Abstract
Social farming represents a hybrid governance model in which public bodies, local communities, and economic actors act together to promote health and social inclusion in rural areas. Although relational variables are crucial to foster social farm performance, the relational system in which farms are embedded has still not been fully described. Using social network analysis, here we map the nature of the links of a selected sample of social farms operating in Northern Italy. We also explore possible network variations following specific actions taken to potentiate local social farming initiatives. The results show a certain degree of variability in terms of the extension and features of the examined networks. Overall, the actions taken appear to be significant to enlarge and diversify farms’ networks. Social farming has the potential to provide important benefits to society and the environment and to contrast vulnerability in rural areas. Being able to create social and economic networks of local communities, social farming may also represent an innovative way to respond to the cultural shift from institutional psychiatry to community-based mental health care. This study emphasizes the critical role played by network facilitation in diversifying actors, promoting heterogeneous relationships, and, in turn, system complexity.
Highlights
Environmental factors can play a fundamental role in mental health prevention and promotion [1,2,3,4]. research in this area has typically targeted environmental risk factors, more recent studies focus on the role of positive environmental conditions that may promote resilience and adaptation to stress [1,5,6]
Involved in Social farming (SF) and to explore whether the engagement of persons with mental health issues in their. This information is of particular relevance, considering that relational variables are crucial to enhance activities, combined with dissemination and promotion actions, is able to affect their network
The number of social farms included in the survey was small, we still observed a certain degree of variability in terms of activities proposed, status and in terms of the extension and features of their
Summary
Environmental factors can play a fundamental role in mental health prevention and promotion [1,2,3,4]. research in this area has typically targeted environmental risk factors, more recent studies focus on the role of positive environmental conditions that may promote resilience and adaptation to stress [1,5,6]. Environmental factors can play a fundamental role in mental health prevention and promotion [1,2,3,4]. By providing an opportunity for social engagement, natural environments—including urban green spaces—may help to promote social integration, social ties, and a sense of community, reducing loneliness [11,12,13]. All of these factors are known to play a beneficial role in the maintenance of physical and mental health [5,14,15,16]
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