Cooperation Between Higher Education Institutions and Local Stakeholders: Innovative Pedagogical Methods as a Tool to Strengthen Regional Development

Abstract

Cooperation between HEIs and other stakeholders is one of the ways to promote local development due to the possibility of introducing innovative knowledge in the many activities and thus improving the competitiveness of companies and the institutions' performance. New educational perspectives in higher education using innovative pedagogical methods are required to enable collaborative processes and partnerships between HEIs and stakeholders that contribute to local development. The chapter intends to analyse some of the innovative pedagogical methods that can be used to promote regional and local development. The selected cases study is two. One will address an example of designing a garden for an urban parish in the city of Évora (Portugal). This project was developed by students of the Landscape Architecture graduation of the University of Évora. The second was developed by students of the masters in agribusiness and in management of the University of Évora, and the intervention focus was the organic cocoa producers in the São Tomé and Principe.