| Under global conditions that threaten the viability of rural economies and the farm sector, Italian national legislation supports both through agritourism, a special form of rural tourism conceived to diversify and complement farm income. In theory, agritourism is a sustainable mode of development; in its stated objectives, it balances rural economic growth with cultural and natural resource conservation. In practice, agritourism, like any development discourse, means different things to different people.; Based on fieldwork carried out in 1999 and in 2000 in southern Tuscany, this dissertation compares the local applications of the ideals of sustainable development described in the law on agritourism in two research sites of the region that present the highest degree of socioeconomic contrast. The first, Castel del Colle, is a small-scale tourism destination located in an inland area that has been strongly affected by the rural exodus of the postwar period. The second, Belloro, is a coastal mass tourism site that has experienced a significant increase in population in the postwar period.; The analysis shows that there is a significant variation in farmers' interpretations of the sustainable ideals implicit in the law on agritourism. Factors mediating their differing views include preexisting historic, ecological, and socioeconomic conditions, such as farmers' age and the size and historic context of their farms, as well as their differing perceptions of the notions of development and conservation. This variation calls for the practical integration of agritourism with other livelihood strategies that reflect alternative forms of economic and environmental conceptualization. Top-down policies seeking to intervene in local production systems must take into account locally-defined needs and values. Theoretically, this case study challenges the efficacy of the general criteria proposed to achieve sustainable development and emphasizes the role of anthropological research in devising and analyzing sustainable solutions to economic and environmental problems. |
