ERIAFF Social Innovation

Description of the aims and goals of WG’s activities

The Working Group aims to promote social innovation in rural and peri-urban areas by strengthening the role of farmers as key actors within multi-stakeholder ecosystems. It supports the development of collaborative models where agriculture contributes not only to food production, but also to social inclusion, health, and community well-being.

In particular, the group fosters initiatives that connect agricultural activities with social and care services, such as support for elderly people with mild cognitive disorders. It also promotes the recognition of agriculture as a tool for social reintegration, including within penitentiary systems, through evidence-based approaches and sociological analysis.

By facilitating knowledge exchange among farmers, researchers, public institutions, and social actors, the Working Group encourages the co-design of innovative practices that generate both social and territorial value.

Challenges to address

The key challenges for this WG are:

• Limited integration between agricultural systems and social and healthcare services
• Need to better recognise the social value of farming activities
• Barriers to scaling up social innovation models in rural and peri-urban contexts
• Lack of stable and structured collaboration among farmers, institutions, and care organisations
• Insufficient evidence on the impacts of agricultural activities in social contexts such as elderly care and penitentiary systems
• Need to strengthen interdisciplinary research on social agriculture
• Need to improve policy support frameworks to enable the development of social farming initiatives