Social Farming: An Inclusive Environment Conducive to Participant Personal Growth

Roberta Moruzzo, Francesco Di Iacovo, Alessandra Funghi, Paola Scarpellini, Salomon Espinosa Diaz and Francesco Riccioli
Additional contact information
Roberta Moruzzo: Department of Veterinary Science—Rural Economics Section, University of Pisa, Viale Delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Francesco Di Iacovo: Department of Veterinary Science—Rural Economics Section, University of Pisa, Viale Delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Alessandra Funghi: Self-Employed Agronomist, Via 1 Maggio 35, Pontedera, 56025 Pisa, Italy
Paola Scarpellini: Department of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Florence, Via Delle Pandette 9, 50127 Florence, Italy
Salomon Espinosa Diaz: Department of Veterinary Science—Rural Economics Section, University of Pisa, Viale Delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Francesco Riccioli: Department of Veterinary Science—Rural Economics Section, University of Pisa, Viale Delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy

Social Sciences, 2019, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Social farming can ameliorate the everyday life of people engaged in farming activities, including perceived changes in mood or behavior. It can also be therapeutic, as it can address a range of public health and service provision issues. This paper presents the findings of an Italian project that explored the impact of social farming on the well-being of the participants and their ability to perform certain tasks linked to agricultural activities. In addition, this paper tries to evaluate how the organization of the network system around the participants helps them to improve their relational capabilities. Participant observations were made in class rooms and farms where the participants carried out their agricultural activities. Such observations focused on the way in which participants and other subjects (i.e., tutors and training staff) inside the network system interacted. A number of in-depth interviews were carried out with tutors and trainers in order to understand if the participants would play a relevant role in social farming activities and what that role would be.

Keywords: social farming; rural welfare; community network; social inclusion; care farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/11/301/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/11/301/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:11:p:301-:d:281173

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().