Economic, Financial, and Technical Resources Mobilized by Public Action for Social Innovation in Rural Tourism
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Abstract
This study analyzes the economic, financial, and technical resources mobilized by public action in support of social innovation in rural tourism, drawing on the case of the Marrakech–Safi region. Anchored in the theory of change framework, it seeks to understand how these resources function as essential inputs in the process of territorial transformation and to what extent they enable the activation of mechanisms leading to sustainable outcomes. The methodological approach is based on a lexicometric analysis of qualitative data, combining lexical frequency distribution, correspondence factor analysis, similarity analysis, and word cloud visualization. The results highlight a shared recognition of the structuring role of public resources, particularly with regard to financing and technical support. However, the analysis also reveals a standardization of discourse and a limited explicit articulation of the causal chains linking mobilized resources to expected outcomes, such as actor empowerment, project viability, or local spillovers. These findings point to a gap between public planning and the operational dynamics on the ground. The study concludes that the effectiveness of public action depends less on the volume of resources mobilized than on their capacity to be converted into effective collective action capabilities, through contextualized support mechanisms adapted to the specificities of rural territories in the Marrakech–Safi region.
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