Vol. 78 No. 3 (2023)
Keynote Article

Dear old (and misunderstood) districts, let’s look ahead

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  • Daniela Toccaceli,
  • Alessandro Pacciani
Daniela Toccaceli
Centre for Studies on the Economic Organization of Agriculture and Rural Development “GAIA”, Accademia dei Georgofili, Florence
Bio
Alessandro Pacciani
Centre for Studies on the Economic Organization of Agriculture and Rural Development “GAIA”, Accademia dei Georgofili, Florence dei Georgofili
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/rea-15062

Published 2024-04-03

Keywords

  • Food districts,
  • sustainable development,
  • rural development policy,
  • food systems,
  • digital ecological transitions

How to Cite

Toccaceli, D., & Pacciani, A. (2024). Dear old (and misunderstood) districts, let’s look ahead. Italian Review of Agricultural Economics (REA), 78(3), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.36253/rea-15062

Copyright (c) 2023 Daniela Toccaceli, Alessandro Pacciani

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Food districts seem to be a phenomenon as widespread as they are somewhat little known and misunderstood. After thirty years of collective thinking and practice, we question what districts in the agricultural and rural domain actually are and whether we are yet to produce a scientifically consistent conceptual framework to fully understand them. This article aims to relaunch a debate about this theme, encouraging scholars to refocus their research on it, thereby hopefully prompting policy-makers to revisit and review current policy. How the current conceptual framework develops from Becattini’s interpretation of the Marshallian Industrial District and its impact on policy design and implementation are analysed and grey areas highlighted. Current transitions linked to sustainability and global challenges are explored through the relevant literature, highlighting the changing meaning of some key concepts that are necessary to reframe the district notion. Our conclusion is that a new generation of district is needed, in addiction to a new policy framework, which in turn will require a reframing and more robust conceptualization of what food districts are. We end by analysing some difficulties and caveats to begin to produce a theoretical definition of a new conceptual framework.

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