The literature about digitalization in agriculture and rural areas is vast and sectorial at the same time. Both international political institutions and practitioners are interested in promoting digital technology, indicating and describing potential benefits and risks. Meanwhile, academics analyze the actual and possible impacts of digital technologies by using case studies. However, the extensive literature makes it challenging to derive a comprehensive synthesis of the possible impacts that digital technologies are and might generate in the rural domains. In the given context, the present work aims at contributing to the construction of a framework providing a first classification of the digital technologies’ impacts to use in both research and a political agenda.

Focusing on the Italian context, this research aims to analyze the relationship between investment in education and economic development through a critical exam of the human capital theory. This paradigm is compared with the social investment paradigm, particularly the Esping-Andersen’s thesis, which seems more useful to unfold the link between social stratification and education level as a resource of social innovation. From this standpoint, our hypothesis is that educational policies have positive effects on the economic system if they are oriented to reduce socio-economic inequalities increasing the rate of social inclusion, which can promote a wider social innovation.

Italian policies in the field of sustainable energy transition have supported mainly the deployment of large-sized renewable energy plants. At the same time the transition was fostered also through small or medium plants and in rural and mountain areas. In this paper we present the case study of Sasso di Castalda, a little mountain municipality located in the Basilicata region (Southern Italy), one of the poorest and the most sparsely populated areas of Italy. The main theoretical assumption is that the sustainable energy policies designed by National (or supra-National) institutions are translated in practice at the local level through “performative connections”. The sociology of translation (Callon) is adopted to investigate how ecological modernization is fostered in the energy field at the local level in disadvantaged contexts. This research focuses on the connections which shaped the sustainable transition in the community, considering environmental governance and regulations as well as local social practices. What the research shows is the relevance of the performative relations enacted in a multilevel and heterogeneous network. Indeed, within this pattern diversified skills were activated, along with specific technological and organizational configurations.

Climate change is challenging in mountain areas, and initiatives to define resilience programs appear essential to face global warming impacts. Despite the participatory strategy being primarily considered the best solution to involve local actors in adopting resilience actions, the literature stresses how mountain dwellers, like farmers, are often considered passive subjects, and their ability to understand climate change and the actions to adopt is inadequate. Based on this consideration, we aim to highlight the relevance of the mountain actors’ agency, their “lay” situated knowledge, and the epistemology for co-defining resilience actions. Adopting a “weak version” of the Actor-Network Theory as the research posture, we argue that farmers’ perceptions of climate vulnerability is based on their experience of it, and their resilience actions or suggestions are coherent with their endowment resources (financial and knowledge) and their position in the economic system. In this sense, local actors’ initiatives to face climate change can be limited by their specific position in the socioeconomic contest-related value chain and their specific relationship with local natural settings. A participative strategy to co-define resilience actions can help identify more effective initiatives according to the context between actors. Moreover, it can contribute to the knowledge exchange among “lay” local actors, experts, and policymakers, benefiting everyone; farmers could identify suitable solutions to face climate vulnerability, experts could increase their knowledge of local contexts, and policymakers could define adequate policies. Focusing on a specific area in “Alto Molise” (Italy), we present research results to contribute to the debate on climate resilience in mountain areas, stressing the significance of the local actors’ agency, the presence of the different epistemologies put in play (lay and expert ones), the co-production of knowledge, and the need to actively involve local actors in designing practices and policies to face climate change.

The consumption analysis in the biographical narratives of young people makes it possible to outline the strategies enacted to deal with the 'late modernity' crisis scenario. Young people have incorporated the dimension of crisis - as incertitude and generalized risk - and they seem to perform reflexive consumption strategies closely linked, in some cases, to the sustainability issue, which emerges as a drive of the current consumption practices. However, consumption strategies differ for the individual endowment of social resources as well as biographical trajectories. This paper deals with this issue and the results of a qualitative research are reported. The consumption analysis in the biographical narratives of young people makes it possible to outline the strategies enacted to deal with the 'late modernity' crisis scenario. Young people have incorporated the dimension of crisis - as incertitude and generalized risk - and they seem to perform reflexive consumption strategies closely linked, in some cases, to the sustainability issue, which emerges as a drive of the current consumption practices. However, consumption strategies differ for the individual endowment of social resources as well as biographical trajectories. This paper deals with this issue and the results of a qualitative research are reported. The management revue is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary European journal publishing both qualitative and quantitative work as well as purely theoretical papers that advance the study of management, organisation and industrial relations. The management revue publishes articles that contribute to theory from a number of disciplines, including business and public administration, organizational behavior, economics, sociology and psychology. Reviews of books relevant to management and organisation studies are a regular feature. Special issues provide a unique and rich insight into the issue's research field. The journal offers insights into selected research topics by providing potentially controversial perspectives, new theoretical insights, valuable empirical analyses and brief reviews of key publications. The aim is to establish the management revue as a top quality symposium journal for the international academic community. The journal is available online via the Nomos eLibrary, ABI/INFORM Global and JSTOR and listed via RePEc, EconPapers, Ideas/RePEc and Elsevier/Scopus.