Objective
Since ever, agricultural and rural world, all over the European countries, has developed experiences promoting diverse practices and forms of solidarity, social assistance and social inclusion. Particularly we may speak of social farming (or "care farming" or "green care" ) to describe those farming practices that are aimed to concur towards disadvantaged people's rehabilitation and care and/or towards the integration of those people with "low contractual capacity" (i.e.: psychophysical disabilities, convicts, drug addicts, minors, emigrants). Social farming appears as an evolving, dynamic scenario, which is gaining increasing attention from multiple stakeholders in recent times. On one hand, this results from a new, widespread positive perception of agricultural and rural resources, leading to a crescent interest about the effects of natural spaces and agricultural areas on the social, physical and psychic well-being of people; health institutions are keen on finding alternative practices, more embedded in the social contexts. On the other hand, social farming represents a new chance for farmers to carry out alternative services, broadening the scope of their activities and their role in society. The integration between agricultural practices and social services may also allow new sources of income for farmers, sharpening up the image of agriculture in society at the same time, and favouring the development of new relations between rural and urban citizens The overall aim of this project is to support the building of a new institutional environment for social farming, providing linkage of research to practitioners / rural players and bringing diverse European experiences closer, in order to confront, exchange and coordinate. It aims at creating a platform around the topic, engaging diverse key-players with world of research, which can support the designing of future policies at regional and European levels.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP6-2004-SSP-4
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