Tokenism in Territorial Development: Enabling Factors and Mitigation Measures

Abstract Most EU policy documents highlight the need to ensure and contribute to the achievement of the multifaceted goal of social sustainability. In this framework, the paper investigates tokenism, a common phenomenon of crucial importance for rural development, although not widely studied. The paper focuses on a scoping literature review to analyse the forms of tokenism affecting the territorial development practices and which factors can prevent this phenomenon. More specifically, recent scientific papers dealing with tokenism, social capital, rural areas, and decision processes were analysed to shed light on the various underhand practices in which tokenism occurs and possible limiting factors. The results show the role played by adopting participatory approaches and by some variables (e. g., trust, influence, involvement, civic engagement, information) in reducing the phenomenon of tokenism. It is important to highlight how improving the local amount of social capital represents a key factor positively affecting the success of territorial development strategies. The originality and the value of the present study lie in the fact that notwithstanding tokenism is analysed by several authors, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies focusing on the relationship between tokenism and territorial development.