DOCUMENTI GEOGRAFICI - N. 0 (2014)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Articoli

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Rural development and territorial well-being. – The paper analyzes the issue of the relationship between rural development and well-being. Taking into account the multifunctional dimension assumed by rural development over the last few years, the topic of the landscape play a central role. In fact, it is a common good which concerns the settled communities and those who use it. The theme of the rural landscape so connects to the themes of participation and democracy.

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For a regional typology of Italian agriculture: the contribution of social sciences . – The paper shows how hardly the agricultural statistics grasp the essence of social phenomena that take place into contemporary farming, for two main reasons. The first is the increasing complexity of such farming, due to the overwhelming power of the agro-industry. The second is the difficulty of organizing a reading of these newly appeared socio-economical phenomena, since the governmental statistics are mostly oriented by objectives of agricultural policy, in which the operational needs prevail over those of scientific knowledge. Finally, it is argued that a more systematic contact with the experience of other social sciences (in particular the historical studies are cited) could help the creation of statistical tools capable of a better understanding, or at least could improve the awareness about the limits of the existing tools.

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Rural Development Index (RDI). Hypothesis for a synthetic indicator of rural development. – This paper contains proposals contributing to the compo-sition of a synthetic macroeconomic indicator able to measure/assess on a European, national and regional scale the effectiveness of rural development policies up to now implemented by the EU. Since Agenda 2000, the rural development program is the “second pillar” of the CAP and it aims to maintain the competitiveness of rural areas through a quality policy, promotion of employment (in particular for young people) as well as environmental and rural protection; the measure’s central theme is the search for synergies between productive activities and those based on the territory and the traditions of the rural environment. The contents of this research refers almost exclusively to rural Europe, because the framework of these reflections is the Common Agricultural Policy, but some hints can be generally considered for development assessment relating to rural areas outside Europe.

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Useful agricultural area income indicators, processes and development.  a reading of rural landscape and its functions. – Since the last century has grown, local and global scale, the awareness of the multifunctional role of agriculture, which adds to the productive purposes of environmental protection, landscape conservation and management of resources. Transverse to the multiple functions is the pursuit of sustainability, whose social, economic and environmental dimensions, are put at risk by increasingly binding market dynamics and agricultural policies. It seems useful, therefore, to highlight some key points of these synergies with the possible indicators, including through the presentation of case studies, aimed at understanding trends in productivity and gradual reduction of SAU.