2010 to 2020, this study empirically examines the impact of consumption structure upgrading (CSU) on household carbon emissions (HCE).

Purpose – This study investigates how chatbot cultural understanding shapes consumer responses in online retail, focusing on perceived brand localness, consumer–brand identification and value co-creation behaviors. Guided by social identity theory, the study also examines the moderating role of consumer ethnocentrism.

This paper aims to evaluate the progress towards achieving sustainabledevelopment goals in the transport sector of the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania– compared with Finland by identifying structural differences in renewable energydeployment and policy design that account for variation in transition outcomes over theperiod 2010–2024.

This study aimed to assess the performance of dairy farms in the Baltic States and Poland, measured by financial ratios. The analysis was conducted using average data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) database for the period 2012 – 2021. A total of sixteen financial ratios were selected, calculated, and evaluated, grouped into four dimensions: profitability, liquidity and independence, financial efficiency, and stability and solvency. According to the results, Polish dairy farms exhibited higher profitability and liquidity, whereas Lithuanian dairy farms demonstrated higher stability and solvency.

Off-grid and low-impact lifestyles have emerged as important sites of socio-ecological ex-perimentation that challenge conventional understandings of sustainability. This study ex-amines the initiative ‘Portugal It Is’, a Lithuanian diaspora homestead in rural Portugal, as a qualitative case through which to explore the relevance of such lifestyles to the emerging concept of the Symbiocene.

Regional development increasingly occurs under conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and accelerating socio-economic change, creating a need for adaptive approaches that support learning and transformation. Although Living Labs have gained prominence as environments for co-creation and experimentation, their broader systemic role in regional development remains insufficiently theorized.