How digital communications contribute to shaping the career paths of youth: a review study focused on farming as a career option

Abstract

Can the power of digital communications create opportunities for overcoming generational renewal problems on farms? This interdisciplinary review explores the reported impacts of digital communication on career initiation into farming from a global perspective via the lens of career theories. Seventy-three papers were synthesized into two domains: (1) the impact of digital communication interactions on farming career initiation, and (2) the dynamics of digital communication initiatives that create opportunities to inspire youth into farming. The finding shows that the mainstream literature primarily aims to support the continuity of farming careers but pay little attention to the potential of digital communication to attract youth into farming. This review argues that career communications for farming receives insufficient attention, and could be better integrated into agricultural communications strategies by using the potential of digital communications. Study concludes that while economic and geographic factors, as well as societal and cultural norms, lead to negative perceptions on farming careers, there are three pathways that may contribute to breaking down these negative perceptions. Firstly, taking the changing nature of career motivations, such as the trend towards sustainable farming linked to self-fulfillment, among today’s youth into consideration is essential. Secondly, highlighting technological advances in digital agriculture practices, like geographical flexibility or innovation capacity of farming, for example, is important to increase awareness about new opportunities in the profession. Lastly, communication campaigns with targeted groups (e.g., young females) play a role to change the negative perceptions of the rural way of life and the farming profession.

Building Bridges: Community-Based Projects for Participation and Social Inclusion of Rural NEETs

“…Youth living in rural areas face several challenges related to limited access to education, limited decent and meaningful work opportunities, and increasing gender gaps (Simões et al, 2022b). Scholars have proposed possible strategies to address these challenges by focusing on facilitating environmentally friendly farming practices that help to develop a positive sense of professional identity, particularly among young women, and highlighting innovation capacity in agriculture-relate jobs (Unay-Gailhard Unay-Gailhard & Brennan, 2022). Other approaches highlighted the importance of increasing educational and training opportunities overall and not just in the farming sector (Bojnec & Petrescu, 2021;Petrescu et al, 2022).…”

Young Farmers in “The New World of Work”: The Contribution of New Media to the Work Engagement and Professional Identities*

“…The agrarian literature documents the role of digital communication tools in the professional identity construction of the farming profession as (i) support for a new farmer identity construction (or “battle of identity”) due to fast exposure to diverse agricultural knowledge and philosophies from around the world via new media (Rotz 2018); (ii) increased awareness of the different forms of farming practices wherein farmers may choose the best‐matched practices based on their farming identity (Shepherd et al 2018); (iii) contributing to a sense of self‐recognition by others on a global level and facilitating the construction of a multiple cohesive career self‐concept, such as the development of dual careers and being a “part‐time” farmer (Unay‐Gailhard and Simões 2022); (iv) enabling farming to be viewed as a long‐term professional identity due to online financial and social (e.g., building trust via social media) opportunities (Newsome 2021); (v) helping overcome the perceptions of a farmer's profession being linked with physical, social, and cultural isolation (Ievoli et al 2019; Unay‐Gailhard and Brennen 2022).…”