Agro-food products: a cultural paradigm for a sustainable rural development

Abstract

The dissertation deals with agro-food products steeped in European rural areas. The grass-roots assumption is that development could be actively promoted through agro-food products' cultural traits. Therefore, rural areas are suggested to represent a ne reservoir of development patterns, considered from a sustainable stance. From the standpoint of the analysis being elaborated here, traditional agro-food products are considered to eloquently express the peculiar territorial culture. Specific theoretical tools were addressed with the aim to construct a solid framework to understand and unearth the economic potential of the subject analysed. In particular, French literature was deeply explored and applied as a guideline, thanks to its extended interdisciplinary approach. The aim to detect territorial potentiality was accomplished by implementing a spatial model, namely an attraction constrained gravity model. This model was applied to two case studies: two mountain borders areas in Italy and France, respectively. The proposed methodology provides empirical basis for academic and political debates over the territorial attraction power exerted by cultural features. The thesis here is that this attraction capability could be an effective underpinning for new sustainable development patterns.