Abstract

The paper traces the emergence of the regional eco-economy with reference to a new conceptual model called the rural web. These webs are embedded into the fabric of regional systems of production and consumption and provide a key driver for both rural development generally and eco-economic development more specifically. Relocalized agri-food networks are playing a key integrating role in mobilizing the web and the regional eco-economy more generally. The web concept is used to (i) assess the pathways and drivers of eco-economic initiatives, (ii) provide a way of embedding agri-food initiatives in their innate forms of multifunctionality with wider ecological goods and services and (iii) provide a valuable and multidimensional tool for comparative rural/regional analysis and pathways of eco-economic development.