Obiettivo del presente lavoro è stato quello di focalizzare il fondamentale processo di transizione dall’agricolo al rurale, cogliendo, in particolare, il concetto di multifunzionalità quale paradigma di sviluppo in grado di orientare processi di allocazione delle risorse produttive e di valorizzazione delle specificità territoriali in una dimensione sistemica, diversificata e sostenibile sul piano economico, sociale ed ecologico-ambientale.

Un approccio transdisciplinare – L’agricoltura nella sua dimensione multifunzionale – Strategie di sviluppo, buone pratiche e sostenibilità socio-economico-ambientale in un’ottica comparata

The countryside hosts an increasing number of alternative food networks: rural tourists can play an important role in acting as both consumer and “cultural broker” between these networks. This paper provides a theoretical framework for niche marketing food specialties in rural tourism by combining two different consumer behavioural theories, the “experience economy” and the “intimacy” model, representing a reorientation from classical marketing thinking. It explores the meaning of local food, including the pursuit of reconnection with nature, resilience to globalisation, the role of local food in reinforcing personal identity, the search for freshness, taste and authenticity, support for local producers, and environmental concerns. It considers the challenges for rural entrepreneurs and policy makers in marketing food specialties and rural regions to the post-modern consumer. Using examples derived mostly from secondary literature it identifies seven dimensions that elevate food products to an appealing culinary niche, namely, coherence, anti-capitalistic attitude, struggle against extinction, personal signature, mutual-disclosure, rituals of spatial and physical proximity, and sustainabilityrelated practices. Food providers may use these features to signal food distinctiveness to rural tourists; policy makers can include them in their regional development models to enhance rural tourism without altering historically, socially, and environmentally layered culinary traditions.

Lo sviluppo rurale nell’Unione Europea - La transizione dall’agricolo al rurale – Forme alternative per un modello evolutivo endogeno e sostenibile in un’area interna del Mezzogiorno