Know more

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 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) and Italy (2019).

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.

The 2023 conference will be organised in Toulouse. It will focus on the 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).

We expect extented abstracts ( see submission 'section' for more details on format and abstracts) on 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?

Please click on read more to learn about the five topics