D2.1 Conceptual and analytical framework (initial version)
Creators: name: Moretti, Michele
name: Brunori, Gianluca
name: Grando, Stefano
name: Felici, Francesco
name: Scotti, Ivano
name: Ievoli, Corrado
name: Belliggiano, Angelo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: mountains
value chains
socio-ecological systems

description: The EU Horizon 2020 Framework, and more particularly the work programme of food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime, and inland water research and the bioeconomy, developed a call for proposals under the name of Rural Renaissance. Within this call there was a theme on Building resilient mountain value chains delivering private and public goods which ultimately led to the MOVING (Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth) project.

The aim of MOVING is “to build capacities and co-develop - in a bottom-up participatory process with value chain actors, stakeholders and policy makers- relevant policy frameworks across Europe for the establishment of new or upgraded/upscaled Value Chains that contribute to resilience and sustainability of mountain areas”. To achieve this goal, the project is going to develop, test and validate “a new collaborative methodology based on science-society-policy interfaces to assess multi-scale changing scenarios and define new demand-side policy options to overcome expected threads and enhance new opportunities” for the resilience and sustainable development of mountain areas”.

The conceptual and analytical framework (CAF) presented here is a key milestone of the project. In fact, it will help to develop a shared language among consortium members, who are characterised by different background and expertise, and will provide the theoretical underpinning for all other activities.

In MOVING, the CAF has been conceived of as a living document. In a first phase, the CAF has been based on a review of the relevant scientific literature, putting together different literature bodies. A sequence of feedback events with the consortium members has allowed a first refinement. During the project, partners will be encouraged to test the validity of the framework, to provide examples that validate or that limit the validity of the assumptions and of the statements and contribute to its refinement. Reflection on the empirical material will then help to finalise CAF.  

One of the key aspects of the CAF is to link the value chain literature to socio-ecological systems approaches: the main assumption of MOVING is that value chains connect different socioecological systems, and the governance systems and the practices they promote contribute to its vulnerability, resilience, and sustainability of mountain socio-ecological systems.  

The report proceeds as follows: after the illustration of the most relevant concepts, the connections between the different concepts are outlined. A section identifying implications for empirical analysis follows. This section contains a set of questions which will make the linkages between the various concepts and provide an operationalisation of the concepts. In the annex, a 'glossary' of the most relevant concepts is provided to make the report a tool for reference.