The XXVII European Society for Rural Sociology Congress

Convenors:

Karlheinz Knickel, Universidade de Évora/ICAAM, Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas

Teresa Correia, Universidade de Évora/ICAAM, Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas

Ana Fonseca, Universidade de Évora/ICAAM, Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas

Ewa Tyran^, University of Agriculture, Institute of Economics and Enterprises Management, Krakow

Marta Czekaj^, University of Agriculture, Institute of Economics and Enterprises Management, Krakow

Hilde Bjørkhaug^, Centre for Rural Research, Trondheim

Contact: karlheinz.knickel@googlemail.com

Topic:

94% of the world’s farms are less than 5 hectares in size (FAO 2014) and quite a few recent studies have argued that smaller farms, smaller food businesses and local food systems play a rather significant role in sustainable food and nutrition security. How are small farms connected with commodity food markets and larger chains, what are the main factors limiting and enabling their contribution? Are alternative food networks important, if yes, how? What do we know about their importance for sustainable food and nutrition security, and for small farms? Is there anything to generalise or does it depend completely on the particular context and situation? What are the related changes and relevant trends?

Food systems and food markets are diverse, multi-level, involving multiple actors and governance approaches. Conceptualisations and dichotomies such as the urban–rural divide or the global markets – local markets dichotomy are obviously outdated. Small farm realities are much more complex. And yet, what is specific about small farms and their connection with food markets and sustainable food and nutrition security?

We are looking for empirical analyses and attempts to capture the manifold contributions of small farms to sustainable food and nutrition security. We are interested in contributions related to the production and availability of food, access to food (including affordability), food utilisation and the resilience of food systems (or stability). We are particularly interested in the definition of (food) system boundaries in such studies, in the indicators used, and the related data and data sources. And of course we are interested in all attempts to capture the role of small farms in more tangible ways, and we aim to understand the constraints they are confronted with. We would also like to know and discuss what we can learn from small farms about more sustainable and more resilient food production and food systems. Where precisely are the strengths and weaknesses and the particular vulnerabilities of small farms in respect of their contribution to sustainable food production and nutrition security.

Format:

The workshop will consist of two parts: First, a part highlighting the key points from the full papers (max. 5-8 min. per paper). And the second much larger part will be a World Café for deeper discussion of the key issues raised in the papers. Full papers would be submitted and we aim to publish 6-8 particularly inspiring papers in a special issue of a suitable peer-reviewed journal.