Self-government as representing the interests of the local population, social and political life organizing structure, occupies an important place in the political system of most of the countries. It is perceived as the lowest level of territorial division but as the closest one to civil society. Local self-government, in order to adapt to the changes, should focus on the investigation of the specific community issues, opportunities and needs of the development of the area. Currently, more and more relevant for district development stakeholders are becoming local authorities. The relevance of the topic is signified by the fact that the ever-changing environment provides people with new opportunities, but also causes a lot of problems. European district development policy provides new features for countryside areas, such as economic, social, environmental and territorial ones. The changes radically change the concept of local development and activities: from a centralized model of transition to exogenous and endogenous decentralized model, the latter based on local initiatives and resources, and innovations. The research objective is to single out theoretical possibilities for the application of the institutional dependency model in order to ensure the harmonious governance of Lithuanian local authorities. An assumption is made that this is a new opportunity for improving the governance process of territorial self-government. The research is based on the scientific literature, document analysis and synthesis, systematization, case studies, comparative analysis and visualization methods.

In the regions of Latvia there still exists a large unused resource – social capital (SC). Ineffectively implemented development policies, population’s alienation from the state democratic institutions, a low level of non-governmental engagement and SC, lack of resources in the local government sector, increased emigration, civic cynicism, low conditions of the prestige of the political profession have facilitated the development differences among territories. The research goal: comparison of the social capital of Zemgale region, towns and districts. Monographic analysis and method of synthesis, data statistical research methods – grouping, comparison, the processing and interpretation of statistical data – the method for analysing aggregate indicators, was used in the article. The research discovers the SC at the micro-level – the collaboration and attitudes between citizens and the state as well as in-between the individuals themselves, along with the macro-level – interaction of social groups as a part of a network which helps create trust to local government bodies as well as the state. The study indicates that the development of the Zemgale region is impacted not only by such social capital factors as the population density in the districts (0.37), the number of population until the working age (0.55), but also by the factor education level of the deputies (2009-2013) between the districts (0.12), towns (0.41), and the whole region (0.14). This verified the assumption that higher education level implies higher social potential and more active social inclusion. The authors suggest the local-governments to devote increased funding to the NGOs as it is the most active form of social capital, thus ensuring a long-term development of such initiative groups.

During the last decade a huge number of Latvian citizens have left the country and live abroad, which complicates to a certain extent the chance of easily returning and settling down in Latvia. At the same time, the Latvian entrepreneurs are ultimately demonstrating their desperate need for all kind of workers. Especially it could be seen in sectors like medicine, retail, heavy and light industry. Rapidly growing Diaspora allows to acknowledge that there is a big potential of labour force flowing away from the country, sometimes staying without any work positions for quite a long time. The aim of this article is to find evidence that Latvian Diaspora could be involved in the Latvian economy and business by using a new attitude and approach, which should be supported by teleworking. During research the main methods used were content analysis of strategic and planning documents as well as analysis of the best practices in the world and Latvia, with the aim of establishing a model of remote work development and finding out proposals for a better participation of employees, employers and territory representatives – local governments and state institutions. This article is a part of and supported by the State Research Project EKOSOC-LV, part 5.2.2. The authors express their gratitude to the Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities research of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.

Scientific evidence is robust about the environmentally destructive side-effects of the current industrial civilization and that requires radical actions to safeguard sustainable management of natural resources and liveable Planet Earth. Agroecology as a broader movement serves some of this role in demonstrating alternative practices in food production and ecosystem management. This paper demonstrates that the permaculture movement in Latvia is developing as a recognized alternative on the pathway to solutions, linking to the work elsewhere done on management of common natural resources – the things that no one owns and are shared by everyone. The author has explored the development of the permaculture movement in Latvia since its first roots in the late 2000s and the establishment of the Latvian Permaculture Association (LPA) in 2011. The contribution of the movement manifests itself in diverse aspects. It unifies various sustainability-oriented people, grounds itself in locality and traditions, organises practically oriented events to upskill people, and collaborates with Latvian environmental organisations and internationally. Within the research the author consciously opted for an in-depth involvement and co-creation of initiatives within the permaculture movement, leading the LPA since 2016 and organizing multiple events and workshops. That leads to further reflections on the role and necessity for participatory action research for sustainability transformations and common natural resources.