The Young Shepherds School: Training for Restanza in the Italian Alps

Abstract

This article analyses an innovative place-sensitive training experience in pastoralism implemented in rural and mountainous Italian areas: the Young Shepherds School. Adopting a methodology based on learning-by-doing and an experiential teaching approach, the School offers its participants—essentially urban young people interested in living and working in rural contexts—an unprecedented learning opportunity and the possibility of setting out on a path towards the shepherding profession. At the same time, the involvement of local actors and the post-training pathway represent concrete steps towards the participants’ project ideas taking root in the area and the development of micro-enterprises in the field of pastoralism, aimed at personal income as well as environmental care.

Keywords

• pastoralism
• mountain
• experiential training
• young shepherds
• new highlanders
• restanza