Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development

Gender issues and masculinity in particular have increasingly drawn the attention of scholars in the last decade. Nevertheless, given the well-established phenomenon of young rural women's rejection of framers and exodus from rural areas, scant attention is paid to the issue of rural marriage markets. This article aims to address the topic of young farmers' perceptions and practices in their search for a bride. The target population was young males who joined the ‘Young Farmers’ programme in two tobacco producing communities in Greece. Utilising Bourdieu's oeuvre (especially ‘habitus’), we argue that young male farmers do not seem able to reflect on their current position in the local marriage market and, in general, challenge dominant structures owing to themselves being ‘trapped’ in the tobacco production habitus (including dominant masculinity). While consciousness-raising and change seem difficult the implications of the current crisis (including social suffering and disorders) are not yet plainly manifested.

This article critically assesses the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as agricultural extension tools. Specifically, the purpose of the current piece of work is to identify the extent of the use of ICTs on farms, look into farmers' characteristics as related to ICTs' adoption and explore farmers' preferred extension delivery techniques. Data were collected through a large-scale survey addressing farmers in the West Macedonia region, Greece. Data were analyzed by employing both descriptive statistics and multivariate techniques. Two-step cluster analysis was used to explore the different levels of ICTs' adoption and a categorical regression model was estimated to explain this variation. In the first place, three distinct farmers' profiles are identified. Besides, it is shown that regardless of the level of communication sophistication, farmers desire a wide range of information delivery channels, particularly on farm demonstrations and farmer involvement in applied research. Results indicate that ICTs may supplement rather than replace traditional extension methods as well as that, new roles for extension agents may emerge specifically addressing farmers' needs vis-à-vis IT. The contribution of this paper concerns the relationship of the use and adoption of ICTs on the part of farmers with ‘traditional’ extension methods as well as policy proposals for bridging the emerging digital divide within the farming community.

Over the last decades, wine tourism has emerged as a vehicle for a transition from mostly​ agrarian to diversified rural economies, offering a rich set of opportunities at both an ​entrepreneurial​ and a community​ level. In the Greek case, ​this particular form of special interest​ tourism has been mainly reinforced by ​'​strategic alliances'​ and ​collective initiatives that led to the development of regional networks ​and ​wine routes. Despite the positive​ steps already taken​, the symbiotic relationship between the wine and the tourism industry is constantly facing inter-linked and often reinforcing challenges that threaten the performance of such ventures. The recent financial meltdown of 2008 triggered the most significant global economic crisis since the Great Depression, with neither viticulture nor tourism escaping the impacts of 'Neoliberal Capitalism'​.

In the light of the current situation of increasing uncertainty, the sustainability of wine tourism, viewed as a complex Socio-Ecological System, is being put into question. Thus, a deeper understanding of the sector's capacity to deal with disturbance and change is deemed necessary. The present study adopts the theoretical concept of Resilience, in order to explore the ability of wine tourism to respond effectively to external stresses and confront various​ shocks. Qualitative data will be gathered by means of in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and national experts​ across the country, in an effort to outline the constellation of ​threats ​('Resilience of what to what?') ​that affect the performance ​and transformation ​of ​the ​wine tourism sector and the rural areas in general​.

In response to the need for a better empirical understanding of the multiple factors that drive the demand of wine tourism, this paper serves a twofold objective: first, to test the distinctiveness of motivations for visiting a wine region along with a winery; and secondly, to explore whether geographical distance between tourists' place of origin and the wine region can add to the ability of other wine consumer/tourist variables (product involvement; product knowledge; wine tourist identity; past experience) to predict specific aspects of wine tourist behavior. In doing so, quantitative survey data were collected from 381 visitors of twelve wineries located in Northern Greece. Results from Principal Component and Multiple Hierarchical Regression Analyses indicate that travel distance predicts wine purchasing at the cellar door as well as the motivational factors associated with 'Socialization' and 'Destination attractiveness'. Further, the study proposes a conceptual framework for wine tourism motivation.