Policy Mix for Ecological Transition in Rural Areas: Educating to intersectionality and complexity
The current economic, political and social landscape is characterised by one dominant feature: uncertainty. An uncertainty fueled by the constant and sudden environmental transformation, which shakes the local and global economy as well as the social fabric, already strongly tested by the health crisis and the strong geopolitical imbalances.
An uncertainty that requires integrated and systemic policies, capable of responding to human and environmental needs and complexities, to foster a greater connection between actors and territory, to attract funding to support production systems and to create a fair and secure space for action.
And it is precisely this intersectionality and complexity that we should recover to really implement the ecological transition, facilitated by a more complex system of knowledge and agricultural innovation.
In this, the primary sector has a huge potential, because food naturally unites man to creation, strengthening the community sense also through food identity and supporting entire economies. A natural intersectionality that could make it a resilient and multifunctional actor, able to satisfy not only the needs of farmers and consumers, but also those of society as a whole.
Starting from this ambition and from the plurality of national and European policies that are and must be put in place to create more resilient, ecological and digital agricultural and rural systems, the international Summer School was born "Policy Mix for Ecological Transition in Rural Areas". A systemic agri-cultural education path born within the Advanced Master in Economics and Agricultural Policy from the collaboration between the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) and the Department of Agriculture of the University of Naples Federico II and enriched by the contribution of the Campania Region (Department of Agriculture), the Scientific Association "Centro di Portici" and the Future Food Institute.
Five days, from 11 to 15 July, in which PhD students, young researchers and officials of the Public Administration gathered (partly physically and partly virtually) in one of the most representative rural areas of our Mediterranean identity - Pollica, at our Paideia Campus - to address the issue of digitalization for the ecological transition, to develop new skills to support innovation, to understand the new skills required in agriculture, but also and above all to study in the field the challenges of rural areas in the ecological transition, starting from the PNRR, the European Strategy Farm to Fork, the Common Agricultural Policy Europe and the Next Generation EU.
What has emerged these days?
1. Policy: a key ingredient for the ecological transition
In its ancient Greek meaning, politics designated what belongs to the dimension of common life. This has an indissoluble connection with the city, the main place where the dynamics of the community come to life, thus justifying a common etymological root between the terms politics and cities, οἵ πολοί, which in fact means "the many".
So, talking about the importance of politics in the ecological transition of rural areas is crucial, especially if these words come from the Mayor of a rural village, like Pollica and its Mayor Stefano Pisanito bring politics back to its former meaning of direct management of the common thing, no longer delegated, and therefore to full service for the community.
Yet this does not mean that the path is not without challenges. As he recalled Gianluca Brunori, Professore dell'Università di Pisa e Membro dello Comitato Permanente per la Ricerca Agricola (SCAR) "you can see things as problems or as opportunities. But in reality also an opportunity is a problem, because often you do not know how to take it and then implement it".
New analysis tools to assess the effectiveness of integrated and system policy intervention is as fundamental as the implementation of multidimensional policy strategies, which can also embrace a digital and cultural transition, supporting the ecological transition.
2. Creating innovation ecosystems means starting from the community
"The integrated approach of Farm to Fork Strategy needs participation" are **the words used by Pasquale Di Rubbo, political analyst, Unit on Policy Perspectives, DG AGRI at the European Commission.
It is not possible to lay the foundations for real innovation ecosystems without an integrated and integral co-participation and co-creation. At European level it means being able to unite and bring together the protagonists of the agro-food chain (farmers, fishermen, retailers, processors, food industry, service providers) with consumers, researchers, consultants, finance, to create direct links with other cities and states.
Links that must be able to work on a macro geographical and micro geographical level. It is now shared the crucial role of Living Labs as tools capable of generating integrated and contextualized solutions, thanks to the Finnish pillars that distinguish them: co-creation, multi-method approach, active involvement of users, multi-participationstakeholder. In this, the participants of the Summer School were able to benefit from a strategic position: listening directly from Sara Roversi, President of the Future Food Institute and protagonist together with the Municipality of Pollica of the creation of the Paideia Campus of Pollica, as this Living Lab has been formed and evolved embracing the principles of integral ecology. But, at the same time, live and assist directly, from Pollica, concrete applications of innovation that only an open laboratory, so rooted in the power of the local population, can create.
through visits of the Azienda Agricola La Petrosa and the Cooperativa Agricola Nuovo Cilento, participants were able to witness directly the innovative scope of regenerative agriculture applied to the Mediterranean context, as well as assist in the concrete enhancement of "dormant" resources - the potential of oil production waste used in composting and composting.
It is from here, from the mentality, that the real innovation originates: knowing how to see the potential of existing but not visible resources, as we have been taught by the Professor Gianni Lorenzoni, Professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, and apply sustainability (understood in its extended term) by designstarting from the need for a systemic vision, like the Professor Sonia Massari of the University of Pisa he explained talking about Prosperity Thinking, are the real keys to generate innovation and shared and collective prosperity.
3. Bringing together narrative and reality to make the eco-digi-cultural transition concrete
It is now clear how the ecological transition is intertwined with the potential of digital: a healthy digital, which can help, support, add to tradition and traditional ecological knowledge, ensuring that it can survive, adapting to current contexts. Yet, there are many issues, perplexity and complexity that this marriage are raising and that have been addressed thanks to the contribution of Don Andrea Ciucci, Secretary of the Pontifical Academy for Life at the Holy See with whom the participants discussed the ethics of artificial intelligence, the need for technology, not of technocracy, of the responsibility deriving from the use of certain instruments but also of a policy capable of receiving development and progress.
It is in this need for coherence that the reflections of Adele Picone, Coordinator of the Master of II Level of Architecture and Project for Interior Areas and Small Countries, DIARC of the University of Naples Federico II. Develop urban planning strategies for the regeneration of inner areas capable of shortening the distance between narrative and reality, what was and what is. Words play a central role in our world. They shape human sensitivity and can transmit important and powerful messages. Words can educate about the conservation of biodiversity, the responsible use of resources, the reduction of food waste, proper nutrition and a healthy diet. Similarly, words and narratives can alter the perception of reality, especially when they refer to paradigms and contexts of the past, because what was true in the past may not be the same today.
Aspects that today more than ever resonate in the need for clarity, honesty, trust, in those healthy forms of collaboration and mutual help that have always moved communities to adopt policies aimed at collective welfare.
"He who has wisdom must put it in order. Who has the model has the responsibility to transmit it horizontally (geographically) and vertically (to future generations)" – Don Ciucci.
