Social Entrepreneurship in Agriculture, a Sustainable Practice for Social and Economic Cohesion in Rural Areas: The Case of the Czech Republic

Hudcová Eliška (), Chovanec Tomáš () and Moudrý Jan ()
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Hudcová Eliška: (Ph.D. student), Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Civil Society Studies, U Kříže 8, 158 00Praha 5 – Jinonice
Chovanec Tomáš: (Ph.D. student), University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agroecosystems, Studentská 13, 370 05České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Moudrý Jan: Ph.D., University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agroecosystems, Studentská 13, 370 05České Budějovice, Czech Republic

European Countryside, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, 377-397

Abstract: This article pursues an innovative dimension of social entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector that keeps rural areas viable, so-called social farming. Social entrepreneurship appears as an essential driver in the European economy and it heads toward new opportunities mainly through its impact on social integration, economic sustainability, and fair society. Social farming and social farms can successfully respond to the challenge of social exclusion and lack of social services provision and other opportunities in rural areas through alternative therapeutic activities, sheltered working places or integrative educational activities in a farm environment. From this perspective, a social farm should correspond to the definition of a social enterprise. By introducing the basic frames of social entrepreneurship and social farming in general and in the Czech Republic, and by concentrating on fifteen Czech social farms, this paper presents an insight into this retro-innovative practice of social integration systems in the countryside. It mainly answers the question, whether social farming complies fully with social entrepreneurship stream, and it explores the role of the social farm in rural development by using semi-structured and in-depth interviews.

Keywords: rural areas; rural development; social entrepreneurship; social farming; social farm; social integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:eurcou:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:377-397:n:2

DOI: 10.2478/euco-2018-0022

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