Category Archives: Research

Research

Torri Superiore Ecovillage: resisting the abandonment of rural marginal areas in Italy

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 MSc-thesis by Alberto Giani

Modernization of agriculture has clearly shown not to be a viable solution for marginalized areas, while a mix of retro-innovation, fantasy and passion is showing a possible novel way forward for the re-utilization of abandoned areas and the revitalization of its socio-economic life.

Torri Superiore Ecovillage is such as case, that I studied in my MSc-thesis (click here for my full thesis report), part of my Master Organic Agriculture in Wageningen Univesity.

Torri Superiore Ecovillage can be defined as a bounded space re-created by in-migrants (new-rurals) that came and establish their lives in a place out from the mainstream society, utilizing external resources (both human resources and capital) and skills to revitalize through a neo-endogenous process the economic potential of a semi-abandoned low productive rural area.

Agriculture in a marginal area can rarely be a remunerative activity. In particular if an area has been abandoned for years and offers no opportunity for mechanization. Making a living in agriculture thus demands a break with the mainstream perspective on agricultural production. A capitalistic approach to land use, based on the integration in markets, is barely impossible in these areas. However from a different rural development approach still work can be created in the production of quality food remunerating a little salary to built a decent life, allowing people to live as much as possible in harmony with the environment without depleting it from its natural resources. Patrimonialization, broadening, deepening, re-grounding, creating local outlets are all strategies that can stimulate the rebirth of a local nested economy embedded in the territory, as is the case in Torri Superiore Ecovillage. This case represents a positive experiment in the restoration of economic efficiency in a marginal rural area.

Current policies discourses do stress the importance of creating proper conditions to make people stay in or return to marginal areas, but in practice the cost of the land, the bureaucracy and the taxes make it almost impossible for anybody to stay in marginal rural areas or for people without any experiences (so called new-rurals) to return to these areas.

PUREFOOD Research Vacancy ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies’

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The vacancy for a position as Early Stage Researcher (ESR) for the project  ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies in European cities’ within the PUREFOOD research and training network has been re-opened. More information about PUREFOOD can be found below and on the PUREFOOD website (which is still under construction).

Job description

For this PUREFOOD project ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies in European cities’ we are looking for an Early Stage Researcher who is interested in the topics of urban food provisioning and the relations between food and policy domains as public health, education, environment, et cetera from a sociological, political science and/or planning perspective. The research will focus on how food policies are articulated and motivated in different European cities and what  the consequences are for their implementation. This focus is inspired by the fact that more and more city governments are taking up food as a key policy area to enhance human and environmental urban health. The challenges of policy articulation and implementation are big. The articulation of food policy has so far been reliant on individual politicians and on a political level vulnerable to electoral shifts. Institutionalization of food policy in city governments has just started and different patterns of institutionalization are emerging with particular pitfalls and successes. This study will explore the preconditions, political processes, strategy articulation and implementations of urban food strategies in different European cities in comparative perspective to enhance the understanding of the conditions for successful urban food policy implementation. Continue reading →

Uitnodiging Studiedag Multifunctionele Landbouw

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Op woensdag 15 juni a.s. organiseert de vakgroep Rurale Sociologie (samen met collega’s van Educatie- en Competentiestudies) een studiedag rond het thema multifunctionele landbouw. Deze bijeenkomst vormt de afsluiting van van het tweejarige onderzoeksproject ‘Dynamiek en Robuustheid van Multifunctionele Landbouw’.

De studiedag vindt plaats op Landgoed Heerlijkheid Mariënwaerdt en is bedoeld voor iedereen geïnteresseerd in en betrokken bij de huidige en toekomstige ontwikkelingen van multifunctionele landbouw in Nederland (ondernemers, onderzoekers, beleidsmakers, adviseurs etc.). Aan deelname zijn géén kosten verbonden.

Download hier de volledige uitnodiging. Voor meer informatie en aanmelding kijk ook op de website van het onderzoek ‘Dynamiek en Robuustheid van Multifunctionele Landbouw’.

Tot ziens op 15 juni a.s.! 

 

Aankondiging Onderwijsdag Multifunctionele Landbouw

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Op donderdag 19 mei a.s. organiseren de Groene Kennis Coöperatie, de Taskforce Multifunctionele Landbouw en KPC Groep de ‘Onderwijsdag Multifunctionele Landbouw’. De dag richt zich op docenten in het (groen)onderwijs die meer willen weten van multifunctionele landbouw, het ondernemen op deze bedrijven en de manier waarop het onderwijs hierop kan inspringen.

Workshop

Naast een bijdrage in de vorm van een inleidende presentatie organiseren wij, n.a.v. van onze recente onderzoekswerkzaamheden, een interessante workshop op deze dag. In de workshop staat de verankering van multifunctionele landbouw in het onderwijs centraal: hoe kunnen we aandacht besteden aan deze vorm van ondernemen en om welke (nieuwe) vormen van leren vraagt het?

Onderwijsdag Multifunctionele Landbouw

Doelgroep: docenten, stagebegeleiders

Datum: 19 mei a.s. van 09.30 – 16.15 uur

Locatie: Fruittuin Verbeek, Oldebroek

Deelname is gratis. Meer informatie over de dag, het programma en aanmelding is te vinden op de volgende website.

DERREG Policy Seminar in Brussels

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Last Thursday March 31, a Policy Seminar had place to discuss the relevancy of the results from the EU-funded reserach project DERREG for EU-policies.  Although the project and the work is not yet completed, emerging outcomes and policy recommendations were presented by the project coordinator prof. Michael Woods and the four coordinators of the respective workpackages on Rural business networks, Rural migration patterns, Sustainable development and Rural regional learning. The emerging outcomes and recommendations are also capitalised in the European Policy Brief published at the DERREG website.

WU is coordinator of Workpackage 4. We focussed on how public support and faciliation of joint learning and innovation in grassroots (place-based) development activities can be best arranged. We have explored, mapped and analysed various such arrangements in six case study areas. See the example of the map of the ‘governance of joint learning and innovation’ in the Westerkwartier below.

Map of the governance of joint learning and innovation in the Westerkwartier (NL)

These arrangements and the support or faciliation given was evaluated by the beneficiaries (see earlier posts on case-study area Westerkwartier, Alytus, Dresden and Comarca de Verin).

Although we will extend our analysis and specifically elaborate more on ‘promising or good practices’ revealed, Wiebke Wellbrock and I presented the main findings and policy recommendations (see our presentation).

Key to our findings is that the effectiveness of support policies depends on well working operational interfaces between public policies, grassroots development initiatives and (knowledge) facilities to support joint learning and innovation. These interfaces get shaped in agreements between various public and private partners but it are operational agents or agencies fulfilling various intermediary task and roles connecting different ‘worlds’ that make them work (well).