Final Report Summary - ICARUS (Institutional compatibility analysis for resource use sustainability)
Given its aim and this theoretical background, the ICARUS project work plan was structured in 5 tasks:
(i) Task 1 has been related to set up the theoretical framework.
(ii) Task 2 relates to policy analysis of the 'new' rural development measures.
(iii) Task 3 has been focused on the identification of different institutional settings in the European Union.
(iv) Task 4 has been dedicated to the analysis of farm behaviour with a specific focus on family farms.
(v) Finally, task 5 has been developed in order to implement more empirical-oriented analyses such as regional case studies.
The main findings of the project in each task are synthesised with the relative milestones represented either by already published papers or working papers under submission to refereed journal or presented at international conferences. The project has provided different conceptual and methodological insights and its approach is suitable to be applied also in different time horizon (sustainability when), for different purposes (sustainability why), with different criteria of evaluation (sustainability how), for different levels of sectorial / territorial aggregation (sustainability where) and for different types of stakeholders (sustainability for whom). Moreover, the project provides a useful source of knowledge on the conceptualisation of sustainable agriculture in a social scientific perspective. This point highlights the need to look at the linkages between the process of institutional formation and sustainable resource uses in the agricultural sector. The project clearly indicates that further researches need to be considered to develop the theoretical model and to test it by applying different methodological approaches.
References
- Slangen L. H. G., Loucks, L., Slangen A., (2008): Institutional Economics and Economic Organisation Theory, Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers.
- Williamson O. E. (2000): The new institutional economics: taking stock, looking ahead, Journal of Economic Literature, 38, pp. 595-613.