Social farming: a proposal to explore the effects of structural and relational variables on social farm results

Abstract

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.

Nature-Based Interventions for Mental Health Care: Social Network Analysis as a Tool to Map Social Farms and their Response to Social Inclusion and Community Engagement

“…The aim of this study was to describe the social and economic relationships of a sample of farms involved in SF and to explore whether the engagement of persons with mental health issues in their activities, combined with dissemination and promotion actions, is able to affect their network. This information is of particular relevance, considering that relational variables are crucial to enhance social farms’ performance and, thus, for the functioning of the system itself [36,37,39].…”

“…Consolidated links between social farms–particularly in the form of collaboration in rehabilitation and job placement activities for disadvantaged people–could contrast entrepreneurial vulnerability. By creating networking opportunities and providing access to new resources, relations with other farms might, in fact, support the smallest (and more vulnerable) social farms and help them to improve their performance [27,39].…”

“…The network of alliances built with local actors is able to promote entrepreneurial dynamism and represent an advantage from the point of view of strategic autonomy and sustainability [38]. Recently, Bassi and colleagues [39] explored how structural (e.g., farm size) and relational variables (i.e., social, economic, and other relationships) affect the performance of farms engaged in SF in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region of Italy. Their findings indicate that, more than structural variables, relational variables are directly and positively related to the ability of the farms to cope with market problems and to implement other activities, including the engagement of disadvantaged people.…”

Social Farming: Heterogeneity in Social and Agricultural Relationships

“…The Italian case has already been broadly studied and, therefore, some of the main characteristics of SF in Italy have been discussed, such as some aspects of regional differences as well as innovation [34][35][36][37]. This represents a point of strength of this study because it is based on an updated and deep analysis of national and regional policy contexts as well as local practices, and has pushed forward the comparative analysis and suggested a theoretical framework of analysis that might be of interest to a much broader and international audience.…”

Consumers Demand for Social Farming Products: An Analysis with Discrete Choice Experiments

“…SF and its relevance is now emerging in Italy, as well as in other European Countries and other parts of the world [16,[20][21][22]. It is paving the way for a new chance to diversify rural activities, to enhance the role of a renewed agriculture in society, and to strengthen the economic and social viability of farms and rural communities as a whole [10,[23][24][25][26].…”