The role of endogenous and exogenous actors in rural cultural development: Embedded coordinators and multi-scalar hubs

Cultural amenities play a significant role in fostering rural development by enhancing quality of life, social cohesion, and place attachment. However, cultural initiatives, particularly in rural regions, often face structural challenges, including limited access to funding, expertise, and stakeholder networks. This paper conceptualises rural cultural work through the lens of neo-endogenous regional development, highlighting the interplay between endogenous and exogenous actors in rural cultural life and analysing the multi-scalar relationships and interactions within it. Against this background, it addresses the following research question: How do interactions between endogenous and exogenous actors shape the multi-scalar structure of rural cultural networks? A comparative perspective based on three cases of regional networks provides empirical insights on how endogenous and exogenous stakeholders organise networks of rural cultural work in practice, and how embeddedness shapes these interactions. The methodological approach builds on a Social Network Analysis (SNA), which we extend with a cluster analysis. The study enhances the theoretical and empirical understanding of rural cultural organisation by mapping and analysing aggregated rural networks. We relate our findings to prominent network theories, highlighting how actor roles at different spatial scales shape rural development. This provides a deeper understanding of how a network-analytical perspective can enrich neo-endogenous approaches to rural development.