This thematic issue of Studies in Agricultural Economics is composed of papers that examine human and social capital in rural development. The idea behind this choice of topic is to get a picture of the kind of research currently being undertaken in this field, how this research covers the important issue of rural development, in a world where there is “a shift toward a service orientated and knowledge-based economy based on individuals creativity in using accessible information to benefit and create values for themselves and others” (Salenbacher, 2015, p46), where there are “changes brought by technology, connectivity” (ibid. p.44), and an added challenge: climate change. Luthans et al. (2004) also underline that “The rising recognition of human resources as a competitive advantage in today’s global economy, human capital and, more recently, social capital are being touted in both theory, research, and practice” (p.45). There are many different definitions of human and social capitals, concepts that are sometimes hard to measure but essential to success. Human capital is most often described by indicators such as age, gender, education and health, but there are other factors such as experience, different skills, knowledge and ideas which determine this capital. According to the World...

In recent years, social innovation has been gaining more attention, not only in the scholarly literature and in public discourse but in rural development practice as well. An important reason for this is the greater involvement of civil society in this form of innovation. In this paper, building on definitions of social innovation found in the literature, we focus on the actual processes of social innovation in rural Hungary. The hypothesis behind our research was that a better understanding of how social innovation takes place in practice could increase its presence and efficiency in rural development. To explore these issues, we analysed four different cases of social innovation situated in rural Hungary. Our research shows that, despite common patterns, social innovation is highly dependent on its actual context and on the individual, the agentic engine, who initiates and carries out the innovation. For the capitalisation and the long-term sustainability of an innovative development project the institutionalisation of social networks gathering around it seems to be another crucial factor. Thus, creating an appropriate frame to drive the process all the way from the innovative idea through product development to institutionalisation, possibly in the form of a social enterprise, can be considered...

The main hypothesis behind the paper is that creating an entrepreneurial team learning environment is a way to increase human and social capital in rural regions. Our work, based on literature review and primary research, tries to show that this process could support a shift in people’s attitudes from being reactive to creative and also interdependent. The results of a Delphi survey show that all four ‘spheres’ of the Quadruple Helix model in rural development (government, science/university, business/industry and civil society) should play a role in the development of a learning environment, but that more importance should be attached to ‘pull’ type of learning designed to draw out people and resources as needed to address opportunities and challenges. In a second survey, among farmers in the Hungarian settlement of Mezőcsát, we found significant differences in the use of information channels by different age groups. Personal meetings are preferred by older farmers and the Internet by younger farmers. With regard to the Quadruple Helix model spheres, from the government sphere farmers’ advisors play the most important role while from the business/industry sphere the most important relationship for farmers is with their peers. We conclude that the four spheres must create an...