Social Farming in Catalonia: diagnosis of an emerging phenomenon

Abstract

Social Farming (SF) engages groups at risk of social exclusion in agricultural activities with the aim of including them in society, providing them with job opportunities, and empowering them. This social economic field, according to key agents, helps to sustain small farms, which contributes to local development and territorial cohesion from the viewpoint of multifunctional agriculture. SF, in its various types and models, has already existed in different countries of Europe since more than 30 years. In Catalonia, scope of our study, it is a phenomenon that has begun its development in late twentieth century. In this paper, we show some theoretical and conceptual elements about SF, describing the types of entities that exist in Catalonia, their activities, and the main stakeholders that shape the SF sector from the economic, social and environmental perspectives. Finally, we make a diagnosis about this social and economic sector and sketch out some future challenges. In order to conduct a thorough diagnosis of the phenomenon, we combined quantitative and qualitative methodology.