13th AIEAA Conference, Bari, 20-21 June 2024

The social sustainability of European agriculture facing old and new challenges. Issues, methods and policies

In the last years the concept of sustainability, encompassing its three environmental, economic, and social dimensions, has gained increasing attention in the scientific debate as well as in the broad society and in the political debate, especially at the EU level. However, so far speculations on the concepts and measures for environmental sustainability, and partly for its economic dimension, are, if not fully satisfactory, certainly more advanced than the state of the art of the reflections on what social sustainability precisely is, which aspects are included in it and how to measure them. Although current events increasingly drive our attention to the challenges and contradictions of ongoing social transformations and tensions, the topic still presents itself as extremely multifaceted, magmatic and largely elusive.

The agricultural sector has a primary role in the debate on social sustainability since the transformations linked to climate change, geopolitical crises, technological transformation and pandemic disruption have fully hit it in recent years. In addition, EU policies and especially the CAP are increasingly concerned by the direct and indirect impacts on society of the EU regulatory frameworks and of support policies. Even the longer-term dynamics in agriculture and some of its structural characteristics represent real challenges to its social sustainability. Just think to:

• the survival difficulties of family businesses in increasingly globalized markets and supply chains characterized by giant firms; 
• the lack of generational turnover and the increasing demographic imbalances;
• fragile workers’ and women’s working conditions in agriculture and rural areas;
• the instability of the labor market and the widespread asymmetries between supply and demand (and in some cases its illegality). And, on the top of these, the complex migration issues and the management of EU and non-EU workers, whether seasonal or not;
• the depopulation and marginalization of some rural areas;
• the social implications of environmental degradation and climate change of which agriculture is both victim and responsible;
• the social impact of the healthiness of the agricultural environment and of the products that the sector delivers to citizens and consumers.

From the above, it is clear how the issue of social sustainability of agriculture has direct and indirect implications on the management of farms/firms/companies as well as on the governance of supply chains but also on the territories and local production systems and, more generally on the vitality and attractiveness of rural areas.

The 13th AIEAA Annual Conference, titled "The social sustainability of European agriculture facing old and new challenges. Issues, methods and policies ", aims at contributing to the discussion and to advancing the shared knowledge on the above comprehensive theme with respect to concept definitions and analysis, as well as on methodological issues, policy tools and perspectives.

The overall conference theme has a focus on, but is not limited to, the following sub-themes:

• Advancing the theoretical framework for analyzing social sustainability.
• Advancing the measure(s) of social sustainability through data collection and identification of indicators.
• Intersections, synergies, and trade-offs among the three dimensions of sustainability.
• Social issues in the agricultural labor market, including workers’ protection and legality of labor; gender issues; demographic change; generational turnover, the management of migration flows.
• Social innovations facing emerging challenges: governance, practices and policy issues.
• The role of social farming in all its diverse forms.
• The social impact of unfairness and unbalances along supply chains (e.g. Unfair Trade Practices).
• Implications for the society of food safety and food security disruptions.
• Policy options to respond to social sustainability issues.
• Social challenges and opportunities deriving from technological innovations and consequent emerging re-organization processes.
• Living conditions and quality of life in rural areas.
• AIEAA welcomes the submission of contributions on the topics above. However, the submission of contributions on other agricultural and applied economics topics is also encouraged.

AIEAA welcomes the submission of contributions on the topics above. However, the submission of contributions on other agricultural and applied economics topics is also encouraged.