Young farmers' social capital in Greece: Trust levels and collective actions

Rural space seeks a new development model, for which flexibility is the key-word, that is the ability to adapt rapidly to the new, constantly changing, conditions of globalized markets. It is argued that flexibility can be achieved by society itself by developing its social capital, which allows for cooperation among actors in order to meet mutual goals. In rural communities, particularly in Greece, although it is expected that the social capital is increased because of acquaintanceships and frequent interactions among members, cooperation among farmers is limited and less than frequent. The purpose of this study is to examine the social capital of a rural society, by focusing on young farmers, because they are expected to play an essential role in the formulation and implementation of a modern model of rural development. Linkages between social capital, trust and collective actions are examined through an empirical investigation of young farmers in an exemplary rural area of Greece in order to provide an explanation as to the processes through which social capital can it play a positive role in the development of a rural society. The empirical analysis yields two findings of crucial importance. First, contrary to a priori expectations, the social capital of young farmers in Greek rural society is limited, considering that both the participation in voluntary organizations (especially in producer groups) and the level of trust, as depicted within the empirical analysis, are low. This entails limited collective actions, which actually translates to limited access to innovation. Second, young farmers' increased trust to institutions (institutional trust) is linked to poor participation in collective actions. On the other hand, young farmers with reduced trust to institutions and enhanced trust to individuals (personal trust) are predominantly those who endeavor collective actions, which allow them to become flexible in order to better adapt to new conditions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.