Sustainability transitions of agriculture and the transformation of education and advisory services: convergence or divergence?

26th European Seminar on Extension & Education - Toulouse - 10-13 July 2023

The ESEE Community

The European Seminar on Extension & Education (ESEE) is a biennial conference about agricultural advice and education. It has gathered scholars advisors and educators since 1973. Click here to learn about past conferences organised in Ireland (2021, 24^th edition) and Italy (2019, 25^th edition). The 26^th edition organised t in Toulouse (10-13 July 2023), by researchers of INRAE and the University of Toulouse (laboratories AGIR and Lereps).

It aims at supporting discussion between science and practice. Hence, it is open to a diversity of contributions, both academic and practical. ESEE gathers and contrast experiences and findings from all European countries, but also between Europe and other contexts in the global North and global South. The seminar has lead to the publication of several special issues in the Journal of Agricultural Extension and Education and other academic publications.

Some Facts and Figures about the 26th edition

• More than 150 registered participants (click here for the list of registered participants)
• More than 100 oral presentations (click here for the detailed program)
• 2 Keynote speakers: Julie Ingram and Katrin Prager (click here for more info about their presentations)
• 2 roundtables (click here for more information)
• 6 special sessions (click here for more information)
• 5 field trips about the role of extension and education in sustainable presentation (click here for more information)
• 1 Book of Abstracts with more than 500 pages (click here to download)

Conference Theme and Topics

The central theme was "Convergences and divergences between sustainability transitions and the new patterns of advice and education".

Sustainable transition of agriculture is at the forefront of both academic and political agenda, especially in the frame of the next European Common Agricultural Policy. Education and Advisory services are expected to be major drivers of these transitions, by co-producing knowledge with farmers and farm workers, enhancing their competences and supporting their innovation processes. At the same time, advisory services and education face major transformations (digitalisation, privatisation, new governance models, etc.). The relations between these two dynamics - sustainable transition of agriculture and the transformations of advice and education are the matter of debates and controversies. The aim of this conference will be to discuss about concepts, empirical evidence and new methods to support the contribution of advice & education to the various dimensions of sustainability, including social dimensions (inequalities and labour & work conditions) and environmental ones (climate change, biodiversity, water).

There were five topics for the conference (click here for the presentation of the five topics)

1. TOPIC 1 - Transitions towards agroecology & circular economy: Which actors and approaches of advice and education support, what hinders them?
2. TOPIC 2 - Digitalisation of advisory services and education: what are the effects of digital technology on the practices, actors and organisation of advice and eduction?
3. TOPIC 3 - Learning for innovation and resilience: which theory and practice developments  (for training, life-long learning and education of farmers, advisors, teachers and facilitators)?
4. TOPIC 4 - Public policies for innovation and the governance of AKIS: how to embed advice & education into AKIS strategies and planning?
5. TOPIC 5 - Inclusion and the social dimension of sustainability: (how) are these issues acknowledged in advice and education?