Rural Movements and Parliaments in Europe as Agents of Socio-Political Landscapes: Social Innovation, Identity Re-Creation, Democratic Renewal and Professionalisation in Times of Rural Transformation

European rural communities face profound transformations driven by demographic change, economic restructuring, service erosion, and political marginalisation. In response, Rural Movements (RMs) and Rural Parliaments (RPs) have emerged as important actors shaping the socio-political dimensions of rural landscapes. Drawing on the European Landscape Convention’s understanding of landscape as shaped by both natural and human factors, this article conceptualises RMs and RPs as co-producers of rural socio-political landscapes through advocacy, identity-building, community mobilisation, and institutional engagement. The study combines a qualitative literature review with exploratory empirical material from two expert workshops conducted at the 6th European Rural Parliament (Inverurie, Scotland, October 2025), involving representatives from eight European countries. The analysis examines RMs and RPs as agents of social innovation, arenas of identity preservation and reinvention, infrastructures of democratic renewal, and navigators of the professionalisation-institutionalisation dilemma. Findings suggest that many movements emerged in response to centralisation, service loss, weakened local influence, and democratic deficits. Professionalisation is understood as the development of organisational capacities, advocacy skills, and strategic networks while maintaining grassroots legitimacy and local embeddedness. The article identifies key factors that enable and constrain movement development and concludes that the transformative potential of RMs and RPs depends on balancing organisational effectiveness with participatory, locally rooted, and politically autonomous forms of action.