Actors in Social Agriculture Cooperatives Combating Organized Crime in Southern Italy: Cultivating the Ground

Abstract

Southern Italy suffers from a high poverty rate, unemployment, emigration flows, and a strong presence of organized crime in the field of agriculture. This study seeks to investigate the potential of social enterprises as driving forces for the legal and eco-social development of fragile Southern Italian areas. To work in such challenging contexts requires the development of a high level of resilience, which implies the ability to adapt to difficulties and to overcome crises by coming out stronger than before. The initiatives we detected in Southern Italy are examples for the strength that can come from ideal motivations. In the case of social agriculture initiatives in Southern Italy counteracting organized crime, these motivations are an indispensable condition for their survival and growth. The accumulation of problems and difficulties, however, risks corroding motivations of the actors. This can lead to the withdrawal of members, which can have a serious impact on these small organizations. Thus, idealism is a necessary condition to face the challenges of legal and social environmental development, but it is not sufficient on its own, except in the short term, to allow social enterprises to emerge from extremely precarious conditions. Idealism can support resilience, but by itself, it cannot create a sustainable change. There is, therefore, the need to invest in these social enterprises, in the training of the actors involved, and in the selection and acquisition of the skills for strengthening the efficiency and sustainability of businesses and to foster horizontal structures of mutuality and solidarity to create a supportive environment for these social enterprises and their mission.

Beyond the formal economy. Social cooperatives for labour integration under the pressure of market competitiveness

“…Even though this is one of the declared aims of these organisations, i.e. to act as transmitters to the primary labour market, the outflow of skilled labour seriously jeopardises their sustainability and economic operation (Fazzi and Elsen, 2020). The situation is exacerbated by the fact that employment of disadvantaged workers thus requires significant additional resource expenditures (e.g.…”

“…Although SCs play an increasingly important role in the management of emerging global social and economic problems, it is a challenge for Hungarian RWI SCs to coordinate their declared social goals and aspects of economic sustainability as in other countries (Borzaga et al , 2014; Depedri et al , 2012; Fazzi, 2010; Fazzi and Elsen, 2020; Pansera and Rizzi, 2018; Valentinov, 2007).…”

“…Although their leaders are usually driven by enthusiasm, this alone is not enough to grow the business and generate real change. Overall, it is very difficult to create economically successful cooperatives in an environment full of risks, and this would require, among other things, trade networks of higher level (Fazzi and Elsen, 2020;Pansera and Rizzi, 2018;Tortia et al, 2020). SCs suffer due to their dependence on public funds and the associated burdens of bureaucracy, as well as tensions caused by the reduction of welfare benefits and increasing social expectations, as well as new challenges and innovation constraints (Fazzi, 2010), which is currently further are made more difficult by macro factors such as the labour shortage following the economic crisis or the effects of the pandemic.…”

“…These organisations have continuous difficulties in meeting the dual responsibilities of realising social objectives and meeting an ever-increasing expectation for competitiveness in the market. There is a fundamental contradiction between the operational and management principles and goals of these organisations (Borzaga, 1996; Fazzi, 2010; Varman and Chakrabarti, 2004; Weaver, 2020), as well as the characteristics and motivations of their founding members and employees (Borzaga et al , 2014; Depedri et al , 2012; Fazzi, 2010; Fazzi and Elsen, 2020; Pansera and Rizzi, 2018; Valentinov, 2007) and between a profitable operation and market competitiveness. In their research, Fazzi and Elsen (2020) point out a fundamental difficulty, namely, that in disadvantaged areas targeted by SCs, purchasing power is typically weak; residents are mostly unable to pay for the goods and services produced by the social economy, while only the larger ones can produce for more distant markets, their relationship systems with businesses are mostly local and less extensive.…”

The role of corruption in global food systems: a systematic scoping review

“…In line with seeking better approaches to monitoring corruption in the food supply chain, improved predictive modelling methods and global standardization of detecting corruption were also proposed [ 47 , 136 ]. Finally, an organizational approach to problem solving was explored, where social farming or social enterprises were effective societal organization structures for disempowering organized crime and weakening criminal control [ 137 , 138 ].…”