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Social farming is gaining increasing attention from multiple stakeholders in Europe because it can generate several socioeconomic benefits, for farming households too. The research-which is part of a project carried out by a healthcare authority in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in order to investigate social farming in the local area-is a first attempt to analyse social farm results and to what extent they are affected by farm assets, as well as by the environment in which farms are embedded. The proposed model is based on the investigation of the causal relationships between "structural", "relational" and "social farm result" constructs (latent variables), and on the identification of their measurement scales (observed variables). The causal relationships between these three constructs have been tested via a structural equation model calculated with the linear structural relationship method. The findings show that social farm results are mainly influenced by the relational variables (e.g., social and economic relations). On the contrary, the structural variables (e.g., size) do not directly affect the results, but they do have a negative indirect effect on them which is mediated by the relational variables. The findings suggests that alongside structural investment support, it is also important to strengthen relations and networks at local level in order to reinforce social farm results. Overall the findings contribute to the further understanding of the driving forces affecting social farm performance and provide policy makers and practitioners with information for scaling-up social farming.

Many scholars today are deepening economic issues by looking at new paradigms based on the relationship between communities and the resources of the territory. The proposals are different, mainly focusing on economic theories such as solidarity economy, a mix of theories and practices based on equity, sustainability, democracy, and reciprocity. The growing legislation on solidarity economy implies to develop tools to support Administrations and Communities throughout the process of effective realization. The aim of this study is to propose a methodology for evaluating the Vocation to Solidarity Economy (VSE) by means of a composite indicator (VSE index) and apply it to the territory of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in the northeast of Italy. A series of basic factors concerning social, economic, and environmental aspects was defined by multidisciplinary experts and used for VSE index calculations. The spatialization of VSE index allows the assessment of the vocation of territories in supporting the paths to become Communities of Solidarity Economy as defined by a recent regional law. As results of subsequent VSE spatialization we obtain the maps which highlight different characteristics within the Region (i.e. urban/rural relations) helping local administrations to improve current policies towards sustainability.

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Climate change has strong impacts on soil conservation and agricultural productivity, with severe consequences on smallholders in developing countries, but virtually no research has been carried out so far on this issue. Therefore, it is necessary to foster the implementation of participatory projects to help communities deal with new difficulties. Sustainable soil management can reduce and even reverse land degradation, helping farmers to adapt to climate change effects. Progress toward sustainability cannot be implemented in small rural communities regardless of local knowledge, which can be addressed using participatory techniques. To this purpose the choice and use of indicators is essential to carry out correct assessments of soil vulnerability integrating local and technical knowledge. The purpose of this review was to study how the problem of building a set of integrated indicators to assess soil quality has been addressed so far and which participatory techniques have been more successfully employed, analyzing studies carried out in rural communities of developing countries. We found out that there is a lack of participated studies dealing with environmental issues. Those that do so address them only indirectly, being centered on present agricultural problems. The studies rarely feature a collaboration with social science experts, consequently the use of participatory techniques lacks protocols and a standardized nomenclature to help in the transfer and generalization of experiences. Women are rarely involved and nearly exclusively in African countries: this could be related to social and cultural conditions, but needs more attention. Different aspects need to be improved to help the implementation of a successful approach in future projects. This review provides a tool to facilitate future interdisciplinary research on integration of local and scientific knowledge and will help to devise more successful strategies to tackle the challenges posed by climate change to smallholders in developing countries.

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